Apologies

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  My husband and I went on a much needed mini-vacation and when we returned, it was time for Valentine's Day.  It was busy, as I'm sure you can imagine.  Now I'm in the process of hiring and training new employees, so I'm literally busy all day.

More to come soon...

U r fired!

Things have been quite busy lately.  With surprising weather in the 70's this weekend, eveyone assumed it was summer and that means time to eat ice cream!  So Friday/Saturday/Sunday were extrememly busy days!  Not to mention all the other things that I have to keep up with in addition to customer volume.

But one thing stands out from the weekend, and it is a text I received from a minimum wage employee.  Now, here's what I don't understand.  When I was in college, I never would have thought about texting a prof, or a boss, because I respected their time, authority, and position.  I was even hesitant to send them an e-mail.  But today's kids don't think twice about texting me.  For a while I had a rule that they could only text me in emergencies.  Now I have made a "no texting" rule.  Period.  Here's why:

I got to our store at 7:30am this Saturday because we had a staff meeting then a staff cleaning day.  I wanted to prep everything for the meeting and the store for customers so we could focus on the tasks at hand.  The meeting lasted from 9-9:30, then we broke up into teams and cleaned sections of the store until 11:30.  At 12, I got into our mascot costume and stood at our intersection light for an hour (during which I got called an f***ing homosexual faggot).  After that, I had lunch, tried to nap, then returned to the store at 4 to work until 10pm.  A long day to say the least!

We weren't busy, just steady that night.  I had 4 people on staff, myself included, and one on call in case we got busy.  Around 8-8:30, I decided I didn't really need to stay.  I had errands to run at Wal-Mart for our ice cream shop (buying ingredients we were running out of) so I decided to leave.  As soon as I did, a line formed, so I stayed and helped with the line.  Once there were no customers waiting, I left.  When I returned with goodies in hand, there were 4-5 customers in line, and 4 employees behind the counter.  It was safe to leave, in my opinion.

The NEXT day, when I got home from church, I had 5 text messages on my phone: 1 from the employee who was in the store at the time, 2 from the owner, and 2 from one of the employees who worked the night I left early.  His messages caught me off guard, "I just want you to know how terribly under staffed you left us.  As soon as you left (early) the other employee and I had a constant line out the door until 10 and I know you know what I’m talking about because you came in and dropped off chocolate chips and left without an offer to help.”

Let's poke holes in his plot, shall we?

1. First and foremost, you should never send a text to your boss like this.  If you feel this way, it is best to have this conversation in person or over the phone
2. He is not in a position to reprimand me
3. How am I to help 12 hours after the fact?  Had I known they were busy, I would have gotten in my car and returned to the store.  I can't help if they don't ask for it.  So they have no right to be mad.
4. He was not the person in charge that night.  If it was a concern, I could understand it coming from them, but not from an ordinary, minimum wage earner.
5. When I left, there was no line.  When I dropped off the food, there were 4 people there.  I didn't need to help because they could handle it.

I called him on the spot, and basically communicated the afore mentioned points.  Then, I fired him.  To which he responded, "Ok, bye."   Funny enough, my husband and I had been talking about his complacent attitude lately (like asking me if he really had to do something when I told him to) and not showing up to work in his uniform.  My husband suggested I sit him down and give it to him straight and threaten to fire him.  But this was the last straw.  He was already in hot water.

I then found out the employees at the store had 63 gallons of ice cream to make (a lot) and this newly fired employee was on the clock (although he was not scheduled!).  So my husband and I got in our car and raced to the store.  When I turned the corner in the back of the store, I found the fired employee at my desk, finishing up a note on paper.  I told him he could leave.  The note was his 2 weeks "notice" which he dated the night before!  So it's the "you're not firing me!  I'm quitting" routine.  Except I fired him 20 minutes before he wrote his notice, which he dated the day before!  I stayed on my day off to make all that ice cream, at which time I received a text from said employee.  He wanted to know if he was still going to get his hours for the next 2 weeks!  I replied, "No, you are fired.  I am ceasing communication with you via text."  

And that was my weekend!   

No Touchie!

I don't know what it is about glass that automatically makes people want to touch it, but they sure do!  Our dip cabinet (where we keep the ice cream on display) has a sloped glass covering on it.  And for some reason, people, especially kids, feel the need to touch it all over.  These little kids practically make out with the glass, putting their slobering lips all over it.  I'm half tempted to put rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover on the glass and see what happens!  If I were a parent I wouldn't want my kid licking that glass, let alone touch it!

