The store's assistant manager got in an accident today driving to the mall's store to get bacon.
She was driving down a busy part of the highway and a guy pulled out in front of her and crashed her front end. She's ok! But her car...eh. Not so lucky.
My question is, what happens when you're on the clock, doing something work related, and you get in an accident? It's the other guys fault so he has to pay for it right? But then does my boss have to do anything?
I'll keep everyone posted but at this moment I don't know anything other than she's okay, her car's not, and the driver was Asian.
...
I'm just saying, if you've been driving on the other side of the road your whole life, don't jump in a car here so quickly until you have had ample time to adjust.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Bread
1. It's Italian herbs and cheese, not Italian herbs and spices. Spices and herbs are the same thing, you're being redundant, so stop it.
2. It's Honey Oat, not honey wheat. I don't mind the confusion too much but one time I had a husband buying a sandwich for his wife from a text. She asked for Honey Wheat. I made the mistake of correcting him to honey oat and he made me wait 5 minutes for him to get permission from his wife because he didn't believe me they were the same thing.
3. When you say 9-grain, specify. We have 9-grain wheat and 9-grain honey oat.
The last two aren't that big of deals but it felt small to just rant about the one thing.
2. It's Honey Oat, not honey wheat. I don't mind the confusion too much but one time I had a husband buying a sandwich for his wife from a text. She asked for Honey Wheat. I made the mistake of correcting him to honey oat and he made me wait 5 minutes for him to get permission from his wife because he didn't believe me they were the same thing.
3. When you say 9-grain, specify. We have 9-grain wheat and 9-grain honey oat.
The last two aren't that big of deals but it felt small to just rant about the one thing.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
No cell phones, please
I don't know why people think it's okay to be in the middle of a conversation on their cell phones while they order sandwiches.
I've seen some Subways with "Please refrain from talking on your cell phone while ordering your sandwich" stickers. However, our Subway does not have them.
If you are a customer trying to order your food, please, put your phone down for just two minutes. Resume the conversation, if you need to, while your sandwich is toasting but otherwise, I (as the sandwich artist) need your undivided attention.
thank you!
I think what upsets me the most about people on their phones is that I only get half of their attention. It makes my job take longer, the line last longer, makes other people wait, etc.
I also don't like it when I misunderstand what they wanted because they were on their cell phone. Such was the case earlier this week, I had a woman call and complain that she paid for a Philly Cheesesteak but was given a steak and cheese (less meat and cheese). I (politely, mind you) asked her why she didn't notice it while they were making her sandwich and she said that she was on her cell phone.
So maybe, just maybe, you weren't paying attention and didn't clarify what you wanted and/or were not paying attention.
It also very well could be the sandwich artists fault but it's not like anyone who was working during the time she got the sandwich is new. In fact, a lot of the people working that shift have been working for Subway for years.
My cardinal rule for people on their cell phone? Pretend they're not and talk louder/more frequently. If you come through my line having a conversation on your cell phone and are not paying attention, I make sure to be as intrusive on your conversation as possible.
Is that rude of me?
Sorry.
It's rude of you to have your cell phone out.
Rant done.
***This is my opinion and not the opinion of the people I work with or Subway. (However, I'm sure any sandwich artist or food service employee would agree with me that these customers are annoying).
I've seen some Subways with "Please refrain from talking on your cell phone while ordering your sandwich" stickers. However, our Subway does not have them.
If you are a customer trying to order your food, please, put your phone down for just two minutes. Resume the conversation, if you need to, while your sandwich is toasting but otherwise, I (as the sandwich artist) need your undivided attention.
thank you!
I think what upsets me the most about people on their phones is that I only get half of their attention. It makes my job take longer, the line last longer, makes other people wait, etc.
I also don't like it when I misunderstand what they wanted because they were on their cell phone. Such was the case earlier this week, I had a woman call and complain that she paid for a Philly Cheesesteak but was given a steak and cheese (less meat and cheese). I (politely, mind you) asked her why she didn't notice it while they were making her sandwich and she said that she was on her cell phone.
