Mad ex-Fastfood Worker

[YourCapnSpeaking]

First off, I'll let you know that the situation I am about to describe happened in about September in 2002.

I used to work at a Sonic Drive-In. Well, I was a lowly underling and at the bottom of the food chain at the place, and there was this one female manager. Her name is Tammy (screw the innocent) and she has a real problem. She does not like the white man. She loves everyone except for a white male, and she made this very evident to all of us that worked there.

Whenever I was doing one job, she would have me do something small whenever it was slow. However, when I would be returning from the chore or still doing it, she would scream at me to get back to work. I put up with this for only about four weeks, since she had started working weekends and used to work the day shift when I was in school. But, as luck would have it, I normally had weekend shifts.

The head manager was also a pain in the butt towards the end of my employment at this place. His name was David (once again, screw the innocent). He liked me for some reason ... I have no clue why, though I am easy to get along with. Anyway, towards the last two weeks of my employment, I was considering quitting my dead end job here unless I could get off working weekend shifts and start working Monday-Fridays. Well, I had gone one week with no hours, and I didn't think nothing of it since it ocassionally happened. However, come the second week, once again, no more hours.

So, I decided to call up the place and I got in touch with DeAndre, the guy in charge of giving people shifts. So I asked for some hours and told him the times that I wanted and he said he would try and get me some hours. Well, on Sunday, I went in that afternoon to see if the schedule had been posted before 6pm (it sometimes happened) and it had not. I did talk with David and we talked briefly, not about my lack of hours, though. So I call up later that night around 8pm to get my new schedule for the week because I was sure I would be getting some time, plus it is required to check.

Well, David answered the phone and has the gall to tell me that I am no longer employed!!!! I was only there like 4 hours earlier, maybe a little more, and he couldn't get the balls to tell me then?! He told me over the phone! ARGH! To this day, it still angers me and I vow never to work in fast-food unless it is a deli.

Has anyone had either of these situations happen to them or something similar? Let me know.

[m]

Ha ha! I feel your pain. I remember my days at a Denny's where I was a bus boy. At one point in the space of several weeks, I worked all three shifts, not in a row, but enough to mess up your biological clock. We had to keep a fake smile on our faces. Anyway, I had been accepted to do an internship and gave two weeks notice, you know, like you're supposed to do?

Come to find out I wasn't scheduled the next day or week. I could have used that little extra money. Instead I was, what's that PC phrase they use? Ah, I was "let go." Brilliant reason! It was felt that because I knew I was leaving that I wouldn't be giving my "all" the last few days I'd be working there. Flawed reasoning since I gave good service the year I worked there so why would I screw that up?

Did they give you an employee manual to read? You know, the patronising one that tells you what a broom is for? And you just came from a computer class. Yep, they sho' do trust the learner.

[YourCapnSpeaking]

Actually, I did get a manual similar to something like that. In fact, I got two. One that explained the pay thing (which I liked) and the rest was basically a publicity thing telling you that you were working for the greatest company ever. Sure, there were procedures in the back, but it was short.

When I signed up, I got put in front of a TV and was forced to watch like 3-4 tapes on different jobs. They went through stupid detail through stupid detail on how to place lettuce on a burger. I mean, I know for some people making a burger may be difficult, but the fact that I live in the southern United States (not Podunk, USA; I live in a rapidly growing town) they think we can't make burgers. I mean, the southern BBQ is like a staple here ... ah well, that's corporate America for you.

[m]

Add to that I remember duplicating video tapes for another job I had. One of our clients was a major pizza maker. The preciseness and no-room-for-error the way these pizzas are to be made -- made these videos fun to watch. But I had to think, "I didn't know it was so hard. I just put the stuff on and it's great."