Wed 1st Nov 2006
The problem with stupid employees
Posted in the evening, filed under Food , Rants and Raves.I’ve worked in fast food. Granted, it was a long time ago, and I was only a delivery driver, but it vexes me how often orders are mucked up by these (generally) young people. What hope does our society have when the youth can’t listen properly and remember for thirty seconds what food I want.
We went to KFC at Mitcham tonight, on the way home from a Training & Development session. Jaq was driving, so she ordered, and it went a little like this:
Jaq: Can I have a Zinger Bacon and Cheese Twister, in a large combo; and a second twister with cheese and no tomato please.
Stupid Drivethru Operator: Okay, so that’s one Bacon and Cheese Twister in a large combo, and a twister with cheese and no tomato.
Jaq: No, the first one was a Zinger Twiser.
SDO: Sorry, we don’t do Zinger Twisters.
Me (yelling from passenger seat): Yeah you do, I have them all of the time.
SOD: Silence.
Jaq (to me): So that’s it then? Do I drive thru?
[We decide to drive to the window. As the previous car pulls away, a hand holding a large chips comes out of the window - obviously they forgot to pack the order properly.]
New Drivethru Operator: We don’t have them as a menu item, but we can make one up for you.
Jaq: Ok, thanks.
NDO: So, that’s a Bacon and Cheese Zinger Twister combo. What drink did you want?
Jaq: There was another twister too, with cheese and no tomato.
NDO: Ok. What drink did you want then?
Jaq: Sunkist.
[Time passes. Drink is brought out. It's a small one.]
Jaq: Um, we ordered a large meal. Were you the girl I spoke to before? Because she read that bit of the order back to me.
NDO: No. Sorry.
[NDO takes drink, and brings back a large bottle.]
NDO: There you go, and there is your meal.
[Bag is handed to us. As we begin to drive off, I notice there is a small chips in the bag. We stop. I then realise there are two small chips.]
Jaq: Excuse me, we ordered a large meal and got two small chips.
NDO: Yeah, we have run out of large chips containers.
[We drive home.]
When we arrived home, it got even worse. Initially, we thought they’d stuffed up Jaq’s order badly, by giving her tomatoes, and no cheese. But it turned out that they had just made my Zinger Twister sans Bacon and Cheese.
So, I’m counting about 5 errors in our order, plus at least one in the order of the car before us. That’s pretty pathetic, KFC.
Jaq is sexy
by the way, YOU are pathetic matt!
36 minutes after the fact.
Man, i kno. Fast food bugs me sooo much. I just wish i was as funny as you. Your comment: “Me (yelling from passenger seat): Yeah you do, I have them all of the time.” was so brave and you are truly a god amongst men. In fact, you are my hero and i hope one day i too will be able to conqueor the fast food demon employees. I mean insulting young kids who are employed on minimum wage must make you feel really big. I hope one day i can be as big as you.
47 minutes after the fact.
“The problem with stupid customers”
People who work at KFC must be in pretty dire straits to even consider working there. They have to put up with fussy customers who cannot deal with a bit of tomato in their burger. Furthermore good people like yourself get on their high horse and complain when a (or 5) simple mistake are made. What do you want them to do, give you no chips or 2 small chips? A 14 year old working at slave wages can hardly be expected to run down to the cardboard factory and grab you some more “large” chip boxes. If you expect good service save up enough money to take your wife out to a decent restaurant where trained professionals wait on you. The evening might turn out well for a change. In closing egocentric blog sites should be shut down for the good of society. Instead of spending your time writing about poor KFC service, read a book (I hear 1984 is a classic), or will that lead you to believe that the dystopian future is coming at an ever increasing rate.
The world is a good place if you look
1 hour, 5 minutes after the fact.
Maybe I deserved some of those comments. However, there are a few things I will address:
@Tieppo: Yes, Jaq is very sexy. Yes, I am pathetic. Your website is very cool. Do you run that yourself?