So maybe, just maybe, you weren't paying attention and didn't clarify what you wanted and/or were not paying attention.
It also very well could be the sandwich artists fault but it's not like anyone who was working during the time she got the sandwich is new. In fact, a lot of the people working that shift have been working for Subway for years.
My cardinal rule for people on their cell phone? Pretend they're not and talk louder/more frequently. If you come through my line having a conversation on your cell phone and are not paying attention, I make sure to be as intrusive on your conversation as possible.
Is that rude of me?
Sorry.
It's rude of you to have your cell phone out.
Rant done.
***This is my opinion and not the opinion of the people I work with or Subway. (However, I'm sure any sandwich artist or food service employee would agree with me that these customers are annoying).
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
I am not bitter...well, just a little
I feel the need to quickly explain some bitter sounding words in my last post.
It's hard for me to fight irritation with these girls because I feel like they take a lot of stuff for granted, including us at Subway. They have obviously never worked retail or food service because they don't have any manners towards us for the most part.
They also, I feel like, don't get how lucky they are they have parents who can pay for everything for them. I struggled through one semester and got kicked out for not paying it off right away.
So if at any point in this blog I sound frustrated or bitter towards these students that's why. It's not entirely their faults and it's great that their circumstances are as providing as they are.
But I'm human and get envious at times.
It's hard for me to fight irritation with these girls because I feel like they take a lot of stuff for granted, including us at Subway. They have obviously never worked retail or food service because they don't have any manners towards us for the most part.
They also, I feel like, don't get how lucky they are they have parents who can pay for everything for them. I struggled through one semester and got kicked out for not paying it off right away.
So if at any point in this blog I sound frustrated or bitter towards these students that's why. It's not entirely their faults and it's great that their circumstances are as providing as they are.
But I'm human and get envious at times.
Greek students
I work on a campus at a school with a large percentage of its students in the Greek system.
Let me give you MY view of these people. **Not Subway's
The frat boys are usually pretty bulky (they came back all "juiced" after the last summer, mostly their arms), similar hair cuts, cut off t-shirts/tank tops, and similar attitudes: brazen, boisterous, and/or charming. These boys LOVE to flirt. It's a win-win in my book.
Most of them have ass hole tendencies but are generally polite and mean well. It's when they're in large groups that they become less tolerable.
As is the case with the sorority girls (kind of)...
These girls are very easy to pick out of a crowd at our school. Their typical outfit is bundled up top (various layers of tanktops with an obnoxious bra color underneath, a cute sweater, or a North Face jacket) and leggings or very short shorts/skirts depending on the season. They're either in hard sandals or in UGG boots. Their hair is either dirty blonde with roots or very brunette--rare to find any other hair colors. Their hair will also either be straight as a board or worn curly, either way it's kept very long so that it can-at some point-become a messy, half-secured bun on top of their head.
Are you getting a good mental picture now?
These girls have manners... somewhere, deeeep down.
They travel in packs. They talk loudly, laugh loudly, are glued to their cell phones, and hardly pay attention because they are constantly having a conversation that isn't worth pausing. When they're by themselves they act like you're wasting their time and are very entitled, grumpy, flighty, and rude.
I THINK that they are like this because, I'm assuming, that they don't have actual tough labor jobs, if a job at all. I know they do philanthropy and what not through their houses but for the most part I'm pretty sure Mommy and Daddy pay for them to go to school and live out of state in a Greek house.
Please let me clarify, I don't know if every single girl/guy I encounter who is like this is in fact in a sorority/fraternity. I am doing this thing called generalizing based on what my staff and I have observed through the past year of working on this campus (and, for me, the past 16 years of living in this town).
There comes to be a time, after a certain amount of work you put into a place, where you notice patterns in people and customers. Considering because of our location we hardly get any non-IU affiliated business, I feel like our observations are pretty accurate, but again, that's just my opinion.
