Firstly- Had a customer a couple mornings ago, in drive-thru. I greeted him, and he said he needed to check the menu first. No problem, I got some stuff done while waiting- five minutes later, he says he's ready:

Custy- Okay, I'll have some french toast sticks.

Me- Excuse me, sir?

Custy- I said I'll have some french toast sticks.

For those of you who work at Golden Arches, you know we don't serve those, so I politely told him:

Me- I'm sorry sir, we don't serve those.

Custy- *pause* Oh. Okay, well, then I'll have a croissanwich.

Okay, first time didn't bother me because hell, it happens. Second time would NOT have bothered me if he didn't stare at the menu for FIVE FUCKING MINUTES!

Luckily, this was when we first opened, so he didn't cause a line.

I told him politely but firmly "Sir, this is "McD"s, not "Booger King."

Meanwhile, my manager had a headset on because apparently he likes to listen to my interaction with the freaks I seem to attract (I HEART my managers lol). At that, I hear him howling up front- evidently, my morning cheerfulness gave way to dead pan. The guy ended up thanking me and driving off. We had a chuckle about it with our SM later on ( my managers are friggin AWESOME ).

Secondly- Yesterday, it was pouring bitches out. Since we weren't busy and our windows have an awning, I was having customers drive up to my window to order so they wouldn't get soaked.

This one woman didn't answer my greetings or my offer for her to drive up and order. At first I figured she didn't hear me so I was pretty much shouting over the downpour, to the point that my mod hollered, "Are you sure your headset's working?"

Finally she starts ordering, then stops. I ask her if that was everything:

Custy- Oh, I'm still deciding.

She starts ordering again, then stops. Once again, I ask if that was everything:

Custy- I'm not done yet, I'm still deciding.

Finally, after racking up a $37 order, she's done. I tell her the total, and that I'll see her at the first window. She pulls up looking like a drowned rat. I feel bad for her until she utters these gems-

Custy- *scowl* You need to cover your menu and speaker.

Ok- first of all, I greeted you three times, shouting each time. Second, I offered for you to drive up so you wouldn't get wet. Thirdly, if you have a big order and not sure what you want, COME THE FUCK INSIDE, YOU CRAZY BITCH! IT' S DRY AND YOU CAN TAKE ALL THE FUCKING TIME IN THE WORLD!!

*deep breath, neck crack*

As you can tell, a major pet peeve of mine is when someone either gets a big order in drive thru cuz then they get pissed when we have to park 'em or doesn't answer me with "Just a minute" if they're not sure what they want.

If they don't eat a lot of fast food, that's fine, I'll wait til they decide. At least acknowledge the poor shit working pit. Anyhoot, after that, My mod took over so I could go on break, and you know, stick my head in the fryer.

Side note, thank you to all my regulars for making this not-morning-person happy and cheerful, even at ungodly o'clock in the morning. You guys ROCK!

I've got other stories but those will be next time. Til then, may all your custies have an inkling of a brain cell.

--McNug

So a quick catch-up: Baker Bitch and I worked for a mid-priced hotel bakery, making pastries and breads for the hotel's restaurant, and the banquet halls adjoining. The bakery area was a tiny, galley-style, and you had to turn sideways to get past someone, it was that small. If you didn't like your co-workers, you were kind of screwed, being that close physically. Baker Bitch and I were the only ones working in the bakery at that point, and while I didn't hate her, I mostly tolerated her while secretly cleaning up her messes. Now, because the bakery was just the two of us, and open 7 days a week, there were days when our shifts overlapped, and days when we would work by ourselves and maybe leave notes to keep the other person up to speed. This story occurs when the schedule happened to be just BB on her own the first day, and me on my own the next.

There was a large-ish banquet scheduled for my day on, and I had mostly nothing to do with it, as the group had ordered cheesecake for dessert and Baker Bitch had made them the day before. All of the individual plating was done by the banquet staff, so I anticipated a quiet day of prep.

Not so fast, Without Nametag! Remember that your supervisor is Baker Bitch, who is not only ignorant, but thinks that she's Thognar's Gift to Baking. Near the end of the banquet, the staff very quietly approaches me (this very quiet approach was quickly becoming a common occurrence, and meant that BB had fucked something up again, which I would have to fix, also quietly). They brought me a slice of plated cheesecake (no really, "they" is correct: several people wanted to see my reaction), and asked who had made it. Baker Bitch, of course. It was pretty enough, white and creamy-looking, like cheesecake should be, but they appeared nervous. They told me that they were embarrassed to serve this cheesecake. They requested a tasting, which I did.

