My first job was at Burger King. I was 15-years old. Six months shy of my 16 birthday. I would walk to work each day and pray for a way back home at nine o'clock when I got off in the winter. When summer hit, and the days got longer, I would walk. On Sunday, the regular full-time workers were off, and I worked a seven a.m. shift. I would walk the three miles down Franklin road at six-thirty in the morning. When you are poor and don't have a car, you make due, because any money was "good" money. A job took me from Fayva to Reebok. I had money for food during school and free food at night. My co-workers weren't really my friends. They were people I knew that I worked with. My best friend back then was a young woman named Stephanie. We did almost everything together.She had discovered "stuff". She was officially 16. She and the other young women I worked with were already stealing from the drive-thru. Not only did they steal money, they stole food and most of the managers were in on it. One young man that was already a manager at 19-years old, Tom, would give his friends food and money right from our tills. We just would look at one another and knew we would be able to put back on our Whoppers that evening.
At that time, both Burger King and McDonald's were generous and gave you a free meal with a five hour shift. You could have any sandwich on the menu. On the menu, and not a creation of your own. We liked bacon on our Whopper with cheese and cheese on our chicken sandwiches. It was $.30 for cheese in 1986, and Bacon was $.69. They didn't come standard in those sandwiches, so we had to pay for extras, like cheese and bacon. I always tease my friend that she was an expert at scooting the bacon over far enough that the manage couldn't see it, when they opened the sandwich to inspect it. All of our sandwiches had to be cut in half for that reason. They would randomly pick up your sandwich and open it up and the cut and check for bacon. Her scooting never failed, either. They couldn't unwrap it and open it up. I guess that was some health regulation. If they were busy, there was tons of bacon slapped on a Whopper with cheese, and cheese on chicken sandwich. What happened at the drive-thru was much more than that. Employees can take hundreds of dollars a day. I went over that in another blog. They turn up the volume of the speaker inside, and the person on the board made the sandwiches not rung up in the system. When it's rung up, every sandwich and the way you want it came up on the screen. Since the police has made it impossible for me to enjoy a fast-food meal, I'm going to write about it.
I wasn't allowed to work drive-thru. I didn't steal. Stealing wasn't my thing. In fact, I had my checks down to a science. If I worked 25 or 30 hours and the difference in taxes and wages. You know, gross versus net taxes. I would go in on my days off and on the Sunday I worked, which was every Sunday, I did the salad bar to an immaculate finish. Back then, they used kale as decorations between fruits, vegetables and condiments. I was clumsy with the dressings and spilled them all. Blue cheese on the salad bar, Italian in the fridge under the contraption and ranch all over the place. I was great at my job, however, and as I walked to work each morning, I would wonder what veggies and fruit I had to prepare for the day. First, I had to clean the nose guard to a perfect shine and it was the glimmer of my day. I learned a lot about food and preparing it and I was tired after my shift. I had to make that three mile trek back up Franklin Road, home. I would sometimes sleep the entire day. I was really curious why my friends were never tired or interested and doing anything different and constructive at work. They were all taking their share from the drive-thru. They didn't have to work hard like I did. They had cars and clothes and barely worked 20 hours a week.
One guy in my neighborhood went to prison. He wanted to buy a car and went to a dealership to get approved. He said, the woman called him at work. She told him that if he bought $750 to the dealership, he could take the car home that day. He told me that he didn't put one penny in the draw that day. He said usually, he would take a few hundred dollars a day. He smoke crack and that would allow him to get high, everyday. That day, however, his register had about $100 dollars in the till when he turned it in. His manager looked at him funny, but she was stealing, too. Years later, before the statute of limitations ran out, a woman got in trouble and told on him. She testified that he admitted to stealing they went back and got the tapes and they sent him to prison for a period of time. Back in the day, the police got free food from Burger King. They would come after a shift and order food for their entire family. Today, they run the drive-thru restaurants. They run anything that has to do with illegal activity in Pontiac. The fast-food drive thru is a money grab for sure. There are ways for fast-food owners to get around it, like two window pick-up and monitors that show your total at the first window where you pay. We had one at our drive-thru at the Mickey D's in Pontiac, and they shot it up. bullet holes all in it. And if the person at the pay window, don't mind sharing with the person at the pick-up window that really doesn't work either.
