Come again?

[Ombrenuit]

I guess I'm warming up a bit too much to the collegiate environment--oh that refuge of rational thinking, that pursuit of truth.

 

I've been working at a local bagel place for a few months now, but it's been a rocky relationship. I've been written up for telling a manager "Thanks for the help, but I know what I'm doing," and instead of telling me he was offended or what-have-you, he cries to his superior like a 4th grader instead of discussing it with me. I only said it because I was getting the feeling like the new manager was unaware of how much I knew, though I was being treated like I was still in training. I just wanted him to know that I knew much more than I was being given credit.

 

And it was certainly a blast to get chewed out for fucking up a "mystery shopper" by not upselling her a large coke. How is upselling a ) even effective, as I've never had a single person not know they were thirsty when they came up to the register. And b ) how is it even ethical considering America's obesity problem to try to sell people bigger items than they need?

 

Hell, I remember my first few days when a customer asked me what I recommended and I offered my favorite sandwich, and right after my manager told me that that was in fact not what I recommend, but that my opinion this week was a turkey sandwich. Next week? Roast beef. I don't even eat red meat.

 

Regardless, I'm quitting and I'm on my last two days. But of course something had to happen right?

 

I couldn't get the computer to recognize a coupon that was simply a dollar fifty off of an "Egg bagel". I get my assistant manager and she can't figure it out--so she gets Mark, the store manager. He tries to tell me that it only works with "Egg bagels", not Egg, Cheese, and Sausage or any combination of a breakfast egg bagel. And my crime? Disagreeing. And I thought by this point I was being a good loyal employee. I just didn't have that down quite yet.

 

"But Mark, on the coupon it has a picture of an egg, cheese, and bacon bagel." He curled his lip like he was going to slap me upside the head, and then bitched me out about how you "Never tell a superior that he's wrong." Come again? I thought I was just helping out, but I'm continually learning more and more that I'm just a machine in front of a register. I'm dehumanized and reduced to nothing but a mouth owned by them and a set of hands and legs. I don't think for myself and I blindly appease my superiors, of which I can never respectfully disagree with or oppose in anyway. What always seems to get me in trouble is that I can't seem to leave my cognitive thinking at the door.

 

I'm beginning to wonder if society isn't just some confused, jumbled by product of humanity's greed.

[oDDity]

Ahh, the joys of being self-employed...

 

I would never work in, or even eat in, any franchised outlet.

However, since such rudimentary, repetitive low paid jobs (which could literally be done by a simple robot) are only for those without the skills or qualifications to get anything better, you can hardly blame the management for treating the staff like imbeciles.

Once you get skills and qualifications in whatever it is you're studying, then you can get a job which has some serious decisions for you to make.

That's really all payscales are. Company directors get paid more than the rest of the staff combined, because the decisions they have to make are more important then anyone else's, and a mistake could cost the company millions.

[Unstoppable]

Well working in food places is always a pain in the ass. So I know where you're coming from. Just be glad one day you'll be making more money than anyone working there. Just a bunch of assholes that think they know more than you.

[Komag]

That's a funny post Om, good read. There ARE better companies out there, ones that actually realize their employees are "assets" and not just cost drains, and treat them so. But bottom of the scale food service industry is not a place where you usually find bright employees.

 

I recently ordered a pizza on the phone and the hispanic guy tried to tell me they didn't have jalapenos because he was looking at the list and it's not there. I got the manager on the line and I could hear them talking in the background and the worker was like "galapenos? with a J???". He didn't know how to freaking READ! Imagine trying to manage that sort, you might get a bit obtuse over time.

[Vadrosaul]

At least you're "upselling" yourself out of retail

[sparhawk]

I've been working at a local bagel place for a few months now, but it's been a rocky relationship. I've been written up for telling a manager "Thanks for the help, but I know what I'm doing," and instead of telling me he was offended or what-have-you, he cries to his superior like a 4th grader instead of discussing it with me. I only said it because I was getting the feeling like the new manager was unaware of how much I knew, though I was being treated like I was still in training. I just wanted him to know that I knew much more than I was being given credit.

 

And I thought that the portraing in movies are overdone to make it look more funny. Apparently this is real live.

