Ms. Love and Mr. Butts

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Flack
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Ms. Love and Mr. Butts

Post by Flack »

The year I spent working at Grandy's was like being trapped inside a real life David Lynch series. Grandy's is a fast food chain that sells home cookin' (fried chicken, chicken fried steak, and ribs) with veggies on the side. If anything, they are known for their fresh dinner rolls, delicious cinnamon rolls, and copious amounts of white gravy. At one time there were more than 200 Grandy's locations, although Wikipedia says they're down to around 20.

The Grandy's I worked at was located just off the interstate, right behind a Love's convenience store/truck stop. Although the restaurant was only a few miles from my home, it was in another school district, which meant I didn't previously know anyone who worked there. Essentially everyone who worked there had some sort of weird back story or quirk. It was a total band of misfits.

Our location was also a management training location, which meant that unlike a normal fast food restaurant that might have one shift manager on duty, our restaurant always had three to five management trainees who always worked the front counter. Managers were salary employees who were scheduled every week to work 55 hours (and frequently worked more than that), which meant if you figured up their hourly rate, we (the teenagers) were making more per hour than they were. The management trainees were just as odd as everyone else.

The way Grandy's is laid out is that there are cooks in the back who fill metal trays with fresh food and send them through a small chute to the front of the restaurant. I started as counter help but eventually moved to the kitchen. The kitchen was great because customers could barely see into the kitchen, and we could barely see what was going on in the dining room. Grandy's was pretty stingy about employees eating free food, but the only people in the kitchen were two teenage cooks. We had access to all the food and were constantly making (and inventing) tasty treats to eat.

All of this may sound relatively normal but like I said, our restaurant might as well have been a location in Twin Peaks. There were two daytime cooks, both in their 30s, who would show up around closing time with beer for all the minors to drink in the parking lot. One of my friends tried to make wine in the roll proofer by putting fruit, yeast, and hot water in a sealed bucket and leaving it there for a week. (It didn't work; we all barfed when he opened it.) I once found a potato under a table that had been there for so long that it had somehow spread roots down through the grout in the tile. One of the employees would make fake name tags because he didn't want customers to know his true identity. There was a loose ground in the store's outdoor neon lights that caused the water in the sinks to shock you after dark. One of the employees started dating a crack whore and would sit in his car facing the drive-thru window and make out with her so that all of us were forced to watch. One of the management trainees was legit homeless, living in a camper on the back of his pickup which, for the most part, stayed in our parking lot. Another kid ran away from home and tried living in the store's unused attic/storage space until someone threw his bicycle into the trash compactor out back, thus destroying his transportation and putting an end to that.

One of the management trainees was named Michael Butts. Of course, we always called him Butts. Butts was probably in his late 20s, which seemed really old to us. He was probably 5'6" with dusty blonde hair. He was big into karate and was always talking about Bruce Lee. He was a nice guy and not a great manager.

Around the same time Butts and a few other new managers showed up we got another new employee -- Jennifer Love. Jennifer Love was the daughter of Mr. Love, the guy who owned Love's convivence stores. Before Ms. Love showed up, the management team sat us down and gave us a serious lecture. Turns out, our restaurant was actually a franchise, owned by the Loves (who were multi-millionaires). We were instructed to be on our best behavior any time she was in the building.

We in the kitchen weren't too worried about her arrival. The floor of the kitchen was covered in grease making it slippery even when wearing good tennis shoes, and impossible for someone in high heels (which Jennifer wore) to traverse. As long as you weren't shouting, nobody up front could hear what we were saying in the back, so we weren't worried about that either. The only guy who got fired from the back was Dave, who grabbed the microphone and performed an impersonation of Darth Vader masterbating while there were customers in the dining room.

Sunday afternoons were always busy. Not only did you get the normal church rush, but tons of people would come through and buy rolls, cinnamon rolls, and cobbler to go for lunch gatherings. On one particular Sunday, the place was packed -- there were half a dozen managers working, plus regular counter help, plus three of us in the kitchen. When the rush died down, Butts wandered back into the kitchen to take a break. We were talking about how busy it had been and he went off about how his Bruce Lee Zen state of mind helped him get through anything.

