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Central Texas fast-casual grunt checking in! We've got a healthy supply of drama, communication problems, drugs, additional drugs, and drama resulting from people being on drugs. Our OCD GM (Mina*) has scared off half our staff so now we have exactly ten people to run a store that's open 12 hours a day 7 days a week. 3/4 of our most recent new people have either quit/got fired because of Mina, or are going off to college in a month. I've been here for a year and so far I'm pretty sure I'm falling apart as a result (tennis elbow, torn groin muscle, almost definitely an ulcer) but I've lost 40 pounds and we actually pay pretty well so I guess I can't complain too much. One of our shift managers did just have a nervous breakdown and quit, right after another one quit because she finally hated Mina more than she liked working with her best friend. The two before that quit because they hated Mina. She's a fan of scheduling managers to close (we're usually out at midnight-ish) and then come back in at 7am the next day, so it should be pretty unsurprising why they burn out. Of the four left, one just got promoted to AGM, one has been a shift manager for all of a week, one vastly prefers the kitchen because he can cook kratom-based concoctions in the queso pans when nobody's looking, and the last one is a 20-year-old girl (Tara*) who I'm actually friends with, but we have so much trouble communicating at work (we mutually realized it the other day and started working on a plan to fix it) that Mina schedules us on polar opposite shifts rather than trying to help us work on it, which neither of us particularly likes as a plan since it forces the other managers onto ridiculous schedules just so Mina doesn't have to deal with me and Tara getting in arguments once a month about stupid poo poo that we almost immediately realize is stupid. poo poo, if I held a grudge over every dumb thing a 20-year-old has tried to get in a fight with me about, I'd never have time to do anything else. I refuse to quit, mostly out of spite. If I do quit I'll probably mutiny over to the pizza place next door that pays better and isn't run by Mina, but then I'd feel bad because our AGM is a good friend of mine and honestly I kinda like that I've been on my particular schedule, closing almost half of the store by myself five days a week, for so long that when anyone else tries it for more than a single day in a row they come up to me and say "goddamn TK, that poo poo is exhausting". (the secret to not giving a poo poo how exhausting it is is weed. lots of weed.)
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Jul 18, 2017 18:25
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 00:10 |
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tweet my meat posted:Just quit dude. eh, it's just extra money while going back to college, so it's not like I'm here forever. The people (Mina aside) are awesome and it's a ton of exercise so I'm not really complaining so much as venting, I guess
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Jul 19, 2017 01:00
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Crazy Larry posted:Dude, you're falling apart physically at a job that takes a heavy toll on people mentally despite apparently having a better paying option literally next door because of, by your own words, SPITE. You're not venting, you have loving stockholm syndrome. This is fair. I dunno, I'm still actively debating it, but I just feel like it's kind of a dick move, plus it's not -entirely- spite, I'm pretty good friends with most people here. It's me, I'm the idiot 
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Jul 19, 2017 01:54
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We lost one after two days because he could not manage to stop arguing with the GM about anything she asked him to do. We're all guilty of challenging her on things we think are dumb and/or inefficient, but this guy was the one that apparently had no idea how to talk to someone that's your ultimate boss in a brand new job. Maybe because our GM is young and blonde and Californian people don't take her seriously, but they typically learn really quick where the line is (just shut up and make her happy).
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Aug 3, 2017 17:34
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A Man and his dog posted:I also forgot that college classes start back up this week and everyone in the drat country floods the towns. Our store is the opposite; we're in a big summer-tourism area but in between a major city and a college town, both of which have their own stores. Ours is slammed between May and September, at which point all the river stuff and the water park close and we're dead for the rest of the year. For some reason they can't figure out how to staff our particular location so we're either running on a skeleton crew when it's busy as gently caress or have six people there and don't even do 2k for the day.