 

And it was certainly a blast to get chewed out for fucking up a "mystery shopper" by not upselling her a large coke. How is upselling a ) even effective, as I've never had a single person not know they were thirsty when they came up to the register. And b ) how is it even ethical considering America's obesity problem to try to sell people bigger items than they need?

 

What's "upselling"?

 

Hell, I remember my first few days when a customer asked me what I recommended and I offered my favorite sandwich, and right after my manager told me that that was in fact not what I recommend, but that my opinion this week was a turkey sandwich. Next week? Roast beef. I don't even eat red meat.

 

LOL. That reminds me of that movie "office space" where the girl also has such problems with her manager who tries to tell her the she WANTS to express her feeling wearing stupid buttons, because the shop is named after these buttons and when she says that she already wears all the buttons that she feels representing her mood, he tells her that she certainly has more feelings than that. Well, that's the gist of it, but you get the idea.

 

Regardless, I'm quitting and I'm on my last two days. But of course something had to happen right?

 

Is this some kind of fast food shop you are working there?

 

"But Mark, on the coupon it has a picture of an egg, cheese, and bacon bagel." He curled his lip like he was going to slap me upside the head, and then bitched me out about how you "Never tell a superior that he's wrong." Come again?

 

LOL! In the army they told me a similar thing, because I never could keep my mouth shut. I had by far the most weekend services because of that.

 

I thought I was just helping out, but I'm continually learning more and more that I'm just a machine in front of a register. I'm dehumanized and reduced to nothing but a mouth owned by them and a set of hands and legs. I don't think for myself and I blindly appease my superiors, of which I can never respectfully disagree with or oppose in anyway. What always seems to get me in trouble is that I can't seem to leave my cognitive thinking at the door.

 

I knew a girl who also worked in such a shop in Austria, and she also had problems because of this. She even tried to get the other workers becoming a bit more selfresponsible and consequently got fired because of that. The best worker they had, was a guy who had a limited mind and really enjoyed the work there. I guess these are the best employees for such a job. He was always happy when he could clean the desk, and he often told me that he will soon be advanced to be allowed to sell coffee. For all I know he might still clean the desks...

[sparhawk]

Imagine trying to manage that sort, you might get a bit obtuse over time.

 

Yesterday I was at McDonalds after many months avoiding it. I had to go, because my daughter got a good grade, and we promised her, so we had to go. I must say I don't like the food there at all. Either it got worse, or my taste changed, because I remember that I enjoyed at least some of it a few years ago.

Anyway, maybe I'm too old nowadays, because I ordered a "regular" Royal. The waiter looked at me as if I were dumb and asked several times if I wanted a Royal TS (which is the same but with additional salad) and I said, no, I want a regular one. After several tries she finally manmaged to remember that there are indeed two types, one with cheese and one with salad, so I finally got what I wanted. To make it even worse, my smaller daughter decided in the meantime that she wanted a burger instead of chicken, but my wife stopped me from trying to explaining this to the waiter as well as it already took so long to get what we wanted. It shouldn't have been a problem to change that, because she hadn't had prepared it yet, but I guess it was safer to not even trying it.

I already hate it, when I go to such a "restaurant" and see the blank look when I start to order. They have some expectations, and if you order differently (no pommes no menu, just a burger and some coke), then they get out of focus and their brain no longer works. You can really start seeing the smoke billowing out of their heads, when their CPU starts to get overloading when they try to process such a request.

[oDDity]

What's "upselling"?

Trying to make customers spend as much money as possible.

Pretty standard practice in any retail industry. It is a business after all, and there's no room for conscientious objectors - just because you watched 'Supersize Me' doesn't mean you can get all uppity about company policy.

[OrbWeaver]

I think your expectations are too high if you expect to be treated like a valuable individual in a food outlet. Hell, I work for a large IT company which is supposed to value innovative thinking and they still treat their employees like gullible conformist dipshits.

[New Horizon]

I think your expectations are too high if you expect to be treated like a valuable individual in a food outlet. Hell, I work for a large IT company which is supposed to value innovative thinking and they still treat their employees like gullible conformist dipshits.

 

It's pretty much the same everywhere these days, and it's despicable. I count my blessings that I'm self employed too...even if money is tight, I don't think I could hack being owned like that anymore.

