galoisien

When does inexperience become incompetency?

Work ethic is one thing, but how common is it to make mistakes during the first few weeks on the job? I mean, like major, embarrassing mistakes.

Like getting orders mixed in in the drive-thru and charging the customer's credit card for the wrong order such that the manager has to come over and fix it. Twice. In two days in a row. And occasionally missing cars such that they don't wait at the first window but pull up the second window so I have to squeeze-rush through the food production line and make sure the bills don't fall into the fryer. -_- And getting told by the shift manager, "You need to make sure you don't miss cars."

It's basically because I have to multitask -- that is, my shift requires drive-thru cashiering, washing dishes and preparing various food items for entry onto the production line, and comes with frequent glove use and handwashing. We get notified through a beep on the headset if a car comes, but sometimes, the waiting is so long (and thus the idleness) and the washing load so humongous, that I think I can squeeze several dishes in through the waiting. I think I missed about 7 cars today? The store didn't lose money though, since I (or another coworker) generally caught them in time. But it's embarassing.

So if I hope to be promoted within this summer (still useful after school starts because I can requests transfers to other outlets), have I basically killed my chances? I don't know of other teenage workers who make the gaffes I do.

If I follow the "if you can lean, you can clean" philosophy, I will have the risk of missing cars occasionally. However, if I ensure I catch every car, there's a lot of time spent idle and thus spent inefficiently. Is this is a common struggle in the fast food industry? Or am I just plain incompetent? Please advise.

Shrinkrap

Awww! That job looks hard to me! I bet there's a forum of folks talking about working fast food... or maybe in the high school life forum.

Lafalum84

I worked volunteer fast-food as a fund-raiser. It's a whole lot harder than it looks, and I have a lot more respect for fast-food workers now!

Galoisen, perhaps you should as your manager about your dilemma. Would he/she rather you clean/stay busy every second, or do they want you to focus on the cars coming thru the drive-thru? Once you know your manager's priorities, you can make them your own. :-)

MaryTN

A bunch of my Bunco friends all work at a large business near here. I'm inventing these specific details. But you should hear the stories they tell....

Jane comes in late and leaves early but her supervisor can't do anything because he uses office equipment on the weekends for a personal business. Bill next door knows about all of this but he can't do anything because he hasn't corrected any of his clerk's errors in years because she is high a lot and if he fusses at her or anyone else it might leak out that he is going for long weekends (on the company's dime) with a VP.

I don't know if you can follow that but basically all of the employees know dirt on others and so no one can compel them to do their job or fire them.

Inthebiz

This is epidemic . . . a friend who is the dean of the College of Engineering at a major state university told me he was visiting a major defense contractor a year or so ago and they yelled at him because so many of their new engineers are coming in with a sense of entitlement (you want me to do what? you want me to show up on time? etc.). I asked him if they were complaining about their employees they hired from his university (and thus he might be able to do something about it) but no . . . it was from all schools. He just had the bad luck to be there!

In my opinion, part of the blame lies with us . . . the parents of this generation. These kids have been coddled since birth, told everything they do is wonderful, get medals for simply showing up, and so forth. I can't tell you how many students have complained to me that they deserve an A because they tried. Sorry, trying is no longer enough . . . you have to produce!

On the other hand, I've had the privilege of working with many young people who are bright and industrious. We just need more of them!!!

kelsmom

Inthebiz, my friend is a community college chemistry prof. She has so many stories of kids who are truly shocked when she explains that they are failing (she does so when the end of the drop period is approaching, to allow them to get money back before it's too late). They just can't believe she would actually flunk them (she will!). Many figure she'll give them extra credit assignments or just let them slip through. The ones who do not believe her find out the hard way that she means business. I do think that parents are part of the problem.

kelsmom

And Galoisien, it takes time to learn a new job. PLEASE make sure to ask for help or clarification ... or just tips on how to handle it all. The summer before I started college, I worked on the line in an auto plant. I had absolutely NO idea what I was doing. Someone showed me my job, gave me my tools, and left me alone. I had no idea whether or not I was doing my job properly. I didn't know when lunch was, where the cafeteria was, where the bathrooms were, who to ask for help. It was awful! The nice thing was, when I later worked as a production supervisor, I made sure all my new workers were well trained.

tkwiseman

You know, the wrong people are reading this thread.

kelsmom

It's all about the vent, TKW!

