One of the crew members in my store, M., who I have mentioned once or twice earlier, as someone who offered me feedback on my own growth, is being keyed for a management position. She's young and smart, has the ability (if not always the desire) to charm the hell out of customers with impressive service, and seems to be a pretty quick learner. Part of management is being able to hang in all areas of the restaurant. She did not know a single thing about Production, until yesterday. Saturdays are typically mellow days, we get more families and more people just out living life than people rushing a half hour lunch break from work like we get during the week.
I had the shift in the afternoon and instead of having M. work in the back Drive Thru booth, giving our customers impressive customer service, I positioned things so she was in the kitchen learning with a fairly efficient crew member named C. and I worked her position in the Drive Thru, while the assistant manager ran the front end of the store. I still have control and my hand in things, as well as training M. in the kitchen, even while working a very busy area of the store.
M. and C. had a communication difficulty - M. doesn't speak very much Spanish and C. effectively does not speak any English. They got along great though, because things are pretty simple - and I acted as translator for most of what was going on (HA! those life skills are coming in handy here!). M. picked things up really fast, and got to get a taste of production (even though I neglected to have her do E-Learning first) on a relatively slow shift. It worked out well.
The funny thing is, though pegged for management, it really did not come to anyone's mind to train M. on Production, at all. This strikes me as just a sloppy mistake, and I actually had to use politics and persuasion on a decision maker to get her the time to start learning the kitchen. It turned out well though - it's a really simple job, when just about everything is made identically. It is hot, and M. mentioned how she needed water. I personally watched her drain 3 cups of water in a row 4 different times. It sure is thirsty work.
M. did a great job, and we got a chance to talk after the shift. She liked getting the opportunity to grow her diverse skills and told me she appreciated me getting her into the kitchen so she could learn. Job well done.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Arrogance.
Often times in my life, I have been called arrogant. Many times by myself.
Some could say that I am just over-confident in myself, and a vast sense of self-confidence in nearly all situations can be misconstrued for arrogance. But it's not something being misconstrued as arrogance, some misunderstanding of my character. I am arrogant. I'm OK with it.
However, I am also humble. I may not always be able to easily admit an error or lack of knowledge, but I can almost always spit out an "I was wrong, thanks for showing me that" or "I made a mistake and I'll fix it".
I try to temper my arrogance (well deserved as it may be) with pleasantness. Who can hate someone who's nearly always right and has a great big smile and happy voice? I give of myself to my store and my fellows by trying to teach things I know, take control in situations where I believe I can provide a great solution, I build rapport between management and crew as well as our Production and Service staffs, my interests and eyes are always out for the employees there.
My arrogance is surpassed, however, by a couple people that I interact with who do not temper their own arrogance with any such frivolity as humility. One male I interact with, closely and often, has an inability to accept feedback. Or, apparently, to give feedback. If a mistake is pointed out, he turns red, puts his head down and walks away. The reaction is the same if a joking comment hits too close to home. It's ... amazingly readable. This man has a seemingly infinite capacity (like nearly all human beings) to justify, or explain, the essential rightness of his actions, instead of admitting there's a chance he can be wrong. When receiving feedback, especially of a constructive nature, he defends his actions instead of listening, he likes to explain why he did what can seemingly or actually be incorrect. My perception of these responses is a deep desire to be right, so much so as to provide a veneer of delusion that helps to create a world-view in which one really, truly is always correct, even in a situation where correctness is faced with negatory validation. Arrogant as all fuck!
A woman I interact daily with likes to present a smiling, friendly and cheerful front to nearly all. For some, however, she vents quietly or openly about what's on her mind. She is absolutely, to the core certain that no matter what venom she spews in the ears of those she believes she are in her "inner circle" that those people exposed to her bilious comments will enjoy hearing them and stay quiet about what abuse she puts forth, vicariously. The venom I speak of is her negative mental attitude, her dislikes of other people, her frustrations and angers. Her arrogance is blind, believing that whatever she says stops right there. However, people who have venom spit upon them typically do not enjoy the situation. Further, those same members of this woman's "inner circle", although not willing to tell her directly that they repeat to her targets (or perhaps only this single target) her vitriol, have often asked her to go calm down in some other way. My point is this - I know when she's talking shit about me, because her "close friends" whom she shares her negative energy with often advise me on who said what, so that I can keep abreast of the political winds of my enclosed work-world.
Again, I admit I am arrogant. The big difference is about results. My arrogance leaves the result of a better world, for everyone who occupies the space that touches me.
Some could say that I am just over-confident in myself, and a vast sense of self-confidence in nearly all situations can be misconstrued for arrogance. But it's not something being misconstrued as arrogance, some misunderstanding of my character. I am arrogant. I'm OK with it.
However, I am also humble. I may not always be able to easily admit an error or lack of knowledge, but I can almost always spit out an "I was wrong, thanks for showing me that" or "I made a mistake and I'll fix it".
I try to temper my arrogance (well deserved as it may be) with pleasantness. Who can hate someone who's nearly always right and has a great big smile and happy voice? I give of myself to my store and my fellows by trying to teach things I know, take control in situations where I believe I can provide a great solution, I build rapport between management and crew as well as our Production and Service staffs, my interests and eyes are always out for the employees there.
My arrogance is surpassed, however, by a couple people that I interact with who do not temper their own arrogance with any such frivolity as humility. One male I interact with, closely and often, has an inability to accept feedback. Or, apparently, to give feedback. If a mistake is pointed out, he turns red, puts his head down and walks away. The reaction is the same if a joking comment hits too close to home. It's ... amazingly readable. This man has a seemingly infinite capacity (like nearly all human beings) to justify, or explain, the essential rightness of his actions, instead of admitting there's a chance he can be wrong. When receiving feedback, especially of a constructive nature, he defends his actions instead of listening, he likes to explain why he did what can seemingly or actually be incorrect. My perception of these responses is a deep desire to be right, so much so as to provide a veneer of delusion that helps to create a world-view in which one really, truly is always correct, even in a situation where correctness is faced with negatory validation. Arrogant as all fuck!
A woman I interact daily with likes to present a smiling, friendly and cheerful front to nearly all. For some, however, she vents quietly or openly about what's on her mind. She is absolutely, to the core certain that no matter what venom she spews in the ears of those she believes she are in her "inner circle" that those people exposed to her bilious comments will enjoy hearing them and stay quiet about what abuse she puts forth, vicariously. The venom I speak of is her negative mental attitude, her dislikes of other people, her frustrations and angers. Her arrogance is blind, believing that whatever she says stops right there. However, people who have venom spit upon them typically do not enjoy the situation. Further, those same members of this woman's "inner circle", although not willing to tell her directly that they repeat to her targets (or perhaps only this single target) her vitriol, have often asked her to go calm down in some other way. My point is this - I know when she's talking shit about me, because her "close friends" whom she shares her negative energy with often advise me on who said what, so that I can keep abreast of the political winds of my enclosed work-world.
Again, I admit I am arrogant. The big difference is about results. My arrogance leaves the result of a better world, for everyone who occupies the space that touches me.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Pulled From Comments.
Hi - I don't have the time or energy right now to post something new - see the comment thread under "Challenge" to see where this came from, but here is some of my insight and thoughts on a McDonald's restaurant.
----
the only value that customers have to McDonald's is that of the customer of any business - profit.
Every procedure and policy put into place in a McDonald's restaurant is designed by McDonald's corporate (based on billions of dollars spent (possibly trillions) and hundreds of thousands of man-hours utilized (possibly millions)) in attempting to develop the best way to run a McDonald's.
There is no point to opening a store on any day other than to provide impressive service to customers, deliver on QSC&V, so that each customer who comes in that day is much more likely to come in the very next day and spend more money.
However, that is a short focus. There can be no qualified level of QSC&V delivered out of an untrained group of individuals working together. Without each and every employee at a McDonald's - from the guy on the grill, to maintenance, to the Front Counter crew, to the O/O - dedicated to delivering QSC&V, there is no customer service. I say dedicated, not willing. There also has to be a team spirit - human beings are easily manipulated into giving their all (i.e. becoming dedicated) when they feel a great cause to be dedicated to - when there is leadership and teamwork and their contribution is acknowledged.
Most McDonald's, from my perspective as a frequent customer of many McDonald's restaurants across the nation (I've been to McDonald's in every state east of the Mississippi except Florida and Maine), McDonald's are run by underpaid, undertrained people who see their job at McDonald's as a bandage, to stop the immediate pain of unemployment and destitution. However, now and again, there are those old timers who also see it as "what they've been doing since they were 15", and it just is their job. Also, there are an even smaller number of people who see it as a potential career. There's lots of growth to be had in a McDonald's, and the way to grow a store's volume and return visits is by ensuring that crew are dedicated to delivering QSC&V, ensuring all proper procedures are in place, and having the best trained, most accurate employees in the most important positions (Aces in their Places baby). See above to find out where that dedication comes from, friend.
A McDonald's restaurant is about customers, sure. But it's also about 24/2 (Why do we stock 24/2? So that customer orders aren't interrupted during a busy service time so an employee can go stock something that is desperately needed and absolutely not stocked).
It's all about cleanliness - I personally have boycotted at least 20 different fast food restaurants in the areas I've lived in during the past years of my life because I went in at some point and could not find a single clean table - or there was trash on the floor - or there was overflowing garbage - or the bathroom was dirty. I know many, many other people are the same way.
It's all about the procedures (every single fucking one of them) that McDonald's lays out for each and every facet of operations - because those procedures help guarantee: trained crew, fresh product, safe product, cleanliness, speed of service, reduced waste, or improved customer service. All of these effect the bottom line heavily in a McDonald's restaurant.
As for customer service, I'm not in any way inexperienced in customer service. For 2 years I worked at McDonald's as a youth, for 2 years I worked at Burger King as management (my job was to make 12 stores clean, trained and improve general operations including service), I owned and operated my own business for two years that was a direct-to-customer sales business: service was all I had, and I worked for 3 years in other various retail businesses where customer service was my primary focus. For the two most recent years of my worklife I was a telephone salesman - the only way to sell anything on the phone is to be a god of service and I had a rightful place in that pantheon. I have my chops in customer service, and in fact building rapport with people is one of my strongest abilities.
----
XOXO
----
the only value that customers have to McDonald's is that of the customer of any business - profit.
Every procedure and policy put into place in a McDonald's restaurant is designed by McDonald's corporate (based on billions of dollars spent (possibly trillions) and hundreds of thousands of man-hours utilized (possibly millions)) in attempting to develop the best way to run a McDonald's.
There is no point to opening a store on any day other than to provide impressive service to customers, deliver on QSC&V, so that each customer who comes in that day is much more likely to come in the very next day and spend more money.
However, that is a short focus. There can be no qualified level of QSC&V delivered out of an untrained group of individuals working together. Without each and every employee at a McDonald's - from the guy on the grill, to maintenance, to the Front Counter crew, to the O/O - dedicated to delivering QSC&V, there is no customer service. I say dedicated, not willing. There also has to be a team spirit - human beings are easily manipulated into giving their all (i.e. becoming dedicated) when they feel a great cause to be dedicated to - when there is leadership and teamwork and their contribution is acknowledged.
Most McDonald's, from my perspective as a frequent customer of many McDonald's restaurants across the nation (I've been to McDonald's in every state east of the Mississippi except Florida and Maine), McDonald's are run by underpaid, undertrained people who see their job at McDonald's as a bandage, to stop the immediate pain of unemployment and destitution. However, now and again, there are those old timers who also see it as "what they've been doing since they were 15", and it just is their job. Also, there are an even smaller number of people who see it as a potential career. There's lots of growth to be had in a McDonald's, and the way to grow a store's volume and return visits is by ensuring that crew are dedicated to delivering QSC&V, ensuring all proper procedures are in place, and having the best trained, most accurate employees in the most important positions (Aces in their Places baby). See above to find out where that dedication comes from, friend.
A McDonald's restaurant is about customers, sure. But it's also about 24/2 (Why do we stock 24/2? So that customer orders aren't interrupted during a busy service time so an employee can go stock something that is desperately needed and absolutely not stocked).
It's all about cleanliness - I personally have boycotted at least 20 different fast food restaurants in the areas I've lived in during the past years of my life because I went in at some point and could not find a single clean table - or there was trash on the floor - or there was overflowing garbage - or the bathroom was dirty. I know many, many other people are the same way.
It's all about the procedures (every single fucking one of them) that McDonald's lays out for each and every facet of operations - because those procedures help guarantee: trained crew, fresh product, safe product, cleanliness, speed of service, reduced waste, or improved customer service. All of these effect the bottom line heavily in a McDonald's restaurant.
As for customer service, I'm not in any way inexperienced in customer service. For 2 years I worked at McDonald's as a youth, for 2 years I worked at Burger King as management (my job was to make 12 stores clean, trained and improve general operations including service), I owned and operated my own business for two years that was a direct-to-customer sales business: service was all I had, and I worked for 3 years in other various retail businesses where customer service was my primary focus. For the two most recent years of my worklife I was a telephone salesman - the only way to sell anything on the phone is to be a god of service and I had a rightful place in that pantheon. I have my chops in customer service, and in fact building rapport with people is one of my strongest abilities.
----
XOXO
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Challenge.
I enjoy challenges. Personal, professional, social, mental. Most types of challenges intrigue me.
I find working with people, and learning new skills to be fun. I enjoy social situations in which I am at a seeming disadvantage. I like being at a moral crossroads. I enjoy challenges because they help me to grow.
I feel, as a serious salesman (which I always consider a huge part of my personality), that if you aren't growing, you're dying. Cliche, but so true.
McDonald's is a place full of challenges. There is the challenge of being polite, welcoming and smiling for each of the thousand or so customers who pass through our doors every day. Coordinating and gaining the cooperation of anywhere from 4 to a dozen people who have their own challenges is fantastic.
In my personal life, I have challenges all the time. With a pre-pubescent son who acts way too much like me (arrogant little punk) for his own good, and a 3 year old heathen girl who apparently is Princess of the Universe, and my wife who has put up with me, I am challenged every day to be the best daddy, husband, cook, housekeeper, lover, bookkeeper, and teacher that I can be. Especially challenging are the days I want to just play video games all day, and let the house fall to ruin around me.
Without challenge, we cannot grow. Very few people understand this. Or rather, many understand it and prefer the alternative. I like to grow, and feel I do a good job of tackling things in different ways so that I can come out on a positive end.
I find working with people, and learning new skills to be fun. I enjoy social situations in which I am at a seeming disadvantage. I like being at a moral crossroads. I enjoy challenges because they help me to grow.
I feel, as a serious salesman (which I always consider a huge part of my personality), that if you aren't growing, you're dying. Cliche, but so true.
McDonald's is a place full of challenges. There is the challenge of being polite, welcoming and smiling for each of the thousand or so customers who pass through our doors every day. Coordinating and gaining the cooperation of anywhere from 4 to a dozen people who have their own challenges is fantastic.
In my personal life, I have challenges all the time. With a pre-pubescent son who acts way too much like me (arrogant little punk) for his own good, and a 3 year old heathen girl who apparently is Princess of the Universe, and my wife who has put up with me, I am challenged every day to be the best daddy, husband, cook, housekeeper, lover, bookkeeper, and teacher that I can be. Especially challenging are the days I want to just play video games all day, and let the house fall to ruin around me.
Without challenge, we cannot grow. Very few people understand this. Or rather, many understand it and prefer the alternative. I like to grow, and feel I do a good job of tackling things in different ways so that I can come out on a positive end.
Busy, Busy Week.
This is the busiest week of the year for me.
I work a full string of 11-7 shifts, which means I get to work at 10:30, and leave about 8. Also, my wife and kids are going to Las Vegas this Sunday for Christmas. Also this week at work, we've got a rather important visit from a gentleman with McCorporate, who apparently decides how many and which stores an Owner/Operator's domain increases or decreases by. Further, I have until the end of this month to get Foundation training on each of the employees of my store completed (I've got about 25% of them completed) and also I need to complete my MDP program by the first week of January. It's crazy - and I haven't even mentioned the Xmas shopping and wrapping I need to do! Earlier this week, I also had two Christmas parties for work to attend - one at my store manager's house (which was exceptionally .. low key, shall we say?) and the other at Laff's Comedy Club in Tucson (which was riotous).
We've been cleaning like mad at our store, for a pitifully short amount of time. For the past three days, we've had people staying late, busting hump to get detail cleaning completed. I think the store is in great shape, and I look forward to an opportunity to shine for the owner and the corporate representative he'll have visiting us today.
I'm a bit disappointed at work, after yesterday, however. We have a manager's meeting every Wednesday morning, and after a repetition for the 5th time regarding Drive Thru service times at night, I brought something up. I told my fellow managers that I tried to think of a diplomatic way to say this, without anyone feeling attacked or anything. Three of them said, "Just say what you gotta say" or something to that effect so I said, "Listen, every single manager needs to make sure the store is clean and stocked and all the cash is straight and other responsibilities are taken care of before they leave after their shift. It's pitiful that a manager can or would walk out knowing there are drawers uncounted, or seeing the lobby is filthy or that the service or production areas aren't stocked. We're all a team and rely on each other, and no one, not even me, is not guilty of leaving the store in a sorry state for someone else to take care of. I understand giving direction to employees to get things done - but you gotta make sure it gets done and doesn't cut into customer service. If you have to stay 20 minutes extra to make sure everything happens then you do it. Or like P. (the owner) said, if you gotta stay two hours late to make sure everything gets done, then you do it." I looked around and saw nods and agreements from everyone. R. took it upon herself to get defensive, but B. quieted her down and said, "Let's not make this about any one person, Mike's right, it's all of us."
So there was a general agreement that we would all focus on .. oh I donno, doing our job? ... and make everyone else's shifts run smooth. Fast forward two hours, during which I did some training in my MDP. I was scheduled to start yesterday at 1 o'clock, which means I come on right after lunch (again) to help recover from it. At 12:20 I was going to go order a Cheeseburger and a parfait, smoke a cigarette and come on shift for my pre-shift work. B. was struggling through lunch and said, "I need some help." I took a look around and saw that, yes, they needed help, so I jumped into the kitchen, and started getting food moving out of the Production area. I did my part for the team.