[Unstoppable]

Hmm well at least you got waiters at your MC Donald's. I'm pretty tired of fast food myself.

[sparhawk]

Hmm well at least you got waiters at your MC Donald's. I'm pretty tired of fast food myself.

 

Maybe that's a language issue and I used the term wrongly. I didn't mean a guy who comes to the table, because such guys don't exist at McDonalds. I meant the guy who collects the money and hands you the tray.

[oDDity]

It's pretty much the same everywhere these days, and it's despicable. I count my blessings that I'm self employed too...even if money is tight, I don't think I could hack being owned like that anymore.

 

Well, that's all employment is really. You are literally selling your mind and body to someone for a certain number of hours per week for a set amount of money.

[SplaTtzZ]

Man, you think Bagels are bad? Try working retail in a liquor store for the country's largest chain of supermarkets. The filthiest, most reprehensible dregs of human society shuffle daily into our store like zombies; pawing orgiastically at the Jim Beam displays or $4 sparkling wines that I painstakingly shelve every Sunday night. As They gibber, drool and stumble their way to the counter; I console myself with the fact that someday they'll drink themselves into oblivion and won't ever come back.

They also smell; they have this stench of sweat, urine and a 5 pack-a-day habit that physically hits you like a wall. I have to stand 2 feet away from some of my customers and hold my breath because of that smell. Then there's the ones with diseases, like the guy who's a Leper; and if he isn't a Leper he has some disease equally serious because his skin flakes of his face like dandruff. I serve hundreds of people a day, and there must be about 20% who i wouldn't cross the street to piss on if they were on fire.

Alot of them are just a series of mismanaged bodily functions, like the ones who, swaying on their feet, eyes blurring in and out of focus, mumble through the spittle in the fetid, cavernous orifice they call a mouth about 'seeing a manager' after they've been refused. And I daren't even mention the other orifices they have. I have to routinely write up incident reports about refusing people for 'being fucking stupid' as they lack the hand/eye coordination to pull money out of their wallet or swipe their credit card. They might be drunk or not; but I figure I'm doing society a favour by not allwoing such mental deficits the right to buy alcohol.

 

A typical conversation in one of my shifts goes thusly:

Me: Hi, can I see some ID please?

Customer who looks 12 yrs old: What?

Me: Can i see your identification

Young Customer: Why?

Me: you need to be over 18 to buy alcohol, and you need to prove it

Young Customer: Are you serious?

Me: Do I look like I'm joking?

Young Customer: Fuck man...

(Hands over ID)

Me: Oh wow, gee, you're 19 yrs old! Hah, how could I even possibly think you were under 18. You're fucking ancient!

Young Customer:Fuck you

(Leaves)

Customer who is about 100yrs old: Hur hur hur; do you need to see my ID? hur hur

Me: My god thats hilarious, side-splitting, I'll bet you could inspire Oscar Wilde.

 

Seriously, I've had that very same conversation about 1000 times now. It's getting to the point now where I feel like buying a gun. And this is just the customers; wait till you hear about my superiors.

About the only perks my job has is the fact that under current legislation i can refuse customers for any reason whatsoever and after 3 pm (the time when every manager in the store decides to have an early mark) I can do what i like, including swearing at customers and dressing shabbily in my uniform.

 

It might actually sound like an ideal job to some till you realise that I get at least one death threat every fortnight (and you never know when they might actually follow through) and i have to deal with disgusting people who either drunk, high, stupid, crazy or a combination of them all. All this on a minimum wage. I can't even stand to drink anymore! If I weren't a student who needed part-time work on weekends I'd be gone in a flash.

Edited October 16, 2007 by SplaTtzZ

[oDDity]

Think yourself lucky.

Now imagine you're a nurse in a medical center, and you get those same smelly, diseased 'dregs of society' shuffling in, but now you have to strip them and touch them in intimate places.

[sparhawk]

Last time I was in a hospital, they never touched anybody in "intimate places". Don't know where you were and what "nurses" did treat you.

[oDDity]

Well, there are several nurses at my hospital to whom I'd pay money to be touched in intimate places. Acquiring an STD might have a higher chance of success, but knowing my luck I'd end up with one that has a face like a bag of spanners.

