Something to Smile About...

Finally over the holidays and stress. Finally over the terrible flu that rampaged through the house. After taking two days off just to sleep sleep sleep, I feel better.

Back to work (yuck.)

The corporate axe has fallen once again...this time on a dear friend and co worker. She got a bad shop from a secret shopper and they fired her on the spot. You know, in these bad economic times...write her up...suspend her for a week or make her go through training again. To fire someone that is ALWAYS early, always ready to do anything you ask is a slap in the face. Unfortunately it is corporate doing the slapping and "Big Brother" always has the last word.

As servers we are SO over this take over of our company. What used to be a great store is now part of a tremendously large corporation that could give a "Rat's ass" about us...our life or our problems.

The managers are under such immense pressure from the higher ups and the pressure comes right down on our underling heads. I hate it that she is gone, I hate it that she is fired (Happy New Year) but once the corporate axe falls the heads have rolled.

I went into work today, lucky to still have a job but still full of venom for the oblivious "A" holes we work for.

There is one manager (the ONLY one I haven't blogged about) that is kind of like a cartoon character. If "Pepe LePew" was a person this would be him. The only manager with a full head of hair left...jet black with a stripe of white right in front. He 's a chubby sort..if you watch "Curb Your Enthusiasm" he IS Jeff Green. A happy go lucky guy that seems to avoid the heavy corporate thumb...probably because he is a kitchen manager and comes in at 5 AM when the trucks roll in with stock and is in the back most of the time doing what it takes for us to roll product out of the front of the house. He has always liked me and is the only one that actually knows how much harder I work than most of the idiots (not all idiots...just most of the newbies) I work with. He is a stickler for S.O.P (standard operating procedure) like I am. I am one of the only people that use the right glass for the right drink... no matter if it means I have to refill it twice as often. It if calls for parsley sprinkled on top...I would go to the back and chop more if we were out before running it to a table without the garnish.

He has been sick as of late (I probably passed on my germs to him) and when I came into work today he was blowing his nose with a brown paper towel we use to wash and dry our hands with.. I told him I could go in the kitchen and get him a stainless steel scourer pad to blow his nose on if he really wanted to draw blood around his nostrils.

I think what I really like most about him is that he always laughs at my jokes...and I am "full" of them.

After the line up today...when the managers supposedly pump us up and send us out with an "Amway" type message to go out and conquer the masses with our knowledge and professionalism... It came to me like a vision.

I told him that we had taken an unofficial poll and he was the manager we hated the least. Bless his heart...as he blew his snot into another rough brown paper towel his face lit up and he said "Really?" I think his next remark was "That's awesome."

Used to be when I first started twelve years ago the talk was "Who's your favorite manager?" Now it is "Who do you hate the least?"

What does that say about being bought out by a huge corporation that is making oodles of money for themselves while the people that suffer are the ones that seem to be the only ones actually out there making THEIR money FOR them ?

I told my manager that we were counting votes on a shift by shift basis and that if he gave more than a sub par performance grilling our butts relentlessly he could move up the poll and lose his rating . I think I saw him leave the building with his fingers crossed.

Til Next time...COTTON