I don't remember how it got started but Butts started saying that, like Bruce Lee and Houdini, he could tighten his stomach muscles up and let people punch him. I told him that if he didn't get out of the kitchen, he was definitely getting punched. Butts said no problem, he would love to demonstrate his abilities by letting me punch him. I told him he should think twice about it and if he really wanted me to hit him, he should come back in five minutes.

Five minutes later he returned, along with some of the counter help. I also noticed a couple of managers peeking back through the food slide, seeing what we were up to. Butts had this shit-eating grin on his face and began breathing deep before tightening all his muscles. The veins in his neck began to protrude, his face turned red, he patted his stomach and then grunted, "HIT ME."

Butts probably weighed 150 pounds and I was a stocky 225. Also, I guess this had never come up in conversation between the two of us, but by this point I had been in karate for about 8 years, was a brown belt, and certainly knew how to throw a solid punch. I leaned in and threw a punch that landed directly on his solar plexus.

For those who don't know, your solar plexus is above your stomach, right about where your rib cage joins up. It's a really good way to knock the breath out of someone, which I did. I hit Butts so hard that he landed on his ass and then slid backwards across the floor through the grease. When he stopped sliding he immediately began to alternate between moaning and gasping for air. He was making enough noise that Jennifer Love, who I didn't realize was working, came back into the kitchen to see what was up. She didn't say a word. She just stood there in her high heels looking at me, the crowd of people around us, and Butts, who was now curled up on the greasy floor.

In retrospect, Butts took it all in stride (I told him "I missed") and we actually got along pretty well after that. A month or two after that he turned in his notice and said he was going to work at Subway.

Other than the time that I burned my crotch with grease and got caught in the walk-in freezer holding a frozen chicken up against my crotch with my pants half down, this was the closest I ever got to getting fired from Grandy's. Oh, and the time I showed up hung over, got assigned to work drive-thru, and puked multiple times out the drive-thru windows between customers. That was a close one, too.

That Grandy's location eventually closed and became a Mexican restaurant. That restaurant also closed and was eventually turned into extended semi-truck parking for Love's, which is still there. According to LinkedIn, Jennifer Love is now the "Chief Culture Officer for Love's Travel Stops." She does not mention Grandy's in her work history.
"I failed a savings throw and now I am back."

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Re: Ms. Love and Mr. Butts

Post by Jizaboz »

LOL motherfucker better take it in stride.. he asked for it! LOLOL

Awesome story, Flack. You honestly pull off the "and because I knew martial arts" stories well without coming across as an Oakly sunglasses wearing jerk. I hope I do the same when retelling my "fight stories" to people.

Also, I miss the only Grandy's I ate at one time.. probably more due to the restaurant decor more than the food (I don't remember the food). Captain D's ended up buying the few Grandy's in our area. They are like Long John Silver's but better.
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

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Re: Ms. Love and Mr. Butts

Post by Flack »

The best thing about working at Grandy's was that everything was made fresh every day and at the end of the day it all either went into the trash, our homes, or our bellies. When it was time to close the counter help would send back all the food and I would just grab fried chicken breasts and mashed potatoes with my bare hands and shove them into my mouth. There were nights when we would have half a dozen slabs of ribs left over and I would grab one and take two bites out of it like I was Fred Flintstone before dumping it into the trash.

The best things were the dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls. At the end of the night we might have 2-3 trays of dinner rolls, each with 200 rolls on it, sitting in the proofer waiting for the trash. We would also have anywhere from two to a dozen six-packs of gigantic cinnamon rolls. My parents had a chest freezer in their garage and I brought home food every night and filled the freezer to its limit. There was a time when we had probably 50 six-packs of frozen cinnamon rolls and hundreds of dinner rolls. Same went for the cobbler. They would keep a few warming in the oven and whatever was left was fair game. And the thing was, every new employee was like AW YEAH GIMMIE SOME FOOD and after a week or two they got sick of it. But I never got sick of it. I never got tired of taking home a slab of ribs to have for a midnight snack.

Anyway, about that frozen chicken...