Two hours later, and it's approaching the end of B.'s (the store manager!) shift and he comes up to me and gives his ever famous "do you need anything else from me before I go?" I looked at the clock and it was only 2:25. I'm thinking to myself, "I come on a half hour + early, and he leaves a half hour + early?" So I said, "Well is everything stocked and cleaned? Cause we're going to be busy and I'm not going to get a chance until Jn. gets here to stock and clean at all." He says, "Didn't you see E. stocking?!" (that was over an hour and a half before, at the end of .. HER SHIFT. My response was, "Well B., yes, I did, but that was a while ago at the end of her shift. Is everything we've used since then replenished?" He says, "You'll be fine," and I respond with, "Well I know the shake and ice cream mix needs to be stocked, we need A and B bags, and Happy Meal toys need to be stocked. Can you get those before you leave?" Infuriatingly, he is refusing to clean and replenish after his shit, then when I directly requested just 3 things out of probably 40 that need stocking his response, maddeningly was, "You'll be fine, Michael." Then he walked out the door.
I will admit that perhaps I have a misconception of what a Store Manager should be - I think that a Swing Manager needs to be basically an uber-crewperson who also takes care of light managerial duties, and I see this in action. It seems a Shift Manager needs to be an uber-crewperson who handles light and medium managerial duties, and an Assistant Manager needs to be the uber-crewperson and an uber-hourly manager who handles heavy managerial responsibilities. This means the Store Manager needs to be the uber-crewperson/uber-manager and handle all sorts of responsibilities of all those positions. Obviously the majority of them need to be taken care of by the crew people and managers they work through, but when shit gets down to it, and there's 5 people in the store, 4 of whom are absolutely tied to their positions to make the store run with appropriate customer service times and the 5th person is leaving or preparing to leave, they better be able to make sure the 4 people being left, stuck to their positions and unable to even stock a single item without sacrificing customer service or service times, won't have to sacrifice customers' best interests to go stock something that should have been stocked before.
Grr! Rant! I'm sure that if B. were having to work a 9 hour shift (heaven forbid he even stay for all of his 8 hour shift more than twice a week), closing the store and only having 4 people, he would demand that everything be in pristine, fully-stocked condition before taking over the shift. It's part of the basic McDonald's Operations procedure, it's the right way to take care of the business, and it's an expectation laid forth for each of the managers in the store except the store manager. This is why it's making me Rant. Our store manager replies on his managers to make him look great. He relies on the crew to make him look great. By look great, I mean in the eyes of the owner, who is entrusting a million dollar+ business to him daily and paying him handsomely for the efforts. There seems to be no motivation on B.'s part to put forth the same effort he expects out of everyone from his newest swing managers to the exactly-minimum-wage paid Production members of the team. Further, it seems the operations procedures laid out by McDonald's don't really apply to him.
Perhaps I've got a misconception, I will admit, of his role and duties. I'm still learning and am new the McDonald's business. I do, however, know that in our low-volume store, managers are expected to maintain crew positions as well as manage, when in a high-volume store manager's are expected to flex in and out of positions as backup, when and where they are needed. Again, it baffles and infuriates me that the Store Manager, who should be the uber-manager, is not fulfilling the same commitment that the other members of the team are fulfilling - and the assistant manager is following his example - which in our low-volume store is creating a situation where from 1 o'clock on, we're always 5 minutes behind on what we need to do. Is it any wonder we're seeing Drive Thru service times of over 200 seconds at night?
I work a full string of 11-7 shifts, which means I get to work at 10:30, and leave about 8. Also, my wife and kids are going to Las Vegas this Sunday for Christmas. Also this week at work, we've got a rather important visit from a gentleman with McCorporate, who apparently decides how many and which stores an Owner/Operator's domain increases or decreases by. Further, I have until the end of this month to get Foundation training on each of the employees of my store completed (I've got about 25% of them completed) and also I need to complete my MDP program by the first week of January. It's crazy - and I haven't even mentioned the Xmas shopping and wrapping I need to do! Earlier this week, I also had two Christmas parties for work to attend - one at my store manager's house (which was exceptionally .. low key, shall we say?) and the other at Laff's Comedy Club in Tucson (which was riotous).
We've been cleaning like mad at our store, for a pitifully short amount of time. For the past three days, we've had people staying late, busting hump to get detail cleaning completed. I think the store is in great shape, and I look forward to an opportunity to shine for the owner and the corporate representative he'll have visiting us today.
I'm a bit disappointed at work, after yesterday, however. We have a manager's meeting every Wednesday morning, and after a repetition for the 5th time regarding Drive Thru service times at night, I brought something up. I told my fellow managers that I tried to think of a diplomatic way to say this, without anyone feeling attacked or anything. Three of them said, "Just say what you gotta say" or something to that effect so I said, "Listen, every single manager needs to make sure the store is clean and stocked and all the cash is straight and other responsibilities are taken care of before they leave after their shift. It's pitiful that a manager can or would walk out knowing there are drawers uncounted, or seeing the lobby is filthy or that the service or production areas aren't stocked. We're all a team and rely on each other, and no one, not even me, is not guilty of leaving the store in a sorry state for someone else to take care of. I understand giving direction to employees to get things done - but you gotta make sure it gets done and doesn't cut into customer service. If you have to stay 20 minutes extra to make sure everything happens then you do it. Or like P. (the owner) said, if you gotta stay two hours late to make sure everything gets done, then you do it." I looked around and saw nods and agreements from everyone. R. took it upon herself to get defensive, but B. quieted her down and said, "Let's not make this about any one person, Mike's right, it's all of us."
So there was a general agreement that we would all focus on .. oh I donno, doing our job? ... and make everyone else's shifts run smooth. Fast forward two hours, during which I did some training in my MDP. I was scheduled to start yesterday at 1 o'clock, which means I come on right after lunch (again) to help recover from it. At 12:20 I was going to go order a Cheeseburger and a parfait, smoke a cigarette and come on shift for my pre-shift work. B. was struggling through lunch and said, "I need some help." I took a look around and saw that, yes, they needed help, so I jumped into the kitchen, and started getting food moving out of the Production area. I did my part for the team.
Two hours later, and it's approaching the end of B.'s (the store manager!) shift and he comes up to me and gives his ever famous "do you need anything else from me before I go?" I looked at the clock and it was only 2:25. I'm thinking to myself, "I come on a half hour + early, and he leaves a half hour + early?" So I said, "Well is everything stocked and cleaned? Cause we're going to be busy and I'm not going to get a chance until Jn. gets here to stock and clean at all." He says, "Didn't you see E. stocking?!" (that was over an hour and a half before, at the end of .. HER SHIFT. My response was, "Well B., yes, I did, but that was a while ago at the end of her shift. Is everything we've used since then replenished?" He says, "You'll be fine," and I respond with, "Well I know the shake and ice cream mix needs to be stocked, we need A and B bags, and Happy Meal toys need to be stocked. Can you get those before you leave?" Infuriatingly, he is refusing to clean and replenish after his shit, then when I directly requested just 3 things out of probably 40 that need stocking his response, maddeningly was, "You'll be fine, Michael." Then he walked out the door.
I will admit that perhaps I have a misconception of what a Store Manager should be - I think that a Swing Manager needs to be basically an uber-crewperson who also takes care of light managerial duties, and I see this in action. It seems a Shift Manager needs to be an uber-crewperson who handles light and medium managerial duties, and an Assistant Manager needs to be the uber-crewperson and an uber-hourly manager who handles heavy managerial responsibilities. This means the Store Manager needs to be the uber-crewperson/uber-manager and handle all sorts of responsibilities of all those positions. Obviously the majority of them need to be taken care of by the crew people and managers they work through, but when shit gets down to it, and there's 5 people in the store, 4 of whom are absolutely tied to their positions to make the store run with appropriate customer service times and the 5th person is leaving or preparing to leave, they better be able to make sure the 4 people being left, stuck to their positions and unable to even stock a single item without sacrificing customer service or service times, won't have to sacrifice customers' best interests to go stock something that should have been stocked before.
Grr! Rant! I'm sure that if B. were having to work a 9 hour shift (heaven forbid he even stay for all of his 8 hour shift more than twice a week), closing the store and only having 4 people, he would demand that everything be in pristine, fully-stocked condition before taking over the shift. It's part of the basic McDonald's Operations procedure, it's the right way to take care of the business, and it's an expectation laid forth for each of the managers in the store except the store manager. This is why it's making me Rant. Our store manager replies on his managers to make him look great. He relies on the crew to make him look great. By look great, I mean in the eyes of the owner, who is entrusting a million dollar+ business to him daily and paying him handsomely for the efforts. There seems to be no motivation on B.'s part to put forth the same effort he expects out of everyone from his newest swing managers to the exactly-minimum-wage paid Production members of the team. Further, it seems the operations procedures laid out by McDonald's don't really apply to him.
Perhaps I've got a misconception, I will admit, of his role and duties. I'm still learning and am new the McDonald's business. I do, however, know that in our low-volume store, managers are expected to maintain crew positions as well as manage, when in a high-volume store manager's are expected to flex in and out of positions as backup, when and where they are needed. Again, it baffles and infuriates me that the Store Manager, who should be the uber-manager, is not fulfilling the same commitment that the other members of the team are fulfilling - and the assistant manager is following his example - which in our low-volume store is creating a situation where from 1 o'clock on, we're always 5 minutes behind on what we need to do. Is it any wonder we're seeing Drive Thru service times of over 200 seconds at night?
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Ability.
I firmly believe that everyone (basically) is equally capable of being exceptional at what they do. Life takes hard work, commitment, passion and a dedication to a job well done.
I am infuriated and saddened by seeing people who are this/close to being phenomenal at what they do give up the extra effort it takes to escape the close confines of mediocrity. To see someone who works just hard enough, or someone who tries (again, trying is failing with honor) when they could so clearly just do, it makes me angry and sad and sometimes makes me want to lash out at them.
It frustrates me in a way that I can't quite put words to.
I am infuriated and saddened by seeing people who are this/close to being phenomenal at what they do give up the extra effort it takes to escape the close confines of mediocrity. To see someone who works just hard enough, or someone who tries (again, trying is failing with honor) when they could so clearly just do, it makes me angry and sad and sometimes makes me want to lash out at them.
It frustrates me in a way that I can't quite put words to.
Positivity.
I work hard to remain positive at all times while working, no matter where I am. I don't say "I try", because I believe that trying is setting out to fail, but with honor intact. In any case, I don't always succeed at being positive. Sometimes I go outside, into the back of the parking lot and curse loudly (not shouting, quite), or I'll go in the walk-in freezer and do the same thing. Sometimes, however, being the direct, blunt and authoritative person that I am, I have to confront the individual(s) that raise my ire.
I was scheduled for a close shift yesterday, the day after my birthday, which means I start work at 5 o'clock. Considering all this, I basically had about 4 hours of sleep in me when I got a phone call from B., my store manager, informing me that he had made a mistake and double scheduled myself and another manager to close tonight. He asked if I could not only come in early, but also work a shorter shift than my scheduled shift to avoid a horrible labor situation. Now, if I can do something to better my team, I'm almost 100% going to say yes. They needed me, so I agreed and rushed to get ready in less than half an hour.
When I showed up, it was just the very tail end of lunch. I went to go do my pre-shift functions, like counting our safe, verifying the deposit so far was accurate, a pre-shift checklist, etc. I got through the first step and found an error with the money (something that happens just about every single day in my store, and something that really, really irks me. Cash is the reason we show up every day, it should be the single most important part of the operation) when I was called to help out up front. Normally, I won't let anyone interrupt my pre-shift duties. I cannot prepare fully for my day if I don't do my pre-shift stuff, because that's when I prepare. It's important for me.
So I went up front to "help out", but mentioned to B. that I needed to get my pre-shift work done, and that the safe was not balanced as it should be. He looked at me and said "Well it's right, I know that." So instead of saying, "Hey we'll figure it out" or "It's possible I made a mistake (like I do every single day I work, because I don't know how to count to 1,000)", he tried to make me feel inferior and that I had made an error on something that I feel is the primary focus of my professional life. I was a bit miffed, but I got over it really quickly.
Our brief post-lunch rush wrapped itself up and I mentioned that I needed to get my pre-shift work taken care of, again. B. tells me he needs about 5 minutes to take care of something and asked me to cover his position for that 5 minutes. Next thing I know, 2 of the 5 crew members on the floor are going on break at the same time, the store manager has been gone for 20 minutes, the assistant manager was walking into the break room to speak to one of the crew members on break (I saw her!), the store hasn't been recovered from lunch (it's after 2 o'clock now), nothing is stocked, nothing is cleaned, there's no crew to deal with the customers we've got coming in to eat, and I'm standing in the front bellowing for some help, and being ignored. After calling for help like 6 times, I went to the back area of the store where both the manager and assistant manager were at and said this, "Listen I've got 3 crew people in the store and about 20 customers right now. I need help from both of you two five minutes ago. I came in early to help, not to be fucked over with a dirty, unstocked, unstaffed store, now get up front." Yeah, a bit aggressive, I know. But I was really pissed.
After this next little rush period, I told the store manager I needed to get my pre-shift work done. He said he was still busy. Our encounter went like this. "B., you called me in early. As a professional, I leave every shift clean, stocked and staffed. If there are too few people to work, or a rush, I stick around and help take care of it. You however haven't given me a chance to do the pre-shift work I have to do, you haven't even given me an opportunity to count the safe and make sure all the money is in the right places, which you and I both know it is not. You need to get the store cleaned and stocked, and I need an opportunity to get my work done. You're not treating me fairly, and you're making me rethink the wisdom of helping you out by coming in 4 hours early."
His response to my little tirade was, "Well, R. (the assistant manager) had the floor throughout lunch, and she has to clean up. Besides, the store manager's job isn't to stock and clean, that's why you're here. Besides, I'm leaving in 5 minutes."
I was flabbergasted. I respect this guy. I'm in his store to "learn" and be trained on how to be a store manager. For him to break out some straight bullshit like that stunned me. First of all, R. was in the kitchen throughout lunch, and when I asked her for help, that's where she went. That's where she was working throughout her shift. How exactly can she be responsible for the Service area's cleanliness and stock when she was in the Production area all day? Further, if the owner and operations manager can come in and clean, stock, and help with customers how the hell is it not the job of the store manager to do that when it needs to be done? I voiced my opinion to him, perhaps not in those exact words, but similar.
Great, you're the store manager and you've got things to get done. Then schedule people correctly so you have the time to get those things done. Schedule so the post-lunch cleaning and stocking can happen - with two people in the Kitchen, one in Front Counter, one in back-booth of Drive Thru and one person to run, present, cap drinks, and make fries is just not enough. When we have 2/3 of the business of the lunch rush and less than half the staff, with the store very obviously not Clean-as-you-go'd during lunch, it's not enough.
So he stocked what needed stocking (after pissing and moaning about it for a further 15 minutes, instead of just getting the job done), worked through other people to get clean what needed cleaning and then left.
Three hours later, with the assistant manager working in the Production area again, we were just coming out of an hour where we did 87% of the business of the lunch rush with only 6 people (11% labor for the hour!), the assistant manager says, "Ok, Michael, I'm leaving." I said, "Hey listen, can you make sure the kitchen is stocked and clean before you go." She threw a damn hissy-fit about how she was only in the kitchen for an hour and why should she have to clean it, there's crew members there. This time, I was fed up.
I stopped what I was doing and said, "Listen, R. we're busy. My crew members cannot clean right now because they're serving customers. I know you've had a long day, but honestly, I came in early to help you as well as B. and you should show some gratitude. Can you imagine how this day would've been with one less manager? I'm not asking you to take care of everything on your post-shift checklist, which you BY YOUR JOB DESCRIPTION, need to do. I'm asking you to clean and stock one area of the store which you've been in ALL DAY LONG. Now, if you don't think that a manager's job is to make sure the store is clean and stocked for the next shift, then fine. Let's go call P. (the owner/operator) and ask him what he thinks about it."
Here, she interjected with "You're not being fair Michael!" and I finished it with, "Listen I can't force you to do your job, it's on you. In fact, since you don't want to do your job, just go. Get off my floor, get off my time-clock, and go." I wasn't yelling, I was just speaking very pointedly.
At this point, I've got every customer and every crew member stopped dead in their tracks. R. grabbed a towel and started cleaning saying, "See Michael, I'm cleaning, I'll get everything pretty for you!", as sarcastically as she could.
I made direct eye-contact with her and said, "Hey, R. Stop. You need to get off the clock, Right. Now." There was apparently just the right amount of finality in my voice. She stopped what she was doing and left, exactly the moment her scheduled shift ended.
Now, I know I may not have been entirely right. But the thing is, I'm a professional. I'm not there to babysit other adults. I go to work everyday to help make sure my store is as profitable as can be. McDonald's restaurants are profitable because they have the best QSC&V. I ensure Quality by making sure, every day, that I am training and reinforcing training with all the Production crew members - and when I am in the Production area, I follow and demonstrate the correct procedures. I ensure Service by making sure that every day I am training and reinforcing training with all my Service team members, and make sure that I smile directly at all customers that I interact with, use a pleasant and firm tone of voice, and make sure I fix any problems following the correct procedures. Cleanliness is easy - I make sure it's a priority and actually go on travel paths every hour (or close to it). I have little or no control over Value, except making sure people get everything they paid for, their drinks are topped off, they get the right portion size for fries, shakes, ice cream and other Service Produced menu items. If I can balance all of these, and my people, product and equipment, every shift, then I am doing the best possible job of improving profitability of my McDonald's.
I assert again, fiercely, that I am a professional. This means, further, I have high standards for my colleagues. I have no place for people who are not willing to come in and do the MOST they can to ensure QSC&V. I hate slackers, I despise a lack of accountability, and I think I'm pretty much done with my store manager and his attitude of "take, take, take" with no "give". The primary function of a McDonald's manager, if you ask the McDonald's training, is to work through other people. But this also means showing respect for those people you work through, being considerate of the people who get work done for you and, very importantly, offering both Appreciative and Constructive Feedback.