So, now there is a group of people in the fast-food industry that wants a raise. I know they are stealing and am a bit perturbed with their insistence on $15 an hour, when they take everything that's not bolted to the floor. Our McDonald's used to run out of chicken and fish! They never had chicken or fish-fillets. Who steals chicken and fish, and it won't taste the same with than grease that hasn't been changed in years! I don't go to any fast-food joints, because they know I feel this way. How can you ask for more money, when you are taking from your employer, anyway? If I were the fast-food owners, I would make drive-thru a credit only pay method. So, you cannot pay for your food in the drive-thru with cash and credit, debit and gift cards ONLY! If you forget and come through the drive-thru, the cashier could still take your order, but they would have to suspend the transaction, go to a front-end register and pay. First, however, they have to suspend the transaction from the drive-thru register. That way, they transaction would be accounted for. Another full-proof way to tell if a employee is stealing through the drive-thru, is to count the customers that stop at the speaker. When you pull up to the drive-thru, a sensor is in that cement that alerts the cashier they are there. If a manager counts the number of cars that set off that sensor, to the number of orders place at the register. If those numbers don't match, give or take four or five drive-offs, somebody stealing. Because the number of cars at that speaker, doesn't match the number of transactions on your report. Very few owners pay attention to the information at their disposal, because it is all right there. Managers, I've learned are the biggest culprits and blame it all on the employees they "catch", because they knew they were stealing all along. They just waited, until they needed a scapegoat for missing funds.
I've had managers bush stealing off with, "All they do is write it off on their taxes". But when your employees are stealing from both your inventory and payroll, a company can suffer. Ask the people at Sears. They were getting huge hits from theft. When your employees steal from you and your store isn't making enough money to cover the cost of the goods you sell, you have a problem. You send a store a hundred treadmills and you only have available 50 and they cost you about that much. You have delivery that my manager too often told me that they lose money on, and if a customer picked up a treadmill and it didn't work? Well, Sears would send them a new one, free! We would ring it as cash in, cash out, but generate a cash receipt. Then turn it in to the cash office. Someone in the cash office would use that cash receipt to generate a refund, in cash! I had one treadmill returned four time for a total of $3,200. I don't know if it was a multiple cash office employees or just one, but whoever did it, it was a shame. That's why I can't stand unions. Ultimately, they are fighting for people that don't even deserve a job. Then they don't even fight for you at all. Not where it counts, and I think a fast-food union would be a travesty to fast-food owner all across this country. To put a union in place, without some kind of measure to stop them from stealing their money would not be fair! If they write it off or not. I want to know how you can double-dip and still have rights?
In my community, the Black Community, we lack a sense of moral and ethical behavior. Our parents teach their children that White people owe them something and give them no self-actualization. White people don't owe you nothing, but you owe yourself everything. You owe yourself an education, hard work and a life filled with happiness. When you believe in God, he can carry you beyond what any man can give you. Respect is the key. Not respecting a person just for their skin color, but respecting a man for just being a man. That can cause doors to open that you never knew would open for you. But whatever you give, expect to get that back. Never give up on doing good. Also, never let any man invade your space. Who you are. What you are capable of. Most importantly, the way you see the best in who you are. As a Black woman, I shouldn't go buy a car, get a car repaired or buy a big ticket item of any kind. We get duped the most. I know that and knowing is half the battle. I would be all for $15 an hour. Housing is going up in the urban communities at an epic proportion and that portion of money we make is not enough. So, they get a union, a raise and money from the coffers, too? I'd agree as soon as the owners make an attempt to secure their bag. If they don't they are free to give money away "hand over fist". We wonder why we pay $5 for a Big Mac!
No comments:
Post a Comment