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Aug 21, 2017 17:21
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In the ongoing saga of Weird poo poo Happening At Work, we tend to hang out outside on the patio for a bit after we close, since the pizza place next door gets out around the same time and we're friends with a bunch of them as well. Apparently right after I left the other night, some incredibly crazy dude claiming to be a former Marine that shot up his apartment and was on the run from the cops in San Antone decided to come talk to the four (two of ours, two of the pizza place's) people still sitting outside chain-smoking. Nobody managed to get up the balls to leave until 45 minutes later, at which point our newest shift manager, who is infamously naive and will talk to anything with ears including corn, agreed to give the crazy dude a ride one town over (where every single one of us lives). The two from the pizza place tried to leave a few minutes before, but felt bad that our AGM was out there and clearly too nervous to get up and leave, and the new shift manager had no intention of stopping the weird-rear end conversation that apparently only he could understand. Honestly I'm shocked one of them didn't just call the cops, but from what I could piece together from their recounting later they were all scared of the dude, for various reasons (there was only one white, straight person in the group and this dude did not give off the impression he was particularly fond of Different People).
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Aug 25, 2017 17:01
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Called out yesterday because I'm not driving 20 miles down the freeway in edge-of-a-hurricane winds and rain, but can't really get away with it today. If I miss any more hours we're gonna have trouble paying bills. At least the wind died down some. Texas folks, I hope y'all and/or your restaurants didn't drown!
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Aug 27, 2017 17:47
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Errant Gin Monks posted:Seriously. Why isn't he doing coke like everyone else? seriously, anything weaker than Adderall is for filthy call center plebs
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Sep 5, 2017 03:55
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Moving along in my trek through central Texas kitchens, I'm now a line cook at a big truck stop restaurant, which is slower than you'd think. New boss bought me new work boots on my first day, which was awesome and apparently commonplace. She's this wiry older lady with grown kids who cusses like a sailor and has absolutely no  whatsoever, it's refreshing.My brother-in-law keeps telling me it's so easy to get promotions etc with the company, but I just spent a year trying to convince a stubborn, turbo-cheap first-generation Chinese man I was capable of running the restaurant I'd been running all along at $poo poo/hr (yes, I should have quit a long time ago) I just wanna cook for right now tbh
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Jun 25, 2019 16:43
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Errant Gin Monks posted:Do you work at Buckees? Nah, but we're really close to one, like an exit away. Our restaurant is allegedly turning into a Quaker Steak because the company owns that too (  ) this winter but we'll see if that actually happensBuc-ee's is awesome but I wouldn't want to work for them with the whole no smoking drug test Christian thing
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Jun 25, 2019 17:30
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I'm slightly more concerned that those aren't biscuits but toast, and the gravy is on the plate instead of on the side? what Yankee tomfoolery is this e: if they were biscuits the gravy would obviously be on top as god intended TheKennedys fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Jul 7, 2019 |
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Jul 7, 2019 19:02
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I am vaguely concerned about these people's sanity. I've been at my new place for less than a month and the GM and transfer AGM are already talking to the big boss (Bob) about training me for management and ultimately AGM. I feel like they're gonna end up talking me into Peter Principleing myself into a job I'm not good at; I'm not great with people and I'm awkward as gently caress and have some hilarious OCD but this entire company is hemorrhaging management so they're pushing anyone vaguely competent to be AGMs and poo poo. Maybe I just have poo poo self-esteem but I really worry about being allowed to be in charge of people. On the upside if I'm a manager that means I have the authority to shout at our 100% worthless maintenance guy so it may be worth it
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Jul 14, 2019 16:28