None of these things are happening with my store manager - and honestly I could tolerate that if he'd be willing, at the least, to leave the store stocked and cleaned, or if he did all of the administrative functions of his job accurately, like a professional. Not a day passes that we're out of some critical food or paper product. Not a day passes in my store that we don't have a horribly unbalanced schedule, with 30-40% labor before lunch and 14-15% labor during the mid-shift. The point of this complaint is: B. has an expectation that myself and the other managers be the utmost professionals, and when we do make the slightest error or oversight, he brings a hammer down on us. When he is wrong or makes an error, it just can't be and he points the finger somewhere else. I've spent a lifetime being surrounded by inferior human beings play-acting at being exceptional, but it's still a real emotional and intellectual let-down when I discover someone who I thought was exceptional revealed for what they are.
I was scheduled for a close shift yesterday, the day after my birthday, which means I start work at 5 o'clock. Considering all this, I basically had about 4 hours of sleep in me when I got a phone call from B., my store manager, informing me that he had made a mistake and double scheduled myself and another manager to close tonight. He asked if I could not only come in early, but also work a shorter shift than my scheduled shift to avoid a horrible labor situation. Now, if I can do something to better my team, I'm almost 100% going to say yes. They needed me, so I agreed and rushed to get ready in less than half an hour.
When I showed up, it was just the very tail end of lunch. I went to go do my pre-shift functions, like counting our safe, verifying the deposit so far was accurate, a pre-shift checklist, etc. I got through the first step and found an error with the money (something that happens just about every single day in my store, and something that really, really irks me. Cash is the reason we show up every day, it should be the single most important part of the operation) when I was called to help out up front. Normally, I won't let anyone interrupt my pre-shift duties. I cannot prepare fully for my day if I don't do my pre-shift stuff, because that's when I prepare. It's important for me.
So I went up front to "help out", but mentioned to B. that I needed to get my pre-shift work done, and that the safe was not balanced as it should be. He looked at me and said "Well it's right, I know that." So instead of saying, "Hey we'll figure it out" or "It's possible I made a mistake (like I do every single day I work, because I don't know how to count to 1,000)", he tried to make me feel inferior and that I had made an error on something that I feel is the primary focus of my professional life. I was a bit miffed, but I got over it really quickly.
Our brief post-lunch rush wrapped itself up and I mentioned that I needed to get my pre-shift work taken care of, again. B. tells me he needs about 5 minutes to take care of something and asked me to cover his position for that 5 minutes. Next thing I know, 2 of the 5 crew members on the floor are going on break at the same time, the store manager has been gone for 20 minutes, the assistant manager was walking into the break room to speak to one of the crew members on break (I saw her!), the store hasn't been recovered from lunch (it's after 2 o'clock now), nothing is stocked, nothing is cleaned, there's no crew to deal with the customers we've got coming in to eat, and I'm standing in the front bellowing for some help, and being ignored. After calling for help like 6 times, I went to the back area of the store where both the manager and assistant manager were at and said this, "Listen I've got 3 crew people in the store and about 20 customers right now. I need help from both of you two five minutes ago. I came in early to help, not to be fucked over with a dirty, unstocked, unstaffed store, now get up front." Yeah, a bit aggressive, I know. But I was really pissed.
After this next little rush period, I told the store manager I needed to get my pre-shift work done. He said he was still busy. Our encounter went like this. "B., you called me in early. As a professional, I leave every shift clean, stocked and staffed. If there are too few people to work, or a rush, I stick around and help take care of it. You however haven't given me a chance to do the pre-shift work I have to do, you haven't even given me an opportunity to count the safe and make sure all the money is in the right places, which you and I both know it is not. You need to get the store cleaned and stocked, and I need an opportunity to get my work done. You're not treating me fairly, and you're making me rethink the wisdom of helping you out by coming in 4 hours early."
His response to my little tirade was, "Well, R. (the assistant manager) had the floor throughout lunch, and she has to clean up. Besides, the store manager's job isn't to stock and clean, that's why you're here. Besides, I'm leaving in 5 minutes."
I was flabbergasted. I respect this guy. I'm in his store to "learn" and be trained on how to be a store manager. For him to break out some straight bullshit like that stunned me. First of all, R. was in the kitchen throughout lunch, and when I asked her for help, that's where she went. That's where she was working throughout her shift. How exactly can she be responsible for the Service area's cleanliness and stock when she was in the Production area all day? Further, if the owner and operations manager can come in and clean, stock, and help with customers how the hell is it not the job of the store manager to do that when it needs to be done? I voiced my opinion to him, perhaps not in those exact words, but similar.
Great, you're the store manager and you've got things to get done. Then schedule people correctly so you have the time to get those things done. Schedule so the post-lunch cleaning and stocking can happen - with two people in the Kitchen, one in Front Counter, one in back-booth of Drive Thru and one person to run, present, cap drinks, and make fries is just not enough. When we have 2/3 of the business of the lunch rush and less than half the staff, with the store very obviously not Clean-as-you-go'd during lunch, it's not enough.
So he stocked what needed stocking (after pissing and moaning about it for a further 15 minutes, instead of just getting the job done), worked through other people to get clean what needed cleaning and then left.
Three hours later, with the assistant manager working in the Production area again, we were just coming out of an hour where we did 87% of the business of the lunch rush with only 6 people (11% labor for the hour!), the assistant manager says, "Ok, Michael, I'm leaving." I said, "Hey listen, can you make sure the kitchen is stocked and clean before you go." She threw a damn hissy-fit about how she was only in the kitchen for an hour and why should she have to clean it, there's crew members there. This time, I was fed up.
I stopped what I was doing and said, "Listen, R. we're busy. My crew members cannot clean right now because they're serving customers. I know you've had a long day, but honestly, I came in early to help you as well as B. and you should show some gratitude. Can you imagine how this day would've been with one less manager? I'm not asking you to take care of everything on your post-shift checklist, which you BY YOUR JOB DESCRIPTION, need to do. I'm asking you to clean and stock one area of the store which you've been in ALL DAY LONG. Now, if you don't think that a manager's job is to make sure the store is clean and stocked for the next shift, then fine. Let's go call P. (the owner/operator) and ask him what he thinks about it."
Here, she interjected with "You're not being fair Michael!" and I finished it with, "Listen I can't force you to do your job, it's on you. In fact, since you don't want to do your job, just go. Get off my floor, get off my time-clock, and go." I wasn't yelling, I was just speaking very pointedly.
At this point, I've got every customer and every crew member stopped dead in their tracks. R. grabbed a towel and started cleaning saying, "See Michael, I'm cleaning, I'll get everything pretty for you!", as sarcastically as she could.
I made direct eye-contact with her and said, "Hey, R. Stop. You need to get off the clock, Right. Now." There was apparently just the right amount of finality in my voice. She stopped what she was doing and left, exactly the moment her scheduled shift ended.
Now, I know I may not have been entirely right. But the thing is, I'm a professional. I'm not there to babysit other adults. I go to work everyday to help make sure my store is as profitable as can be. McDonald's restaurants are profitable because they have the best QSC&V. I ensure Quality by making sure, every day, that I am training and reinforcing training with all the Production crew members - and when I am in the Production area, I follow and demonstrate the correct procedures. I ensure Service by making sure that every day I am training and reinforcing training with all my Service team members, and make sure that I smile directly at all customers that I interact with, use a pleasant and firm tone of voice, and make sure I fix any problems following the correct procedures. Cleanliness is easy - I make sure it's a priority and actually go on travel paths every hour (or close to it). I have little or no control over Value, except making sure people get everything they paid for, their drinks are topped off, they get the right portion size for fries, shakes, ice cream and other Service Produced menu items. If I can balance all of these, and my people, product and equipment, every shift, then I am doing the best possible job of improving profitability of my McDonald's.
I assert again, fiercely, that I am a professional. This means, further, I have high standards for my colleagues. I have no place for people who are not willing to come in and do the MOST they can to ensure QSC&V. I hate slackers, I despise a lack of accountability, and I think I'm pretty much done with my store manager and his attitude of "take, take, take" with no "give". The primary function of a McDonald's manager, if you ask the McDonald's training, is to work through other people. But this also means showing respect for those people you work through, being considerate of the people who get work done for you and, very importantly, offering both Appreciative and Constructive Feedback.
None of these things are happening with my store manager - and honestly I could tolerate that if he'd be willing, at the least, to leave the store stocked and cleaned, or if he did all of the administrative functions of his job accurately, like a professional. Not a day passes that we're out of some critical food or paper product. Not a day passes in my store that we don't have a horribly unbalanced schedule, with 30-40% labor before lunch and 14-15% labor during the mid-shift. The point of this complaint is: B. has an expectation that myself and the other managers be the utmost professionals, and when we do make the slightest error or oversight, he brings a hammer down on us. When he is wrong or makes an error, it just can't be and he points the finger somewhere else. I've spent a lifetime being surrounded by inferior human beings play-acting at being exceptional, but it's still a real emotional and intellectual let-down when I discover someone who I thought was exceptional revealed for what they are.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
12-13! My birthday!
Happy birthday to me!
I'm 27 years old today. My amazing wife helped to make it phenomenal.
The kids and Nicole woke me at something like 6 to wish me happy birthday and give me presents! Awesome!
I got some nice shirts, a fatty box of chocolate, a really nice, solid steel watch (W00t!) and a $20.00 Gift Certificate to Bookman's. Bookman's is a used book/music store that also has a miniature selection of video games, all at awesome bargains. We have probably spent $1000.00 in Bookman's in the past two years, and today was the first time I ever used Bookman's to it's fullest potential. They have listening chairs, and allow you to read books before you buy them and such. So I sat down with the "O Brother Where Art Thou?" soundtrack and a nice reggae compilation and rocked out while reading most of an entire book of short stories about Warriors in fantasy stories by authors under the DAW publishing label. Awesome!
I came home and my wife greeted me in the best way, and we spent a wonderful afternoon together. After a nap, we picked the kids up and went to a fatty steak restaurant called Pinnacle Peak, and watched a Cowboy/Christmas stunt show. Awesome!
I intend to relax a bit, and read about a quarter of one of the books I got today, and my day has just been stupendous. This is the best birthday I can remember, all thanks to my wife being awesome.
I'm 27 years old today. My amazing wife helped to make it phenomenal.
The kids and Nicole woke me at something like 6 to wish me happy birthday and give me presents! Awesome!
I got some nice shirts, a fatty box of chocolate, a really nice, solid steel watch (W00t!) and a $20.00 Gift Certificate to Bookman's. Bookman's is a used book/music store that also has a miniature selection of video games, all at awesome bargains. We have probably spent $1000.00 in Bookman's in the past two years, and today was the first time I ever used Bookman's to it's fullest potential. They have listening chairs, and allow you to read books before you buy them and such. So I sat down with the "O Brother Where Art Thou?" soundtrack and a nice reggae compilation and rocked out while reading most of an entire book of short stories about Warriors in fantasy stories by authors under the DAW publishing label. Awesome!
I came home and my wife greeted me in the best way, and we spent a wonderful afternoon together. After a nap, we picked the kids up and went to a fatty steak restaurant called Pinnacle Peak, and watched a Cowboy/Christmas stunt show. Awesome!
I intend to relax a bit, and read about a quarter of one of the books I got today, and my day has just been stupendous. This is the best birthday I can remember, all thanks to my wife being awesome.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Busy!
No post today! Close today, early morning tomorrow for manager's meeting, which is going to be two hours before a ten hour shift that ends with receiving a delivery. Then, the next day, my birthday! Woot!
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Closing on a Saturday.
The last few hours of closing are usually pretty slow at my store, but this is especially true of a Saturday evening. Although there are many Tucsonans going out to any of the two nightclubs or two strip clubs within two miles of my store, we're still located in a spot that really caters to breakfast and lunch for the 9-5 crowd.
I think I mentioned previously how I like to get things detail cleaned when I have time. I don't understand how other managers can't get the same type of things done, and then it dawns on me, very clearly, that it is because of a focused avoidance of doing any real cleaning. It has to be!
Last night, I was short one Production Team member (someone who fired themself by not calling and not showing for 3 days in a row last week), who I replaced with a young lady named T. who really wanted to learn Production. She did a damn fine job considering it was her very first time ever working Production. Every single person on my team got breaks, including myself. This almost never happens during our closing shifts with the usual reason being "there was no one to cover".
Also, I was able to detail clean our shake machine. Boy did it need it. I started by pulling it out, intending to mop behind it. I had to dust the back vents free of a 1/2" of dust, which led me to discover that much of the dust had calcified (with the lovely grease that flies in the air) and would need to be scrubbed off. After doing that on the back, I had to do the sides as well. Then I removed the side-mounted cup dispenser and discovered... well let me say it was dirty. So I cleaned all that, then cleaned the wall behind the shake machine. All told, an hour of grunting and scraping and scrubbing away shake mix from years past and I was left with a gleaming, clean shake machine. I was proud of myself. I also spent a half an hour or so getting the first layer or so of this horrible calcified mess behind our Lobby ice dispenser taken care of. I recommend CLR Kitchen & Bath cleaner! W00t. (Granted, there's probably nine more layers of calcified scum back there, I got rid of the layer growing organisms).
The thing is, I cannot understand how just about every area of our store is neglected on a regular basis by the closing managers. There's never areas being detail cleaned. I know this because each night I close, or have an extra body around to get some cleaning done, I discover all sorts of obscure and obvious things that need attention and love. Examples: the reach-in refrigerator a couple weeks ago; the front-end cup storage area; the shake machine; the menu boards; the little Cambro containers we hold customer conveniences in (in our Lobby, behind our Front Counter, and in Drive Thru); the fryer-side reach-in freezers; the inside of our Castle bins (the containers for our garbage cans in Lobby); our Janitor's closet; the "operations closet" that we keep all of our operations material. The list goes on and on, and I can't really get over the fact that it feels like I'm the only one doing detail cleaning, as I'm the only one cleaning these things.
Perhaps others are detail cleaning things that I'm not seeing. Maybe the things that I've been detail cleaning and getting cleaned on my shifts have actually been cleaned within the past couple days and what looks like years of neglect and misuse is really just a few days or at most weeks worth of regular use. It would be surprising, and honestly, we'd have to be operating 24-7 on a parallel time/space continuum where we serve thousands of customers daily.
I think I mentioned previously how I like to get things detail cleaned when I have time. I don't understand how other managers can't get the same type of things done, and then it dawns on me, very clearly, that it is because of a focused avoidance of doing any real cleaning. It has to be!
Last night, I was short one Production Team member (someone who fired themself by not calling and not showing for 3 days in a row last week), who I replaced with a young lady named T. who really wanted to learn Production. She did a damn fine job considering it was her very first time ever working Production. Every single person on my team got breaks, including myself. This almost never happens during our closing shifts with the usual reason being "there was no one to cover".
Also, I was able to detail clean our shake machine. Boy did it need it. I started by pulling it out, intending to mop behind it. I had to dust the back vents free of a 1/2" of dust, which led me to discover that much of the dust had calcified (with the lovely grease that flies in the air) and would need to be scrubbed off. After doing that on the back, I had to do the sides as well. Then I removed the side-mounted cup dispenser and discovered... well let me say it was dirty. So I cleaned all that, then cleaned the wall behind the shake machine. All told, an hour of grunting and scraping and scrubbing away shake mix from years past and I was left with a gleaming, clean shake machine. I was proud of myself. I also spent a half an hour or so getting the first layer or so of this horrible calcified mess behind our Lobby ice dispenser taken care of. I recommend CLR Kitchen & Bath cleaner! W00t. (Granted, there's probably nine more layers of calcified scum back there, I got rid of the layer growing organisms).
The thing is, I cannot understand how just about every area of our store is neglected on a regular basis by the closing managers. There's never areas being detail cleaned. I know this because each night I close, or have an extra body around to get some cleaning done, I discover all sorts of obscure and obvious things that need attention and love. Examples: the reach-in refrigerator a couple weeks ago; the front-end cup storage area; the shake machine; the menu boards; the little Cambro containers we hold customer conveniences in (in our Lobby, behind our Front Counter, and in Drive Thru); the fryer-side reach-in freezers; the inside of our Castle bins (the containers for our garbage cans in Lobby); our Janitor's closet; the "operations closet" that we keep all of our operations material. The list goes on and on, and I can't really get over the fact that it feels like I'm the only one doing detail cleaning, as I'm the only one cleaning these things.
Perhaps others are detail cleaning things that I'm not seeing. Maybe the things that I've been detail cleaning and getting cleaned on my shifts have actually been cleaned within the past couple days and what looks like years of neglect and misuse is really just a few days or at most weeks worth of regular use. It would be surprising, and honestly, we'd have to be operating 24-7 on a parallel time/space continuum where we serve thousands of customers daily.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Labor.
It's very difficult to balance the Labor percentage of a McDonald's store. This is true of every business - the goal is to maximize the profit of a store by minimizing the opportunity of wasted payroll hours. This is almost always somewhere in the neighborhood between 19 and 20%. We overshot that by a good amount in my store last month.
I'm learning that it is especially difficult to balance this Labor in a low volume store. There may only need to be 4 people on any given hours of a shift based upon sales in $, but there are also a set number of jobs that can be performed well by a minimum number of people, and in my opinion the minimum number of people to comfortably run just about any given hour of any shift is 5. There are exceptions - the first and last 2-3 hours of the day. These are easy times, for openers you show up and make coffee for hours. For closers, you clean and hump your ass to clean some more. In either situation, there's not many of customers.
However, during what I like to refer to as "Snack Time", the hours between 2 and 4, we may not be having as much sales dollars - that's mostly because we'll have twice as many customers, ordering a third as much food. Still, it's a lot of transactions and when you sell 50 Doubles and Hot N Spicys in an hour, it may not be as much money as 50 Value Meals during the lunch hour but it is the same amount of work, effectively. It takes as much time to make 10 Doubles as it does to make 10 different types of sandwiches, and each order during Snack Time has more individual sandwiches than each order during Lunch Time.
