Fucker's that work at Wendy's; A.K.A A tribute to the crew that work under me!

[Pammipoo]

*Originally posted by kung fu lola *
**UPDATE: Today, the store opened late because the only other person scheduled to open the store (other than Amber) showed up an hour and a half late (he slept in), and there was a letter from the city saying that their garbage area out back had been inspected, they have rat and worm problems, and they will be receiving a fine in the mail. If it is not cleaned up to spec by tomorrow, they will receive an additional fine.

Taking out the garbage is the sole responsibility of the employees. It is practically the only thing that managers aren’t instructed to supervise. And they can’t even do that properly. **

I’m also a manager at Wendy’s, but an Asst rather than a shift, and I work in a corporate store in Boston. I don’t really know if any of these differences change the perspective or not.

Is it normal for only 2 people to open the store? Corporate stores utilize at least 4 openers, plus the manager, to get opening prep and setup done. Maybe if it’s common for the employees to be that overworked, they’d be more resentful? Could be part of the big picture.

Also, while we don’t walk out te garbage WITH the employees, we are required to folow up on them. Part of our walkthroughs, which are supposed to be completed every 30 minutes, includes checking the garbage corral. At some point before it became rat and worm infested, somebody should have jumped in and had it cleaned up.

We also give free soda to the employees, but not milk and frosty, etc. Meals are half price when they’re working, and usually even if they’re not, as long as they’re not taking advantage of it. Regardless though, if it’s a store policy, the employees should be expected to adhere to it.

It’s not easy to work with a disrespectful crew, I’ve done it before, and it really does suck. But if you (and your fellow managers, more importantly), don’t lay down the law, it will never gt better. Make sure the rest of your team is being hardass too though, or it’s basically a wasted effort. If you’re being a stickler, and they turn around and cave to the crew, then you’ll just be a bitch, and their bad habits will never die.

[MysteryFellow63427]

Originally posted by Otto
county: “Well, what we are talking about here Mr. Otto is a situation concerning a direct/immediate supervisor. Claiming to supervise 90 people when he manages 90 people is not being accurate.”

Post the exact quote in which he made the claim that he supervises 90 people. Let me refresh your memory:

**county**: ":In my position, I currently have about 90 people working for me."

Don’t see nothin’ there that says he’s the direct/immediate supervisor of 90 people. Little tip for ya, doll, argue against what’s actually said, not what your fevered brain thinks it’s read.

Otto, I also thought Meathead’s original statement was misleading. Though my panties are distinctly unwadded over the matter, I do think county got that part right.

Does Amber have the power to directly hire/fire? Lots of people are assuming she does, the impression I got is that she does not.

[Smeghead]

Well, I did once have a job where I supervised about 150 braindead morons. I fired a lot of people for a lot less than the shit Amber’s describing. I once fired a guy for spitting into a trashcan. If anyone ever tried swearing at me, they would have been gone that instant.

I may have been a “tightass” as county eloquently and repeatedly puts it, but the people I let stay sure enjoyed the nice work environment once I kicked out all the assholes. More importantly, I had an easier and more enjoyable job.

[meathead]

First, let me apologize to Otto and neuroman if my statement was misleading. To be specific, I actually have 89 people that report directly to me. The original number of 90 was just to have a nice round even number to work with, but I have since counted them and arrived at 89. There was no intent on my part to deceive – whether county believes it or not.

Now, when I said supervise, that is pretty much what I meant. These people report directly to myself, and have no one else for them to go to or give them direction (although my manager will meet with them about an hour every couple of weeks and by appointment if necessary to discuss the state of the business).

I am intimately and directly involved with their everyday activities, and can list exactly what that entails or what we actually do if need be (although it is pretty standard stuff for manufacturing). These people comprise three different machining lines, an assembly line, a dis-assembly line for overhauls, a fabrication shop, and shipping/receiving.

