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.
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8 comments:
Frustrating isn't it? From what you've described, it sounds like years of not cleaning. Yes, the stores to get dirty quickly, but not that quickly. Back when I was a McManager, a fellow manager and I were the only two who ever took time to do some extra cleaning. When we tried to delegate, we'd either end up arguing with the crew member or other manager, or they would do such a horrible job, that we just decided to do it ourselves. Non-closing crew and managers don't feel like they need to clean at all. They have that "it'll get cleaned at close" mentality. Closing crew and managers have that "we have too much to do to deep clean" mentality. So it just doesn't get done. At least that's how it went down in my store. What I want to know is...where is the O/O? What were the last RVR scores for that store? I can't imagine they would do that well with a store that dirty. I just hope you can somehow get the crew to do this stuff on your own, because trust me, you'll never EVER be able to keep up with it on your own. Good luck to you, and keep those posts coming!
Well, I do have a few good members of the team who is willing to go the extra mile to take care of business, even if that means cleaning disgusting things. Also, we've got a F.O.R. coming next month so lots of things are getting taken care of.
As far as the O/O, he's owned the store less than a year (and others in town) and is focused primarily on improving sales, customer service and return visits. I'm sure he feels that taking care of the restaurant facilities and fixtures is something his newly hired managers can all take care of - some delegation of his own.
At our store we have a weekly cleaning checklist that works quite well. It's a two page list with 5 to 10 tasks for each shift (open, mid and close). Some the of the tasks are from the ops calendar, the rest we came up with on our own. Our crew has taken the list to heart, and usually they will come check the list themselves to see what needs to be done that shift, or if any tasks have been previously missed that they now have time to make up. The good thing is that everyone is involved... it's not just one or two managers doing all the cleaning.
We just remodelled our store and re-opened a week ago. We've got some pictures up at Flickr if you want to see how new stores in Europe look these days.
Scott Hanson
General Manager
McDonald's Dibbersen, Germany
http://www.mcdonalds-nordheide.de/
Mr. Scott Hanson -
We had a bit of correspondence about a month ago, and I've checked out your site a few times. Your enthusiasm is admirable. I can only imagine the difficulty of remodeling a store - especially when you were putting in CODs!
Congrats on the reopen and thanks for the comment.
Tschuss.
I really enjoy reading this blog, because it gives me a lot of insight into management methods and helpful ways to deal with crew etc. Plus it's nice to read something that is not "I hate my job at McD's" oriented.
I got promoted to manager about four months ago, after a year as crew trainer and 2 years before that as crew. The transition was fairly bumpy, and I wasn't that well trained for management. I haven't even looked at an MDP binder. But things are smoothing out and I'm finding that balance between friend to the crew and boss to the crew, and your blog is helping me do that, which I appreciate.
Keep up the good work,
Jenn Nurse
Halifax, NS Canada
Awesome! Thanks Jenn!
I Suggest strongly getting an MDP Binder - beg your O/O or Store Manager to get you one! You'll find things in there that you had no idea existed, but which will make your life a thousand times easier.
i'm not a manager, but we have a pre-close/close checklist. the pre-close list has about 5 jobs to do every 1/2 hour from 6.30-close and then a seperate list for close. all the crew helps out, and the jobs range from a sweep and mop, to detaling the sundae topping dispensers, under the front counter etc.
there is also one, bigger, job every night, like sanatising the ice bucket, cleaning inside the shake machine and so on.
we have this method, no matter what manager is on, and nothing ever gets too dirty.
At my store, we have a closing pull
list of items that get pulled once
a week. I am manager who closes once or twice a week so who knows what gets done but it gets done when im there. our night side crew are told cleaning hs to be done before clocking out and some listen and then some don't, we try.
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