Recently in Work Category

Today was awful.

It was one of the most god-awful ugly days at work that I have had in a long time.

It was so fucking ugly it actually started yesterday. I could just stop there but then my post would be four sentences. I feel like ranting anyway...

One of my store managers has been around for awhile now and has the experience and the potential to do a really good job and make a lot of money out of the store. The problem is that he's only interested in hitting the door as quickly as possible and doesn't seem to care about the long-term effects of putting crappy people to work. Just as long as he gets to go home as quickly as possible...

Unfortunately I got to come behind and work with the same crappy people today. Add in the fact that I have flu-like symptoms to the point where I feel like death warmed over and it just kept getting worse.

On a normal day my waitresses will keep an eye on the grill for me for the first 20-30 minutes of each shift, unless it is particularly busy. This is because I have to get my daily sales numbers from all three stores, make sure they are staffed and pass on any messages or words of wisdom to the managers. Then I call the numbers upline to my boss who does the same thing after speaking with his other two district managers. This means that if I'm not paying particular attention to the grill area when I first walk in the door at 6:30am I'll miss it if things are nasty. I can't even see my dick to pee straight at 6:30 in the morning. The graveyard shift is pretty slow and most of the cooks spend the time cleaning. Not so Friday morning. The girl who cooked Thursday night must have spent her time fucking sleeping and by the time I rolled out on the grill area at 7:30 and realized just how fucking nasty it had been left it was too late. I spent the first hour of the shift just cleaning the mess up.

Other than the fact that I got to work with a dumb-assed cook it really wasn't all that bad of a day. I felt somewhat rough, which made things bad but we all have bad days.

Not so today...

Along with my daily regimen of Protonix and Vytorin I am also back on Chantix again in order to try and quit smoking (more on that later). I also downed one of those old-fucker vitamins I've been taking recently and about 1000 mg of Vitamin C to try and counteract the effects of the creeping crud that's been getting me down since I woke up Thursday morning. A cup of coffee, shit and shower and I headed off to work. One of my four waitresses for this morning had called in on me last night with the same shit I have and since I hadn't any luck replacing her last night I spent the first fifteen minutes of my day sitting in the parking lot trying to get covered. By the time I made it inside it was about a quarter till seven and about time for me to do the drawer change. One of the waitresses had shown up and my cook wasn't there yet either. I made it to the office and realized that in my light-headedness I had left my keys on my desk.

At home.

Fuck.

25-minutes later and I'm back at work with said keys and had three waitresses and my cook. I managed to get the drawer changed and this started to get ugly. One of the girls came back and told me the cook was fucked up. Sure enough the stupid pill-popping bitch had come in stoned. She was cooking (if you can call it that) with no apron or hat, no gloves and had fucking grey sweat pants on.

Jesus jumping christ.

I told her that she couldn't work out of uniform, figuring that I was going to get stuck cooking the day by myself but apparently she had her damned pants in her car. WTF? She claimed to have overslept and was just having a hard time getting her act together but would be fine shortly. Rather than doing the right thing and send her ass home for the day I just said "OK" figuring that maybe she really had just gotten up and was trying to come down from whatever it was she had done last night.
I was so fucking wrong.

Normally on a Saturday as slow as today was I can get all of my paperwork finished, get the daily food pull and prep work finished, banking and then spend the rest of the time cooking until it's time to go home. Not so today. Except for a couple of much-needed smoke breaks I spent the entire day on the grill with the dumb bitch. I don't have a problem with you if you are slow but combine slow, stupid and stoned and it's a combination I have no fucking patience with.

Up until about 10:30 or 11 it was extremely irritating but the food was coming out and I managed to keep my mouth shut. Then it started getting busy and things got ugly fast. No, not ugly. It was a bloody goatfuck it was so bad. I was pretty much operating everything and just running around the girl. Food wasn't coming out too much slower than normal but I was in a hurry and making a huge mess. I didn't have time for niceties like wiping shit down when I was having to work around someone. Luckily one of my dedicated employees came in around that time and offered to help out for a while. We moved the other girl down to the end where all she had to do was cook some waffles and drop toast. How fucking hard could that be? Apparently it was still too much because then I wasn't getting toast and waffles.