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Raikiri posted:Just use a stock pot, right? Or do it in the morning when it's cool (or both, like every place I've ever worked at has done).  We have a fryer filter machine and one of those huge fridge-sized standing traps you just stick the filter hose into and drain it, then the dudes come clear it out occasionally. So much better than having to do it manually. On the other hand we have two floor drains, one flattop, and one fryer that don't work, don't have an electric sharpener, the cold line lid has a huge dent so it's not keeping temp and flooding the bottom of the cooler, the maintenance dude won't even replace a light bulb, and yesterday the back door decided it didn't want to lock without setting off the alarm. So there's that. Still better than my last place, at least we didn't buy our dishwasher from Craigslist because we pissed off Ecolab and they canceled the contract (it took three weeks with one of the cooks who "used to repair appliances in China" to get it working; the place that put it on Craigslist did it because it was broken). To this day Boss will swear he got the better end of that deal
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Jul 16, 2019 18:15
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SHVPS4DETH posted:agreed but no one's going to pay attention to that number and no host/GM is going to turn away that business especially if it's more than the published maximum We quietly "encourage the assumption that we're closed" about 15 minutes before I turn off my hood/final flattop, but we still get the occasional old rear end in a top hat wandering through the half-closed gate into the empty dining room where the servers are mopping and the salad bar was put up an hour ago and ordering a well done porterhouse at 10:55 gently caress you old people, I want to clean my poo poo, go home, smoke weed and play video games, the c-store is open 24/7, go get some beef jerky since that's apparently what you really want anyway
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Aug 21, 2019 22:48
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somehow I fall into places where the most prep I have to do as the line cook is refill my cold lines and pull some chopped steaks/fish, maybe portion fries if it's slow, since we have a dedicated prep cook. I hate both peeling potatoes and customers so it works well for me, but someday my lifelong dodge of heavy prep work will catch up disclaimer: it's a 3-man kitchen assuming the manager fucks off by 8 (he always does), cook/prep/dishwasher SHVPS4DETH posted:i worked customer service/tech support in call centers for a decade before going BOH. if i never interact with a guest again it’ll be too soon e: I almost forgot the most recent episode of Restaurant High School! One of our only two male servers is a known tomcat that will flirt with literally anything with tits and a pulse, from the 300-pound manager next door to the waitress that'd been there for all of six hours. Apparently his wife found out about the waitress (it's not the first time she's found out) and hauled her bulk up to the restaurant to yell at him and threaten to come in every shift he worked with her. They both work today. I'm eagerly awaiting the fireworks, which I'll have a great view of from the line what's an appropriate "I'm just here for the schadenfreude" playlist? TheKennedys fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Aug 24, 2019 |
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Aug 24, 2019 18:02
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Update, horndog stormed out in a rage over the weekend after his wife screamed at him some more and it turned out literally the entire site knew about his dick pics. New server left too, AGM wants to kill himself because now he's stuck waiting tables as an aside AGM is clearly aping horndog's sarcastic humor when he comes to the window now and it's very weird because he has no sense of humor
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Aug 30, 2019 16:29
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kittenmittons posted:I moved up to line cook after washing dishes for a year and a half. Congrats! I'm a short order cook at heart I think, I thrive on low-grade productive anger, iron-fisted control and constant chaos Every dishwasher we've tried to train as a line cook has almost immediately no call no showed or hosed up drastically enough to get fired, so we're down to me, the occasional morning guy (who is quitting soon) and the dude that works my days off. Otherwise the line cook is whichever manager isn't doing prep and/or covering for a server that called out, I wish we could get someone worth a drat. One of the managers just put in his notice too. So that'll be fun.
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Sep 16, 2019 06:31
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Heyyyyy both of our AGMs are leaving. The one that just came back from leave after a stroke and thinks I hung the moon because I understand food science and can multitask got transferred to San Antonio, and the other is ragequitting over some insurance fuckery and hasn't bothered doing actual work for about a week now. Apparently tomorrow I get to babysit the new AGM transferring in, because he doesn't know how to cook. We are a fully functional restaurant, yessirree
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Sep 26, 2019 15:09
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At my old job I supplied the speakers and a tablet for music and left them there on my off days; my only rule was if I'm there, it's my music. I'd take requests but standing vetos were Honey, I'm Good, anything with more than a couple audible f-bombs, and the Beatles here I just bring a little one and play whatever the gently caress I feel like because the line window is far enough away from the customers I can get away with it e: The General posted:you probably don't want to listen to eurodance for 8 hours. 
