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Out Of A Job
My first job as a teenager was a fast food place that is rather well
known for their breakfast biscuits (and at the time, their chicken).
While I could tell a thousand stories from working there, there was
only one that ever made me really hate the job.
Middle of the summer, not long after school let out, I was actually
scheduled to work a day shift since the labor laws allowed me more
hours. I came in for an 8-5 and unfortunately got stuck running the
drive thru window. Generally the management was awesome to work with,
but today, they were being very quiet and secretive and ignoring the
employees (or at least they ignored me). Not only did they keep to
themselves, they didn’t give me one break (bathroom, food, nothing)
all day. Imagine 8-5 in a rush because for some reason, it happened
to be one of our busiest days. By three o’clock, every manager that
worked for that store was in the store, and they all gathered in the
office and shut the door for the next two hours. The only time we saw
them again during that time, was when they were out gathering
information for themselves, and only for a minute or two at a time.
Finally, I’d had enough, my shift was ending, and the management
hadn’t given a crap about me all day, so I found the employee that
was coming in for the night shift, and handed over the drive thru
headset and clocked out. It’d been 9 hours and I was tired, hungry,
and had to pee. I went and knocked on the office door to at least let
them know I was leaving. They curtly acknowledged and shut the door
again. After grabbing a sandwich and a drink, I left to go home. I
had plans that night with my girlfriend and really didn’t want to be
around any longer after a crappy day like that.
A couple of hours later, I get a phone call from work. They wanted me
to come back in to work. I firmly but politely told them that I’d
worked well beyond my hours today and hung up the phone. A few
minutes later, I get another call begging that I come back to the
store to help.
Come to find out, the management had been in the store all day
because they were shutting down the store, effective at 9pm and they
wanted everyone to come in and help pack up and pull everything out
of the building. Not only had I worked my balls off all day, now they
wanted me to come in and help lose my job. I found out later that
they’d offered the management and a few of the employees the chance
to transfer to other stores, but the rest of us were just without
jobs.
I reminded them again that I’d already put in more hours than
required and gave them several choice words for treating me the way
they did, and went back to enjoying my evening with my girlfriend.
12 Comments to Out Of A Job
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The minute you mentioned them all in closed door meetings I knew what was going to happen. It is a crappy way of doing business, but too many fast food places do that. Well at least from where I live.
from what i’ve seen, that’s a pretty common practice when things are about to go down the crapper. guess i was lucky to actually have a job give me 2 months warning that they were shutting down.
ssshhh. listen. you can here the trolls a comin’.
There is a reason why they shut down the place without notice. They don’t want the employees to steal from the place.
Employee #1 says to Employee #2 “F it…lets take a few bucks as our severance package.”
Crappy that this happened to you. But it is common.
At least you spent your night with your GF. Smart move on your end.
I think i know what company you are talking about I call them hardleys. I worked at one in highschool but at least they gave us a days notice that they were closing and only the managers got transferred. I worked on closing night and instead of washing the dishes we just threw them away and we were telling customers not to eat there cause there was rats (there really were) oh it was great fun
Wow, you’re lucky you were at least able to finish your shift! My sister worked at a restaurant about 2 years ago (rhymes with shenanigans and starts with a B), and the management simply walked in and said “Everyone’s meals are free, all the employees go home. We’re closed for good.” And that was it!
yeah…so..the only problem is that they wanted you to work a few more hours. ok. quit your bitchin’.
At least you got your few choice words in!! =)
To be honest, they were probably more stressed out than you. Of course you had your rights to take a break, it’s not fair they took that away from you, but think about it on their part. They are loosing a business they put a whole lot of time in to and are loosing it. The fact you are complaining because they were getting all the paperwork and back room stuff done isn’t fair on them. It does suck that it was closed down, but because they knew that you would be fine handling the store with the others isn’t really anything to get mad about.
No way should anyone ever work 8 hours and not be allowed to eat, rest or pee! When you are young you do what the bosses say and you don’t know that you have rights. I hope every teenager reading this understands that they cannot take advantage of you. You have a right to breaks! Don’t let them push you around because you’re a kid.
@Elizabeth:
You have the right to a 30 minute, UNPAID break every 8 hours. Other than that, employers are not required to give you any sort of break whatsoever. I go 9-10 hours without sitting down, eating, using the restroom, or getting a drink because that 30 minutes unpaid break just isn’t worth it.
this wouldnt happen to be the hardees in sheboygan would it? the same thing happened there…. except only the managers and 2 employees were allowed to transfer