The real kicker is when people walk in, see you cleaning the glass, then proceed to stick their grimmy hands all over.  Sigh.  So the next time you go into a restaurant, don't put your hands on the glass and the employees will love you!

Acclimate, I think not

I'm a fast learner, and I can gain ground in a new work environment rather quickly.  Heck, for this job I received 4 days of training and then I was put in the manager position (without having any prior ice cream experience).  But there is one thing I can not grow accustom to: rude people.  I've never worked a job with so many rude people, not even when I did some part-time telemarketing!  These customers simply treat me and my staff like machines and think they are better than we are because they are on the other side of the counter.  It's quite ridiculous.

Here's what sparked this post:  a gentleman called in an order yesterday.  Since it was a rainy Monday, we were rather slow.  When the suit and tie came in to pick up his order he said, "You guys been slow today?"  "Yeah, a little."  "I bet the boss-man won't be happy about that."  To which I replied, "Well, I'm the boss so..." 
Here's where we need a little info: the owner of the store, let's call him Mr. Tom, lives 3 hours away.  And I'm the one who is here at the store 40+ hours, making sure things are running smoothly.  I make most of the operational decisions, not to mention I am in the process of trying to buy the business.  That being said, you can understand my feelings to his retort.

"Are you sure Mr. Tom, isn't the boss?"  As if he were trying to put me in my place.  I responded, "Well I'm the manager, I run the place.  He's the owner.   We all have someone to answer to.  Besides, Mr. Tom has told me on several occasions to tell people that I AM the owner (since I am in the process of becoming the owner)."  "He just tells you that so people don't call HIM."  He said with a smirk, again trying to put me in my place.  "You have a great day."  Jerk.

Let's not forget the one-word command people.  The ones who say, "Napkins" or after you've said, "Hi, how are you?"  they respond with "Vanilla."  I'm so tempted to repond with, "Oh, you would like to know where the napkins are located?" or "Oh, you were interested in ordering some vanilla today?"  Seriously people, we are human beings.  You are not texting, you are face-to-face with another person.  Please use complete sentences and use your manners.

And then there are the people who simply refuse to read or take any proactive role in gathering info.  Case in point:  yesterday, while I was working in the back, a rather large woman came in and sat down at one of our tables near the door.  I went out to the front and asked her if there was anything I could get her.  "I'm looking for that new cupcake place.  Someone told me it was next to you."  "Well, it's actually down the strip" as I pointed in the direction.  "Well they told me it's next to you."  Since it isn't, "It's just a few doors down to your left."  "How far is it?"  "You can walk from here, it's less than a block."  Huffing and puffing she said, "No, I can't walk down there."  Ok, you have a great day.  Why she didn't just drive until she found it in our strip is beyond me.  We are sandwiched between an Army recruiting office and a Catherine's store, so the cupcake place is obviously not next to us!

People just don't want to read or listen.  And they think because they are the customer, they can be rude and receive kind treatment in return.  It is very draining to be kind to rude people for 40+ hours a week.

Dietary "restrictions"

In conjunction with people not reading the menu, there are the people who have special dietary needs.  Now don't get me wrong, I sympathise with these people.  My sister is diabetic, so I'm not completely unassociated with people's needs.  But sometimes, it can get a little interesting.

Yesterday a woman came in and said, "Y'all got any sugar free ice cream?"  To which I responded, "We have a no-sugar-added flavor."  "Well where is it?"  "We keep it in the back."  "Well then I don't want it."  I'm not sure why the storage location of the ice cream would affect it's flavor.  I suggested she sample it, which she did and decided to get it.  She then asked me how much sugar was in our waffle cones.  I said I wasn't sure, I could try to estimate it based on the mix we use, but we could always put it in a cardboard cup.  She really wanted that waffle cone, so I did what I could, but couldn't find any info.  She got the cone anyway.

I love it when people order the NSA flavor, but then get 4 scoops of it, and mix it with Snickers and fudge and caramel.  Or some people try it, don't like it and get a large cheesecake flavored ice cream.  Ok?  Or when people order our low-fat vanilla and mix brownies, cookie dough, and Butterfinger into it.  Kinda defeats the purpose of the low fat, right?

I had one customer literally yell at me at the register because we didn't have sugar free ice cream.  I said we did have the NSA flavor to which he responded, "I said ICE CREAM!  That's not ice cream!"

