Well, it is with some relief that I say, “At last, it’s over.”
Which means?
I got fired, as I expected.
Thank God.
Well Congratulasorry.
I’ll write more tomorrow. I just … can’t … today. I’ll just leave this:
On to the next phase. Good luck, and hopefully you land somewhere that sets you up to succeed!
I do feel sorry for your residents.
Been there myself, the confused emotions are rough. I am hoping for a dramatic turn in your luck and fortunes.
Sometimes, no matter how much you try, some jobs truly suck. You never had the infrastructure there to begin with, so you were constantly banging your head against that proverbial wall.
I’m sorry Rik.
Thanks. The company I worked for truly sucks — greedy assholes whose only concern is how much money they can stuff into their pockets. I recognized that less than three months after I went to work there. But I stuck it out for two years, because I got to know the residents. They deserve better than what this company gives them, and I spent the last two years trying to be that “better”. And I was that “better”. I know each and every one of my former “customers” by name, and they all know me by my name. I spent two years developing a relationship with these wonderful people.
And yesterday, some corporate asshole who doesn’t recognize my customers as anything but dollar signs threw me out. Took me away from my people. Not realizing that I was the one sign of consistency and excellence that the residents could see. I only worked there for two years, but I was the fifth kitchen manager that place had in that span of two years. In those two years, the entire kitchen staff, cooks and servers, has turned over countless times. But I remained. And my customers, the residents … Hey, corporate assholes? “Elderly” does not mean “stupid”. I was there for these people for two years, and they recognized that. They loved me as much as I loved them, because they knew that I was there for them. And you corporate assholes have taken that away from them.
I have been fired before. It happens. But this was my first firing that made me cry. Yes, I’ll admit that. I’m a 49-year-old crybaby. I hated the company and the greedy assholes who run it, but I fell in love with my customers, and they’ve been yanked out from under me just as much as I’ve been yanked out from under them. I didn’t even get to say “goodbye” to any of them. I’m just suddenly gone from their lives.
Godammit, now I’m crying again.
It’s 5:50AM, and I should have been there 50 minutes ago, getting breakfast ready. Fuck. I spent all of Friday, after getting fired, drinking beer. Yet here I am Saturday morning, wide awake as usual, ready to go, but nowhere to go.
And Annith has probably already walked into the kitchen and seen the corporate cook who is filling in, and asked him, “Who the hell are you, and where’s Rik?!”
Now is the time to sit back and relax and de-stress yourself. Then take time to review your time as manager and go and kick arse for the next job.
I don’t know if you had a non-compete clause, but now you’ve seen the numbers, perhaps you could go into business for yourself and oust your former employers?
Yup. I’m going to spend the next 3 or 4 days just relaxing and sleeping and getting over it as best I can, and then I’ll start looking for my next job. I’ve already found a couple opportunities.
The only non-compete clause I saw, when I got promoted, was that, should I leave this company, I could not “entice” current employees to come and work for a competing company.
I have, however, contacted two of my subordinates via Facebook. I do happen to have the phone number of one of the corporate wonks (the guy who was sent to train me after I was promoted, and he seemed like an actually decent person), and I’m going to give him a call later today to ask him to do what he can to make sure that these two kids (a 22-year-old single father, and a 17-year-old girl working her first job) keep their jobs. Through all of the personnel nonsense I dealt with in the last month, the two of them went above and beyond. I messaged them to let them know that I’m going to do what I can to make sure they keep their jobs. I thanked them for their work, and let them know that I will write them excellent letters of recommendation if they look for other work. But I won’t try to “entice” them away from the place. They actually give good service, and I want my former customers to get the best.
I’m sorry Mister Rik. I’ve lost a couple of retail jobs like that and it well and truly sucks when you miss your customers and you know that the service level that they receive will sink to a low level. I hope you find something worthwhile soon.
May be sooner than I expected. I got a message on Facebook from one of my former coworkers at the convention center, saying, “come back to the center”. This from a guy who, when I first met him, had just graduated from high school. And he’s still there at that job where we worked together, several years later, and he’s been promoted into a position with some authority. (That is, he started as a “server”, and now he’s a “captain”).
And, better yet, the new Executive Chef there already knows me. He held the same position I just got fired from, with the same company, at the company’s location across the river from me. I’ll be going in to talk to him next Wednesday 
I just want to thank you for your two years of service. My grandparents are in one of these corporate monstrosities and they are very aware that money is the bottom line. The workers that take the time to get to know them as people are invaluable to us and them. I’m sorry your time ended so badly, but two years of friendship and trust is more than many will get in similar situations.
Let me take a guess as to the math involved – he multiplied 80 or so residents by around $200, which is approximately the maximum food stamp allowance for one person.
Hah - so he knows EXACTLY what you’ve been through.
Here’s rooting for you to come out WAY ahead. I know you’ll be sorry to lose that personal connection with the residents - and they’re losing someone who truly cares about them. I have to say, corporate is going to be shocked at how tough it is to fill your shoes, and (most likely) how expensive it’s going to be because they weren’t giving you what you needed to do the job. Screw 'em - though I’m sorry the residents will suffer as a result.
The formula he used was basically x(y*z), where x = total number of residents, y = $5.30, and z = the number of days in the month.
That’s right, $5.30 to feed one person for a day. Except — and here is where the guy made his error — that $5.30 only applies to those residents whose service package includes three meals per day. That includes all of the “assisted living” residents, but only those “independent living” residents who are paying for the most expensive plan. Most of the independent people are still able and willing to cook for themselves, and have kitchens in their suites, so many of them just pay for one or two meals a day. So, the budgeted daily amount for those people is lower.
His error resulted in his quoting me a July budget that was about $4,000 higher than it should have been.
But the micromanagement of the budgeting was ridiculous. There was a separate budget for buying supplies (napkins, paper towels, gloves, etc.). Like the food budget, the supply budget was based entirely on how many residents we had. Except that the actual number of residents has no effect on the fact that we were still required to set each and every place setting, regardless of how many people there were to sit at them, so I still needed to purchase a full case of napkins every week. And the number of residents in the building ultimately has no effect upon how often we in the kitchen need to wash our hands, so I still needed to purchase one, sometimes two cases of paper towels each week. I still needed to purchase a full case of trash bags every couple weeks. And it wasn’t like I could purchase a partial roll of aluminum foil just because we had fewer residents this month.
Yup Even aside from that, I left the convention center on good terms, and many of the same people are still there in management and know the quality of my work, and my dependability.
I’m hoping Annith raises holy hell and the residents barricade themselves in the kitchen and pelt the corporate overseers with biscuits until they cave and set reasonable budgets and wages for the kitchen.
That’s very good of you. Perhaps as one final act as their manager you might put that in writing and send both of them a letter of recommendation?
LOL, that would be hilarious 
Speaking of wages, how about paying servers decently? This company advertises “5-Star” dining room service. The only way to provide that is to hire people with extensive experience as servers. But guess what? You’re not going to attract that kind of employee with minimum wage and no tips. An adult with a family and bills to pay is not going to give up that $100+/day in tips they earn in a nice restaurant, without some serious improvement in the wage.
So we got what I was able to hire: mostly high school kids with no previous experience. And even aside from the “experience” factor, there’s the simple fact that most high school kids simply haven’t learned yet what “commitment” means.