I wish all people could have some love for McDonald's Employees. I do my best to make sure every customer at the very least thinks I do a good job. There are a large amount of customers for whom I just shine, shine, shine! I like to go for the Wow. Stupid is diverse and populous in the world, however, and some people leave hating me, while I hate them.
A woman came through my Drive Thru during Snack Time today, and took a good 3 minutes to place her whole order, which totaled about $6.00 and was changed no less than 4 times. Meanwhile, a line of about 8 cars grew behind her. She came to my window holding out a bag of coins and said "Count this, it's what I'm paying you." She had a big stack of bills sitting on her lap. I said, "Why don't you pay me with a 5?" Her response was to shove the bag of coins toward me and say "I'm paying with this," So I told her, thank you have a nice day, and I'll buy her food for her. I'd rather explain a $6.00 customer satisfaction manager meal than count out 6 bucks in goddamn coins. Screw that! I told her so.
She told me I was rude and she would call McDonald's on me. I told her the number posted on the window in front of me would get her in touch with the Owner/Operator and I told her my name and explained that I was the only guy who looked like me, and the only Michael there, and could she please move to the next fucking window so I could help the people behind her. She told me no, and folded her arms like a 4-year-old. Finally, I said, as close to verbatim as I can get, "Lady, you're only fucking with the people behind you in line, and the people in the front of the store. Our interaction is done, your food is waiting for you, MOVE. ALONG." Finally after a few more seconds of huffiness she moved on.
Seriously, a bag of coins? What kind of a moron do you have to be to get angry that someone wouldn't fulfill that stupid request? Go to a bank. Spend a Saturday afternoon rolling pennies with your kids. Get one of those old people coin purses and spend it penny by glorious penny and nickel by shiny nickel. I can't believe the friend in her car didn't slap her. I would've.
The best part of my day was that this was the worst part of my day. If I'm alive, and the worst part of my day was when a 5 minute interaction set me behind maybe another 5 minutes, then I can honestly say I'm winning.
There were some phenomenal parts of my day, at least 6 different interactions with people where I felt like I had made a human connection. That's what the day is all about. In fact, looking back, that stupid bag-of-coins lady and I made a human connection as well, merely of a more base sort, less positive.
Addendum: I apologize for the swearing. It felt like a swearing day.
I'm learning that it is especially difficult to balance this Labor in a low volume store. There may only need to be 4 people on any given hours of a shift based upon sales in $, but there are also a set number of jobs that can be performed well by a minimum number of people, and in my opinion the minimum number of people to comfortably run just about any given hour of any shift is 5. There are exceptions - the first and last 2-3 hours of the day. These are easy times, for openers you show up and make coffee for hours. For closers, you clean and hump your ass to clean some more. In either situation, there's not many of customers.
However, during what I like to refer to as "Snack Time", the hours between 2 and 4, we may not be having as much sales dollars - that's mostly because we'll have twice as many customers, ordering a third as much food. Still, it's a lot of transactions and when you sell 50 Doubles and Hot N Spicys in an hour, it may not be as much money as 50 Value Meals during the lunch hour but it is the same amount of work, effectively. It takes as much time to make 10 Doubles as it does to make 10 different types of sandwiches, and each order during Snack Time has more individual sandwiches than each order during Lunch Time.
I wish all people could have some love for McDonald's Employees. I do my best to make sure every customer at the very least thinks I do a good job. There are a large amount of customers for whom I just shine, shine, shine! I like to go for the Wow. Stupid is diverse and populous in the world, however, and some people leave hating me, while I hate them.
A woman came through my Drive Thru during Snack Time today, and took a good 3 minutes to place her whole order, which totaled about $6.00 and was changed no less than 4 times. Meanwhile, a line of about 8 cars grew behind her. She came to my window holding out a bag of coins and said "Count this, it's what I'm paying you." She had a big stack of bills sitting on her lap. I said, "Why don't you pay me with a 5?" Her response was to shove the bag of coins toward me and say "I'm paying with this," So I told her, thank you have a nice day, and I'll buy her food for her. I'd rather explain a $6.00 customer satisfaction manager meal than count out 6 bucks in goddamn coins. Screw that! I told her so.
She told me I was rude and she would call McDonald's on me. I told her the number posted on the window in front of me would get her in touch with the Owner/Operator and I told her my name and explained that I was the only guy who looked like me, and the only Michael there, and could she please move to the next fucking window so I could help the people behind her. She told me no, and folded her arms like a 4-year-old. Finally, I said, as close to verbatim as I can get, "Lady, you're only fucking with the people behind you in line, and the people in the front of the store. Our interaction is done, your food is waiting for you, MOVE. ALONG." Finally after a few more seconds of huffiness she moved on.
Seriously, a bag of coins? What kind of a moron do you have to be to get angry that someone wouldn't fulfill that stupid request? Go to a bank. Spend a Saturday afternoon rolling pennies with your kids. Get one of those old people coin purses and spend it penny by glorious penny and nickel by shiny nickel. I can't believe the friend in her car didn't slap her. I would've.
The best part of my day was that this was the worst part of my day. If I'm alive, and the worst part of my day was when a 5 minute interaction set me behind maybe another 5 minutes, then I can honestly say I'm winning.
There were some phenomenal parts of my day, at least 6 different interactions with people where I felt like I had made a human connection. That's what the day is all about. In fact, looking back, that stupid bag-of-coins lady and I made a human connection as well, merely of a more base sort, less positive.
Addendum: I apologize for the swearing. It felt like a swearing day.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
December!
My blog made it through a month! Woo-hoo! Or, if you prefer, "W00t!".
Today was an exceptional day at work, starting December out right. We have a mystery shop sometime this weekend, so we had a huge amount of employees, all putting their best effort and smiles forward.
With 12 people working when we only needed 8 at a maximum, I had an opportunity to get some training done with employees. I'm working on a program to get each and every one of our employees trained on the Foundation training topics. It's not as easy it seems, to coordinate approximately 5 hours for each employee to watch the e-Learning program, review and get the first Station Observation Chart completed, then do a follow-up training session on the floor with them. However, I will get it caught up to the point that new hires can have their Foundation training completed within their first 6 shifts - that's my goal for the end of the first quarter of 2008.
With so many people working today, I was able to get 4, count them, 4!, larger pieces of equipment detail cleaned: our oven, our reach-in fryer-side freezer, and our reach-in kitchen refrigerators. This is on top of large sections of wall/baseboard being cleaned, as well as our front counter menu boards.
Honestly, I barely was on the floor at all today, between coordinating projects for all the extra people to get done and training and then I worked in Drive Thru back booth through our lunch rush. I love getting an opportunity to do nothing but customer transactions. Every other customer tells me "You have such a nice voice!" or "You're so polite! Thanks!" or, once in a while, "You're the best Drive Thru person ever!". I'm not exaggerating. I love that stuff - I know I'm great and love to hear it!
One downside to things right now is that our sales are low - dismally low. We've got absolutely no shopping centers near us! No one is Christmas shopping within two miles of my store while one of the owner's stores is inside the largest shopping mall in town, another is inside of Wal-Mart, and a third is right across the street from that largest shopping mall in town. It's very frustrating for the crew because we're usually just busy enough to be running around a bit short-handed, but not busy enough to include one more person onto the schedule. It's very frustrating as a manager, because I've got people working just a bit harder than they would need to be if we did our projected sales - because if we hit those, we'd be able to get that other person onto the schedule. Cyclical frustrations. I believe it goes with the territory, and so long as the crew are treated great, they'll be willing to work that/much harder to ensure the customers get treated great as well.
Today was an exceptional day at work, starting December out right. We have a mystery shop sometime this weekend, so we had a huge amount of employees, all putting their best effort and smiles forward.
With 12 people working when we only needed 8 at a maximum, I had an opportunity to get some training done with employees. I'm working on a program to get each and every one of our employees trained on the Foundation training topics. It's not as easy it seems, to coordinate approximately 5 hours for each employee to watch the e-Learning program, review and get the first Station Observation Chart completed, then do a follow-up training session on the floor with them. However, I will get it caught up to the point that new hires can have their Foundation training completed within their first 6 shifts - that's my goal for the end of the first quarter of 2008.
With so many people working today, I was able to get 4, count them, 4!, larger pieces of equipment detail cleaned: our oven, our reach-in fryer-side freezer, and our reach-in kitchen refrigerators. This is on top of large sections of wall/baseboard being cleaned, as well as our front counter menu boards.
Honestly, I barely was on the floor at all today, between coordinating projects for all the extra people to get done and training and then I worked in Drive Thru back booth through our lunch rush. I love getting an opportunity to do nothing but customer transactions. Every other customer tells me "You have such a nice voice!" or "You're so polite! Thanks!" or, once in a while, "You're the best Drive Thru person ever!". I'm not exaggerating. I love that stuff - I know I'm great and love to hear it!
One downside to things right now is that our sales are low - dismally low. We've got absolutely no shopping centers near us! No one is Christmas shopping within two miles of my store while one of the owner's stores is inside the largest shopping mall in town, another is inside of Wal-Mart, and a third is right across the street from that largest shopping mall in town. It's very frustrating for the crew because we're usually just busy enough to be running around a bit short-handed, but not busy enough to include one more person onto the schedule. It's very frustrating as a manager, because I've got people working just a bit harder than they would need to be if we did our projected sales - because if we hit those, we'd be able to get that other person onto the schedule. Cyclical frustrations. I believe it goes with the territory, and so long as the crew are treated great, they'll be willing to work that/much harder to ensure the customers get treated great as well.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Employee Statements.
As part of my Basic Shift Management training program, I'm obligated to ask the employees for their input into the management team. I've asked questions such as, "What do you expect from your management team?" and "What can the managers do to better support you in your job?". There have been some interesting answers.
I've had two situations with non-English speaking, female crew members who gave me an interesting (in my opinion) response. They both, in separate encounters, broke into giggles and one of them giggled so nervously and hard that she turned purple. I can only assume she got so nervous from being asked such a direct question, and the request for her input. I donno.
One of our newest crew members, who was being eyed for management after two months or so of working at one of our groups other stores, told me she felt that there was no team feeling in the restaurant. Basically, she feels it is most apparent at the management level, and that the crew is full of people who don't care. I'm flattered she felt like sharing her observations with me, especially when she gave me some positive feedback on my performance. But what could I tell her, really? My response was, "Well, as far as I can see, that's basically life, right? A smattering of exceptional people trying to do the best they can and being hindered by stupid. Legions of stupid." It really is that way. If you disagree, it's probably because you're part of the herd, not the smattering.
Another employee told me, "Michael, I am very angry over this" in his incredibly soft-spoken and faintly Spanish-accented voice, "I work hard to keep this area clean, and other people don't respect it. None of the managers stop it from happening. I am very angry, my friend."
One of my favorite employees is a woman who works at two stores, has two kids and is always taking up any opportunity to get things done. She is phenomenal, and always has a bright and positive attitude. She's always willing to help out and make sure the team is running well. Her response to me was to get inside of my personal space, and patted my belly (an incredibly frazzling situation every time she does it) and says, something in Spanish that I'm told means "Your head is going to blow up". I think. She's a strange one, but she's one of my favorite people.
So depending on the outlook of the individual, either there are many Opportunities to Improve for the management team or just a few Opportunities to Improve. Either way, it's going to be a rough go - I'm not that great of a team builder, honestly, being so "Me" oriented, and I think that if I can help develop a more team-like environment at my store, it will be a great accomplishment.
I've had two situations with non-English speaking, female crew members who gave me an interesting (in my opinion) response. They both, in separate encounters, broke into giggles and one of them giggled so nervously and hard that she turned purple. I can only assume she got so nervous from being asked such a direct question, and the request for her input. I donno.
One of our newest crew members, who was being eyed for management after two months or so of working at one of our groups other stores, told me she felt that there was no team feeling in the restaurant. Basically, she feels it is most apparent at the management level, and that the crew is full of people who don't care. I'm flattered she felt like sharing her observations with me, especially when she gave me some positive feedback on my performance. But what could I tell her, really? My response was, "Well, as far as I can see, that's basically life, right? A smattering of exceptional people trying to do the best they can and being hindered by stupid. Legions of stupid." It really is that way. If you disagree, it's probably because you're part of the herd, not the smattering.
Another employee told me, "Michael, I am very angry over this" in his incredibly soft-spoken and faintly Spanish-accented voice, "I work hard to keep this area clean, and other people don't respect it. None of the managers stop it from happening. I am very angry, my friend."
One of my favorite employees is a woman who works at two stores, has two kids and is always taking up any opportunity to get things done. She is phenomenal, and always has a bright and positive attitude. She's always willing to help out and make sure the team is running well. Her response to me was to get inside of my personal space, and patted my belly (an incredibly frazzling situation every time she does it) and says, something in Spanish that I'm told means "Your head is going to blow up". I think. She's a strange one, but she's one of my favorite people.
So depending on the outlook of the individual, either there are many Opportunities to Improve for the management team or just a few Opportunities to Improve. Either way, it's going to be a rough go - I'm not that great of a team builder, honestly, being so "Me" oriented, and I think that if I can help develop a more team-like environment at my store, it will be a great accomplishment.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
I Truly Am a Control Freak
I'm discovering that I truly am a control freak.
My symptoms are simple yet incredibly clear. When I am attempting to give control to other people, I feel so.. so... Out of control.
It's very difficult to be asked by someone who I think of as a professional, someone who does a damn fine job, someone who I am glad to call my colleague tells me to lay back and let others lead the pack. Well, I am trying, and what I'm experiencing is watching something I have recently become dedicated to being mistreated.
Our shifts have been hectic the past few days, and they've been horribly, horribly slow. Things seem to be run by scrambling from one emergency situation to another. It could be egoism, but a week ago when I ran a Tuesday lunch shift, in general there seemed to be a better rhythm than there was today.
Further, I'm a bit confused. I was asked to give up control a bit on shifts when other managers are working. Three managers in particular, apparently, felt that I was grossly overstepping my bounds. This is possible. I like control and usually feel that someone's feelings can't take precedence over taking care of business. Maybe at times I'm a bit brisk. I know, though, that I'm respected by most of the people I work with - I know this because the crew trust me to help them take care of their problems (business related only, thank you). Also, a couple of the more intelligent people I work with have given me positive feedback on how I give positive feedback to others! Hot damn! Pardon my digression - I'm confused because I was spoken to sternly over leaving an hour early with huge labor and no business, and two managers on the shift. The words actually used were, "I wanted you to be in control of Sunday." From the same manager who asked me to exert less control over shifts.
However, the past week or so of hanging back and exerting a lesser amount of control over the store during my shifts has been difficult.
I've noticed there are quite a few more business-related problems that the crew are having. There's something of a standing grudge happening between the Production team and the Service team. And little things with schedule issues or personality disputes have been arising much more.
I don't say this is entirely because of my restrained direction. But it certainly has a large impact on the existence of the situation.
There are a grand total of 8 managers at my store: the General Manager, 1st Assistant, myself, and 5 swing managers. Of those, only one manager other than I, does all of the things they are supposed to document correctly. There's a pre-shift checklist, a once-per-hour travel path, a twice-per-shift people travel path, a production checklist, a service checklist, and the owner has a system of giving managers responsibility for the cleanliness of the store by making us sign off on 4 major areas of the store, including a every-3-hour sweep and mop of the entire store. So only 2 of the 8 total managers always do all of a shift's checklists and travel paths.
I feel if one of us is not on a shift, then it's just not getting done. I'm sorry, you did it but couldn't take the added 30 seconds to document you did it? It's easier to think (especially when you see it -not- happening right before your eyes) that, much like the documentation, you did not do the work. And because I've been asked to take a step back, it feels like even if I'm there, it's not really getting done. I'll ask another manager if they're going to do a travel path that hour and they'll certainly say yes, but the only traveling I see happening is from the HLZ to the Presentation window. What about the other 80% of your store that you cannot see from the front counter? Sorry. It's frustrating.
The fact is, I've given over control to these managers who said I was stepping on their toes. I've even bluntly said, "You are in control of this shift, what should I do" and gotten either a denial of their control or a vacant stare and a shrug. To me, the reality is, no one else decided to take control of anything and so the position (of leader) is open to whoever wants it - that's me.
So, I'm going to get my control back, and show how things run smoother when I'm there. If that doesn't bluntly bring home the point to the gentleman expert who asked me to relieve some of my exertion of control, that I, in full-power mode, am an extremely beneficial part of the team ... Well, then I'm just going to go and re-assess why exactly any manager would have asked someone to be a less motivated and active a part of the team.
My symptoms are simple yet incredibly clear. When I am attempting to give control to other people, I feel so.. so... Out of control.
It's very difficult to be asked by someone who I think of as a professional, someone who does a damn fine job, someone who I am glad to call my colleague tells me to lay back and let others lead the pack. Well, I am trying, and what I'm experiencing is watching something I have recently become dedicated to being mistreated.
Our shifts have been hectic the past few days, and they've been horribly, horribly slow. Things seem to be run by scrambling from one emergency situation to another. It could be egoism, but a week ago when I ran a Tuesday lunch shift, in general there seemed to be a better rhythm than there was today.
Further, I'm a bit confused. I was asked to give up control a bit on shifts when other managers are working. Three managers in particular, apparently, felt that I was grossly overstepping my bounds. This is possible. I like control and usually feel that someone's feelings can't take precedence over taking care of business. Maybe at times I'm a bit brisk. I know, though, that I'm respected by most of the people I work with - I know this because the crew trust me to help them take care of their problems (business related only, thank you). Also, a couple of the more intelligent people I work with have given me positive feedback on how I give positive feedback to others! Hot damn! Pardon my digression - I'm confused because I was spoken to sternly over leaving an hour early with huge labor and no business, and two managers on the shift. The words actually used were, "I wanted you to be in control of Sunday." From the same manager who asked me to exert less control over shifts.
However, the past week or so of hanging back and exerting a lesser amount of control over the store during my shifts has been difficult.