Not to hijack Amber’s thread, but why is this such an issue? Is the company I work for out of whack with the rest of the manufacturing community? Am I getting hosed and I should ask for more money? Now that I think about it, I do have more people report directly to me than anyone else there.

[kung_fu_lola]

*Originally posted by Pammipoo *
**Is it normal for only 2 people to open the store? Corporate stores utilize at least 4 openers, plus the manager, to get opening prep and setup done. Maybe if it’s common for the employees to be that overworked, they’d be more resentful? Could be part of the big picture.

**

There have only been two openers at the store every morning for at least a year. We SERIOUSLY doubt there have ever been five people to open the store on a given morning, but then, Amber’s Wendy’s doesn’t have a drive-thru. I don’t know if that makes a difference, but it might.

**

Also, while we don’t walk out te garbage WITH the employees, we are required to folow up on them. Part of our walkthroughs, which are supposed to be completed every 30 minutes, includes checking the garbage corral. At some point before it became rat and worm infested, somebody should have jumped in and had it cleaned up.**

There is no garbage corral. There is a dumpster in a smelly dark alley, that would be smelly even if Wendy’s didn’t dump their garbage there, since there is also a Subway, a convenience store, a noodle place, a Harvey’s and a bunch of homeless people who use it.

**We also give free soda to the employees, but not milk and frosty, etc. Meals are half price when they’re working, and usually even if they’re not, as long as they’re not taking advantage of it. Regardless though, if it’s a store policy, the employees should be expected to adhere to it.

**

Management has decided that half-price meals are for breaks ONLY because the employees DO take advantage of it. And they are allowed one or two free sodas, they are just taking three or four, and drinking them while they are on the line, where customers can see them.

**

It’s not easy to work with a disrespectful crew, I’ve done it before, and it really does suck. But if you (and your fellow managers, more importantly), don’t lay down the law, it will never gt better. Make sure the rest of your team is being hardass too though, or it’s basically a wasted effort. If you’re being a stickler, and they turn around and cave to the crew, then you’ll just be a bitch, and their bad habits will never die. **

Unfortunately, the other managers (except for one other one, and the new GM) are just as lazy as the employees. In fact, the old co-GM is so useless that as soon as the new GM gets back, he will be fired. They used to have a good ass’t, but they fired him because the bank lost one of their deposits (yes it happens, folks) and they blamed him for taking it. The old GM screwed everyone up by letting the crew be lazy, and firing/promoting the wrong people. Amber is fighting an uphill battle, but she’ll be damned if she lets her crew drag her down. SHe’s keeping her nose clean and doing all she can, so that when the DM comes in and sees it’s a mess, he won’t have any reason to point the finger at her.

[Otto]

There is no garbage corral. There is a dumpster in a smelly dark alley, that would be smelly even if Wendy’s didn’t dump their garbage there, since there is also a Subway, a convenience store, a noodle place, a Harvey’s and a bunch of homeless people who use it.

How do the garbage inspectors know that it’s Wendy’s garbage that’s led to the infestation? Or did the noodle place and the homeless people get fined too?

That being said, is there any way to take the fine out of the salaries of the employees who caused it?

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

I’m with the employees. I used to be one of those slacker fast food workers. I never used a fucking ice scoop and I would have mocked any manager who told me to. I drank free pop whenever the fuck I felt like it. I smoked dope in the garbage corral. I cut corners to get the fuck out of there at closing time. Basically I just didn’t give a fuck, and for good reason. Fast food employees are treated like shit and paid like shit so why the fuck should they bust their asses to follow chickenshit rules?

OOOh, you’re gonna fire them. Do you really think that’s a threat? Those fucking jobs are a dime a dozen. I walked out of at least three of them when I just got too sick of them. I’d just walk over the burger joint next door and have another job the next day.

If these companies want to strat treating their employees with some basic dignity and pay them a decent wage then maybe they can whine about job performance. If you’re going to pay me five dollars an hour you’re going to get five dollars worth of effort.