Lafalum84

Again, look at my post #30. It's NOT just teenagers - I have older people who have an even higher sense of "entitlement" based on "seniority." Never mind that they accomplish at most 1 hours worth of work during a 3 hour shift, they've been here since God was a boy, so they think they are entitled to keep their job and make life hell for newer workers who actually WORK.

I also agree with MichaelNKat's post #18, there is indeed a flip side to this. There are a lot of employers who totally take advantage of teen workers and treat them with no respect whatsoever, especially during the hiring process. It's as though since they're young, they don't deserve any common courtesy whatsoever.

mkm56

Last week I had a painter working at my house. When I used this man a couple years ago, his son worked with him (a 20 year old). I asked what his son was doing now, as he didn't show up with his dad. The father replied, "I fired him, he thought he could come late, leave early or not show up at all. Son or no son, no employee of mine will get away with that". Seems the son is still out there trying to find an employer who will allow "flexibility".

somemom

Gal- on the drive through, clean & stock your area, I am guessing you don't wear a headset that allows you to walk too far from the drive through, but you can stock cups, ice, straws, napkins, bags, lemons for tea, make sure there is enough tea or the back up available to make more, sugar packets, other condiments, wipe the counters, sweep your area, wipe spots off the walls, clean the drive through windows- all things that ought to be done and are so much better done before you run out of things in the middle of a rush, and more efficient to do them one at a times between orders than to spend an hour at the end of the day, yes?

It would make sense to go back and do dishes, but if you don't have a headset, then some one needs to be watching your area and take the order whilst calling you back up front.

So, just look around for "spring cleaning" things- dust in drawers, look for grungy stainless steel and polish it , etc

Mr. Bojangles

I HATE the cell phone usage. I'm only 20 and still in college, but when I'm home on break I work at this taco place. I've been there for years and I'm a manager now, and it just gets worse and worse. The other day, while this girl was supposed to be cooking the meat...in front of customers no less, she was texting away on her phone. Seriously? I had to do a double take...maybe its because I'm not big into cell phones and whatnot, but I never did that. I have to constantly tell these kids what to do, none of them are actually proactive and look around/notice things that need to be done. Whenever they get done an assigned task...they sit. They sit and they text. I tell them it's not ok, I write them up, I tell the owner, but it's the same with every kid we hire.

Then we get to cleaning. Cleaning is a big deal with my boss and he's the one who checks it in the morning. So what do these kids do? They neglect the customer and focus on cleaning during the last two hours of their shift. We close an hour before our shift ends to clean...which is ample time to get everything done. But earlier and earlier I have to keep reminding them to stop cleaning and get the tables, or take drinks out, clean off the counter...it never ends.

Grrr....seeing this thread right after work just made me want to rant, sorry

cnp55

My solution to the texting issue was to fire the most flagrant violator. And let the staff know why -- she was hiding in the bathroom on the busiest day of the year texting with her boyfriend.

And then we started a new regime. Employees sign in on their time card. Time cards are kept in a picnic silverware basket -- it has one long slot where the out-of-use cards are kept, and then three small slots. Sign in, your time card, your keys, and your cell phone, turned off, go in the small slot, upright. (I don't care about their keys, but I don't want them lying around to get lost. We don't have lockers or even a good cloakroom).

It works fairly well, it is kept in 'command central' by the register, and gives some structure to the no-texting rule.

Marian

Can you really expect teenage employees -- or any employees -- to know the rules without having been taught them?

I ask because I'm a middle-aged mom who did freelance work for 20 years, but now I'm back in a full-time job. I've been there 3 months, and I still can't figure out what some of the rules are, which ones are taken seriously, and how to avoid getting in trouble for violating various procedures, some of which I had never heard of until I did something wrong.

For example, the logic of allowing employees to print as many pages as they want on the computer printers but not allowing them to photocopy even a single page without charging it to a client account escapes me totally. And although one of the things that I was told the first day was "no personal calls," I've discovered that nobody takes that seriously, and I don't intend to, either. (I don't mind having to use vacation time for a doctor's appointment, but it seems ridiculous to me to have to use vacation time to MAKE the doctor's appointment, which is what I would have to do if I followed the rule strictly.)

If I'm confused -- and I assure you that I am, despite a decade of full-time jobs before I turned freelancer -- I'm amazed that kids with no experience can function at all.