I've noticed there are quite a few more business-related problems that the crew are having. There's something of a standing grudge happening between the Production team and the Service team. And little things with schedule issues or personality disputes have been arising much more.
I don't say this is entirely because of my restrained direction. But it certainly has a large impact on the existence of the situation.
There are a grand total of 8 managers at my store: the General Manager, 1st Assistant, myself, and 5 swing managers. Of those, only one manager other than I, does all of the things they are supposed to document correctly. There's a pre-shift checklist, a once-per-hour travel path, a twice-per-shift people travel path, a production checklist, a service checklist, and the owner has a system of giving managers responsibility for the cleanliness of the store by making us sign off on 4 major areas of the store, including a every-3-hour sweep and mop of the entire store. So only 2 of the 8 total managers always do all of a shift's checklists and travel paths.
I feel if one of us is not on a shift, then it's just not getting done. I'm sorry, you did it but couldn't take the added 30 seconds to document you did it? It's easier to think (especially when you see it -not- happening right before your eyes) that, much like the documentation, you did not do the work. And because I've been asked to take a step back, it feels like even if I'm there, it's not really getting done. I'll ask another manager if they're going to do a travel path that hour and they'll certainly say yes, but the only traveling I see happening is from the HLZ to the Presentation window. What about the other 80% of your store that you cannot see from the front counter? Sorry. It's frustrating.
The fact is, I've given over control to these managers who said I was stepping on their toes. I've even bluntly said, "You are in control of this shift, what should I do" and gotten either a denial of their control or a vacant stare and a shrug. To me, the reality is, no one else decided to take control of anything and so the position (of leader) is open to whoever wants it - that's me.
So, I'm going to get my control back, and show how things run smoother when I'm there. If that doesn't bluntly bring home the point to the gentleman expert who asked me to relieve some of my exertion of control, that I, in full-power mode, am an extremely beneficial part of the team ... Well, then I'm just going to go and re-assess why exactly any manager would have asked someone to be a less motivated and active a part of the team.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Black Weekend.
I had the expectation that the day after Thanksgiving would be slow. It fulfilled, and surpassed, my expectations. Saturday, and also today, Sunday.
Our store is at a real low as far as customer counts and gross sales are concerned. It's the very first time I've experienced a slow period that lasted multiple days. We're getting all sorts of things cleaned up, and the store's equipment and Front-End storage areas are being maintained well while we're slack in customer counts.
This morning, I was running a bit later than I normally do and also left early - before our lunch even started - my labor was high, things were slow, and they had more than enough staff for the projected sales. I got to pick my kids up from the sitters early, and I get to hit the internet up for the first time in days (life's busy even if the store isn't!)
I feel a lot of ownership for my McDonald's. I want the store to be the best it can be, not to just do well, but great. I like being a part of a succeeding team. I don't believe the world runs itself - there has to be intelligent, thoughtful, careful human intervention into an environment before it will operate in it's intended manner. Especially in a McDonald's. If there is no careful direction given to the individual team members, the team won't exist. I enjoy being the giver of direction in a team. I can and will take direction, though not as well. It's been a difficult week by not stepping in and taking control of every situation that I encountered. It was part of a deal I made with my store manager.
I've mentioned my need for control, but it's not as though I feel I need to wrest control out of the hands who hold it and use it responsibly. I have no problem letting someone else who is doing something very well continue to do so. I would probably seek this person out as a friend, as a counselor and as a mentor. However, I have little respect (often none at all) for those people who have the control and do not appreciate it and use it with responsibility. There are plenty of people who abuse power, but power for power's sake doesn't interest me. I will assume control or leadership if no one else maintains control for something integral to what I do.
Some things I have taken control of, and even during my week of "not taking control" I have still maintained include: our dry stock area, organization and cleaning; receiving deliveries, often alone for all or part of the delivery; tracking speed of service times on a whiteboard, 3 shifts per day everyday; and a crew training program which is the one thing I'm not maintaining as well as I could be. I waited for a couple weeks for resources and my steam kind of petered off. I have, however, also been training three Crew Trainer candidates, and we're at a point where they have to do some self-study.
So, again, I think it's important that all aspects of my store be in control of someone capable and willing to do a job well (which usually means extra or harder work). I don't for a second doubt that each of the managers I work with, and nearly every single crew person, has the ability to do their job phenomenally. It's the character of willingness that I feel is in short supply.
Our store is at a real low as far as customer counts and gross sales are concerned. It's the very first time I've experienced a slow period that lasted multiple days. We're getting all sorts of things cleaned up, and the store's equipment and Front-End storage areas are being maintained well while we're slack in customer counts.
This morning, I was running a bit later than I normally do and also left early - before our lunch even started - my labor was high, things were slow, and they had more than enough staff for the projected sales. I got to pick my kids up from the sitters early, and I get to hit the internet up for the first time in days (life's busy even if the store isn't!)
I feel a lot of ownership for my McDonald's. I want the store to be the best it can be, not to just do well, but great. I like being a part of a succeeding team. I don't believe the world runs itself - there has to be intelligent, thoughtful, careful human intervention into an environment before it will operate in it's intended manner. Especially in a McDonald's. If there is no careful direction given to the individual team members, the team won't exist. I enjoy being the giver of direction in a team. I can and will take direction, though not as well. It's been a difficult week by not stepping in and taking control of every situation that I encountered. It was part of a deal I made with my store manager.
I've mentioned my need for control, but it's not as though I feel I need to wrest control out of the hands who hold it and use it responsibly. I have no problem letting someone else who is doing something very well continue to do so. I would probably seek this person out as a friend, as a counselor and as a mentor. However, I have little respect (often none at all) for those people who have the control and do not appreciate it and use it with responsibility. There are plenty of people who abuse power, but power for power's sake doesn't interest me. I will assume control or leadership if no one else maintains control for something integral to what I do.
Some things I have taken control of, and even during my week of "not taking control" I have still maintained include: our dry stock area, organization and cleaning; receiving deliveries, often alone for all or part of the delivery; tracking speed of service times on a whiteboard, 3 shifts per day everyday; and a crew training program which is the one thing I'm not maintaining as well as I could be. I waited for a couple weeks for resources and my steam kind of petered off. I have, however, also been training three Crew Trainer candidates, and we're at a point where they have to do some self-study.
So, again, I think it's important that all aspects of my store be in control of someone capable and willing to do a job well (which usually means extra or harder work). I don't for a second doubt that each of the managers I work with, and nearly every single crew person, has the ability to do their job phenomenally. It's the character of willingness that I feel is in short supply.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Gobble, Gobble.
It's incredibly surprising how busy McDonald's is on Thanksgiving.
It surprised everyone, including the owner and the store manager, who cut hours down to literally nothing. Then, during breakfast from 8 all the way to 10:30 breakfast cut-off, when we were really busy, and short-staffed, it surprised our customers, as well.
Lunch was like a normal mid-week lunch. This surprised me more than anything. Breakfast I understand. You're cooking up a storm for dinner, who wants to cook a breakfast too? But lunch? At 1:30 PM?
In my family, and everyone I have spoken to about this, Thanksgiving Dinner is usually eaten early afternoon, 2, maybe 3 o'clock. How exactly is it normal for people to be coming in in well-dressed groups of 4-6 family members, ordering $25-$30 worth of food? How is it normal for people to swing through Drive Thru ordering 20 Double Cheeseburgers and 10 Hot N' Spicys?
It's insanity, but at least we were closed at 2:00, and I was able to make it home for a lovely dinner with the family.
I'm thankful for my loving wife, who takes better care of me than perhaps I deserve. I'm thankful for my two children, both intelligent (if they don't always use it to it's fullest potential), both have all the right parts in all the right places, and both are incredibly cute and well behaved around strangers. I'm thankful for my McDonald's opportunity and all the prosperous future that it holds for me.
Happy Thanksgiving. Be thankful for those around you. Be thankful for every day you wake up - another day on this side of the ground means you've won.
It surprised everyone, including the owner and the store manager, who cut hours down to literally nothing. Then, during breakfast from 8 all the way to 10:30 breakfast cut-off, when we were really busy, and short-staffed, it surprised our customers, as well.
Lunch was like a normal mid-week lunch. This surprised me more than anything. Breakfast I understand. You're cooking up a storm for dinner, who wants to cook a breakfast too? But lunch? At 1:30 PM?
In my family, and everyone I have spoken to about this, Thanksgiving Dinner is usually eaten early afternoon, 2, maybe 3 o'clock. How exactly is it normal for people to be coming in in well-dressed groups of 4-6 family members, ordering $25-$30 worth of food? How is it normal for people to swing through Drive Thru ordering 20 Double Cheeseburgers and 10 Hot N' Spicys?
It's insanity, but at least we were closed at 2:00, and I was able to make it home for a lovely dinner with the family.
I'm thankful for my loving wife, who takes better care of me than perhaps I deserve. I'm thankful for my two children, both intelligent (if they don't always use it to it's fullest potential), both have all the right parts in all the right places, and both are incredibly cute and well behaved around strangers. I'm thankful for my McDonald's opportunity and all the prosperous future that it holds for me.
Happy Thanksgiving. Be thankful for those around you. Be thankful for every day you wake up - another day on this side of the ground means you've won.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Last of my 3 days off.
I spent today running all over town, read a whole book (600 pages+! I don't even know how I pulled it off, and I'm an avid reader), and I return to work tomorrow. 9 AM for a managers meeting, and an 11-7 shift. It's currently almost 4 AM and I can't sleep. Grrr! Tomorrow's going to be a rough one, but, as always, a good one.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
World Children's Day
I was scheduled off for World Children's Day (today), but went in to get my paycheck anyhow. My store had a local Tucson radio station doing promotion outside the restaurant, with a very, very, very cute afternoon DJ working presenting food in the Drive Thru. That was incredibly special. Much better than the neo-slacker, Jamaican-flag-colored-hat-wearing bearded production assistant and the butter-face production assistant manning the booth outside the restaurant with a little spinny wheeley thing with prizes ranging from a radio-station ball-point pen, to free coffee Be Our Guest cards. Hopefully it drew some attention, and I heard the other radio stations in town were speaking heartily about the McDonald's World Children Day effort as well.
The owner of my restaurant, and 4 others in town, offered $0.10 per $1.00 donation that crew garnered from our customers. One of my staffers, a very gregarious woman named Jamie who is just fabulous had 240 at last count (that was a couple days ago, as I had the past 3 days off). She's going to love the bonus she gets on her paycheck. I believe our store out of the 5 our owner owns did the best. I have to believe that, because we've got some serious, dedicated, professional rockstar crew members interacting with our customers. Not all of them, but most.
My boss, the owner of my restaurant, is a phenomenal man. He truly has this phenomenal sense of thankfulness for the McDonald's opportunity, and it's rubbing off on me, in the few interactions we have together. This Thanksgiving, I'm certainly going to list the McDonald's opportunity and all the brightness that the future holds for myself and those around me within McDonald's' opportunity for success.
The owner of my restaurant, and 4 others in town, offered $0.10 per $1.00 donation that crew garnered from our customers. One of my staffers, a very gregarious woman named Jamie who is just fabulous had 240 at last count (that was a couple days ago, as I had the past 3 days off). She's going to love the bonus she gets on her paycheck. I believe our store out of the 5 our owner owns did the best. I have to believe that, because we've got some serious, dedicated, professional rockstar crew members interacting with our customers. Not all of them, but most.
My boss, the owner of my restaurant, is a phenomenal man. He truly has this phenomenal sense of thankfulness for the McDonald's opportunity, and it's rubbing off on me, in the few interactions we have together. This Thanksgiving, I'm certainly going to list the McDonald's opportunity and all the brightness that the future holds for myself and those around me within McDonald's' opportunity for success.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Three Days Off.
Today is the first day of my "Three Days Off", which I've been thinking about since the tail end of last month when I saw this month's manager schedule! W00t.
Day 1: Spending with the kids.
Day 1: Spending with the kids.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
My First Current Post!
This is a special post, because it is the first time I am posting about the goings on of today, when posting. I've still got a bit of a backlog of the two months I worked for McDonald's and did not post, but I think I can fulfill what I feel I need to "put to paper" as it were as asides of posts concurrent to the days that the things occurred. Mostly.
I don't often work close shifts.
Usually, there's one manager, who leans like a cholo, that closes 5 nights a week and a couple others who rotate the remaining closes between them. Last month, the main closer mentioned to me that he is getting burned out. So I volunteered to close one Friday and Saturday per month to give him some time to go enjoy living.
In all things I do, the watch word is professionalism. Professionalism to me means doing things right, every time. Follow correct procedures at all times, especially when things are tough or difficult. That is why the procedures exist, to get you through the toughest of times, and take what could become a bad situation and make sure it ends up a great situation. The truest meaning, to me, of professionalism is paying attention to the details, especially when a more macroscopic viewpoint shows a difficult or challenging situation.
I try to encourage my team to be professional, and try to encourage the other managers to be professional as well. One or two of the crew members have picked up on it with me. Juan-tastico is one of those guys. I really, truly enjoy working with the guy, because I know if I ask him to do something, he'll get it done. Even when there are 1,000 other things going on, he'll ensure that the details of the one thing I asked him to do get done.
Tonight's shift I worked 7-close, which is not a "normal" closing shift, but I've been clocking some serious overtime, and when my store manager made my schedule, he knew (I think) that I'd be getting up there in hours at this point of the week. Our store closes at 1 A.M. The manager who was working a 2-10 shift, B., told me she couldn't stay until 10 o'clock and had to leave at 9. I made it very easy and possible for B. to leave much earlier than that, at 8 o'clock. The outward justification was that labor was high and we weren't busy. Really, I don't like whiners. The hilarious fact of this matter is, she sat around the restaurant waiting for a ride until after 10:15 - sat around not getting paid.
It was a slow night, and I have the responsibility of making sure the entire kitchen gets detail cleaned and is kept clean. Two days ago, I had my Production team members detail clean portions of the kitchen. One person cleaned the wheels and legs of all the tables, another cleaned the UHC in detail. Today, I had one person clean the top of all the machines: the friers, the grills, the UHC, the HLZ, the reach-in freezers (half of which are wall-mounted, cupboard style freezers, with a 3 inch clearance from the ceiling). Another person cleaned the sides of all those machines. Meanwhile, I detail cleaned our dual shake/ice cream machine top and all sides and our on-the-floor model reach-in cooler. On top of this cooler sits the Iced Coffee accoutrement, and right next to it is a shelf upon which rests our McFlurry mixer and a mini-ice cooler for the Iced Coffee.
This is a very syrupy, messy area (if you've ever made an Iced Coffee, you know. You know!) that never (apparently) gets attention and basically took all my free time throughout the night. While I was doing this, I also got the area we store our Happy Meal toys in detail cleaned by a Service crew member - it's right in front of our HLZ and gets a huge amount of debris in it. Which led me to see that the HLZ was horrible. Under, around, behind, it was disgusting. I mean, it had to be weeks, maybe months worth of crumbs, lettuce debris, all sorts of crap. There was even a chicken McNugget stuck in between the metal plate that stops the food, and the HLZ slide. That sucker looked like it was at least a week old.
Like most Friday nights, we were busy (for our store), running a couple of $250-300 hours. I like Fridays because many of the people coming in are going out somewhere. So there is usually a lot of interesting things to look at. My favorite tonight was the group of seven women, all obviously family from the facial features and body types, ranging in ages from approximately 14 to 40 or so. They were very Italian women, all set to looking good with makeup done, (big) hair done up and almost ... in matching clothes. Each of them wore incredibly skin-tight jeans that looked just painful. They all had white belts on, they all wore high-heel shoes and all of them were in slope-necked, black, 3/4 sleeve shirts that showed off their varying amounts of cleavage. Quite a sight.
So, throughout, I was chit-chatting while cleaning and stocking the Front Service area, and explaining to my hard-working Production team members how we were going to leave the place sparkling, so the next day when the opening team came in, and the morning team came in, they would think to themselves "Who closed last night?! This place is great!" In one of the Production team members, Juan-tastico again, I saw a desire for recognition. I know I had a desire for recognition of a job well done. But the other Service employee and the other Production employee just ... they didn't get it. The look on their faces told me they could care less if someone thought they did a good job (even though one straight out asked me for a compliment on her work earlier in the evening, and I was able to give one, because she did a great job of it). But to me...
My passion for doing things the right way will hopefully rub off on enough people around me. My passion for doing things the right way, the McDonald's way, with correct procedures and to the best of my ability (which is damn great, might I add!) will assuredly lead me not only to recognition, but to success. That's my goal.
All in all, it was a good night, and much got done that really needed it, for our store to be clean and sanitary for all of our guests.
I don't often work close shifts.
Usually, there's one manager, who leans like a cholo, that closes 5 nights a week and a couple others who rotate the remaining closes between them. Last month, the main closer mentioned to me that he is getting burned out. So I volunteered to close one Friday and Saturday per month to give him some time to go enjoy living.
In all things I do, the watch word is professionalism. Professionalism to me means doing things right, every time. Follow correct procedures at all times, especially when things are tough or difficult. That is why the procedures exist, to get you through the toughest of times, and take what could become a bad situation and make sure it ends up a great situation. The truest meaning, to me, of professionalism is paying attention to the details, especially when a more macroscopic viewpoint shows a difficult or challenging situation.
I try to encourage my team to be professional, and try to encourage the other managers to be professional as well. One or two of the crew members have picked up on it with me. Juan-tastico is one of those guys. I really, truly enjoy working with the guy, because I know if I ask him to do something, he'll get it done. Even when there are 1,000 other things going on, he'll ensure that the details of the one thing I asked him to do get done.
Tonight's shift I worked 7-close, which is not a "normal" closing shift, but I've been clocking some serious overtime, and when my store manager made my schedule, he knew (I think) that I'd be getting up there in hours at this point of the week. Our store closes at 1 A.M. The manager who was working a 2-10 shift, B., told me she couldn't stay until 10 o'clock and had to leave at 9. I made it very easy and possible for B. to leave much earlier than that, at 8 o'clock. The outward justification was that labor was high and we weren't busy. Really, I don't like whiners. The hilarious fact of this matter is, she sat around the restaurant waiting for a ride until after 10:15 - sat around not getting paid.