About that time I must have said something that set her off. I was waiting for toast for several plates and asked her where it was. Her comment was "I know I made it, somebody must have stolen it" to which I answered in an extremely snarky voice "I guess the shit must have jumped back in the bread bag". I can be extremely sarcastic most of the time, it helps to have a bit of humor but I must have said it in a pretty mean manner because after that she spent the rest of the time outside crying. Fuck her and the pills she rode in on. The day went much better after that. Still didn't manage to get out of there until about 5:30 this evening. I wasn't particularly happy about that but it comes with the territory I suppose.

I did send the manager of that particular store a text message this afternoon before I left though. He's got next weekend off which means I'll be spending Saturday and Sunday in his store. I told him not to bother scheduling one of his fucking crack-heads, that I would bring my own help next weekend...

I decided this morning that I was going to take the chicken-shit way out with terminating the flasher. She was scheduled in at four or five this evening, at which time I was going to be well on my way to Alabama, so I just figured I would make my schedule changes (which included taking her completely off) and just tell the folks working the shift that she could call the manager tomorrow. hehe. I figured that my store manager deserved a bit of her own medicine and needed to be forced to do her job.

Alas, but it didn't work out as planned. The flasher showed up at 2pm to pick up her paycheck. I let her get paid and then told her that due to her inappropriate behavior we would no longer need her.

She took it quite well actually. She smiled and said 'ok, do I have another check coming?' as she bebopped her way out the door. I guess she was just glad that she had a couple of paychecks and would no longer have to work Christmas Day. I wish everyone I have had to fire over the last 22 years took it so nicely. Shit, I even had one lady pull a knife on me back in the eighties. I ended up having to get the law involved and take her out of the restaurant over that one. Somehow I've never managed to get my tires slashed although I do occasionally check to make sure.

Terminating people has to be one of the most distasteful things I ever have to do in my job. I get a fucking knot in my stomach every time I have to do it. The ones that cry are the worst. I can't stand that. Fuck, I can't even watch a sappy movie without getting all teary-eyed and here is some blubbering fucking idiot making me feel like shit.

The only saving grace is that I don't fire people unless they REALLY need it. You have to be a complete and utter fool to get fired by me (you know, like showing your saggy tits in the middle of the dining area in one of my restaurants) . If it's just some run-of-the-mill piece of crap that won't do what I say, normally just cutting their schedule gets the point across and either they quit or shape up.

I'm all about second chances too. The girl I replaced the flasher with? Someone I fired two years ago when I was still a single unit manager. I've gotten much nicer since my promotion. I put up with a lot more shit than I ever would back then. That's what I don't get about my managers. They should be running their stores as if their paychecks depend upon their performance (it does) and they don't. They want all the money and recognition but they can't get to fucking work on time and want to hit the door at 2:15 in the afternoon. Anyway, when I was a manager I always felt that you should get a couple of tardies and after you show me that you can't get to work on time I start replacing your ass one minute into your shift. Getting sent home for being one minute late is embarrassing as shit and it usually cures the problem. It's been quite some time since I did that to anyone. Now I just pretty much shrug it off. I figure if I can't make the fucking store managers get to work on time there's not going to be a cure for getting the employees in on time. Although I can give the store manager's written warnings and make sure that I document everything I don't have any real power to do anything to them as punishment.

It's a pretty safe bet that for the next couple of days all my employees will show up on time. I have their Christmas bonus checks in my notebook and I will be giving those out personally. If I've left before they get there? I guess they'll have to hunt me down or wait until the next time I'm there.

So there's this waitress working in one of my restaurants. I say working but but whatever the fuck she's working on is something I ain't selling.

Anyway, this waitress is pretty much worthless. She sits around doing not much of anything, expecting that the customers are there for her benefit and not the other way around. Slacks on doing dishes and end of shift sidework and has yet to clean anything. Pretty much worthless. I would say that a good 60% of my associates are this way except for the fact that if I specifically give them direction they will follow it for the most part. Most of them want direction, it's the managers that can't provide it that get shitty results.