RHU, do you know what corn starch tastes like? Yep. Now, do you know what corn starch feels like? For lack of a better word, it feels squeaky. This cheesecake had both the mouth-feel and taste of corn starch. After several customer complaints, the banquet staff tried a slice and were horrified. They came running to me.

Do you remember my telling you that Baker Bitch was a vegan? Again, I think veganism is admirable. Many vegans follow this lifestyle because of deeply held beliefs, and it's not easy. The vegans that I can't stand, though, are judgmental vegans, the ones who look down on you for not making the same lifestyle choice as they do. Baker Bitch was this kind of vegan. She got on my case all the time.

I had developed blood-sugar issues earlier that year, and she insisted that my problems would go away if I became vegan. Um no, you dumbshit. My blood-sugar problems actually improve when I consume more animal protein. Don't tell me that beans will provide me enough protein, you're not a fucking doctor.

Back to the story: Baker Bitch, in her infinite, self-righteous wisdom, decided to make enough vegan cheesecakes to feed a banquet of 100 + people, and not say anything. This way, when people came back raving about how good the cheesecake was, she could happily declare that it was vegan, and wouldn't they all be pleasantly surprised? (There is no doubt in my mind that this was how it played out in her mind. I can see the smarmy smile on her face, too.) This was not what the client had ordered. And they were not happy with it.

How did her "brilliant" plan go so horribly wrong? Baking is like chemistry: one cannot simply substitute one ingredient for another without the possibility of failure. A new recipe requires experimentation before the recipe is acceptable, and the ratios of dry and wet ingredients must remain within certain limits in order to bake correctly. Vegan food prep is similar: simply swapping out one vegan ingredient for a non-vegan one rarely works as well as intended, and it will always taste different than the original. Well-done vegan cooking and baking occurs when the chef/baker has spent a while experimenting with the substitutions in a certain recipe and has found a happy medium of taste, consistency, and vegan ingredients. Baker Bitch had not done this. She had swapped out vegan ingredients and probably ended up with a mixture that was too soupy, and so added corn starch... too much corn starch. Sadly, I imagine that she had brought her own vegan substitute ingredients from home, as the restaurant did not stock items like that.

Like many stories on RHU, this one does not have a happy ending. If the banquet had been a small meeting, say 10 people or so, I could have pulled some of the restaurant's desserts and given those to the banquet staff to serve instead. But this was 100 + people. There was no way that I could have found anything that quickly to feed that many people an alternate dessert on the fly.

So the client complained. And I think (I hope) that the head chef gave an earful to Baker Bitch when she came in next. I imagine that she told him that she wouldn't pull any more crap like that in the future. Unfortunately, that's the end. I can't imagine how many of those people at that banquet advised others to stay away from the baked goods at our hotel: "The food is good, but the desserts are inedible."

May you live a thousand years and never eat Corn Starch Cheesecake,

--Without Nametag

Huff Po: Business cards -- so often they're exchanged, slipped inside a wallet and promptly forgotten. We imagine that's not so with the cards for Brazilian cheese shop Bon Vivant, which hired ad agency JWT to come up with a card that cuts through the competition. And they did, literally, with a business card that doubles as a cheese grater.

According to JWT's web site, Bon Vivant customers quickly snatched up the 1,000 total cards that were made. Bon Vivant owner, Beto Rogoski, said that the store had to establish a rule that customers receiving a card had to wait two or three days before coming back and snagging another one.

Don't worry about it ruining your back pocket -- the card comes in a protective sleeve.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

A Cover Letter

I was recently on glassdoor.com which asked me to write the pros and cons of a company. My former employer, RadioShack, immediately came to mind. Before I left there, I wrote a letter to my Regional Manager in regards to my district manager. Now, I didn’t expect anything to come of this letter, mostly because the Regional Manager, Bill Mynett, was a Napoleonic little man who had been hired from Blockbuster. He, in turn, placed former Blockbuster employees in District Manager positions, who did the same with store manager positions. One such District Manager was my former…Reginald Weekly.

The Letter: (Part 3)

After all the complaining Reggie did all year about my wireless performance, I was the number 1 store in the district, in December, in post paid gross profit and comp; Instead of him acknowledging this accomplishment Reggie called me to chastise me about my battery sales and the fact that I was under 27 hours for the week.