It was a slow night, and I have the responsibility of making sure the entire kitchen gets detail cleaned and is kept clean. Two days ago, I had my Production team members detail clean portions of the kitchen. One person cleaned the wheels and legs of all the tables, another cleaned the UHC in detail. Today, I had one person clean the top of all the machines: the friers, the grills, the UHC, the HLZ, the reach-in freezers (half of which are wall-mounted, cupboard style freezers, with a 3 inch clearance from the ceiling). Another person cleaned the sides of all those machines. Meanwhile, I detail cleaned our dual shake/ice cream machine top and all sides and our on-the-floor model reach-in cooler. On top of this cooler sits the Iced Coffee accoutrement, and right next to it is a shelf upon which rests our McFlurry mixer and a mini-ice cooler for the Iced Coffee.
This is a very syrupy, messy area (if you've ever made an Iced Coffee, you know. You know!) that never (apparently) gets attention and basically took all my free time throughout the night. While I was doing this, I also got the area we store our Happy Meal toys in detail cleaned by a Service crew member - it's right in front of our HLZ and gets a huge amount of debris in it. Which led me to see that the HLZ was horrible. Under, around, behind, it was disgusting. I mean, it had to be weeks, maybe months worth of crumbs, lettuce debris, all sorts of crap. There was even a chicken McNugget stuck in between the metal plate that stops the food, and the HLZ slide. That sucker looked like it was at least a week old.
Like most Friday nights, we were busy (for our store), running a couple of $250-300 hours. I like Fridays because many of the people coming in are going out somewhere. So there is usually a lot of interesting things to look at. My favorite tonight was the group of seven women, all obviously family from the facial features and body types, ranging in ages from approximately 14 to 40 or so. They were very Italian women, all set to looking good with makeup done, (big) hair done up and almost ... in matching clothes. Each of them wore incredibly skin-tight jeans that looked just painful. They all had white belts on, they all wore high-heel shoes and all of them were in slope-necked, black, 3/4 sleeve shirts that showed off their varying amounts of cleavage. Quite a sight.
So, throughout, I was chit-chatting while cleaning and stocking the Front Service area, and explaining to my hard-working Production team members how we were going to leave the place sparkling, so the next day when the opening team came in, and the morning team came in, they would think to themselves "Who closed last night?! This place is great!" In one of the Production team members, Juan-tastico again, I saw a desire for recognition. I know I had a desire for recognition of a job well done. But the other Service employee and the other Production employee just ... they didn't get it. The look on their faces told me they could care less if someone thought they did a good job (even though one straight out asked me for a compliment on her work earlier in the evening, and I was able to give one, because she did a great job of it). But to me...
My passion for doing things the right way will hopefully rub off on enough people around me. My passion for doing things the right way, the McDonald's way, with correct procedures and to the best of my ability (which is damn great, might I add!) will assuredly lead me not only to recognition, but to success. That's my goal.
All in all, it was a good night, and much got done that really needed it, for our store to be clean and sanitary for all of our guests.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Manager on Vacation - the Conclusion.
For the first time since I worked at McDonald's I was scheduled two consecutive days off following that first horrific shift. However, the very next morning I got a call from the owner.
He said something to the effect of, "Michael, I'm altering the scheduling. You're going to be working tomorrow, and you'll have Sunday off. I just want to make sure you're successful and can run a shift well before you're running a shift yourself when I or the Operations Manager are not available (Like the coming Sunday I was originally Scheduled)."
What I heard was, "You did a terrible job, and I am NOT leaving you alone in my store this Sunday!"
So the next day, Wednesday, I went in, and Lo and Behold, I was running the shift. I was still going to be short two people (and for the rest of the week, as they both "quit" by no-call-no-showing 3 days in a row). That day went phenomenal. I had better average order times than the assistant manager typically has. I had not one complaint. I did 20% higher sales for my lunch hour than the week before. The operation ran smoothly, like an expensive and well-oiled machine. The Operations Manager hung around all throughout lunch, and when it was over I initiated a conversation that started something like, "So, quite a bit different than my very first shift on Monday, hey?"
He told me in his no-eye-contact, hard-to-read way that it was much better, and that I had performed at the standard. Awesome!
Thursday was almost exactly the same, only with yet another person no-call-no-showing on me (thankfully this one was not in an integral position). There was one major difference however. The Assistant Manager, R., was running the shift. Now, I have some control issues but I'm working on them, and allowing others to do what they have to do, even if I know I could do it better.
R. asked me, about 2 hours before lunch, if I had done a shift preparation, with everyone placed where they would work through lunch. She seemed surprised at my surprise, I thought she had the floor! She asked me if I minded running the rest of the shift, and if she worked in the kitchen. Of course I didn't mind. Lunch went swimmingly, the rest of the shift was great as well.
Friday was an exact repeat of Thursday, with R. working the kitchen and I had the floor. My average Drive Thru time was right on target for our store (not for the McDonald's standard, but for our store). I had only one complaint and it was a guy who spent $2 on a Double Cheeseburger and a small Coke who didn't want pickles on his burger but got them anyway. Pick 'em off! You paid a buck!... I mean, "Sorry sir, let me fix that for you! We look forward to seeing you again, sir"
So, Friday is winding down, it's about 4:15, my evening schedule looks a little slim, but I'm discussing with the closing the manager how he can keep things moving, with the staff he has. I get off at 5:00 (which really means 5:30), and was looking forward to leaving. The phone rings. It's our delivery driver!! He's going to arrive at about 5:45.
I don't have the crew to do truck, no one is scheduled to do truck, what the hell! So I stuck around, and had one of my favorite crew members (I'll tell you all about him in another post, his name is Juan-tastico! I gave him the nickname because he's fantastic) start to help me. The closing manager came to me and said, "Dude I need help up there..." So I gave him Juan-tastico. I was going to do the truck by myself.
It was an incredibly efficient and simple process. 300 boxes in under an hour, since I was doing it all, I knew it was all being done right. The driver sure helped, he kept it paced right for me, giving me just enough time between boxes to get them offloaded from the rollers and into either the right spot or the best spot for now. I was actually surprised, because it went better than other trucks I had done (and I'm sort of taking full control of the trucks at this point). So, I spent another 1 1/2 hours putting away dry stock and getting the tops of all the boxes - ALL the boxes - in my dry stock area opened with a cutter, so they'd be clean. The only thing I asked for help with was clean up, I asked Juan-tastico to sweep and clean up all the little box-litter that happens with truck. No problem, he told me.
It was one of the most productive Friday nights I've had in a long time, and I certainly left there feeling like it was a job phenomenally well done.
He said something to the effect of, "Michael, I'm altering the scheduling. You're going to be working tomorrow, and you'll have Sunday off. I just want to make sure you're successful and can run a shift well before you're running a shift yourself when I or the Operations Manager are not available (Like the coming Sunday I was originally Scheduled)."
What I heard was, "You did a terrible job, and I am NOT leaving you alone in my store this Sunday!"
So the next day, Wednesday, I went in, and Lo and Behold, I was running the shift. I was still going to be short two people (and for the rest of the week, as they both "quit" by no-call-no-showing 3 days in a row). That day went phenomenal. I had better average order times than the assistant manager typically has. I had not one complaint. I did 20% higher sales for my lunch hour than the week before. The operation ran smoothly, like an expensive and well-oiled machine. The Operations Manager hung around all throughout lunch, and when it was over I initiated a conversation that started something like, "So, quite a bit different than my very first shift on Monday, hey?"
He told me in his no-eye-contact, hard-to-read way that it was much better, and that I had performed at the standard. Awesome!
Thursday was almost exactly the same, only with yet another person no-call-no-showing on me (thankfully this one was not in an integral position). There was one major difference however. The Assistant Manager, R., was running the shift. Now, I have some control issues but I'm working on them, and allowing others to do what they have to do, even if I know I could do it better.
R. asked me, about 2 hours before lunch, if I had done a shift preparation, with everyone placed where they would work through lunch. She seemed surprised at my surprise, I thought she had the floor! She asked me if I minded running the rest of the shift, and if she worked in the kitchen. Of course I didn't mind. Lunch went swimmingly, the rest of the shift was great as well.
Friday was an exact repeat of Thursday, with R. working the kitchen and I had the floor. My average Drive Thru time was right on target for our store (not for the McDonald's standard, but for our store). I had only one complaint and it was a guy who spent $2 on a Double Cheeseburger and a small Coke who didn't want pickles on his burger but got them anyway. Pick 'em off! You paid a buck!... I mean, "Sorry sir, let me fix that for you! We look forward to seeing you again, sir"
So, Friday is winding down, it's about 4:15, my evening schedule looks a little slim, but I'm discussing with the closing the manager how he can keep things moving, with the staff he has. I get off at 5:00 (which really means 5:30), and was looking forward to leaving. The phone rings. It's our delivery driver!! He's going to arrive at about 5:45.
I don't have the crew to do truck, no one is scheduled to do truck, what the hell! So I stuck around, and had one of my favorite crew members (I'll tell you all about him in another post, his name is Juan-tastico! I gave him the nickname because he's fantastic) start to help me. The closing manager came to me and said, "Dude I need help up there..." So I gave him Juan-tastico. I was going to do the truck by myself.
It was an incredibly efficient and simple process. 300 boxes in under an hour, since I was doing it all, I knew it was all being done right. The driver sure helped, he kept it paced right for me, giving me just enough time between boxes to get them offloaded from the rollers and into either the right spot or the best spot for now. I was actually surprised, because it went better than other trucks I had done (and I'm sort of taking full control of the trucks at this point). So, I spent another 1 1/2 hours putting away dry stock and getting the tops of all the boxes - ALL the boxes - in my dry stock area opened with a cutter, so they'd be clean. The only thing I asked for help with was clean up, I asked Juan-tastico to sweep and clean up all the little box-litter that happens with truck. No problem, he told me.
It was one of the most productive Friday nights I've had in a long time, and I certainly left there feeling like it was a job phenomenally well done.
First Shift, continued.
So the Operations Manager showed up later, with the sausage we needed, and took about 3 seconds to explain the dynamic of that shift to Jy. - he said, "Jy., you need to get into Drive Thru so Michael can run his shift!"
The rest of the day went smoothly, even though right before lunch our ice cream machine made some horrific yowling noises and came to a shuddering stop. The head of maintenance does all brush cleanings (every 14 days) on the machine and had failed to adequately lubricate the beater inside the machine the day before.
So for my very first shift that I ran, I was short all three key elements of McDonald's success: People, Product, and Equipment. Even so, I left that day feeling victorious. The store hadn't burned down!
The rest of the day went smoothly, even though right before lunch our ice cream machine made some horrific yowling noises and came to a shuddering stop. The head of maintenance does all brush cleanings (every 14 days) on the machine and had failed to adequately lubricate the beater inside the machine the day before.
So for my very first shift that I ran, I was short all three key elements of McDonald's success: People, Product, and Equipment. Even so, I left that day feeling victorious. The store hadn't burned down!
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
First Shift
My store manager just returned from a week+ long vacation.
While he was gone, it had been communicated clearly, I would run the store on the days I was working, and the days I was off, the current Assistant Manager would be running the store.
One of the swing managers, Jy. did not get this concept. The very first day in fact, she screamed and yelled at me.
We were short-staffed when I showed up at 7 AM, and I asked her to work Drive Thru order taking and cashier. She spent 15 minutes arguing with me about how she should be running the shift, until finally I gave up on the situation and said "Listen, later this morning, J. (our Operations Manager for the company) will be here. He can explain the dynamic to you a bit more clearly." So J. did have to show up later on, because we ran out of sausage.
Now, I'm trying to run the store and work Drive Thru, and it's possibly the worst spot I could be in, while also trying to cover shifts for two no-call-no-shows, and Jy. who screamed about how she was in charge, comes up to me and says "We've got 10 pieces of sausage left, what do we do?" I asked her when she knew we were running low on sausage. She told me that she knew at 4:30 this morning, during the open.
?!??!!?!?!??!??!?! Are you kidding me ?!?!??!??!??!??!??!?!?!?
While he was gone, it had been communicated clearly, I would run the store on the days I was working, and the days I was off, the current Assistant Manager would be running the store.
One of the swing managers, Jy. did not get this concept. The very first day in fact, she screamed and yelled at me.
We were short-staffed when I showed up at 7 AM, and I asked her to work Drive Thru order taking and cashier. She spent 15 minutes arguing with me about how she should be running the shift, until finally I gave up on the situation and said "Listen, later this morning, J. (our Operations Manager for the company) will be here. He can explain the dynamic to you a bit more clearly." So J. did have to show up later on, because we ran out of sausage.
Now, I'm trying to run the store and work Drive Thru, and it's possibly the worst spot I could be in, while also trying to cover shifts for two no-call-no-shows, and Jy. who screamed about how she was in charge, comes up to me and says "We've got 10 pieces of sausage left, what do we do?" I asked her when she knew we were running low on sausage. She told me that she knew at 4:30 this morning, during the open.
?!??!!?!?!??!??!?! Are you kidding me ?!?!??!??!??!??!??!?!?!?
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Closing
Night time is the right time baby!
I was a closing manager for a year at Burger King when I was 17 years old. (Following that year, I spent another year cleaning up stores physically, the inventories, and personnel. That's a set of tales for another time). Closing was always great when I was young. All the drunken women coming through, the teenagers out late, in general the rush of the day was long forgotten and the atmosphere and environment was low key.
The toughest thing about closing is cleaning. There are many parts of a restaurant that get dirty early in the day and don't get clean until the end of the day. Closers take care of that. Also, the big demand out of a closing team member is stocking - ensuring that everything that will be used the next day is stored in accessible, Service area storage locations. The closing manager has the "daunting" task of ensuring the day's cash is straight, and the deposits are correct. These are all things I knew before ever closing a McDonald's store.
I was scheduled to work closing shifts, wherein I was to spend a couple days learning and then doing the Production aspects of closing, the same for Service, and then Management, with a few extra days of doing for the Management aspects.
I had no problem with the Production close. McDonald's has created chemicals that make cleaning the grill effortless, and it's the hardest part of closing in the kitchen. Granted, it's hot, it's sweaty, it's Production, but it's not exceedingly difficult. Further, there's stacks and stacks of dishes to wash. I got out of doing that. Seriously, I don't need training on tasks non-specific to McDonald's. It was the things like how to clean the grill, what products get stored where, what order do the tasks get done, those specifics that I needed to learn.
The Service close was another easy position to learn. It's just normal service, with some cleaning tasks and ensuring stocking is completed. No brainer, nothing really to be trained on.
Closing a McDonald's as the manager is a trial of your time-management abilities. In a low-volume store, like I was training in, the manager is the Service closer. So, while stocking and cleaning is not difficult, nor is doing that while serving the infrequent late-night Drive Thru customers very difficult, when you throw balancing drawers and motivating people, and following up on the work they've done, and making sure there's no bums hiding in the bathroom waiting for you to close so they can rob you into the mix, it does get a bit pressured.
However, the tasks are none of them too great. The Lobby closes an hour before the Drive Thru, so you have an hour to count front drawers and get that area cleaned and stocked before worrying about the Drive Thru areas.
After the store is actually closed there's typically about 15 minutes of stocking and cleaning work to do, then you go count cash drawers, ensure the deposits are accurate, count down the safe to ensure it's accurate, then run the reports. This is a 15 minute process that you can't do anything else during, so you get an opportunity to follow up the Production closers and Service closer if you have one, ensure that everything is getting done properly and on pace or jump in and get sweaty and dirty if it's not.
So onto my experiences. I was working with a 19 year old guy named J., who was incredibly laid back. I mean, just smoked a doobie laid back, but he claimed very adamantly that he did not smoke pot. But man was he laid back. Anyhow, J. basically had no control, he just let the restaurant run itself. This was disgustingly frustrating to me. I like control, and I really truly, deep down inside, feel that people who are making less than $7 an hour really need to get fired up and motivated if they are to do things right.
There are some particular evils that occur in nearly all quick service restaurants late at night. The first and foremost one is old food. Yes, folks, the kitchen staff who work at night are typically shorter staffed than those who work breakfast or lunch. So, to save time later, they will bust hump for a short period of time and cook vast amounts of food, which can then be served whenever it gets ordered. The mentality with these actions is, basically, "If I cook it all now, I won't have to hit the grill for an hour!". The downside is, typically all the food they cook does not sell very swiftly, and so food exceeds it's maximum allowed (and might I add, safe) holding times.
This was a huge problem in the store I was training in, and while discussing it with J., his response was something like, "Yeah, well I don't want to upset the flow of the kitchen, even if I know it's going on and it's, like, really bad." The people who worked Production were not intentionally doing something wrong. In fact, after conversations in my broken Spanish and their broken English, it seems that the vast majority of them didn't even know that holding times existed! This wasn't a matter of laziness, but of ineffective training.
So I took it upon myself to make sure that all the Production team members were trained appropriately (by myself), the very next night, on how holding times work, and how to prepare the right amount of food. The McDonald's motto in the kitchen is "Less food, more often!". This reduces waste from the food cost as well as the number of terrible, old shitty-tasting burgers that get served to customers.
The amazing thing was, on my second night ever working with these people, they were all fully aware that I was in training, and they did what I trained them to do. I was particularly amazed, to be bluntly honest. I did not assume innocence (which is a McDonald's management cornerstone) and thought they were doing it out of sloth, instead of out of poor training.
The two young ladies who were implementing this "new", correct method of working ("Less food, more often!") with me the first night it was put into effect (my 2nd night closing), told me it was more work and they did not like it. In my broken Spanish, asking J. (who speaks Spanish primarily and English fluently) only how to say the words not to translate for me, I explained that as the Production team, they were, together, responsible for each and every item of food that left the restaurant. After initial disbelief from one (who told me it was my responsibility not hers, emphatically) and a shy sort of pride that I watched spread on the face of the other one, I explained further that they may, at first, feel like they're doing more work, but in fact they were working smarter and in doing so, delivering hot, fresh, tasty food to all of our customers. Basically, by cooking "Less food, more often!", they were doing their job better and after it became a habit, they would feel like they were doing no extra work at all - because in fact they weren't, it was just a different method of work.