When I started working as a cook I was terrified of the giant vats of grease. The way to avoid splashing is to lay food into the grease and let it go, but because you're terrified your instinct is to drop things into the vat, which causes it to splash. I had just dropped some chicken into the grease when I let it go from too high and the grease splashed out and onto my crotch. The burning sensation on my thigh was instant and I freaked out, fearing that I had just burned my dick off. After letting out a loud yelp I ran into the walk-in freezer, which was right next to the kitchen. Once inside I looked for the coldest thing I could find to put on my leg. There was a giant vat of ice water full of bags of chicken parts. I grabbed one of the bags out of the ice water, but my leg was still burning and I was afraid the grease was stuck in my pants and still burning me, so I yanked down my pants and pressed the chicken up against my burning crotch.

Of course because I had yelled, people came running back to see what had happened. A few moments later my manager along with a couple of other people opened the walk-in freezer door only to see me standing there with my pants down holding a bag of chicken against my crotch.
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Re: Ms. Love and Mr. Butts

Post by Tdarcos »

Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amGrandy's is a fast food chain that sells home cookin' (fried chicken, chicken fried steak, and ribs) with veggies on the side.
AKA "comfort food." Or, "the number 1 cause of arteriosclerosis and obesity in America."
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amIf anything, they are known for their fresh dinner rolls, delicious cinnamon rolls, and copious amounts of white gravy.
Also comfort food. And, "the number 2 cause of arteriosclerosis and obesity in America."
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amAt one time there were more than 200 Grandy's locations, although Wikipedia says they're down to around 20.
The craze by the public to move to less-lethal food stunted their growth, and starved them out.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amThe Grandy's I worked at was located just off the interstate, right behind a Love's convenience store/truck stop.
Ahh, truck stops. Since they generally sell rib-sticking heavy meals to (mostly) men who are seated at "a desk" all day (granted, the "desk" has a steering wheel and moves hundreds of miles a day, potentially all over the country) in an essentially sedentary position, truck stops are, "the number 3 cause of arteriosclerosis and obesity in America."
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amAlthough the restaurant was only a few miles from my home, it was in another school district, which meant I didn't previously know anyone who worked there.
I guess these people were fortunate enough not to know you when you were in school.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amEssentially everyone who worked there had some sort of weird back story or quirk. It was a total band of misfits.
As are most restaurants hiring unskilled people. It takes discipline to be able to get up and go to work every day, the discomfort of doing so is somewhat salved by the ointment of getting paid, and when they see how little ointment they receive, they will usually decide, as soon as they can get a better job, they're moving out of this hellhole.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amManagers were salary employees who were scheduled every week to work 55 hours (and frequently worked more than that), which meant if you figured up their hourly rate, we (the teenagers) were making more per hour than they were.

And in most cases their employer is violating federal wage law. To classify someone as exempt from overtime pay, they must be paid at least $684 a week. Were they paying you guys at least $684 a week? I'm sure you weren't, which means it is a serious violation of federal law if they're paying exempt employees less than those working on hourly wage rates. That's why they hire 20-year-olds, they're too uninformed about their rights under labor laws.

There are many, many cases of companies pulling stunts to illegally underpay people. Amazon was ordered to repay over $60 million in tips illegally withheld from delivery drivers. Walmarrt, well, they've done so many execrable things to employees that people have written books about it, but let's just mention locking the cleaning crews in at night so they couldn't leave. And deliberately paying people so little they encouraged them to apply for welfare benefits, medicaid, and food stamps (now called SNAP). Which they would qualify for.

Why do you think fast-food places typically have upwards of 150% turnover a year? They're training factories. They hire young, unskilled people and overwork them, so, once the person has 3-6 months of job experience, they can now work at a (sane) place that pays decently but requires prior work experience. These places end up spending more money because people don't stay in low-paying jobs very long, which means they probably have higher costs due to high staff turnover.

Keeping employees longer by paying them better always results in a lower cost because you don't have to have managers spending extra time interviewing and training people. But since they don't care - or don't know - that they're violating labor laws by classifying non-exempt people as exempt from overtime, they don't care if they underpay and overwork everyone else.

Calling someone a manager, having them manage others, or even run a store does not make a person an exempt employee. Regardless of title, job duties, or responsibility, they cannot be classified as exempt unless they are paid not less than $684 a week. Full stop.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amThe management trainees were just as odd as everyone else.

