Coffee Shop Manager Reams Crew After Busy Shift: They Should Have Been Given Medals

Haven't posted in a very long time, but it's Isupose/beautifulburgerthing.

So I went back into fast food (not proud of it, but the factory thing just didn't work out. I had a massive mental breakdown and had to actually be admitted to the hospital it was so bad because I was apparently a risk to my own physical safety/wellbeing). But that's in the past and I'm good now.

I work nights (11-7) at the "Great Canadian Coffee Store". My store happens to be right in the middle of one of the industrial (factory) areas in my city. As such, ALL the factory workers working nights who want their caffeine fix come to us. It's busy, it's hectic, but it makes the time go by fast. Plus we have regular customers over nights that I LOVE to see. I know their orders by memory and have an idea as to when they come in during the night so I regularly have their drink ready for them when they come in, and it gets me kick ass tips (been there just over a month, and not including the various food items and bus fare I've spent money on, I've made over $50). I love this job actually. Never thought I'd go back to fast food and enjoy it. Especially not after the fiasco that was going back to Harvey's.

Anyway, so we have a day shift (start time between 5-7 am, and ending 8 hours after start time) an afternoon shift (starting anywhere between 2-4pm and ending at 11) and nights (11-7). Day shift has roughly 10 people on it usually. (3-4 on drivethru - order taker, coffee, window and sometimes runner, a person on sandwich counter, and 4 people on store front manning 2 registers) And various production people in the back. When things get slow some of the extras start doing chores (cleaning bathrooms, doing dishes, sweeping the parking lot, emptying garbages etc.). Afternoons is a few less people, but still a decent number of people. Night shift however we have a grand spanking total of 3 people, sometimes 4. 1 production worker, one store front worker, and one drivethru worker. The two people on storefront both wear a headset that way breaks are easily covered AND if drivethru gets a huge rush storefront can come to the rescue (cue superman music or something). But we are bare bones. It's insane. We are also expected to get a butt load of chores done during our shift including: clean/stock sandwich counter, sweep/mop lobby, clean down all tables, clean all washrooms, clean front display where donuts are kept, stock all cups, stock 3 fridges, stock all paper bags and a bunch of other random things.

Thursday nights is busy as fuck. We have all the night shift guys who are EXHAUSTED after a full week just like everyone else who gets to their last shift of the week and are all beat. Plus the university bar hoppers who want a coffee plus just random people who are taking a long weekend to go to the cottage or something and want a coffee for the road. We were shit stormed and it wasn't even funny. I was worked off my feet, so was my partner, I have a serious cold and regularly lose my voice to literally nothing, my partner up front has had a heart attack fairly recently and started feeling very unwell, her -LEFT- arm went tingly, and weak and she was not doing well, and it just wasn't good. So at 5am when the first set of day shift came in it was like heaven. We had done NONE of the chores because we literally had no time to do them. I was pissed.

At 5 am we started frantically trying to get shit done, but it just wasn't happening. We were even more busy because we have the final waves of night shift people coming in, and then a bunch of the early day shift people coming in. It's just ugly.

Cue the day shift manager coming in. It's not pretty. I already know I'm getting yelled at for the lack of chores getting done. I'm pissed, I'm stressed, and I just want to find a dark corner to curl up in and cry.

We frantically try and get as much done as possible. Picking and choosing what needs to get done right away that would otherwise affect customer experience. So cups/lids needed to be stocked, fridges should be stocked at least with the 1L white milks that we use for coffee/tea in the drinks instead of cream if requested, and stocking/cleaning the sandwich station. It's all frantic and half-assed so nothing is beautiful. It's annoying but we've had to do it before out of desperation.

End of my shift rolls around and as I'm putting on my jacket day shift manager comes up to me and asks me not to go anywhere. She rounds up everyone on my shift (we are all in different levels of packing up and punching out and leaving.) and pulls us into the office. We all get reamed for not getting shit done, and okay ya fine whatever. Nothing got done, it's annoying and I can understand being pissed, but now she's saying if it happens again on Monday morning the person in charge of that chore will get a write up and she will go to the owners about this problem.

The part I haven't even gotten to yet is this: Afternoons regularly leaves before 11pm, the second they see myself and my night shift coworker they scatter, regularly leaving a person waiting at the drivethru speaker and sometimes even at the window!!!

ARG!#$%*&!$%*!&#$!&@#$. They do NO stocking of cups, or the fridges or the paper products. I have regularly come into work and the front fridges are pretty much empty.

So now I have to do two shifts worth of stock up, they rarely do any cleaning of the lobby, so that's two shifts worth of grime to clean up. And they never stock the big fridge with new pop/juice for holding before being brought up to the front service fridges. Everytime that crap happens it's more work for myself and my coworker over night, plus my own work and cleaning, and then the blame gets put on our shift because day shift supervisors/managers never see the mess that afternoons leaves us with. It's disgusting and I'm getting pissed off that I'm taking the blame and the fall for what another shift is doing. It's not fair to myself or my shift that we always have to do two shifts worth of work and catch up when afternoons literally has like 3 times the number of people that we do. It's disgusting how little work they do.