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Sep 30, 2019 01:55
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spent the last few hours of work music last night going through 2DCAT's repertoire on spotify, need more good goon music 
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Sep 30, 2019 14:43
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Liquid Communism posted:As long as you can keep your poo poo together? Sure, I would never ask questions like that, gently caress knows we weren't paying enough to make up for how lovely the job was without chemical assistance. My prep cook was a zen-rear end stoner, would roll in baked, put on some Travelling Wilburys, and grind through three hours of prep like nothing and that was fine. I maintain a low-grade high like 70% of my life overall but it's the only reliable way I have to counteract my crippling anxiety, and the reason half the customers are still alive after sending back a well done steak as not being done enough. y'all don't want me to cook sober for nine hours. who smokes inside at work though, seriously
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Oct 1, 2019 14:58
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I have some fun Chinese restaurant stories from the year and a half I worked for a crazy person but it'd have to wait for not phone posting Any of y'all in Central Texas? Remember that storm Tuesday evening? Yeah, our roof fell off (photo from the news story)  probably doxxing where I work but goddamn it was an adventure, there were only three of us plus the new AGM working at the time, so the convenience store people had to come tell us to evacuate. The girl frying the c-store taquitos in my fryer ran off and came back going HOLY poo poo GUYS went and smoked weed after that instead of being at work, pretty good night overall
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Oct 17, 2019 15:09
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Resting Lich Face posted:That's insane! We've got a Popeyes, Subway and the corporate-owned restaurant (Country Pride here but it varies, we also own Quaker Steak) in that building, plus the c-store, I work at the restaurant. We had like ten tables and two orders up when it happened, one server, the brand new AGM, the night prep cook and me (line cook) there was a crowd of customers gawping at the damage out front when we were leaving, like 20 feet from the roof on the sidewalk TheKennedys fucked around with this message at 21:11 on Oct 17, 2019 |
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Oct 17, 2019 21:08
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bare bottom pancakes posted:
No injuries, thankfully.  It more "fell off" than "collapsed" so there was no interior damage besides some minor leaks.
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Oct 20, 2019 00:24
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to having your roof collapse during business hours. Utter insanity. Can I assume no one was hurt, at least? I'd think you would mention that.
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Coasterphreak posted:'m interested in what your definition of "out of their control" is, because about all I can think of is the owner banking with a local credit union that gets all their infrastructure wiped out in a natural disaster or something. Eh, I could maybe see it for a small place (those are largely the ones that bounce anyway) on tight margins having some disaster happen but in that case they've probably got bigger problems than bounced paychecks. If your checks are bouncing you are not a sustainable business 
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Oct 28, 2019 13:58
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This year I'm thankful for the AGM that can barely cook but follows directions really well, cause yesterday was chaos and I needed an extra pair of hands the 6-top that came in literally fifteen minutes to close can go gently caress themselves though
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Nov 30, 2019 00:35
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I'm a day behind but trans rights and I hope you have good support, Manuel (this thread ain't bad either) steak bitch: we sell tbones, ribeyes and sirloins and 75% of them are well done and get drenched in A1, I hate truckers occasionally they throw the server a $5 for me if they like my hockey puck of a steak though so I guess it ain't all bad
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Dec 13, 2019 18:13
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The local liquor store is carrying a gin themed after Ada Lovelace, and I almost wish I liked gin this is relevant because my prep cook is a drunk but he's still phenomenal and idgaf
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Dec 15, 2019 00:52
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Sandwich Anarchist posted:Sweat onions in bacon fat, chicken stock, cream, goat cheese. Coffee bacon jam on top. I'm gonna recreate this one of these days if it's the last thing I do, I need this in my life
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Dec 18, 2019 20:26