I've also had a woman tell me our ice cream flavors were too sweet.  I'm sorry, this is an ice cream store;  most of the stuff we serve here will (and should) be sweet.

And then there's the allergy people.  Again, I know lots of people with nut allergies and it is a serious thing, but the way people communicate it is funny.

I had a woman say to me, "My daughter has a nut allergy, so you're going to need to get all the ingredients from the back."  Oh, thank you!  I'm so glad that you, the customer, knows our nut allergy preparation policy, because I, the employee, probably wouldn't know what to do without your guidance!  As if she is the only person with the allergy.  We deal with this all the time.

I had one woman wait until I was done making her entire order before she told me her daughter had a nut allergy.  So we had to throw her's away and start again.  And then there's the frantic parent who tells me 5 times that their kid has nut allergies.  And don't get me started on the people who are allergic to blue food dye number 2!

Menu Options

When I go to a restaurant, I usually look at the menu and order from that.  I do the same thing in places that have posted menus (as opposed to the ones you can hold).  Apparently that rule does not apply in ice cream shops. 

People walk right up to our ice cream cabinet (where are the flavors are displayed) and without glancing start ordering things we do not offer: Lemon ice cream, orange sherbert, black walnut, pistachio, pralines and cream...and the list continues.  I'm just dumbfounded that they order flavors we don't even HAVE!

And then there's confusion about other flavors like mint chocolate chip, cookie dough ice cream, or cookies and cream.  We don't have those flavors on display because we can mix them.  In other words, if you want mint chocolate chip, we can mix chocolate chips into mint ice cream.  If you want cookies and cream, we can mix oreos into sweet cream ice cream.  And so on.  For some reason this is terribly confusing for customers.   I had a boy say he wanted Snickers ice cream.  I said, "We don't have Snickers ice cream, but we can mix Snickers into any ice cream.  What flavor would you like?"  "I WANT SNICKERS ICE CREAM!"  "Ok, but do you want the Snickers in vanilla, chocolate...."  Don't worry, we got the Snickers drama resolved.  I've had people refuse to eat our ice cream because we didn't have cookies and cream.  I explained to the customer at least twice that we could mix oreos into any flavor and it would be just like cookies and cream.  I guess he didn't believe me because he just pouted and walked out.

And then we get people asking for scoops of what's on the menu.  If you've ever been to those ice cream stores where they mix stuff into the ice cream, they usually have suggestions on the board.  They mix ingredients into the ice cream; they don't have pans of it laying around!  At least they order from the menu board.

So the next time you go to a burger place, don't order sushi!

Now Hiring

In a business like ours, where the employees are paid minimum wage and get to work around ice cream all day, we get lots of applications.  Kids think this job will be easy and fun, but are shocked to find how involved and "difficult" it can be.  We are currently hiring for an assistant manager, which got me to thinking about all the funny applications or situations I come across, so for your reading pleasure:

• A kid came in to pick up an application, wearing a graphic T-shirt that said "JAIL"  and had an inmate number on it.  Really?  Don't you think I'm interviewing you right then and there?
• I had a sign posted saying we were hiring for an assistant manager.  A high schooler asked me how old you had to be to work here.  I told her 16, then she asked if one could be 16 and apply for the assistant manager position.
• During an interview, I ask "Describe a stressful situation and how you handled it"  I had one kid tell me that his girlfriend had cheated on him with his best friend.  "They didn't have sex or anything.  They just made out cuz they were drunk."  That's called drama, not a stressful situation.  Plus saying stuff like that doesn't really impress your future boss.
• I had a 32 year old woman use the phrase, "grew a pair of balls" and pimp during her interview.  Not a good sign.
• On an application it asks, "Why would you like to work here?"  Someone wrote, "Yes."  I can understand their mis-reading it thinking it said, "Would you like to work here?"  But that is obviously the case since you are filling out an application, so you might want to re-read that.
• On the application it asks, "Describe a situation where you provided or received excellent customer service"  and someone wrote "as an host I seen a lot of smile from do a good Job."
• I had an applicant write that he was accused of "burgary"
• I also had an applicant write that they were self-employed and the reason they "quit" was because "there wasn't enough work"  That same person tried to pull me aside and get an interview when we had a line of people and the health inspector there.  He asked if we hire someone specifically to dress up as our store mascot so he could be around little kids.  Um, no.

So as you can see, the hiring process can be both hilarious and exausting!