I guess that's it for now, I should probably think up a new name for myself since beautifulburgerthing is no longer applicable since I left there, but I'll save that for another time when I can think clearly and am not in the fog of cold and flu drugs and sleep deprivation and just the general anger that was the end of my shift today.

--Beautifulburgerthing out!!

 

 

Comments

[TimmieHoe]

Ah man I work at a Great Canadian Coffee shop as overnight as well. And guess what, I am the ONLY storefront worker during that shift and the baker is in no wanting to help out during rushes. And when evening shift doesn't do their chores (I am getting tired hearing that is was too busy to do them), I get stuck with all of theirs AND all overnight chores. Being the only one running drive-thru, storefront AND chores is just exhausting. The "oh so good part" of this; the management and owner see no reason to have 2 employees during overnight! It would make it easier by splitting chores and jobs :(

So I totally see where you are coming from. Keep a notebook and jot down all the times evening shift has failed to do their chores; Once there is enough you can go to upper management or the owner about it.

[BeautifulBurgerThing]

I'm glad that I get at least one person to help out, but we are also busy enough to need the second person. Dealing with breaks is a nightmare. At least my production guy will help out if needed, but he will do it begrudgingly, it's like pulling teeth sometimes. That being said I will be starting to take notes and follow the 3 D's of RHU document document document. It's just insane. I run around trying to help customers and field questions and things like that and then run around from 5-6 to get the chores done and it just can't happen. Especially when I'm sick and my coworker may or may not be having a mild heart attack or stroke or something.... Was not impressed

[The Last Archimedean]

Tell management to hire more people for night shift and grow a functioning brain, not necessarily in that order.

[Fortune Cookie]

Take a video recorder into work. Make a small round, showing what afternoon shift didn't get done, do YOUR job and tell management to pull afternoon shift in early if they don't get their jobs done.

[Skittles]

If your day shift manager keeps after you ask if they would be willing to come in for your shift and help you all to figure out what you need to do to improve the quality of your work, and time management. I don't doubt you work your hardest but that phrasing is what idiots like that want to hear. Insist it be in a night you know will be busy, if you can. i'm guessing but if where you work is a franchise you might be able to contact a corporate ethics line or HR line anonymously. That could help get things moving.

[NC Tony]

Fortune Cookie took the words right out of my mouth. Video tape or take pictures of what the afternoon shift was supposed to do, and explain (as calmly as you can) that's one of the reasons you don't get all of your stuff done. And of course, the 3D's.

[Bluey]

I worked at that place for 7 years,
Just a question, does your store have a list of duties that each shift needs to complete?
If not, you should request this from management, the person who does each duty signs off on it, when they complete it. That way, each shift has a record f what was and was not done. If they initial things that are not complete, write a short note beside the duty when you arrive for your shift, and take it to management when they arrive in the morning.

[Finder Queen]

In addition to the video taking, note jotting and list making I suggest that before you guys clock on have the manager in at the time take a quick look around the shop to see what wasn't done.
I understand busy days so some stuff slides but to blame 2x the work on you guys just isn't fair or right if nobody in management isn't seeing what you guys are clocking in to work on.
Oh also make sure that any pics and such you do have time and dates on them so nobody can deny when the lack of things happened.
And also if you can take time to write out hourly what all you did for example:
3am helped 20 people in drive thru, swept, checked and stocked fridge
Something like that if you can so they can SEE what you guys are trying to get done.

[Jami]

Because this has worked for us in the past with getting things fixed at the library that HQ keeps putting off - write an anonymous letter pretending to be a regular afternoon customer who happens to notice that the afternoon shift doesn't do any restocking. Things out on the floor at least where customers can see them should be totally noticable.

I know it seems sneaky and even tattle tale-ish, but it's the only thing that has worked in the past at my workplace. If the employees complain, something might be done a year from now, but if they think the complaint is coming from a patron someone will be out the next day to fix things.

[CharlieWhiskyMike]

Are you able to count the Money you've made for your employer during the Shift. If you can Proof that during the Night Shift every employee "earns" for example 500 $ each for the employer and in the afternoon shift every employee only earns 200 $ it is Proof that the afternoon Shift cant have been so busy. I hope its understandable what i want to explain.

[Kryss LaBryn]

Ugh. I worked for them for 6 months a while back. Night shift with me and a baker in back. I had to do drive-through, front, AND all the chores all by myself, and wasn't allowed to leave the front unattended if there were any customers in there.

We were the only 24-hour place in town, and two doors over from the Greyhound station. ><

So now there's bunches of stuff I just can't get to because I can't leave the front to grab mops and things, let alone stock, and even if I could, it was next to impossible to do anyways, because if there was a rush I'd be trying to take orders and put them together for both the till AND the drive-through. ><

For extra special bonus points, the employers would wait until you'd clocked out and were heading out the door, and then ask you to "quickly do the bathrooms before you leave; shouldn't take five minutes." They're right. It shouldn't take five minutes. It should take about half an hour to do it all-- and I'm not getting paid for that half an hour. Two and a half hours of work out of me-- for free-- off every pay-cheque.

I love their products but oh lord don't ever work for those bastards.

[Kryss LaBryn]

--Wait, *five* free hours per cheque. I was thinking per week. Bastards.