I saw those uptight, gung ho managers come and go. They usually burned out within six months and quit or they just gave upp and started slacking like you’re supposed to do in a shitty, dehumanizing service industry job like that. I consistently refused offers to be promoted to management because it didn’t pay much better and I didn’t want the responsibility. I definitely didn’t want to be the pop nazi counting how many people weren’t paying for Mello Yello. The ice scoop thing I never even heard of. In my three or four years of FF work I never saw anybody that just didn’t use the cup. Next time I go to Wndy’s, I’m going to demand that the employee put down the scoop and use the cup just be a piss ant to the management.

Fuck the Man!

[Stemba]

Just to throw in my worthless .02. After I left the service, I signed on with Eckerd Drug. If you live in the Southeast, (now as far west as Denver and Tuscon, and as far north as New York) you know about Eckerd. We’re a good company to work for, eg, we hire at $5.15 an hour BUT if you have 1 month previous retail, that is bumped to 5.50 automatically (you get a raise on your second day) and the moment you hit 6mos, you get another .50, then guarenteed raises and benifits every year until you quit or retire.

Anyway, I was hired as a second assistant manager, but because my store manager moved to Florida, and the first assistant manager was fired, in two months I had a store and a crew of my freakin’ own…and boy did they suck ass. Eighteen on the ‘front end’ (eg, retail side,) 5 in the photolab, and 22 in the pharmacy. The first thing I noticed was the sheer amount of employee theft of ‘soft goods,’ like pop and candy. Shrink in this manner totalled a documented $221.04 a DAY by my predicessors count. Second was disregard for dress code, and the final one was an overall bad attitude of the staff towards the “9 levels” (members of management and pharmacists.) A week into my job I asked my district manager for total control of hiring and firing of associates. He asked why, and I told him, point blank “I’m going to fire every last one of them.” He gaped at me for a bit and told me that I could do what I wanted so long as I was able to keep the store at 100% productivity (eg, a daily take of $12,500 cash/checks/electronic sales, not counting Rx’s and photo products.) The next day, I called a store meeting before opening (we open at 9am, it was called for 8am.) Every individual who did not show was terminated immediately, save one who had 8am classes. Total of 7 front end associates, 1 photo tech, and 2 pharmacy techs GONE. Protest? Yep. HR got a ton of mail about the new ‘asshole manager.’ But it was justified as not appearing for a scheduled work-shift. Hell, it was an one hour meeting and they would have gotten two hours pay (it’s a HR thing, you are guarenteed at least 2 hours pay for any scheduled day.) Noone got their terminations reversed.

During the meeting, I told everyone that any theft, not matter how large or small would result in IMMEDIATE termination. I had just cut some 20% of my staff or so, and I did NOT want to lose anyone else. I made that clear. The majority of the people knew that I was a helluva manager who’d stick up for you no matter what happened so long as you did your best. I also told 'em that any violation of dress code would result in one written warning, and a second violation would result in immediate termination. Finally, I told 'em that if they had a shitty attitude, they could either 1: turn it around and keep their jobs, 2: keep the attitude and lose their jobs, or (if necessary) 3: contact the Allen Group and get counciling (on the COMPANY’S dime) if it was something that would require counciling. All AG is required to do is tell us that an associate is under counciling. Hell, now that the federal HIPPA guidelines are in place they don’t even have to do that anymore.

With that, everyone either went home or went on station. That very day I saw my chief pharmacist walk out to the OTC asile, grab some Tylenol, take it back, pop a few pills, and pocket the bottle. I called our sister store (we have three in my town) and requested that one of their on-call pharmacists come in immediately. I then loudly and in front of the entirety of the pharmacy staff made my CHIEF PHARMACIST, the #1 guy in my pharmacy, empty his pockets. Of course, the Tylenol bottle came out. I asked for a reciept, which he couldn’t produce. Then, I took him into the office, filled out his termination paperwork, and called the police to have him taken into custody for shoplifting.