@Henry: Perhaps my tone was misunderstood with the “yelling from passenger seat” aside: It was not an abuse yell, but just a call from across the car, since I was not sitting directly next to the microphone. As I said in the post, I’ve worked in places like that (KFC itself, as it turns out). What I dislike is incompetence, in any situation. Whether it’s Subway (who, I must say, seem to employ well, or train very well), KFC, a referee in a sports game. If you are going to do something, do it well.
(Gasps, as he realises he’s left himself wide open for a comment about “If you are going to blog, do it well…”)
Finally, for Just Another Optimist:
1) I like tomato, and my dinner was the one that did have it. Perhaps some people don’t have tomato (or other food) for a reason. I’ve just come back from a week with some kids, where one of them had a severe allergy to another type of food. Having to stab her in the leg with an EPI pen if she accidentally ate something she couldn’t wasn’t an experience I would have liked, and if she had specifically asked for food without that ingredient, and it had come out with it, could have put me, or one of the other staff in a rather stressful situation. Not to mention put her life at risk.
2) The two-small-chips-versus-one-large-chips: it would have taken two seconds for her to say “We’ve run out of large chips boxes, so there are two small ones in there.” Or perhaps a little more prior planning from the managers. (I’ve worked at KFC, it’s not just the regular employees who are often idiots).
3) We went fast food for a reason. With study to finish, and lots of work to do, we don’t really have forty minutes spare to go to a “proper” restaurant.
4) KFC staff are trained professionals (they do get paid, and they are trained).
5) She isn’t my wife.
6) You don’t need to read my blog. I personally don’t care if anyone does. That’s not why I write it. However, perhaps you could be a bit less cowardly when commenting, and leave your real name, and site, if you have one.
7) I’ve read plenty of books, thank you very much. As for dystopian futures, I’m a bigger fan of Brave New World than 1984. But I’m an even bigger fan of Utopian futures. Walden 2, absolute classic.
20 hours, 5 minutes after the fact.
Touche, fair response, as to my reading and commenting i need something to keep me occupied. If you liked Brave New World read “Farenheit 451″, dystopia where everyone is happy alla Brave New World, unlike 1984.
1) I don’t have a site.
2) It’s fast food, they can’t afford to spend two seconds telling you that they’ve run out of boxes. They act first and ask questions later.
3) I like tomato too.
4) You need more than 40 minutes to spare to go to a proper “restaurant”. Try at least 1 and a half hours for a fine dining experience.
5) Watching battlestar galatica means the evening turned out very bad and u have no faith in humanity u misanthrope.
6) This numbered response thing is cool.
7) Makes everything look ordered and systematic.
9) End all your posts with “Schinckel Out”. It will add a touch of class and sophistication, like a good newsreader.
Good evening to you sir.
1 day after the fact.
I won’t go through point by point (a big part of me wants to, but…) I just did want to comment on #2. “They act first, and ask questions later.”
I think the saddest thing about our society is this - UK police do this, as in fact do the lcoal police, from time to time. It also sounds like the philosophy the army wants people to live by.
As for Farenheit 541 - I love this book, and the film. I remember seeing the film back when I was a kid, and reading the book soon after. It wasn’t until years after that I knew enough about history to understand the similarties between this and the nazi party.
1 day, 17 hours after the fact.
Ouch! I say that’s a bit mean.
If it’s any consolation I’m with you on the fast food frustration. I have 4 kids and we all have our various likes & dislikes. If you put in a special order, you expect to get it that way, because that’s what you pay for. My daughter won’t touch ANY form of tomato, so if we get pizza we order a special one with no tomato base. The number of times the pizza has arrived, with tomato is ridiculous. We then have to wait up to an hour for another to be delivered.
And to all the w#nkers making mean comments:-
1. Don’t come here if you don’t enjoy it - there’s no compultion
2. Most blogs are egocentric - it’s the nature of the beast
3. Get your own blogs. It’d be interesting to see what pearls of wisdom you’d create
3 days, 14 hours after the fact.
P.S. AARGH!