On Monday morning, December 31st 2012, I went to my store on my day off to do the deposit and leave instructions for my assistant manager. My assistant didn’t have a car, so I would often do the deposit on my day off for him. I found a letter sitting on the fax machine which was left there from the night before from my employee Shante. In the letter to Reggie, Shante claimed that I would stand over her shoulder when she gave African American people their change, and that I told African American customers that our computer was down when they wanted to buy cell phones.

The register in my store had been $310 short in December, on 3 occasions. Each time the register was short, Shante was working with either the assistant manager who’s worked there for over a year or Stephanie, who’d been there for six months. I never had money missing from the register when either of them worked, nor had I ever had money missing from my register in all the years I worked at RadioShack. I wrote Chris, Stephanie, AND Shante a verbal warning the first time we were short $170 and went over with them, at length, the procedures of handling cash. I did this at Reggie’s behest. I also told them all that nobody thinks they were stealing money, I just think one of them made a mistake. Part of my instruction to Shante involved her counting out the customers change in front of them for her safety and theirs. Over the next few weeks, I found Shante ignoring my instruction on several occasions, in which she would grab a wad of cash from the register and hand it back to the customer. Then we were $40 short on a Saturday evening after she worked.

After I told Reggie, he told me to give SHANTE a written warning. I spoke with her about the missing money, explaining to her once again that I didn’t think she was deliberately mishandling funds, but she needed to be more careful. So yes, I absolutely watched Shante carefully when she was handing out change to anybody, not just African Americans. I felt justified in doing this as we were again short by $100 after Shante worked. Each time she worked I found money in the wrong parts of the register; 20’s mixed in with 5’s, 10’s mixed in with 20’s and so on, which is why I felt she just wasn’t paying attention to what she was doing when it came to handling cash.

Next, as anyone in Reggie’s district will tell you, Reggie asked us to use common sense when turning away fraudulent cell phone customers. So, as Shante had only been with the company for a month she didn’t know why I told customers we didn’t have a phone when we did, or that our computers were down so we couldn’t process their sale. It was because there was no hologram on the customer’s driver’s license, or the customers didn’t know each other but claimed to be relatives, or some other thing that sparked suspicion. This is something that I trained my entire staff to look for in any customer, as all of the managers in the district did per Reggie’s instruction. There was nothing I wanted to do more than sell phones in my store because it was the only time that I didn’t feel like I was about to get fired. However, I wasn’t going to let fraud slip by on my watch just to make a sale.

(It should be noted here that in 2012, the Tinley Park RadioShack had the lowest fraudulent phone sales at 2 for the whole year, while the next lowest was 23. One store in Reggie’s district lost 112 THOUSAND dollars in fraudulent phone sales)

My point in telling you this though is that the way in which Reggie handled this employee issue is just another example of his unprofessionalism. Since the fax didn’t go through and I found it SITTING on the fax machine, I called Reggie, who was once again off of work through the first week of the New Year. I told him that I found a letter for him on the fax machine, and I proceeded to read it to him verbatim. In her letter Shante wrote, “Like I told you in the other letter,” and at the end she wrote “I hope this helps.” I asked Reggie if there was something he’d like to talk to me about because Shante said “in the other letter”, to which Reggie said he didn’t know what I was talking about and that he never got another letter from Shante. Then he told me he was off until Wednesday and hung up the phone. Being in retail for as long as I’ve been, it’s my understanding that if Shante felt she was being treated unfairly, she could absolutely go to Reggie if she didn’t feel comfortable coming to me. Then Reggie, as my superior would bring the issue to me, keeping Shante’s confidence, so that he could hear my side and we could come to a resolution. However, instead of confronting me, discussing the issue with me, or treating me or Shante’s complaint with a modicum of respect or decorum, Reggie simply lied. I got the distinct feeling that Reggie put Shante up to this letter as a means to fire me.