I started hearing complaints from some of the associates that this girl had shown her tits to one of the customers and at one point dropped her pants for another.

Nice.

This ain't Hooters, folks, nor is it a fucking strip joint. It's a family atmosphere and the last thing I want my kids to see is some skanky bitch dropping her fucking pants. The manager confirmed the complaint to me as well. That's the other thing, but it's something I will have to deal with later, the fact that she (the manager) confirmed it to me but had not taken any fucking action. Christ, grow some balls and act like a business owner.

Yesterday one of the ladies that works for me clued me in one another bit that this girl had done. It seems that a group of young men came in during the evening last week and she started flirting with them. No big deal. Some waitresses think it increases their tips to flirt with the customers and with some guys it does. The problem with that is that it can lead to embarrassing and otherwise unwanted situations.

She grabs one of these guy's cell phones and takes it into the bathroom with her. Why, you ask? Do you really need to fucking ask? Yes, she took nekked pictures of herself and her 'hidden piercings' for the boys.

Fuck. And I didn't even get to see them.

Anyway, I figure I will have to fire the bitch today since the manager is going to wait for me to do it anyway. The only problem is that I have no way to get in touch with her and she doesn't come to work until 4pm this afternoon at which time I will be on my way to Alabama for the company Christmas party. ooops. I can either just take her off the schedule and make her wait until the manager gets back from her days off or I suppose I could always just stick her separation notice in an envelope along with a note that says "we don't show our boobs to the customers"

So I had to make a run to the bank around lunchtime this afternoon when the store called me on my cell phone. I hadn't even left the damned parking lot before it started ringing. They called to let me know that a couple of employees were stranded in Tallapoosa. Considering that one of them was my 2nd shift waitress for today and the other was my 2rd shift cook I decided that it would be a good idea to pick them up. Actually I probably would have even if they had been off today, that's just what kind of guy I am. The fact that they were scheduled to work only added to urgency of picking them up.

I hit the bank and then picked them up about a block away. Just as soon as they got in my car I was hit by a wave of stench so foul that I almost blew chunks all over my steering wheel. I'm not talking about needing a touch of body odor either. This was such a disgusting odiferous stink of someone that had shit on themselves and then died. In a hot room. Two days prior.

I suspected the female of the pair since she was sitting beside me in the front seat. I don't think she had ever even considered getting in the back. As it is she had to put the seat all of the way back and even then her knees were still resting on my freaking dashboard. While I try not to make fun of people because of their attributes all I can really say is, fuck. I am a bit chunky in the middle and starting to go bald as well so I'm certainly no spring chicken but this woman has got to be 300 pounds or I'm fucking Barack Obama. Jesus Christ. Her ass looks like a sack with two weasels fighting as she walks. How can you not take care of yourself to the point where your ass is heavier than my fucking eleven year old and five times as wide? Or perhaps I'm just being too judgemental...

What really sucks is that an hour after rescuing them and taking them home she called me needing a ride to work. Fuck. I could have sent one of my waitresses but she has this little bitty sports car so the chick wouldn't fit on the roof much inside the fucking thing.

My car still smells bad. I think maybe I'll stop and pick up a couple of air fresheners and just let them sit on my passenger seat for a couple of days. Either that or leave my dog out in the rain and then take him for a ride in my car. The smell would be a major improvement...

Hopefully all of you folks out there are having a great Thanksgiving, even those of you who don't celebrate.

This year is sort of a first for me on Thanksgiving and it's not a good thing. Those of you that know me from my old site know that I run several restaurants so Holidays are not something I get to spend with my family. We celebrate Christmas on whatever days I happen to be off closest to Christmas. Most years it's the weekend prior to the holiday. Last year we celebrated a couple of days later. My kids are used to Santa coming at weird times.