[sparhawk]

[SplaTtzZ]

Hey you know what i never thought about it that way! I still think about 20% of the customers who come into my store are just about the lowest forms of life on the planet though. Amoebas probably have more intelligence; and the ones that argue really piss me off. Though then again i imagine working in a public hospital as you suggest would be pretty rough at times.

 

I wonder what the absolute worst job of our times is?

[oDDity]

I'd say working as a nurse in a children's hospital ward. Spending your life regularly seeing kids in pain and with terminal illness and dying must be terrible.

[demagogue]

I'm watching the news and apparently some statistical report just came out saying that the highest rate of depression in jobs this last year was young people in food service. So I guess it's official.

 

Worst job of our times?

 

If you count it as a job, maybe crack dealers... "Studies show that timber cutters, the most dangerous job according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, have a 1-in-200 chance of being killed, while the Black Disciples gang of Chicago's crack dealers have a 1-in-4 chance of being killed while earning a salary of $3.30 an hour (well below the minimum wage, and the reason crack dealers live with their mothers)." (link)

 

That's just pathetic.

Edited October 16, 2007 by demagogue

[Vadrosaul]

Really puts Tyler Durden's speech into perspective

[SplaTtzZ]

I would probably agree and have to say the worst jobs would have to do with drugs and the like or rehabilitation stuff.

 

I have a mate who recenly joined the police services here in sydney, but during his cadetship at the academy he decided to do community services for credit. And I'm not talking cleaning highways; he was part of a group who used to go into the seedy red light districts and gangland areas and known addict hangouts to clean up after them, mainly doing needle and sharps collection. Admittedly, Sydney's 'gangland' pales in comparison to the States or other countries but the stuff he told me about that he'd seen and what he has to deal with as a cop is pretty damn rough.

[Jeb]

During college I did full-time, back to back shifts for a summer at Taco Bell and Fazolies. The Register / Till at Taco Bell (or Toxic Hell as we liked to call it) was next to the ice machine. Once an older couple came in and ordered just as the ice machine kicked in. Being an older couple, they talked slow and very quiet. I had to ask the woman 3 times for her order because the machine was so loud. Her scrawny 80 year old husband got serious pissed and though I was harassing his wife. Granted, it wouldn't have been much of a fight as I'm 6'2" and have a pretty stocky build, but he said he was going to come over the counter and kick my butt. I only caught part of what he said because of the annoying loud ice machine. Fortunately he said it loud enough that I caught parts of it and just smiled. As much as I felt bad for them, I almost broke out laughing due to the humor of it all. They eventually got their order and left.

 

Fazolies was an "Italian" fast food joint. They have some defective equipment and safety measures in place. As I was making a 50 gallon batch of pasta sauce I noticed the can opener was leaving metal shavings inside the sauce. This in turn ruined the batch in my opinion. I informed the managers on staff and they said scrape off the stuff on the top of the batch. I told them it was in the entire batch b/c it was being mixed in. They wouldn't throw out the batch or replace the can opener, and ultimately a customer got a mouthful of the stuff. I guess they felt making a profit was worth more than the safety of their customers.

 

Regarding drugs, my wife is from Davao City, Philippines. Their mayor cleaned up a significant part of the drug problem there by creating the Death Squads. The name aptly applies because these groups of drug/law enforcement officers have the ok to kill drug offenders on sight. Even people suspected of ties to someone dealing/using drugs there have been killed or sent to life in prison.

 

One woman that we know is now in prison because her Chinese husband and her brother started a juice factory where they also processed drugs. She was unaware of this but now sits in prison. Her husband had left the country before the shakedown and she was taken into custody because they though she knew where her husband has gone. Her brother, if I'm not mistaken, was executed. The good news is that she wasn't executed, and her husband is gone so he can't beat her anymore. The bad news, she's in prison until her husband turns up.

 

Over there, the Death Squads are a serious deterrent to dugs, both to sell or to use.

 

Google: Philippines Death Squads

Edited October 17, 2007 by Jeb

[Nyarlathotep]

Death Squads are an improvement over crack-dealers? Sweet FSM, I'm glad I'm living in the States!