Well, I was surprised by the effect. On my 3rd night closing, we had a different team member in Production, Mr. A., and he was trained by my two girls on how to cook "Less food, more often!", and was even reprimanded when he failed to do it the correct, McDonald's way. The next day I had a day off, and decided to show up anyway, after the dinner rush but before the cleaning tasks were too heavily started and saw that the two members of the Production team (the gentleman from the night before, and someone who I had not had an opportunity to train in this "new" method of working), were working with the old system of "Make tons of food and sell it as it comes, who cares about quality!" I asked J., who also closed this night, why and he reiterated his position of not wanting to make waves. So I hopped behind the counter, threw on an apron and washed my hands and (whisper it - off the clock) did some training for these gentlemen on "Less food, more often!". A. was not very happy about this, and expressed it to me. He told me J., the "real manager" did not make him work this way. I explained to him that I was not making him work that way either. He was very capable of clocking out and going home, if he did not want to work the McDonald's way. It was like someone took the needle off a record. There was about 30 seconds of complete silence throughout the store, with both Production crew members and the manager J. staring at me in awe. Then A. said "Yes, sir, we do this the right way for you" and got to work tossing all the past-it's-time food.
I perhaps had crossed the line. But, damnit, there has to be some accountability! J. and I had a deep discussion, while A. and the other gentleman (let's call him B.) went to work on implementing the "Less food, more often!" concept for themselves. I tried to impress on J. the very real severity of the situation - the food he was allowing to cross his counters and pass his window was not quality nor (most likely) safe! He had a commitment to fulfill the McDonald's Brand Promise, half of which involves satisfied customers. He finally agreed and promised me he would always, always work with the "Less food, more often!" McDonald's way as his standard.
The 4th and final day of my closing was almost tearful for me, as I saw the place working great, the kitchen serving fantastic food, and all the Production team members made a point to thank me and tell me how important my training was for them. I gave them responsibility and, more importantly, an easy and correct procedure to ensure they could deliver that responsibility to the fullest. A. even showed up, on his day off, to thank me for training him and to apologize for getting mouthy the day before. When he was leaving, and I shook his hand goodbye, I sincerely felt his respect for me, and more importantly, my respect for him.
I was a closing manager for a year at Burger King when I was 17 years old. (Following that year, I spent another year cleaning up stores physically, the inventories, and personnel. That's a set of tales for another time). Closing was always great when I was young. All the drunken women coming through, the teenagers out late, in general the rush of the day was long forgotten and the atmosphere and environment was low key.
The toughest thing about closing is cleaning. There are many parts of a restaurant that get dirty early in the day and don't get clean until the end of the day. Closers take care of that. Also, the big demand out of a closing team member is stocking - ensuring that everything that will be used the next day is stored in accessible, Service area storage locations. The closing manager has the "daunting" task of ensuring the day's cash is straight, and the deposits are correct. These are all things I knew before ever closing a McDonald's store.
I was scheduled to work closing shifts, wherein I was to spend a couple days learning and then doing the Production aspects of closing, the same for Service, and then Management, with a few extra days of doing for the Management aspects.
I had no problem with the Production close. McDonald's has created chemicals that make cleaning the grill effortless, and it's the hardest part of closing in the kitchen. Granted, it's hot, it's sweaty, it's Production, but it's not exceedingly difficult. Further, there's stacks and stacks of dishes to wash. I got out of doing that. Seriously, I don't need training on tasks non-specific to McDonald's. It was the things like how to clean the grill, what products get stored where, what order do the tasks get done, those specifics that I needed to learn.
The Service close was another easy position to learn. It's just normal service, with some cleaning tasks and ensuring stocking is completed. No brainer, nothing really to be trained on.
Closing a McDonald's as the manager is a trial of your time-management abilities. In a low-volume store, like I was training in, the manager is the Service closer. So, while stocking and cleaning is not difficult, nor is doing that while serving the infrequent late-night Drive Thru customers very difficult, when you throw balancing drawers and motivating people, and following up on the work they've done, and making sure there's no bums hiding in the bathroom waiting for you to close so they can rob you into the mix, it does get a bit pressured.
However, the tasks are none of them too great. The Lobby closes an hour before the Drive Thru, so you have an hour to count front drawers and get that area cleaned and stocked before worrying about the Drive Thru areas.
After the store is actually closed there's typically about 15 minutes of stocking and cleaning work to do, then you go count cash drawers, ensure the deposits are accurate, count down the safe to ensure it's accurate, then run the reports. This is a 15 minute process that you can't do anything else during, so you get an opportunity to follow up the Production closers and Service closer if you have one, ensure that everything is getting done properly and on pace or jump in and get sweaty and dirty if it's not.
So onto my experiences. I was working with a 19 year old guy named J., who was incredibly laid back. I mean, just smoked a doobie laid back, but he claimed very adamantly that he did not smoke pot. But man was he laid back. Anyhow, J. basically had no control, he just let the restaurant run itself. This was disgustingly frustrating to me. I like control, and I really truly, deep down inside, feel that people who are making less than $7 an hour really need to get fired up and motivated if they are to do things right.
There are some particular evils that occur in nearly all quick service restaurants late at night. The first and foremost one is old food. Yes, folks, the kitchen staff who work at night are typically shorter staffed than those who work breakfast or lunch. So, to save time later, they will bust hump for a short period of time and cook vast amounts of food, which can then be served whenever it gets ordered. The mentality with these actions is, basically, "If I cook it all now, I won't have to hit the grill for an hour!". The downside is, typically all the food they cook does not sell very swiftly, and so food exceeds it's maximum allowed (and might I add, safe) holding times.
This was a huge problem in the store I was training in, and while discussing it with J., his response was something like, "Yeah, well I don't want to upset the flow of the kitchen, even if I know it's going on and it's, like, really bad." The people who worked Production were not intentionally doing something wrong. In fact, after conversations in my broken Spanish and their broken English, it seems that the vast majority of them didn't even know that holding times existed! This wasn't a matter of laziness, but of ineffective training.
So I took it upon myself to make sure that all the Production team members were trained appropriately (by myself), the very next night, on how holding times work, and how to prepare the right amount of food. The McDonald's motto in the kitchen is "Less food, more often!". This reduces waste from the food cost as well as the number of terrible, old shitty-tasting burgers that get served to customers.
The amazing thing was, on my second night ever working with these people, they were all fully aware that I was in training, and they did what I trained them to do. I was particularly amazed, to be bluntly honest. I did not assume innocence (which is a McDonald's management cornerstone) and thought they were doing it out of sloth, instead of out of poor training.
The two young ladies who were implementing this "new", correct method of working ("Less food, more often!") with me the first night it was put into effect (my 2nd night closing), told me it was more work and they did not like it. In my broken Spanish, asking J. (who speaks Spanish primarily and English fluently) only how to say the words not to translate for me, I explained that as the Production team, they were, together, responsible for each and every item of food that left the restaurant. After initial disbelief from one (who told me it was my responsibility not hers, emphatically) and a shy sort of pride that I watched spread on the face of the other one, I explained further that they may, at first, feel like they're doing more work, but in fact they were working smarter and in doing so, delivering hot, fresh, tasty food to all of our customers. Basically, by cooking "Less food, more often!", they were doing their job better and after it became a habit, they would feel like they were doing no extra work at all - because in fact they weren't, it was just a different method of work.
Well, I was surprised by the effect. On my 3rd night closing, we had a different team member in Production, Mr. A., and he was trained by my two girls on how to cook "Less food, more often!", and was even reprimanded when he failed to do it the correct, McDonald's way. The next day I had a day off, and decided to show up anyway, after the dinner rush but before the cleaning tasks were too heavily started and saw that the two members of the Production team (the gentleman from the night before, and someone who I had not had an opportunity to train in this "new" method of working), were working with the old system of "Make tons of food and sell it as it comes, who cares about quality!" I asked J., who also closed this night, why and he reiterated his position of not wanting to make waves. So I hopped behind the counter, threw on an apron and washed my hands and (whisper it - off the clock) did some training for these gentlemen on "Less food, more often!". A. was not very happy about this, and expressed it to me. He told me J., the "real manager" did not make him work this way. I explained to him that I was not making him work that way either. He was very capable of clocking out and going home, if he did not want to work the McDonald's way. It was like someone took the needle off a record. There was about 30 seconds of complete silence throughout the store, with both Production crew members and the manager J. staring at me in awe. Then A. said "Yes, sir, we do this the right way for you" and got to work tossing all the past-it's-time food.
I perhaps had crossed the line. But, damnit, there has to be some accountability! J. and I had a deep discussion, while A. and the other gentleman (let's call him B.) went to work on implementing the "Less food, more often!" concept for themselves. I tried to impress on J. the very real severity of the situation - the food he was allowing to cross his counters and pass his window was not quality nor (most likely) safe! He had a commitment to fulfill the McDonald's Brand Promise, half of which involves satisfied customers. He finally agreed and promised me he would always, always work with the "Less food, more often!" McDonald's way as his standard.
The 4th and final day of my closing was almost tearful for me, as I saw the place working great, the kitchen serving fantastic food, and all the Production team members made a point to thank me and tell me how important my training was for them. I gave them responsibility and, more importantly, an easy and correct procedure to ensure they could deliver that responsibility to the fullest. A. even showed up, on his day off, to thank me for training him and to apologize for getting mouthy the day before. When he was leaving, and I shook his hand goodbye, I sincerely felt his respect for me, and more importantly, my respect for him.
Opening
McDonald's opens at 5 A.M.
Opening team members arrive at 4 A.M.
I don't drive, relying on taxi cabs and Tucson's phenomenal public transportation system to get where I need to go. I try to avoid cabs, because it's typically about $5 for the first mile and $3 for each mile after that. At 3:30 (I'm crazy about being early) the only choice is a cab. I set my training path over the next 4 days like this: Day 1, production. Day 2, service. Day 3, management roles. Day 4, do the management roles. The plan was for each day, I'd get there by 3:45, smoke a cigarette and at 4:00 A.M. sharp, I'd start training, bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to be prepared for the day I opened stores myself.
A quick digression. I'm a powerful person. I'm big, I'm loud, I get stuff done. I focus on the details because that's where the devil is. For me, the big things just seem to flow right because the little things are taken care of. Further, I like control. I'm boisterous and typically let people know when I'm taking care of something, and afterward (especially in these early days of just learning how to get stuff done) let whoever needs to know exactly how I would like things to be done for that particular task. Everywhere I ever go, ever in life, I quickly get known as a bit over-powering, but fair and develop a reputation for PRAISE PRAISE PRAISE! for the people who do things the right way. The flip side of that coin is, there are always people who I have to dig at heavily to get an opportunity to praise. Sometimes, I never get the opportunity to praise some people, and those people inevitably consider me an asshole.
That first day I did arrive at 3:45 A.M. However, no one told the swing manager who was not nearly as bright eyed nor bushy tailed as I, that she would be training me. She ended up showing up at her accustomed time, which was 4:30 A.M. Needless to say, this left me a bit miffed and it turns out the manager was one of those few people who I do not often get an opportunity to praise (read, one of the ones who consider me an asshole). So once she arrived and saw me, she apparently had a quick internal conversation that included her perception of what I would say, and then her certainly witty responses to that, and my responses to those. I say this because when she got out of her car she was instantly on the defensive, though I said not a word. She was justifying her tardiness and cursing my punctuality before she had the key in the door. So I explained to her my intended training path over the next 4 days and she agreed, letting me rush into the kitchen and help the one production team member (who also had to wait 30 minutes in the nippy desert morning), who was rushing around crazy trying to do an hour's worth of work in only 30 minutes.
The sad thing is, there's not an hour's worth of work to do opening the store as a production team member. There really isn't. You get some McGriddles and biscuits baking, along with some Hot Apple Pies and cookies (oatmeal and chocolate chip, 3 for $1, hot damn!). You get your eggs going (damn those eggs!), but not too many because the first hour is slow, slow, slow! Then you cook a boatload of sausage and bacon, because they both have an interminable holding time.
Fast forward to the next day, and the arrival scene was identical, except one minor difference. It was a different manager this morning, showing up at 4:30! Two people in the store showing up late?! What amateurs I was dealing with! It frustrates the hell out of me to be working with passionless people, non-professionals, who can't show up on time or fulfill a commitment. Again, this manager had an internal conversation with herself (I think), like the one the previous morning had had, because she also was defensive and full of justifications for being half an hour late, just like the other manager was. I'd have to keep my eye on this one as well.
So I learned the service side of opening the store up. It was not difficult. It consisted of two things. Brew. Coffee. Again, not an hour's worth of work, really, but tedious. Turns out, the entire morning is basically just that, brew coffee, serve a small amount of customers every hour until 8 when things got really cooking. By then, there'd be a full staff in the restaurant and things would be delegated around. Simple stuff, although it seemed like a daunting task for those who I worked with in that store.
So for my 3rd day, during which I was going to learn the management aspects of opening a store, I showed up a bit later, dead on at 4:00 A.M. Well, without letting me know, the managers had switched schedules and I was opening with the store manager, M., who did not particular like me, and whom I (still) considered to be a terrible person in general. She showed up only 10 minutes late, but filled with more justification and defensiveness than the previous two managers combined! We walked into the store, and she said to me "You're going to do the store open by yourself."
I was a bit stunned at that. I know I had communicated to her earlier in the week my training path, and so explained that I had not received any training on the management aspects of opening a store. She gave me a mirthy little smirk and said "I know. You're gonna do it all yourself anyways." She proceeded to brew a pot of coffee, pour a cup and sat in the lobby watching.
I was angry. Let me rephrase that. I was ANGRY! But I went and did everything that looked right from the previous two days, got all my coffee going (the first round at least), and did the computer stuff that had to be done. 90% of what I did was guess work. The best thing was, most of the systems in place are designed to be executed by a typical McDonald's manager - poorly trained, undereducated, highly-stressed, underpaid, and at 4:00 A.M., nonetheless. I got the store all set and ready to be open, and poured myself a cup of coffee, and went to find M. in the lobby. She was reading the paper and didn't really notice that I was approaching her until it was too late. It's now 10 minutes before we open.
She looked up from the Arizona Daily Star laid out before her and with what seemed an exaggerated grin said, "What's the matter? Do you need help?"
I smiled me own incredibly cocky smile, the one that got me a wife, and many friends, and many sales contracts in the past... and said, "I got everything done, and we've got 10 minutes till we opened. I figured I'd relax a bit." I proceeded to sit down and sip my coffee.
Without a word, M. jumped up, ran to the computer, double-checked what I had done, made sure there were cash drawers in all the registers, made sure that each coffee urn was full, that the Iced Coffee was brewed, the kitchen was all set (I had even run through there twice to get some things prepared with the Production team member, who was incredibly thankful in her broken English).
I felt absolutely triumphant as I watched her running around, shocked to see that everything was done, as I had said. I had rocked it out. She cut 10 minutes of my time by arriving late, and I still had 10 minutes to spare, with absolutely no training on more than half of the work I had to do. I know I didn't then (or anytime in the future) win her friendship, but I believe she grudgingly developed a grain of respect for me.
Opening team members arrive at 4 A.M.
I don't drive, relying on taxi cabs and Tucson's phenomenal public transportation system to get where I need to go. I try to avoid cabs, because it's typically about $5 for the first mile and $3 for each mile after that. At 3:30 (I'm crazy about being early) the only choice is a cab. I set my training path over the next 4 days like this: Day 1, production. Day 2, service. Day 3, management roles. Day 4, do the management roles. The plan was for each day, I'd get there by 3:45, smoke a cigarette and at 4:00 A.M. sharp, I'd start training, bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to be prepared for the day I opened stores myself.
A quick digression. I'm a powerful person. I'm big, I'm loud, I get stuff done. I focus on the details because that's where the devil is. For me, the big things just seem to flow right because the little things are taken care of. Further, I like control. I'm boisterous and typically let people know when I'm taking care of something, and afterward (especially in these early days of just learning how to get stuff done) let whoever needs to know exactly how I would like things to be done for that particular task. Everywhere I ever go, ever in life, I quickly get known as a bit over-powering, but fair and develop a reputation for PRAISE PRAISE PRAISE! for the people who do things the right way. The flip side of that coin is, there are always people who I have to dig at heavily to get an opportunity to praise. Sometimes, I never get the opportunity to praise some people, and those people inevitably consider me an asshole.
That first day I did arrive at 3:45 A.M. However, no one told the swing manager who was not nearly as bright eyed nor bushy tailed as I, that she would be training me. She ended up showing up at her accustomed time, which was 4:30 A.M. Needless to say, this left me a bit miffed and it turns out the manager was one of those few people who I do not often get an opportunity to praise (read, one of the ones who consider me an asshole). So once she arrived and saw me, she apparently had a quick internal conversation that included her perception of what I would say, and then her certainly witty responses to that, and my responses to those. I say this because when she got out of her car she was instantly on the defensive, though I said not a word. She was justifying her tardiness and cursing my punctuality before she had the key in the door. So I explained to her my intended training path over the next 4 days and she agreed, letting me rush into the kitchen and help the one production team member (who also had to wait 30 minutes in the nippy desert morning), who was rushing around crazy trying to do an hour's worth of work in only 30 minutes.
The sad thing is, there's not an hour's worth of work to do opening the store as a production team member. There really isn't. You get some McGriddles and biscuits baking, along with some Hot Apple Pies and cookies (oatmeal and chocolate chip, 3 for $1, hot damn!). You get your eggs going (damn those eggs!), but not too many because the first hour is slow, slow, slow! Then you cook a boatload of sausage and bacon, because they both have an interminable holding time.