There's a lot more to say about these people but I can save that for another post. For now, just know that these Greek students are a large amount of customer base and without them we would lose a few thousand dollars every week, which is why we tolerate them and put on nice faces (besides the fact that we have to).
Let me give you MY view of these people. **Not Subway's
The frat boys are usually pretty bulky (they came back all "juiced" after the last summer, mostly their arms), similar hair cuts, cut off t-shirts/tank tops, and similar attitudes: brazen, boisterous, and/or charming. These boys LOVE to flirt. It's a win-win in my book.
Most of them have ass hole tendencies but are generally polite and mean well. It's when they're in large groups that they become less tolerable.
As is the case with the sorority girls (kind of)...
These girls are very easy to pick out of a crowd at our school. Their typical outfit is bundled up top (various layers of tanktops with an obnoxious bra color underneath, a cute sweater, or a North Face jacket) and leggings or very short shorts/skirts depending on the season. They're either in hard sandals or in UGG boots. Their hair is either dirty blonde with roots or very brunette--rare to find any other hair colors. Their hair will also either be straight as a board or worn curly, either way it's kept very long so that it can-at some point-become a messy, half-secured bun on top of their head.
Are you getting a good mental picture now?
These girls have manners... somewhere, deeeep down.
They travel in packs. They talk loudly, laugh loudly, are glued to their cell phones, and hardly pay attention because they are constantly having a conversation that isn't worth pausing. When they're by themselves they act like you're wasting their time and are very entitled, grumpy, flighty, and rude.
I THINK that they are like this because, I'm assuming, that they don't have actual tough labor jobs, if a job at all. I know they do philanthropy and what not through their houses but for the most part I'm pretty sure Mommy and Daddy pay for them to go to school and live out of state in a Greek house.
Please let me clarify, I don't know if every single girl/guy I encounter who is like this is in fact in a sorority/fraternity. I am doing this thing called generalizing based on what my staff and I have observed through the past year of working on this campus (and, for me, the past 16 years of living in this town).
There comes to be a time, after a certain amount of work you put into a place, where you notice patterns in people and customers. Considering because of our location we hardly get any non-IU affiliated business, I feel like our observations are pretty accurate, but again, that's just my opinion.
There's a lot more to say about these people but I can save that for another post. For now, just know that these Greek students are a large amount of customer base and without them we would lose a few thousand dollars every week, which is why we tolerate them and put on nice faces (besides the fact that we have to).
Party Subs
Last week I was called at work by a customer who works for the local school, Indiana University, and wanted enough party subs to feed 60 people.
Party subs are 6ft long and I'll talk more about them later.
The first year our store was open, our owner worked very hard to get on IU's preferred catering list, eating hundreds of dollars in labor and food costs to cater big events at no charge to the school.
Now, whenever resident halls, groups, and university staff need someone to cater (and because IU will pay for it), they go to the preferred catering list and can see our store.
As was the case with this man. He's an RA in the dorm across the street and was getting potential new RAs together to discuss applications, etc.
While I was on the phone with the customer I made sure he was satisfied with the toppings he chose, to understand that we do not cut the subs into portions (he is responsible for that), and came up with a good price.
If your event is affiliated with IU we give a 10% discount. If IU is paying through a student account it's tax exempt because they're a school.
So he spent over $250 and all together he wanted 3 party subs which is a grand total of 18ft.
He needed it for Monday (yesterday), so I knew I was going to be the one to have to make it, if only because I was the only one of two people who know how to assemble them who also knew how to make the big bread.
To make party subs we bake the bread in 1.5 ft increments and smoosh them together so-to-speak to look like a 3 ft or 6 ft sub.
The jig is up.
We do not have a 6 ft oven in the back.
To make the bread, we weave 4 sticks of bread (of white and wheat) together in a specific braid. The result is this beautiful marbled bread that's bumpy on top (see attached picture).
Assembling the boxes and wrapping the supports in giant plastic wrap is the next step and that usually takes two people. Luckily, my manager helped me.
However, she left before she could help me assemble the sandwiches.
