Listen to this articleI’ve been working at Pizza Hut a little over 3 months. I like my job. Some of my coworkers seem to like working with me and life has been good.
However, every day I walk in, I constantly hear from our RGM that our restaurant is in such disarray that the District Manager would fail us upon inspection. Why!?
Day after day other a select few shift leaders and I come to work and stay busy the entire time, doing the job of Shift Leader to dishwasher because our restaurant is understaffed. Even the RGM has to take the roll of Shift Leader or dishwasher some days because we don’t have the staff to cover the shift when the day before we are “over our hours” after having too many on the clock on the wrong shift.
Our restaurant is expected to do X amount of tickets a day, usually over 150. When night shift comes in, we’re expected to take up the slack of over 120 with only 4 people, when day shift was slow. Occasionally, we’ve done over the total days projection and still have more customers waiting and calling in before close.
In the end, shifts ends up with unsatisfied customers from getting cold food, the wrong food, not all of their food, to no food. Customer refunds also affects our sales when the customer wants a refund. Mainly because we get swamped with orders and customer wait time goes way up. When customers has to wait on their food because multiple big orders comes in before they walk in the door, that leads to walk outs and higher food costs for our restaurant. We have a way to prioritize orders when it’s a dine-in order. Even though I’ve been told to prioritize dine-in orders by my RGM, regardless if we’re busy, a couple coworkers explicitly told me not to. I’ve got only two questions in response. Who’s more likely to walk out, a pick-up or dine-in? Who get a complaint when a customer doesn’t get their food? Certainly not the kitchen staff.
We have a list of everything that has to be cleaned every day, every week. During our last impromptu meeting, the cleaning list was officially implemented, again. We are all only one person and can only do so much during our shift. It doesn’t matter if everything in the front of house is done, there’s still something else to do in the back of house because someone doesn’t want to do it because of the excuse, I had to do this or that, or someone else doesn’t do it, so I don’t have to.
Before any of my coworkers reacts to this. Yes, you do work the Make Table and Cut Table, prep, wash dishes, clean your stations, sweep and mop at night, and occasionally answer the phones. But I’m not going to ask you to do anything I haven’t done myself.
With that said, there is a lot I don’t know. I have only worked at Pizza Hut but a little over 3 months. Some might have been employed longer than me, but as a Shift Leader, I do expect just the slightest amount of discipline, respect, and for my coworkers to follow through when I deploy them to do something. Not, argue that their tired, their feet hurts, or they have something else to do and want to leave early. We’re all get tired. Standing for long periods makes everyone’s feet hurt. We all have something to do when we get off. You’re not being singled out or “picked” on. It’s the truth.
I wasn’t hired to slack off. I was hired because my RGM believed in me and found out quickly that I have a good work ethic. I always keep myself busy. But hey, I’ve always been an underling. Someone who has always been shunned. Never recognized for anything. But, I’m going to do my job, not everyone else’s when they are on the clock, getting paid to do it. In the end, if I have to take up the slack, yes, I’ll do it, but I’m tired of being taken advantage of when they’re more than capable of cleaning behind the make table, doing prep, or washing dishes when we’re short handed!
I’ve made the statement before, I have absolutely no issue with the staff in the kitchen listening to music. Some bring bluetooth speakers with them for that purpose. Set the station and leave your phone alone. They’re not in their vehicle, and don’t have to change the channel every 5 minutes. But, when I walk by the prep room and have the retarder door open or in the drive through and playing with a mobile phone, I’m going to say something.
I can name on one hand, coworkers that do what they should do when asked. They come to work with a can-do attitude, instead of, “I wish it was closing time”. Attitudes like the latter brings down moral, and even I have been affected. I remember this past week feeling the same way because of the atmosphere at work. I felt bad after saying it during conversation with another coworker, because I’ve never felt that way. I don’t want to feel that way again! I like my job, when I get to do it.