Thanksgiving though isn't a huge holiday in the restaurant business. You get a great breakfast and then it dies around 11am and picks back up from 7pm until about 10. No big deal. I've always managed to shoot out of work in time for the family to drive to my aunt's house in Stone Mountain. This year however, due to my grandmothers health, they are eating at 2pm. I'll be lucky to get out of work by 2:30 and that's if my three store managers get all of their shit done on time. I don't leave until they do. There's no way for me to make the hour and a half drive to Stone Mountain so this year the wife and girls will be attending without me. Sort of depressing actually. I had to go in to work supper supervision tonight and the entire way to my Bremen store I was cursing under my breath and had decided that this would be my last fucking set of holidays working. It won't happen of course but I certainly am not very happy about it.

I guess once I get out of there I'll come home and put up some more Christmas decorations and then take a nap or something. Hopefully the wife will bring me a nice plate of turkey and dressing.

So glad I can be one of them.

So my Internet connection is down as I am writing this although by the time you read this it will be back up :)

This has been one of the hardest weeks I've had in quite some time, hell really the last month. The week prior to my vacation and the blogmeet was extremely long. Most of the days were 12+ hours. Since I got back to work I have had one day off in the last fourteen and that was eleven days ago. Each of them has been 10-14 hours and I don't think a single day has gone by that someone hasn't called in on me. Yesterday I was hung all three shifts and just barely managed to avoid working a triple shift. I'm too old for that shit. Today was the last day on one of my manager's vacation, one of the other store managers is off and the third one fucking called in. Called in. What a crock of shit.

I spoke with her this afternoon and after reading her the riot act about her fucking employees jacking their jaws on their cell phones all day I let her know that she had to make up the hours that I had to pay out to cover the shift she should have been cooking. She wasn't too happy about that but she was even less happy about the phone thing because she is just as bad as her employees. I told her they could no longer be on the phone at work and she tried to tell me that it was OK when they were outside smoking, at which point I had to tell her, NO it is not OK, they are to leave them at home and if I see them they will be confiscated. Lately a couple of them have had bluetooth devices and I just want to snatch them off of their fucking ears. Luckily common sense came to me just before I grabbed one yesterday.

Oh well, I've had a smoke and a cup of coffee and now the connection is back up. Time to find some crimes to blog about.

later, dudes and dudettes

Damn this has been one rough week. One of my guys is on his ten-day vacation right now. In itself that's no big deal. I'm used to running my stores when the managers are off. The problem is that I've had several folks sick this week so I am trying to get their shifts covered and having to run my other two stores as each of those managers gets their two days off. I drove back and forth between three towns all morning getting my weekly paperwork and payroll closed out, cooked in one store for a bit, all the while listening to people fucking whine about this and that. All in a days work I suppose. Better than the alternative of not having a job.

I have eight more days until I get a day off. I'm already tired and grouchy so I can only imagine what I'll be like to work with a week from now.

On a brighter note, I've got sort of a Jerry Springer type thing going on in the comments at Shadowscope. Check out this discussion and tell me what you think. I'll take my entertainment where I can get it and these fuckers are really making me laugh. Perhaps I shouldn't get my kicks at someone else's expense but this group of folks seems to have brought their misery onto themselves.

That's about it for tonight. I only put up one post at the other site and updated another. Just not in the mood for it I guess. I think I'll just hit the sack early. Won't be long until 4:30 rolls around and I have to roll my happy ass out of the bed. Hell, my alarm went off for an hour this morning before I ever even heard it.

Today is my first day off in eleven fucking days. I started out getting phone calls at 7:09AM and it didn't stop until just a few minutes ago. Neither the relief manager who was running my Bremen store or the manager in training that was running my Temple store bothered to fucking show up or call for staffing at shift change tonight so I got to spend my fucking evening running around staffing one store and getting bread and checks since nobody bothered to pull them out. The other store wouldn't answer the phone so i had to drive there next.

When I got there the ringer on the phone wasn't working and when I asked the employees if they had wondered why nobody had called them they just looked at me like I had two fucking heads. Goddamn brainless fucks.