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I'm not sure when it happened but I've finally come to terms with the fact that I don't actually want to be a manager and anyone that would put me in charge of things is an idiot. Every new job people try to tell me they're gonna move me up and then it fades as they realize I'm poo poo with people and just really good at managing the chaos that is a solo line and making food also Saturday night the GM called off the dishwasher right as she left at like 4pm and didn't bother telling my prep cook it was just me and him and the single server for all of close (since we don't have a manager most night shifts). We left the server to her own devices and loving killed it because if we redirect our natural animosity-slash-sexual-tension towards doing work we make a really good team, but I'm really glad it was as slow as it was so we had time to do four people's jobs with two
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Dec 30, 2019 19:52
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Coasterphreak posted:Friend of mine running the store a couple miles away from the one I was running got robbed at gunpoint last night. heyyy, must be that time of year, our fuel island got robbed last week and the prep cook thought he saw the same guys the next night at the c-store. Apparently we were at work when it happened so we were all a bit on edge for a while
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Jan 4, 2020 18:52
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We just suspended our salad bar and (minimal) buffet, which sucks for food cost but whatever, keeps filthy trucker hands off the produce. It's been increasingly slow for us but the Subway and Popeyes seem to be going strong. This was probably the slowest Saturday in months and happened to be the only one where we managed to be fully staffed, though, so we had actual downtime and it was weird. I made soft pretzel bites with beer cheese sauce in the back, don't judge me
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Mar 15, 2020 07:15
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oh good the 500-pound asthmatic that works second shift at the truck shop at my work might have the corona I know this because my husband is currently working a double to cover for him. I'm off until Tuesday but I await the coming chaos with bated breath. PS: if anyone remembers my story about the roof falling off in a storm back in October, it's now the 6-month anniversary and they're maybe halfway done with repairs. It smells like varnish in the kitchen three days a week and they finally fixed our heater (via the roof) just in time for the AC to continue to not work
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Mar 15, 2020 19:14
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I've never been happier to be a short-order cook at a truck stop, we're hopefully going to be considered essential services and won't be forced to close even if Texas shuts down. I've still got 40 hours this week, but we're cutting things like the 16hr/week dishwasher and the salad bar in its entirety, and we're down to one server at a time. We've still got a steady trickle of business but it's mostly truckers, we haven't had the families and random old people we usually get.
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Mar 18, 2020 23:31
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Manuel Calavera posted:
I think I mentioned before once but yeah, we're the sit-down restaurant in one of those bigass truck stops with multiple fast food joints and poo poo. And it's basically that one, if you don't work here, get your grubby paws off the produce.
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Mar 19, 2020 07:00
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Welp, we closed down after vainly trying to cut down to four rotating BoH people and the manager, but we didn't have the sales with carryout only, since we've got the Popeyes and the Subway right down the hall. The four of us left on payroll are picking up shifts on the other sides but hours are limited and we're all really just kinda depressed. My GM owns though, she's been stomping all over the other higher-ups to make sure we're still here and she can still help us as much as she's able to. They've got her running the Subway temporarily, so she's both inserting her own people and reorganizing their side, so the ongoing reign of terror is pretty entertaining. As much as I love watching the portal to the chaos dimension, I do miss my own job 
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Mar 31, 2020 22:06
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 00:10 |
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My GM is a notorious alcoholic; I love her, she is amazing, but I spent 74 minutes of my actual human life, most of it on the clock, on the phone listening to her reassure me (probably herself) that she was trying to help and everything was for us and we're her hosed up lovable family and the Subway people just need to learn to trust her like we do and also [morning lady] preps too much, repeated ad nauseam until I finally got her off the phone by telling her I had to give the other Subway guy his break. maybe it's just me that thrives on chaos. I'm stressed as hell and getting like 10-15 hours a week filling in at the Subway and I miss my broken-rear end kitchen, but I really want to see how this story goes
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Apr 1, 2020 19:54
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