What do you expect, sanity? They're stupid enough to take management roles at a place paying less than the hourly employees, and paying managers amounts so low they violate federal law..
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amThe way Grandy's is laid out is that there are cooks in the back who fill metal trays with fresh food and send them through a small chute to the front of the restaurant.
They're operating by following "the standard rules for mastubation," (or maintenance, or most dirty jobs). Point 1: Hide the appearance of the equipment (and the person [or employyee] involved in the process) so as not to frighten the public. Point 2: get what you need to do done, and then stop. Point 3: Clean up after yourself when you're finished playing around.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amI started as counter help but eventually moved to the kitchen.
Oh, they demoted you? You must have really screwed the pooch somehow, but not enough to get fired.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amThe kitchen was great because customers could barely see into the kitchen, and we could barely see what was going on in the dining room.
Agqain, strict adherance to Point 1 of the standard rules for masturbation.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 am Grandy's was pretty stingy about employees eating free food, but the only people in the kitchen were two teenage cooks.
Another reason people hate their employer, they're badly underpaid as it is, and the company doesn't even care enough to give them the wholeasle cost of a meal. And they wonder why, when times are good and there's a labor shortage, people won't put up with shit wages.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 am We had access to all the food and were constantly making (and inventing) tasty treats to eat.
In places where you guys being allowed to openly have a free meal, you'd be able to admit what you made, and if it's something useful, the employer might have ideas for new things to try. But all that creativity is lost when you're bootlegging meals. And if the employer didn't know you guys would bootleg meals, they're even stupider than the people willing to work for what they paid.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 am There were two daytime cooks, both in their 30s, who would show up around closing time with beer for all the minors to drink in the parking lot.

And that's another example of stupidity, wasting good alhohol like that. You're only supposed to give alcohol to minors when they're cute 16-year-old girls you're tying to pick up. (This is legal in 30 states and the District of Columbia, that is, picking up 16-year-old girls for the obvious reason. Giving them alcohol is not, however.)
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amOne of my friends tried to make wine in the roll proofer by putting fruit, yeast, and hot water in a sealed bucket and leaving it there for a week.

Getting practice for his future application of that skill in prison?
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amOne of the employees would make fake name tags because he didn't want customers to know his true identity.

Same guy as the trainee wine maker? Practicing making fake IDs for his future ocupation?
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 am There was a loose ground in the store's outdoor neon lights that caused the water in the sinks to shock you after dark.

Did anyone tell the employer about this? If they were informed about the danger, then failed to fix it, I'm sure that violates either a state law or OSHA regulation. They don't fool arounf on that; egregious health or safety violations can get the employer fined $10,000 a day until corrected. Or shut down until it's fixed.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amOne of the employees started dating a crack whore and would sit in his car facing the drive-thru window and make out with her so that all of us were forced to watch.
This was clearly her fault. Everyone knows you never have sex with someone crazier than yourself. She has to sell her body because she's addicted to an expensive substance. What's his excuse working for a place obviously underpaying people, except rank insanity? She should have realized this.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amOne of the management trainees was legit homeless, living in a camper on the back of his pickup which, for the most part, stayed in our parking lot.
He wasn't homeless, just "living in non-traditional housing." He had a bed to sleep on, inside a room behind a locked door, had a very short commute to work, and no rent to pay. Perhaps he was saving to raise the money to move somewhere. Perhaps he liked this arrangement. I've been homeless, and I still had to pay them for room and board; what he had is consideably better than the truly bad stuff, as was what I put up with.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amOne of the management trainees was named Michael Butts. Of course, we always called him Butts.

Well, he identifies himself as "my cold butts," he's like a baker with a broken oven: he has trouble keeping his buns warm. Did you guys call him "Butts" because he sat on his ass all day?
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amButts was probably in his late 20s, which seemed really old to us. He was probably 5'6" with dusty blonde hair. He was big into karate and was always talking about Bruce Lee. He was a nice guy and not a great manager.

So, in other words, while Butts sat on his ass all day, he didn't act like one?
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amAround the same time Butts and a few other new managers showed up we got another new employee -- Jennifer Love.