It was quite clear to me from his inclusionary management methods that Reggie was a racist. He just didn’t like white people and he treated me and the only other white manager in his district with the same disregard. During the course of 2012, we were the ONLY 2 managers never taken to lunch by Reggie. Reggie often told me that I needed to hire hot black women in my store while lambasting my white employee’s appearances. And when Reggie would interview potential employees at my store, there was never ONE white person in the groups. However, it was a friend of mine who used to work at Blockbuster for Reggie, who would confirm my suspicions. Reggie never knew I was friends with this individual, but he managed the Blockbuster near my old RadioShack location on Archer and Central. Reggie was his district manager at Blockbuster for a time and he told me how Reggie was fired from Blockbuster after HE and many other managers complained to Human Recourses that Reggie was a bigot. I got along with most of Reggie’s management choices, however it should be noted that 6, SIX of the individuals he hired to manage stores, including Lawrence before me at Tinley, were fired for either stealing or being paid by customers to make fraudulent phone sales. This is not a statement on African Americans, but on Reggie’s track record with hiring.

These are the stresses I had to deal with daily from Reginald Weekly. I was put in a constant fear of losing my job coupled with the daily disappointment of feeling left out and singled out. Instead of concentrating on customers; I felt that I always had to concentrate on being one step ahead of Reggie firing me. It’s unfathomable that anyone should have to work under these conditions. Reggie made working for RadioShack untenable, and if I wasn’t able to turn the Tinley Park store back into the million dollar store it was years ago, the fault lies at Reggie’s feet. These are not excuses; these are clear precise examples of the hostile work environment that Reginald Weekly created while I worked for him.

(End part 3)

--via http://generaldouchebaggery.com/

So they waited until the building had to renovate, and raised a zoning stink and dragged the nonprofit through court until they could no longer afford the fight, and sold. By the way, THE PROPERTY NEVER WAS FOR SALE. And then the company CEO had the gall to state:

"Company CEO John Barrett has long said it was time for the women at the Anna Louise to leave the neighborhood to make way for economic development. He plans to turn the building into a boutique hotel and envisions transforming the neighborhood into a hub of activity with restaurants and bars.

"This truly is a win for everyone and will make Lytle Park a destination like no other," Barrett said in a Monday news release announcing the Anna Louise sale.

Barrett, who has repeatedly declined requests for an interview, has become a loathed figure at the Anna Louise, not only for his tireless efforts to acquire the property but also for the way he has talked about the women living there, repeatedly referring to them as recovering prostitutes and saying they just don't belong in the neighborhood."

One more way money > people's lives.

By the way, eminent domain can be used for 'economic development', as in, building a Walmart over a prized Asian market.

--ShelterDoll

This story takes place when I have about 3-4 years under my belt so by this point nothing really shakes me off my rocker.

I was working alone on counter, my supervisor was in drive thru and it was just us running the floor. This is a typical night for me, both of us are awesome at the job and we throw in some laughs here and there. I'm on counter happily taking orders when a girl in her late teens orders a sandwich.

Already I'm praying for the customers to please be patient as there is a line up of about 5 people still and it's slowly growing. I run over with her to the sandwich counter and start at it. I'm literally wrapping this ladies completed sandwich in a good amount of time when all I hear from the cash is;

"CAN YOU SEND ONE OF THE OTHER GIRLS DOWN HERE TO THE CASH?!"

Everyone in the store turns to stare at him and I politely call back with a normal tone of voice, because by now the entire restaurant is silent;

"I'm sorry sir I'm just finishing up her sandwich, I will be right there."

"NOT MY PROBLEM!"

In the next few seconds I hand her the sandwich, and she leans over and whispers; "Good luck..."

I nod with a smile and go right into it. The next orders are punched out in under 30 seconds. I get to the customer, and by now he's agitated.

"Large double double WITH MILK."

"Yes sir-"

"Make sure it's with MILK NOT CREAM!"

Okay normally I'm completely nice, this guy has been a complete ass. So I did a little revenge of my own. A common mistake that I've seen TONS of workers do at other branches. Not stirring coffee. I swirled it around with the spoon and put a lid on it. With the biggest smile I could give I handed it to him. What happens is if the coffee isn't stirred you end up with a huge pile of sugar at the bottom. Making it very sweet. I've never seen this guy before so I never expected to see him again. Guess again.

I spotted him in the line up again about a few days later and this time when he came up he gave me a knowing smile and happily placed his order which I gladly made correctly. Since then he requested me when I was on shift to personally make him his coffee if someone didn't make it to his standards. We have had friendly conversations and he became a regular at the store. I looked forward to seeing him everytime he came in and he would always have the biggest smile. A complete 180 from that night. Or maybe that swirl really was all his drink needed...

WARNING: Attempting revenge on a crusty is not recommended. I got lucky with a 1 in a million chance.

--Canadia