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What's So Hard?

Entry 533, on 2007-05-14 at 19:51:40 (Rating 4, Comments)

What's so hard about working in, or managing, a fast food outlet? I mean, everything is done to a formula, and there really can't be much of a need for original thought or making awkward decisions. So why are there so many mistakes?

Sometimes, when I'm in a hurry, I go to fast food joints like Burger King for lunch. Yes, I know I should support local businesses who offer better quality and better value food, but sometimes I'm weak, OK? I can't remember the last time BK really got it right. On every occasion recently there have been problems with waiting in queues, getting my order wrong, sub-standard quality, etc. As I said, it shouldn't be hard to get it right, but maybe it is. Well, there's always McDonalds!

While I'm putting down American fast food companies I'll have a go at Subway as well. I recently walked past one of their shops here, and there was a big protest going on outside. Apparently the manager had fired a worker for theft.

Here's what happened: the worker was on a break and shared a free drink with a friend who had joined her at the shop and was emotionally upset over some matter. Staff are allowed free drinks, but the manager thought sharing it was a form of theft. This seems just a bit over-zealous on the part of the manager, even if it was technically correct. Anyway, after the protest the worker was reinstated but she said she didn't want to work there any more and left. Hopefully the shop lost a lot of money and the manager was sufficiently embarrassed over the matter.

Its nice when the little person wins for a change, but the whole thing was so unnecessary. OK, maybe that manager had done everything else right in the past, and this was a rare indiscretion (do we really believe that?) or maybe there was more to the story we don't know about, but either way: what's so hard about getting that right?

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