When she walked in the room, Donovan's song Wear Your Love Like Heaven should play.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amJennifer Love was the daughter of Mr. Love, the guy who owned Love's convivence stores. Before Ms. Love showed up, the management team sat us down and gave us a serious lecture. Turns out, our restaurant was actually a franchise, owned by the Loves (who were multi-millionaires). We were instructed to be on our best behavior any time she was in the building.

Translation. "Don't try to hit on the Boss' daughter."
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amWe in the kitchen weren't too worried about her arrival.

Oh, not very attractive amd/or acted like an entitled bitch, i.e. her first name should have been 'Karen'? So, since the manager wasn't there, she wouldn't be going there to complain?
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amThe floor of the kitchen was covered in grease making it slippery even when wearing good tennis shoes, and impossible for someone in high heels (which Jennifer wore) to traverse.

Clearly, your county was woefully deficient in doing inspections. Having a place where the risk of a slip hazard is high is an unsafe workplace waiting for an injury or worse, and a big lawsuit or Worker's Comp claim. An inspector, if they knew everything wrong there, would shut that place down in seconds.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amthis was the closest I ever got to getting fired from Grandy's. Oh, and the time I showed up hung over, got assigned to work drive-thru, and puked multiple times out the drive-thru windows between customers. That was a close one, too.

Probably because you didn't throw up on the customers, you were being polite to them. Actually, this is where Pinback has it wrong: People do not routinely have projectile vomiting from eating Jack-in-the-Box, food. People develop projectile vomiting by working at Jack-in-the-Box.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amThat Grandy's location eventually closed and became a Mexican restaurant.
Yeah, we know all about your experience and what's going on at Mexican restaurants.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amThat restaurant also closed and was eventually turned into extended semi-truck parking for Love's, which is still there. According to LinkedIn, Jennifer Love is now the "Chief Culture Officer for Love's Travel Stops." She does not mention Grandy's in her work history.
Yeah, because nobody wants to admit they worked in a place that bad.
Evil cannot create anything new
They can only corrupt and ruin
What good forces have invented or made.
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Re: Ms. Love and Mr. Butts

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

Flack let me know if I should split the thread.
the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey!

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Re: Ms. Love and Mr. Butts

Post by Flack »

Tdarcos wrote: Wed Nov 10, 2021 9:27 am
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amGrandy's is a fast food chain that sells home cookin' (fried chicken, chicken fried steak, and ribs) with veggies on the side.
AKA "comfort food." Or, "the number 1 cause of arteriosclerosis and obesity in America."
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amIf anything, they are known for their fresh dinner rolls, delicious cinnamon rolls, and copious amounts of white gravy.
Also comfort food. And, "the number 2 cause of arteriosclerosis and obesity in America."
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amAt one time there were more than 200 Grandy's locations, although Wikipedia says they're down to around 20.
The craze by the public to move to less-lethal food stunted their growth, and starved them out.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amThe Grandy's I worked at was located just off the interstate, right behind a Love's convenience store/truck stop.
Ahh, truck stops. Since they generally sell rib-sticking heavy meals to (mostly) men who are seated at "a desk" all day (granted, the "desk" has a steering wheel and moves hundreds of miles a day, potentially all over the country) in an essentially sedentary position, truck stops are, "the number 3 cause of arteriosclerosis and obesity in America."
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amAlthough the restaurant was only a few miles from my home, it was in another school district, which meant I didn't previously know anyone who worked there.
I guess these people were fortunate enough not to know you when you were in school.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amEssentially everyone who worked there had some sort of weird back story or quirk. It was a total band of misfits.
As are most restaurants hiring unskilled people. It takes discipline to be able to get up and go to work every day, the discomfort of doing so is somewhat salved by the ointment of getting paid, and when they see how little ointment they receive, they will usually decide, as soon as they can get a better job, they're moving out of this hellhole.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amManagers were salary employees who were scheduled every week to work 55 hours (and frequently worked more than that), which meant if you figured up their hourly rate, we (the teenagers) were making more per hour than they were.

And in most cases their employer is violating federal wage law. To classify someone as exempt from overtime pay, they must be paid at least $684 a week. Were they paying you guys at least $684 a week? I'm sure you weren't, which means it is a serious violation of federal law if they're paying exempt employees less than those working on hourly wage rates. That's why they hire 20-year-olds, they're too uninformed about their rights under labor laws.