Fast forward to the next day, and the arrival scene was identical, except one minor difference. It was a different manager this morning, showing up at 4:30! Two people in the store showing up late?! What amateurs I was dealing with! It frustrates the hell out of me to be working with passionless people, non-professionals, who can't show up on time or fulfill a commitment. Again, this manager had an internal conversation with herself (I think), like the one the previous morning had had, because she also was defensive and full of justifications for being half an hour late, just like the other manager was. I'd have to keep my eye on this one as well.
So I learned the service side of opening the store up. It was not difficult. It consisted of two things. Brew. Coffee. Again, not an hour's worth of work, really, but tedious. Turns out, the entire morning is basically just that, brew coffee, serve a small amount of customers every hour until 8 when things got really cooking. By then, there'd be a full staff in the restaurant and things would be delegated around. Simple stuff, although it seemed like a daunting task for those who I worked with in that store.
So for my 3rd day, during which I was going to learn the management aspects of opening a store, I showed up a bit later, dead on at 4:00 A.M. Well, without letting me know, the managers had switched schedules and I was opening with the store manager, M., who did not particular like me, and whom I (still) considered to be a terrible person in general. She showed up only 10 minutes late, but filled with more justification and defensiveness than the previous two managers combined! We walked into the store, and she said to me "You're going to do the store open by yourself."
I was a bit stunned at that. I know I had communicated to her earlier in the week my training path, and so explained that I had not received any training on the management aspects of opening a store. She gave me a mirthy little smirk and said "I know. You're gonna do it all yourself anyways." She proceeded to brew a pot of coffee, pour a cup and sat in the lobby watching.
I was angry. Let me rephrase that. I was ANGRY! But I went and did everything that looked right from the previous two days, got all my coffee going (the first round at least), and did the computer stuff that had to be done. 90% of what I did was guess work. The best thing was, most of the systems in place are designed to be executed by a typical McDonald's manager - poorly trained, undereducated, highly-stressed, underpaid, and at 4:00 A.M., nonetheless. I got the store all set and ready to be open, and poured myself a cup of coffee, and went to find M. in the lobby. She was reading the paper and didn't really notice that I was approaching her until it was too late. It's now 10 minutes before we open.
She looked up from the Arizona Daily Star laid out before her and with what seemed an exaggerated grin said, "What's the matter? Do you need help?"
I smiled me own incredibly cocky smile, the one that got me a wife, and many friends, and many sales contracts in the past... and said, "I got everything done, and we've got 10 minutes till we opened. I figured I'd relax a bit." I proceeded to sit down and sip my coffee.
Without a word, M. jumped up, ran to the computer, double-checked what I had done, made sure there were cash drawers in all the registers, made sure that each coffee urn was full, that the Iced Coffee was brewed, the kitchen was all set (I had even run through there twice to get some things prepared with the Production team member, who was incredibly thankful in her broken English).
I felt absolutely triumphant as I watched her running around, shocked to see that everything was done, as I had said. I had rocked it out. She cut 10 minutes of my time by arriving late, and I still had 10 minutes to spare, with absolutely no training on more than half of the work I had to do. I know I didn't then (or anytime in the future) win her friendship, but I believe she grudgingly developed a grain of respect for me.
Production Team Member
Since I was not a McDonald's experienced employee (disregarding the 2 years as a teenager I worked at my local McDonald's a dozen years ago), I had to get some first-hand experience working all positions in the restaurant. The logic makes sense: How can I manage a shift and ensure my kitchen runs smoothly if I don't know the Nuts and Bolts of the kitchen? The reality of it is a bit different. It's hot. It's sweaty. It's hard work!
I have nothing but infinite respect for the people (the majority of whom at all the stores the company I work for owns are women) who bust their ass in the kitchen making all that phenomenal, greasy food with a total visit time for the customer of 3 minutes, 30 seconds. Keep in mind that everything is prepared to order and meats are kept for about 15 minutes after cooking them. It's not like the old days where there's a dozen of each sandwich waiting for a customer to come purchase them.
So, I worked for a week as a production team member. I worked through 3 lunch shifts on the grill, basically sweating my ass off trying to keep up with the orders. After the first day, I think I did a good job. I kept up with it all, and kept the food flowing.
Each team member in a McDonald's restaurant is an important cog in a machine that must run smoothly, efficiently and effectively, at all times. This is most true for the person running the grill. They have to ensure that the level of meats and fried products (waiting to be made into lovely sandwiches) are accurately filled and the holding times maintained at all times. They are responsible for delivering every single piece of food perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned swiftly while maintaining the strictest of food safety policies. Adding to all of this is the fact that they make minimum wage, probably have not been trained nearly as well as they could have been, and most likely aren't the brightest bulb in the box (otherwise, why, really, are they working for minimum wage at a hot, sweaty, demanding job?) nor are their managers joyous beacons of professionalism, in most cases, for all the same reasons. This means the grill person is probably not the most highly motivated person in the world, even if they have a phenomenally demanding job.
After my time on the grill, I worked a few night shifts on assembly, making the sandwiches. After a few hours of putting things all together, it's really not difficult at all. The ingredients are not diverse, most sandwiches are made the same (ketchup, mustard, onions, pickle are the basics) with minor deviations: Quarter Pounders are made with large onion slivers instead of the dehydrated diced onions, the Big Mac has special sauce and a minor deviation in the order the ingredients are applied (to achieve the perfect "flavor profile" I discussed previously). The people who work in Production have got some skills. There's a particular way to put together Double Cheeseburgers, which sell in an unbelievable volume and pace (I've seen orders for 30 Doubles at a time!) There's this particular way to drop and then stack the meat and cheese that makes it incredibly quick and efficient. I never mastered that technique. My week as a production team member was coming to a close and the last day I worked Production, I was scheduled for breakfast.
Breakfast is the most simple thing to work, in the kitchen, unless you're in charge of making eggs. Why? Well, there's 3 kinds of eggs. Folded eggs, round eggs and scrambled eggs. Each comes from a different source. The folded eggs are pre-made, frozen and take all of 35 seconds to cook. Round eggs are from raw in-the-shell eggs and are a complete pain in the ass, because I could not once get the mold that makes them round to sit still and keep all the egg wetness inside of the molds. Lastly, scrambled eggs are made from a liquid egg-in-a-carton product, and are actually the least difficult to make. You pour them in a large square mold, and use a little device that rocks back and forth to scramble them just right. Who knew making eggs in a McDonald's would be so complex?!
Assembly in breakfast is exceedingly simple, as I mentioned. Muffin with a squirt of butter, biscuit or set of griddle cakes, cheese, egg, meat (order reversed for the original McMuffin, again for flavor profile). No messy condiments, no "does this one get big or little onions?!?!", no complex stacking tricks, almost no special orders, bacon and canadian bacon both cook in mere fractions of minutes... It's a special time of day, for both Production and Service members, where the most difficult thing on production side is getting eggs to stay in the molds, and on the service side it's keeping coffee brewed.
Anyhow, my time as on Production ended, I was done sweating incredibly (did I mention I'm 6'2" and over 300lbs? It's damn hot in a kitchen!) and then it was time to get my chops opening and closing the store.
I have nothing but infinite respect for the people (the majority of whom at all the stores the company I work for owns are women) who bust their ass in the kitchen making all that phenomenal, greasy food with a total visit time for the customer of 3 minutes, 30 seconds. Keep in mind that everything is prepared to order and meats are kept for about 15 minutes after cooking them. It's not like the old days where there's a dozen of each sandwich waiting for a customer to come purchase them.
So, I worked for a week as a production team member. I worked through 3 lunch shifts on the grill, basically sweating my ass off trying to keep up with the orders. After the first day, I think I did a good job. I kept up with it all, and kept the food flowing.
Each team member in a McDonald's restaurant is an important cog in a machine that must run smoothly, efficiently and effectively, at all times. This is most true for the person running the grill. They have to ensure that the level of meats and fried products (waiting to be made into lovely sandwiches) are accurately filled and the holding times maintained at all times. They are responsible for delivering every single piece of food perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned swiftly while maintaining the strictest of food safety policies. Adding to all of this is the fact that they make minimum wage, probably have not been trained nearly as well as they could have been, and most likely aren't the brightest bulb in the box (otherwise, why, really, are they working for minimum wage at a hot, sweaty, demanding job?) nor are their managers joyous beacons of professionalism, in most cases, for all the same reasons. This means the grill person is probably not the most highly motivated person in the world, even if they have a phenomenally demanding job.
After my time on the grill, I worked a few night shifts on assembly, making the sandwiches. After a few hours of putting things all together, it's really not difficult at all. The ingredients are not diverse, most sandwiches are made the same (ketchup, mustard, onions, pickle are the basics) with minor deviations: Quarter Pounders are made with large onion slivers instead of the dehydrated diced onions, the Big Mac has special sauce and a minor deviation in the order the ingredients are applied (to achieve the perfect "flavor profile" I discussed previously). The people who work in Production have got some skills. There's a particular way to put together Double Cheeseburgers, which sell in an unbelievable volume and pace (I've seen orders for 30 Doubles at a time!) There's this particular way to drop and then stack the meat and cheese that makes it incredibly quick and efficient. I never mastered that technique. My week as a production team member was coming to a close and the last day I worked Production, I was scheduled for breakfast.
Breakfast is the most simple thing to work, in the kitchen, unless you're in charge of making eggs. Why? Well, there's 3 kinds of eggs. Folded eggs, round eggs and scrambled eggs. Each comes from a different source. The folded eggs are pre-made, frozen and take all of 35 seconds to cook. Round eggs are from raw in-the-shell eggs and are a complete pain in the ass, because I could not once get the mold that makes them round to sit still and keep all the egg wetness inside of the molds. Lastly, scrambled eggs are made from a liquid egg-in-a-carton product, and are actually the least difficult to make. You pour them in a large square mold, and use a little device that rocks back and forth to scramble them just right. Who knew making eggs in a McDonald's would be so complex?!
Assembly in breakfast is exceedingly simple, as I mentioned. Muffin with a squirt of butter, biscuit or set of griddle cakes, cheese, egg, meat (order reversed for the original McMuffin, again for flavor profile). No messy condiments, no "does this one get big or little onions?!?!", no complex stacking tricks, almost no special orders, bacon and canadian bacon both cook in mere fractions of minutes... It's a special time of day, for both Production and Service members, where the most difficult thing on production side is getting eggs to stay in the molds, and on the service side it's keeping coffee brewed.
Anyhow, my time as on Production ended, I was done sweating incredibly (did I mention I'm 6'2" and over 300lbs? It's damn hot in a kitchen!) and then it was time to get my chops opening and closing the store.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Interacting with People
There's something phenomenally powerful about seeing someone, looking them in the eye, and delivering to them something that an entire team of people worked on, to make perfect, just for them.
Retrospective: Training Day 2
I spent an 8 hour day taking notes and watching the e-Learning programs on Production. By the end of it, I felt like a certified, trained Production team member.
I learned all about the temperatures the meat and chicken cook at, how to place and remove meat from the grill, the proper procedure for cooking the fried products... How to batch cook! I learned all the sandwiches and the way to assembly them correctly.
Did you know, as an aside, that McDonald's corporation spends hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of man-hours each year on ensuring the sandwiches are being built just right, to deliver the perfect flavor profile with each bite? I didn't, but I learned that along the training path of Production.
So, in the middle of my training schedule on that 8 hour day, the store manager of the restaurant I was training at (which has since become my home restaurant) invited me to learn by doing. So we went out into the grill and he showed me how to do a run of hamburger meat, and I sweated over the hot grill, cooking a few batches of hamburger meat. Aside from the literal sweat, it was no figurative sweat at all.
The training for production was engaging, complete, and empowering. I could do it! I had a head full of knowledge! Awesome.
I learned all about the temperatures the meat and chicken cook at, how to place and remove meat from the grill, the proper procedure for cooking the fried products... How to batch cook! I learned all the sandwiches and the way to assembly them correctly.
Did you know, as an aside, that McDonald's corporation spends hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of man-hours each year on ensuring the sandwiches are being built just right, to deliver the perfect flavor profile with each bite? I didn't, but I learned that along the training path of Production.
So, in the middle of my training schedule on that 8 hour day, the store manager of the restaurant I was training at (which has since become my home restaurant) invited me to learn by doing. So we went out into the grill and he showed me how to do a run of hamburger meat, and I sweated over the hot grill, cooking a few batches of hamburger meat. Aside from the literal sweat, it was no figurative sweat at all.
The training for production was engaging, complete, and empowering. I could do it! I had a head full of knowledge! Awesome.
The First Week
My legs hurt so damn bad. Every day, my first week, within 5 hours into my shift, I would be stiff-legged and clumping around like Frankenstein, wishing my legs would just fall off or something. The environment and the job was a huge change from my previous life of sitting at a computer with a phone against my ear. Now, I was standing all the time, and in fact running my ass around all over the place. Also, I wasn't able to take a mid-day nap, like I used to on my hour-long lunch hours. Now, I was barely able to smoke a cigarette, gulp down my $6.00 worth of comp'd food, smoke a second cigarette and hopefully sneak out a really quick poop (if I didn't smoke a third cigarette. I love you Pall Mall 100s).
So the first week was all service, and pain in the legs. However, the best part of that first week was PEOPLE! I got to speak to human beings and make people smile in my short interludes speaking with them. I heard "Wow you need to be working somewhere else, you're fantastic!". In that first week of working with people, human beings I could see and make eye contact with, I was offered at least 1 job a day by people I interacted with. I was buh-da-bum-bum-bah LOVIN' IT. Great for my ego, you know, to have so many people tell me how great I am, and to know that I'm doing a great job of it.
The end of the first week at McDonald's culminated in more exposure to that fantastic
training system, the e-Learning computer. This time, I was going to learn "Production", making all that lovely, greasy food.
So the first week was all service, and pain in the legs. However, the best part of that first week was PEOPLE! I got to speak to human beings and make people smile in my short interludes speaking with them. I heard "Wow you need to be working somewhere else, you're fantastic!". In that first week of working with people, human beings I could see and make eye contact with, I was offered at least 1 job a day by people I interacted with. I was buh-da-bum-bum-bah LOVIN' IT. Great for my ego, you know, to have so many people tell me how great I am, and to know that I'm doing a great job of it.
The end of the first week at McDonald's culminated in more exposure to that fantastic
training system, the e-Learning computer. This time, I was going to learn "Production", making all that lovely, greasy food.
First Day in the Store
So I arrive the next day at one of the 5 stores that my owner/operator has, fresh faced, full of new information, ready to get down and serve my little chunk of those 47 million daily customers.
The store I went to is big. Very big. It's old too! Dust gathers in corners in big, old places. That's all I'm saying. You gotta be attentive to that stuff.
So, the store manager was informed, I'm sure, that the new up-and-coming company manager was coming to her store, and she had to make sure he got impressed damnit! Well, whether she was told this or not, she definitely did not do it.
First, I showed up at 8am to a dirty store. Breakfast rush hadn't even hit yet! The store manager, who I'll call M., told me with a heavy, worn-out sigh, that I would be working presentation for Drive Thru, which is a demanding and important position. I was up to the challenge.
I got into the Drive Thru presentation area, and it STANK! OOoohhh wheee! I mean it was horrid. I asked M. about the stench in that area and she told me it was from the drain that was under the soda dispenser. So I got a couple buckets of hot water with some soap in them, and dumped them down the drain to make the water and (hopefully) the stench flow. No dice! It stank just as bad then as before I tried to flush the drain out.
While down under the soda dispensing area, I saw an odd, white ... puddle? Not exactly. It was like a stalagmite growing from under a counter, and it seemed to be the source of the stench. So after about 25 seconds of investigating, I discovered that the machine that dispenses cream for McDonald's Premium Coffee and Iced Coffee was placed in a ... poor position. The 'catch tray' under the dispensing nozzle was located directly over a pre-fabricated square access hole in the metal counter it was resting on. And cream would spill out over or around the catch tray. And then, that cream would drop through the hole, and made a puddle that was never attended to underneath.
I broke out some steel scrubbing pads, a couple buckets of water, and cleaned that horrible, calcified and incredibly funky mountain!!!! of old cream. Stench went away!
The rest of my day was spent scrubbing all 4 walls of that uncared for Drive Thru presentation area. I learned something that day. With enough elbow grease, the yellowed walls of an old restaurant can become white again. I'm certain I'm the only person who ever worked in that store who made that discovery.
The store I went to is big. Very big. It's old too! Dust gathers in corners in big, old places. That's all I'm saying. You gotta be attentive to that stuff.
So, the store manager was informed, I'm sure, that the new up-and-coming company manager was coming to her store, and she had to make sure he got impressed damnit! Well, whether she was told this or not, she definitely did not do it.
First, I showed up at 8am to a dirty store. Breakfast rush hadn't even hit yet! The store manager, who I'll call M., told me with a heavy, worn-out sigh, that I would be working presentation for Drive Thru, which is a demanding and important position. I was up to the challenge.
I got into the Drive Thru presentation area, and it STANK! OOoohhh wheee! I mean it was horrid. I asked M. about the stench in that area and she told me it was from the drain that was under the soda dispenser. So I got a couple buckets of hot water with some soap in them, and dumped them down the drain to make the water and (hopefully) the stench flow. No dice! It stank just as bad then as before I tried to flush the drain out.
While down under the soda dispensing area, I saw an odd, white ... puddle? Not exactly. It was like a stalagmite growing from under a counter, and it seemed to be the source of the stench. So after about 25 seconds of investigating, I discovered that the machine that dispenses cream for McDonald's Premium Coffee and Iced Coffee was placed in a ... poor position. The 'catch tray' under the dispensing nozzle was located directly over a pre-fabricated square access hole in the metal counter it was resting on. And cream would spill out over or around the catch tray. And then, that cream would drop through the hole, and made a puddle that was never attended to underneath.
I broke out some steel scrubbing pads, a couple buckets of water, and cleaned that horrible, calcified and incredibly funky mountain!!!! of old cream. Stench went away!
The rest of my day was spent scrubbing all 4 walls of that uncared for Drive Thru presentation area. I learned something that day. With enough elbow grease, the yellowed walls of an old restaurant can become white again. I'm certain I'm the only person who ever worked in that store who made that discovery.
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