Not suprisingly, in the first three months I was there, my store suffered nearly 100% attrition and turnover. Of my original staff, only two members remain (the second pharmacist and my first assistant.) My staff is hundreds of times better now, and we’re more productive than ever before (my store set a single-store record for my Region in pulling a 429% increase in gross profit in one year after I took over.) We’ve reduced shrink from a mind boggling $249,200 per year (employee theft, vendor theft, shoplifting, and paperwork errors all fall into it, with employee theft accounting for some 91% of it) to a fractional $54,400 last year (this wasn’t a record, as a store in Charleston went from $322,000 shrink for F/Y 2000 to $41,680 in F/Y 2002, using my same method.)

Was this a draconian measure? Yes, it was. Was it necessary? Well, let me put it to you this way. If you were in a roach infested house, would you get rid of just the biggest bugs, or ALL the bugs? Anyway, if you can convince your GM to do it, sack your whole fucking staff and start over. It’s cheaper that way.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

You are a fucking asshole, man.

[Guinastasia]

Jesus, Diogenes, I used to have coworkers like you.

You just caused more trouble for the responsible employees like me, who had to suffer the tighter restrictions because of immature dickweeds like you.

[county]

*Originally posted by Guinastasia *
**Jesus, Diogenes, I used to have coworkers like you.

You just caused more trouble for the responsible employees like me, who had to suffer the tighter restrictions because of immature dickweeds like you. **

Just fucking perfect - management screws you and you blame a co-worker.

[lawoot]

Maybe you could get corporate to send your workers to my local Wendy’s (yeah, I know, it would never happen).

Quite simply the GREATEST fast food place I have ever seen (service-wise). The drive thru gets orders right 95% of the time - and they are FAST. We’re talking no cars in line - order food, pull to first window, pay (and they have coins already counted out and waiting, and bills in hand), pull to the 2nd window where your order is waiting for YOU. simply incredible. And they keep this standard up even with seven cars in line. I have almost NEVER been in line there more than a minute or so, no matter HOW many cars are in line. The one time I had to wait what I consider a NORMAL wait time for a drive thru, they apologized for taking so long and gave me my order for free.

[Guinastasia]

No, coworkers would goof off, and as a result, we no longer had as much leeway as before, because those of us who didn’t abuse our priviledges were fewer and farther between.

Plus, then I had to pick up the slack while my coworkers were goofing off.

[county]

*Originally posted by Guinastasia *
**No, coworkers would goof off, and as a result, we no longer had as much leeway as before, because those of us who didn’t abuse our priviledges were fewer and farther between.

Plus, then I had to pick up the slack while my coworkers were goofing off. **

Management has a practice of riding the good horse to death. In other words it is easier to allow a worker to take up slack for another worker rather than deal with the issue.

In other words, you suffer because management is not doing their job.

[county]

Oh yeah, and sometimes they don’t deal with the issue because they are screwing the worker who is not producing (literally)

[Fionn]

I loved the story, Stemba. To borrow a phrase from Diogenese, the people who got fired dared to fuck the Man, and the Man won.

[Typo_Negative]

*Originally posted by county *
**Management has a practice of riding the good horse to death. In other words it is easier to allow a worker to take up slack for another worker rather than deal with the issue.

In other words, you suffer because management is not doing their job. **

You are correct. Managment should do their job by firing, or at least severly disciplining the worker who’s not earning his/ her pay.

[XJETGIRLX]

Where the fuck do people like county and Diogenes get off taking pride in being completely worthless fuckwits in the labor market? I’m sorry, but if I were a big festering pustule on the ass of society, I wouldn’t go around shoving myself into people’s faces about it.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

Why the fuck should I take pride in being a subservient, mindless serf? Fuck that shit.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

BTW, I’m not not a worthless fuck in the labor market, I was an apathetic fuck when I worked in a certain industry. When I’m treated with respect and paid well I give a much different effort