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.