Thankfully, our lunch rush was less than desirable and my two employees could run up front and help customers so I wouldn't have to leave the back. Had we been any busier I would have had to call my manager for back up.
Cutting into giant bread is much different than cutting into a normal footlong. The poofed up pieces of the marble bread are very fragile and can sink in or break pretty easily. this step is and will always be my least favorite part about the job.
The subs get a ton of extra meat and veggies and assembling them is my favorite part! (besides braiding the bread, that's fun too).
Once they're done we wrap them in more plastic wrap and put them in 3ft boxes and store them in the refrigerator.
One 6ft sub takes about 45 min to assemble. When you're doing two or three of them, however, you get much faster. So the first one took almost an hour but the next two only took 45 minutes.
My back was killing me after leaning over a short prep table for a few hours non-stop.
There were no extra employees there because, well, we werent busy enough to justify anyone else on the clock. However, that meant I had the same responsibilities of the midshift (11-6) PLUS the 3-4 hrs spent on these subs (I'm including baking time also).
The result?
Frantic Ariel trying to make sure everything is ready for the next shift.
Again, it would've been harder had we been busier. It's always thankful to have a slow day or period when you know you have such a large catering order to work on.
Today should be better. Hopefully there's no catering order waiting for me when I get there.
Party subs are 6ft long and I'll talk more about them later.
The first year our store was open, our owner worked very hard to get on IU's preferred catering list, eating hundreds of dollars in labor and food costs to cater big events at no charge to the school.
Now, whenever resident halls, groups, and university staff need someone to cater (and because IU will pay for it), they go to the preferred catering list and can see our store.
As was the case with this man. He's an RA in the dorm across the street and was getting potential new RAs together to discuss applications, etc.
While I was on the phone with the customer I made sure he was satisfied with the toppings he chose, to understand that we do not cut the subs into portions (he is responsible for that), and came up with a good price.
If your event is affiliated with IU we give a 10% discount. If IU is paying through a student account it's tax exempt because they're a school.
So he spent over $250 and all together he wanted 3 party subs which is a grand total of 18ft.
He needed it for Monday (yesterday), so I knew I was going to be the one to have to make it, if only because I was the only one of two people who know how to assemble them who also knew how to make the big bread.
To make party subs we bake the bread in 1.5 ft increments and smoosh them together so-to-speak to look like a 3 ft or 6 ft sub.
The jig is up.
We do not have a 6 ft oven in the back.
To make the bread, we weave 4 sticks of bread (of white and wheat) together in a specific braid. The result is this beautiful marbled bread that's bumpy on top (see attached picture).
Assembling the boxes and wrapping the supports in giant plastic wrap is the next step and that usually takes two people. Luckily, my manager helped me.
However, she left before she could help me assemble the sandwiches.
Thankfully, our lunch rush was less than desirable and my two employees could run up front and help customers so I wouldn't have to leave the back. Had we been any busier I would have had to call my manager for back up.
Cutting into giant bread is much different than cutting into a normal footlong. The poofed up pieces of the marble bread are very fragile and can sink in or break pretty easily. this step is and will always be my least favorite part about the job.
The subs get a ton of extra meat and veggies and assembling them is my favorite part! (besides braiding the bread, that's fun too).
Once they're done we wrap them in more plastic wrap and put them in 3ft boxes and store them in the refrigerator.
One 6ft sub takes about 45 min to assemble. When you're doing two or three of them, however, you get much faster. So the first one took almost an hour but the next two only took 45 minutes.
My back was killing me after leaning over a short prep table for a few hours non-stop.
There were no extra employees there because, well, we werent busy enough to justify anyone else on the clock. However, that meant I had the same responsibilities of the midshift (11-6) PLUS the 3-4 hrs spent on these subs (I'm including baking time also).
The result?
Frantic Ariel trying to make sure everything is ready for the next shift.
Again, it would've been harder had we been busier. It's always thankful to have a slow day or period when you know you have such a large catering order to work on.
Today should be better. Hopefully there's no catering order waiting for me when I get there.
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