Did the Maccas thing tonight. Spent $30 odd bucks & then hubby gets home MINUS two junior burgers & a Sundae. He did the honourable thing (bless him) & forwent his Big Mac, seething as he had a cold sausage on bread. What are you going to do - get back in the car and drive the 18 min return trip? Kind of defeats the purpose of “fast” food…
4 days, 1 hour after the fact.
Good day to all..
This is a quite funny blog but yet sustain any real purpose other than a reason to moan and groan.
I’ve been running/working in a QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) for 2 years. I must say in defense of the workers who are there and have to put up with people like you have every reason to do what they do and here are my reasons why.
1) You are the person who treats anyone below you (in your eyes) like 3rd class citizens. You act like you are the only one coming out of a bathroom smelling like roses. Maybe you should trade in your adult books and start back with “Everybody Poops”.
2) From my experience, the more the customer complains/yells at my co-workers it gives everyone a bad attitude. The more you yell at them; wether you mean it or not; comes off as a put down. I don’t blame them for not wanting to deal with you.
3) You are a jerk and here is why. Have you ever said anything positive to drive-thru person? They apologized to you, but did you ever apologize to him/her? I’m sure you have never made a mistake in your life, but when other people do, you feel the need to exploit it? Do you have an opinion of your own or do you feel you need to take advice from someone else’s ideas and work? People like you are scum in our society. You feel since you make more than the KFC people; you are almighty and above the cardinal law of mankind.
To close out….I’m going to let you in on something. We are all people; no matter what we do or where we do it, you have no right no complain about what you get. You are a reason why ignorance is a deadly virus in our society. If everyone gets a degree and has a top of the line job working for a super company and doing super important things! Answer me this: Who cleans your toilets? Who cooks your fast food? Who washes your suits? Who works the gas station? These people play a huge role in society day after day. While your job may mean everything to you, it may not be more demanding or even less stressful then the workers at KFC. People mess up and deserve a second chance. I think you would agree with that in some certain aspect.
You, sir….are a crybaby
9 months after the fact.
Hey, I have every respect for people who do jobs I don’t want to do. I actually think that people doing menial jobs should be paid more than those doing “attractive” jobs. Because they are less popular, perhaps we should pay people more to do them.
As for who cleans my toilet? Me. Who cooks my food? (I don’t do fast food very often) Me. Or someone else, I PAY to do it. Who washes my suits? I don’t wear suits. I wash my clothes though. Who works at the gas station? I don’t care, I don’t drive.
My job doesn’t mean everything to me. I hate it. I can’t wait to get out of it. But that doesn’t mean I am trying to still do my best while I am there. I deal with a wider range of people in my job than the average office worker. I’ve worked in fast food, and service industries in the past. I may do so again in the future. I know that customers suck. But some employees suck too.
I am nice to people most of the time. It is only when presented with incompetence, that I rile against the situation I am in.
And I’m sorry, I don’t understand your point in the first reply. I know I stink when I come out of the toilet… only slightly less than the toilet stinks when I leave it.
9 months after the fact.
Just count up all the thousands of times you actually GOT what you ordered. Then balance those thousands of good orders against this one where Jaq got a piece of unwanted tomato.
Unless someone is mean, crude, or offensive, you are way off base in your judgement of this person. “Yelling” at them (your words, not mine) is totally uncalled for. You have no idea whether the order person was talking to three people at once, had someone tapping on their shoulder, or was trying tp pick money up from the floor.
“You don’t need to read my blog. I personally don’t care if anyone does.” You have to be kidding. You don’t care? That’s why you post personal experiences on the web instead of in a notebook?
I want you to consider this next part carefully: “Young People” work in fast food because the jobs are available and the work fits wheir schedule. SOME people work in fast food because that’s the only thing they can do, sir! Maybe they’re not all as smart as you are…maybe they can’t grasp all the fine points of Battlestar Galactica Season 2. Maybe they don’t have time to watch Battlestar Galactica Season 2 because they’re too busy trying to make ends meet by pushing chicken out the window of a KFC to assholes like you.
I actually feel sorry for you.
1 year after the fact.
Meh.
1 year after the fact.
Fuck you, Meg.
1 year after the fact.
!
?
1 year after the fact.