There are many, many cases of companies pulling stunts to illegally underpay people. Amazon was ordered to repay over $60 million in tips illegally withheld from delivery drivers. Walmarrt, well, they've done so many execrable things to employees that people have written books about it, but let's just mention locking the cleaning crews in at night so they couldn't leave. And deliberately paying people so little they encouraged them to apply for welfare benefits, medicaid, and food stamps (now called SNAP). Which they would qualify for.

Why do you think fast-food places typically have upwards of 150% turnover a year? They're training factories. They hire young, unskilled people and overwork them, so, once the person has 3-6 months of job experience, they can now work at a (sane) place that pays decently but requires prior work experience. These places end up spending more money because people don't stay in low-paying jobs very long, which means they probably have higher costs due to high staff turnover.

Keeping employees longer by paying them better always results in a lower cost because you don't have to have managers spending extra time interviewing and training people. But since they don't care - or don't know - that they're violating labor laws by classifying non-exempt people as exempt from overtime, they don't care if they underpay and overwork everyone else.

Calling someone a manager, having them manage others, or even run a store does not make a person an exempt employee. Regardless of title, job duties, or responsibility, they cannot be classified as exempt unless they are paid not less than $684 a week. Full stop.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amThe management trainees were just as odd as everyone else.

What do you expect, sanity? They're stupid enough to take management roles at a place paying less than the hourly employees, and paying managers amounts so low they violate federal law..
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amThe way Grandy's is laid out is that there are cooks in the back who fill metal trays with fresh food and send them through a small chute to the front of the restaurant.
They're operating by following "the standard rules for mastubation," (or maintenance, or most dirty jobs). Point 1: Hide the appearance of the equipment (and the person [or employyee] involved in the process) so as not to frighten the public. Point 2: get what you need to do done, and then stop. Point 3: Clean up after yourself when you're finished playing around.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amI started as counter help but eventually moved to the kitchen.
Oh, they demoted you? You must have really screwed the pooch somehow, but not enough to get fired.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amThe kitchen was great because customers could barely see into the kitchen, and we could barely see what was going on in the dining room.
Agqain, strict adherance to Point 1 of the standard rules for masturbation.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 am Grandy's was pretty stingy about employees eating free food, but the only people in the kitchen were two teenage cooks.
Another reason people hate their employer, they're badly underpaid as it is, and the company doesn't even care enough to give them the wholeasle cost of a meal. And they wonder why, when times are good and there's a labor shortage, people won't put up with shit wages.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 am We had access to all the food and were constantly making (and inventing) tasty treats to eat.
In places where you guys being allowed to openly have a free meal, you'd be able to admit what you made, and if it's something useful, the employer might have ideas for new things to try. But all that creativity is lost when you're bootlegging meals. And if the employer didn't know you guys would bootleg meals, they're even stupider than the people willing to work for what they paid.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 am There were two daytime cooks, both in their 30s, who would show up around closing time with beer for all the minors to drink in the parking lot.

And that's another example of stupidity, wasting good alhohol like that. You're only supposed to give alcohol to minors when they're cute 16-year-old girls you're tying to pick up. (This is legal in 30 states and the District of Columbia, that is, picking up 16-year-old girls for the obvious reason. Giving them alcohol is not, however.)
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amOne of my friends tried to make wine in the roll proofer by putting fruit, yeast, and hot water in a sealed bucket and leaving it there for a week.

Getting practice for his future application of that skill in prison?
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amOne of the employees would make fake name tags because he didn't want customers to know his true identity.

Same guy as the trainee wine maker? Practicing making fake IDs for his future ocupation?
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 am There was a loose ground in the store's outdoor neon lights that caused the water in the sinks to shock you after dark.

