Brady spent almost two hours on the phone with me. We discussed the restaurant’s problems and the scheduling issues. While I have questions on the GM capabilities, I am willing to give Brady an opportunity.
I’m not sure how this is going to play out. I am sure that the general isn’t up to the challenge. My sense from talking with the 1st and Brady is that the GM will not be there for long. I give him six months at the most.
As for myself, I don’t give myself that long. I wouldn’t keep an assistant that blackmailed me into a meeting with the DM, so I expect to have a difficult road there too. However, if it improves conditions for my crew, it was worth it.
I essentially quit. I told the 1st assistant manager that I wasn’t coming to work today and I wouldn’t be back until I spoke with Brady, the District Manager.
I am appalled at the restaurant. I won’t eat there, unless the food comes out a sealed bag that I open. It is dirty, mismanaged and frankly, I don’t want my name associated with the place.
Actually, I feel better now that the decision is made.
Well, the second day went slightly better, although mismanagement seems to be the product we provide the best. I have figured out part of the problem.
Scheduling and discipline.
The general manager refuses to schedule for the busy times which leaves us unable to meet customer demand and unable to make our time goals. It is quite sad. The other assistant managers agree, but seem to be too timid to talk to the GM about changing how he schedules.
The discipline in the restaurant is terrible. Employees openly disrespect the GM and talk back to him. Often as not, flatly refusing to follow his direction. One employee came through the drive-through and parked his car refusing to leave until he talked to one of the assistant managers. We were in the middle of a rush. The GM told him to move his car and he refused. The GM walked away and let it go. I went over and told him to move his car and he tried to shake my hand and you must be the new third — putting emphasis on third.
I told him I wasn’t shaking his hand and he needed to move the car. He told me he wasn’t going to move it. So I told him move the car or I was calling the police and towing it.
He moved the car and came into the store. The employee is a punk and I can’t wait to either turn him into a quality employee or remove him from the staff. He closes for me tonight. We’ll see how he acts.
Training is over and I started my new position in the restaurant I will be working at as assistant manager. The place is a zoo. It is dirty and the crew moves like they are mired in molasses.
The general manager left to go to a meeting at 2 p.m. and turned the store over to me. Almost immediately, the one member of the crew started testing boundaries. He had been promised the position I was hired for and seem to be developing a bit of an attitude about it. When the GM left, he walked off line and got on the phone then disappearred for 20 minutes. So I asked him what was going on.
He says, “I do what I have to do and then I go have a cigarette.”
“You don’t walk off my line without talking to me.”
He cuts me off: “It’s my line; I’m the steamer.” And squares off like he is looking for a fight.
So I tell him: “Get to work or clock out and go home.”
That was a minor issue. Then we get rocked. Remember this is my first day in this store. Thank god we had a few good crew people working. We called in the second assistant and fought to clear the customers. It was a disaster.
Looking at the volume of business, I can say with certainty the one more person would not have made a difference. We needed four more people during that time.
So the GM comes back while we are still running 30 minute times and leaves to go out to eat. Just insane. I have never seen that level of situational awareness from someone in a position like that. Then when he gets back from dinner, he tells me that this is Clinton and he doesn’t want to lose employees because I expect them to work.
So where this stands, I don’t know. Tonight, I work with the 2nd assistant and close the store. Please God let it run better.
Iowa floods; Missouri floods; tornadoes across the country. More than 3 million acres of corn have been lost to bad weather this week. Prices for everything that uses corn are starting to creep upward. It will be a long winter.
This disarray is indicative of the greater gathering clouds on the shining future of man. What long way we have come since JFK and the golden 50s. The 80s were the money years, the gaga years. The 90s showed us that war could be safer than walking through LA. The patriot act makes the terrorist and our government almost indistinguishable. And that brings us to the recent quiet thunderheads we studiously ignore. Oklahoma and Montana.
The states best known for being known for nothing. The tornadoes preceding the floods; and we are all down stream. Montana has threatened to secede if SCOTUS rules that we never had an individual right to keep and bear arms. Ironically, this has some of the anti-gun crowd already marking targets for attack in Montana and plotting the campaign to bring them back in line. And it has the opposite effect on many others. People like yours truly who would lead a company of fellows to Montana to support them in their defense if it came to that. And the thunder rolls.
Oklahoma recently declared sovereignty under the 10th Amendment. The bill reads pretty but doesn’t mean much until they make it illegal to pay federal taxes and refuse to recognize all federal powers exceeding the constitutionally granted powers.
The ghosts of battles past gather to watch the storm clouds darken and wind whip up emotions hot as a Virginia summer day. The lightening brightens the faces of eons of America’s ghosts from Bunker Hill to the Battle of the Woods to the Marne, Iwo Jima, Korea, and up through Vietnam and Desert Storm to modern Iraq. Faces bearing horror, sadness and pride in their eyes. And the storm gathers. Thunder calling out along red and blue lines.
A melody begins to be heard once again. To Arms! to Arms, to Arms in Dixie!
The Boy Scouts’ motto is “Be Prepared.” That advice has saved the lives of thousands of grown up boy scouts facing challenges as outdoors men, police, soldiers and firefighters. It has made millions more able to avoid the life-threating challenge in the first place.
That is the basis of this blog. Preparation for the coming challenges. I believe that our way is entering a stage of turmoil and possibly the start of a new dark period in history. This is my journal of relevant news events, planning strategies, and the development of my preparation for my family and community.
That is the second part of this blog. We must not only plan for ourselves. The trouble that are coming are far bigger than $4 a gallon gas and we will survive as individuals. We will have to rely on and support our neighbors.
My goal is to post at least once per week. And I welcome your input. Hopefully this little internet community will come together to provide valuable input. Thanks and we’ll see you soon.