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.