Did anyone tell the employer about this? If they were informed about the danger, then failed to fix it, I'm sure that violates either a state law or OSHA regulation. They don't fool arounf on that; egregious health or safety violations can get the employer fined $10,000 a day until corrected. Or shut down until it's fixed.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amOne of the employees started dating a crack whore and would sit in his car facing the drive-thru window and make out with her so that all of us were forced to watch.
This was clearly her fault. Everyone knows you never have sex with someone crazier than yourself. She has to sell her body because she's addicted to an expensive substance. What's his excuse working for a place obviously underpaying people, except rank insanity? She should have realized this.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amOne of the management trainees was legit homeless, living in a camper on the back of his pickup which, for the most part, stayed in our parking lot.
He wasn't homeless, just "living in non-traditional housing." He had a bed to sleep on, inside a room behind a locked door, had a very short commute to work, and no rent to pay. Perhaps he was saving to raise the money to move somewhere. Perhaps he liked this arrangement. I've been homeless, and I still had to pay them for room and board; what he had is consideably better than the truly bad stuff, as was what I put up with.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amOne of the management trainees was named Michael Butts. Of course, we always called him Butts.

Well, he identifies himself as "my cold butts," he's like a baker with a broken oven: he has trouble keeping his buns warm. Did you guys call him "Butts" because he sat on his ass all day?
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amButts was probably in his late 20s, which seemed really old to us. He was probably 5'6" with dusty blonde hair. He was big into karate and was always talking about Bruce Lee. He was a nice guy and not a great manager.

So, in other words, while Butts sat on his ass all day, he didn't act like one?
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amAround the same time Butts and a few other new managers showed up we got another new employee -- Jennifer Love.

When she walked in the room, Donovan's song Wear Your Love Like Heaven should play.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amJennifer Love was the daughter of Mr. Love, the guy who owned Love's convivence stores. Before Ms. Love showed up, the management team sat us down and gave us a serious lecture. Turns out, our restaurant was actually a franchise, owned by the Loves (who were multi-millionaires). We were instructed to be on our best behavior any time she was in the building.

Translation. "Don't try to hit on the Boss' daughter."
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amWe in the kitchen weren't too worried about her arrival.

Oh, not very attractive amd/or acted like an entitled bitch, i.e. her first name should have been 'Karen'? So, since the manager wasn't there, she wouldn't be going there to complain?
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amThe floor of the kitchen was covered in grease making it slippery even when wearing good tennis shoes, and impossible for someone in high heels (which Jennifer wore) to traverse.

Clearly, your county was woefully deficient in doing inspections. Having a place where the risk of a slip hazard is high is an unsafe workplace waiting for an injury or worse, and a big lawsuit or Worker's Comp claim. An inspector, if they knew everything wrong there, would shut that place down in seconds.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amthis was the closest I ever got to getting fired from Grandy's. Oh, and the time I showed up hung over, got assigned to work drive-thru, and puked multiple times out the drive-thru windows between customers. That was a close one, too.

Probably because you didn't throw up on the customers, you were being polite to them. Actually, this is where Pinback has it wrong: People do not routinely have projectile vomiting from eating Jack-in-the-Box, food. People develop projectile vomiting by working at Jack-in-the-Box.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amThat Grandy's location eventually closed and became a Mexican restaurant.
Yeah, we know all about your experience and what's going on at Mexican restaurants.
Flack wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 amThat restaurant also closed and was eventually turned into extended semi-truck parking for Love's, which is still there. According to LinkedIn, Jennifer Love is now the "Chief Culture Officer for Love's Travel Stops." She does not mention Grandy's in her work history.
Yeah, because nobody wants to admit they worked in a place that bad.
DWR.
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AArdvark
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Re: Ms. Love and Mr. Butts

Post by AArdvark »

What the hell? Was Commander trying to be funny?

It came across like he was jealous of Flack's great story about Grandy's and he got all passive aggressive about it.

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Re: Ms. Love and Mr. Butts

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Tdarcos wrote: Wed Nov 10, 2021 9:27 am So, in other words, while Butts sat on his ass all day, he didn't act like one?
Paul, do you realize that if Jennifer in a fit of youthful rebellion decided to run off and marry Michael she could then change her name to Jennifer Love-Butts? That alone would be enough to justify the union in my mind.

