Preamble:
This story takes place on a Sunday evening in December, about 5:30pm. It unfortunately depicts a growing population of people who don’t know how to do their job properly, and or, don’t care!
In this story the featured subject is a female, possibly between the ages of 20 to 30.
This person is employed at a fast food establishment (I will not mention the name but it could be called a Joke in the Box) and she is probably working for minimum wage.
The establishment is located in a high traffic area.
For this story and in real life, I am always aware of, and evaluating employees at any and all business. I quickly decide whether they are above, at or below average employees. You can call me prejudges if you want, I do quickly evaluate (AKA judge) employees (within the first few seconds) and I am most often correct in my judgment.
In this story I will tell you of a problem and attempt to provide the solution.
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It was a Sunday evening as darkness descended on The Ford Homestead. I was sitting comfortably in my recliner considering possibilities for supper. I asked my present spouse if she had any thoughts about supper. Her reply was, “I hadn’t thought about it but now that you bring it up I could eat something. I asked if she would want me to go to one of the hamburger joints fast food establishments and procure us a couple sandwiches.
After a debate on the subject (men like to have short verbal exchanges not discussions) we decided on Chicken sandwiches. My spouse went through her stack of coupons and found one for a particular establishment which was about a half mile further from the house than the other establishments. It might have been less expensive to pay full price at a closer establishment but…
During my daunting drive on this dark, cold and foreboding evening I had passed through the sixth traffic light and moved into the left turn lane on my final approach to the establishment. Suddenly, it became apparent that there were no lights on around the building and the interior was very dimly lit. Is the place closed? Why, it isn’t a holiday? There was a lot of traffic which slowed my efforts to turn onto their parking lot.
Continuing to evaluate the situation, I noticed a couple cars parked on their lot. Maybe they are open, I thought.
Finally, there was a break in the traffic and I was able to execute a left turn on to the lot, parking next to the handicapped spot, I could see one person inside the building. Using my enormous intellect, I rapidly evaluated the situation. A dark parking lot, dim lighting inside the building, one man standing there with something in his hand. He is either waiting on his order or, he may be in the process of armed robbery. Being a scaredy cat cautious person, I continued to observe this male Caucasian Suspect. I was able to distinguish that he had a drink in his hand and not a gun. Feeling somewhat safer, I entered the establishment.
I approached the counter with coupon in hand and waited for an employee to assist me. I stood there for what seemed to be an eternity, not seeing any employees.
Then it happened! There she was, Miss I don’t want to be here, you are bothering me, why do I have to talk to you, and she will never win the, “Miss Congeniality award”. If you haven’t noticed, I did immediately judge this person.
I, being a helpful person and with a cheerful smile on my face commented, I thought you were closed, there are no lights on around the outside of the building and your parking lot is very dark.
This wonderful person did not respond to my comment instead she asked, “Can I take your order”. I wanted to correct her by explaining, proper grammar would be, “may I take your order” and that question should be followed up with the magic word, “please”. Knowing this person was going to handle food that I was going to order, I decided to keep my mouth shut for a change. I gave her my order and received two drink cups which I had to fill.
As I waited for my order I observed the interior of the establishment. It appeared to be clean but it was difficult to tell as they had very dim lighting in the building. I have (in the olden days) been in sleazy bars that had better lighting. I did notice that many of the light fixtures were not activated (turned off).
My thought pattern went something like this; (1) possibly they are trying to save money by reducing the lighting or, (2) they are attempting to present the allusion that they are closed so no customers will come in and bother them, the second option seemed to be working.
After getting my drinks and waiting a couple minutes for the food, she called my number, “321” I approached the counter. She was looking at the monitor and asked, “Did your order have cookies”? I replied, “I believe it did”. She got the cookies and placed them in the bag. “Do you want ketchup”, she asked, I answered “yes please”. She grabbed a hand full and tossed them into the bag. These ketchup packets have probably been handled by many personnel who never wash their hands, and most likely sneezed on by some, still they are thrown into the sack on top of our fries.
Not one time did she smile, or use the words, “Please or Thank You”.
I believe I was correct in my quick judgment, she did not want to work, and she just wanted the pay. If this person had a goal it may have been to do the least amount of work possible.
The following are suggestions which would help improve this type situation.
Teach their employees that, “They need customers to stay open” and, “they must provide a service or product that is acceptable to the customer”, in order to pay the employees.
They are to present a happy attitude to the customer, including a smile.
They must be polite when communicating with the customer, and use the words Please and Thank You.
Manager? If they had one, he/she was either not a good trainer, and or may have been of the same opinion as the employee, and if so should be terminated.
The owner of this business could have shut the place down and saved money. It appeared to be closed anyway, few were coming in, he/she was paying staff to do little work, and offend customers.
I hope your fast food experiences are better than mine!
Don Ford
If I were a betting person, I would bet that the female subject who took my order while being less that polite, probably thinks she should make $15.00 per hour. In my humble opinion, if she is making minimum wage she is being over paid.
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