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Re: Ms. Love and Mr. Butts

Post by Tdarcos »

AArdvark wrote: Wed Nov 10, 2021 4:14 pmWhat the hell? Was Commander trying to be funny?
Yes, I was. I thought some of the comments I made were clearly satire and/or ridiculous. Like calling comfort food the #1 cause of arteriosclerosis and obesity, white gravy was #2, and truck stops #3 was obvious. Or when the guy was making out with a crack whore in public was her fault. Or the comments about Ms. Love.

Well, I guess it didn't work.
AArdvark wrote: Wed Nov 10, 2021 4:14 pmt came across like he was jealous of Flack's great story about Grandy's and he got all passive aggressive about it.
I'm sorry it came off that way. I thought I was hi lighting some of the ridiculousness of what happened there. I thought his story was very interesting, and deserved a little snarky comment, like the Burritos story I linked to.
Evil cannot create anything new
They can only corrupt and ruin
What good forces have invented or made.
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Re: Ms. Love and Mr. Butts

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

That's ok, we like you anyway.
the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey!

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Re: Ms. Love and Mr. Butts

Post by Jizaboz »

Should have went with..

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Re: Ms. Love and Mr. Butts

Post by Jizaboz »

Anyway.. back to the GREASE.

That is fucking crazy that you guys put in the chicken by hand! That’s a technique I didn’t use until at least my 30s at home. It’s extremely dangerous because if yr a stoner you will eventually just dip part of your hand directly into the boiling grease.. and if that hand isn’t coated in wet flour or whatever you will get burned.

At Burger King we used fry baskets. I was basically the fry master because I refused to talk to customers and was the only one with the balls to change the grease. It was a bit intimidating the first time I was trained.. dude was wearing huge gloves, rubber apron, and a face shield. I did it twice before I just opted for only the gloves. This process involved pulling a wheeled tank under the fry vat release, dumping the contents and the pumping them back out into a tank outside a couple of times. Then you scrubbed it down, added a new block of “shortening” and turned the heat back on. Took about an hour for 2 vats. A little after a year someone else attempted to do this while I was on vacation and broke the crank. So, I resorted to dumping hot grease into 2 metal buckets to carry out by hand. Dripped hot ass grease into my doc Martin’s so many times. Thank fuck I had good reason to quit that job a few months later.

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Re: Ms. Love and Mr. Butts

Post by Flack »

We had to batter the chicken by hand, so no gloves for us. When the manager called for a six batch (six legs, six thighs, six wings, and six breasts) we would grab a bag from the aforementioned tub of freezing water and bread it by hand -- flour, batter, flour, grease vat. Inside the vat was a "cage" with handles that stuck out the top, so after 15 minutes you could pull the chicken out of the vat and dump it into a bin. For the vegetables and other things like chicken fried chicken, there were little metal bins that you placed into the grease and hit a timer for.

Each night we would filter the grease but for the most part the morning/day crew was responsible for swapping out the giant cube of lard. The thing we had to do was cycle the grease and then pull out this giant thing on wheels and replace the filter and spray everything down with a hose. Actually, everything got sprayed down with a hose. We sprayed the walls, floor... just about everything. There were drains in the floor and we had a giant squeegee we used to push the water around. Anyway we had two units for a total of six vats, so when you were cleaning one you would just shut down one side and only use the other three. I was greasy and wet the entire time I worked there. I was there for about a year and went through multiple pairs of shoes.

I worked at a series of fast food restaurants from 1989-1994. They were some of the best years of my life and I have a ton of great memories from that era.
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Re: Ms. Love and Mr. Butts

Post by Jizaboz »

Hell yeah. My fast food years were basically 1993-1998 between other jobs. Sorry for misunderstanding.. of course you used fry baskets. The handling of the cold horror stories were also shared with me by ol skateboarding buddy Billy when popcorn chicken first came out at KFC. He despised making popcorn chicken.

The hot water hose and drains were an awesome cheat. Someone puked in the bathroom? Jiz will fix it.. WITH THE HOSE.
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Re: Ms. Love and Mr. Butts

Post by pinback »

Jizaboz wrote: Thu Nov 11, 2021 11:14 pm The hot water hose and drains were an awesome cheat. Someone puked in the bathroom? Jiz will fix it.. WITH THE HOSE.
I didn't know you worked at Jack in the Box! You should have spoken up sooner!
I don't have to say anything. I'm a doctor, too.

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