Blog 9
I was working at Chipotle over the summer a few years ago as one of the workers that served the food and management had many rules on how to serve customers.
Management, from lowest to highest, consisted of a service manager, kitchen manager, and general manager. The service manager was responsible for making sure customers were served quickly and that the front of the restaurant, area where the food is served and dining area, was running smoothly. The kitchen manager was in the kitchen preparing and cooking food and cleaned dishes. The general manager was in their office dealing with paperwork and occasionally helped out in the kitchen or in the front.
The most objective rule was how fast the food was served. From the moment the customer comes into the restaurant they had to have paid for and receive their food in under a minute. This goal was difficult to meet as customers might not know what they want, order multiple things, talk quietly or was difficult to understand, request additional servings, select every option except the meats as additional meat costs extra, order a quesadilla or tortilla on the side that takes a certain amount of time to heat up etc. So a customer that wants a bowl with white rice, black beans, chicken, salsa, and lettuce takes less time to serve than a customer that wants a bowl with a tortilla on the side, multiple servings of rice and beans, extra chicken, and remaining eight topping options.
I was one of several new hires that summer and new employees were only allowed to serve the food. There were two service manager, one for the opening shift another for the closing shift, was who I and the other new employees mainly dealt with. The service manager of the opening shift was always telling us to work faster and one of the new hires, Amy, not her real name, in particular received the most criticism from the service manager. I thought the amount of criticism Amy received was unfair as her performance was equivalent to everyone else serving the food. After a couple weeks, I heard the service manager of the opening shift threatening Amy with termination if Amy did not work faster. After this, whenever Amy was working the opening shift Amy looked miserable but when she worked the closing shift Amy was more upbeat and her performance was better. I suggested Amy request the general manager to be scheduled only for closing shifts from the service manager. She told me later, that she told the general manager how the opening shift service manager was particularly critical of her. The general manager could not accommodate Amy’s request but I think spoke with the opening shift’s service manager about their behavior. The next week, Amy told me later that the service manager apologized to her during her break.
The second service manager, who worked the closing shift, was much friendlier to us and working with the second service manager was less stressful. This service manager would chat and joke with us when there were very few customers or it was just a slow night, frequently commented us on our hard work, and tried to keep morale high. When Amy and I both worked the closing shift, we both agreed that it was less stressful and much more enjoyable when we worked better without worrying about being criticized for our performance.
The opening shift service manager continued to be critical of our performance, but a little less frequently, and Amy and I never worked as well as we did during the times we were scheduled for the closing shift. I think the closing shift’s service manager’s approach to leadership, trying to cultivate friendly relationships between superiors and employees is better than the opening shift’s service manager’s constant reminders to work faster and criticism.
It's an interesting story. The last time I was in a Chipotle, which had to be in Campustown, was probably at least 10 years ago. So I don't remember much about it. But I do want to suggest that the structure you talked about was almost surely determined by the parent company, not the particular restaurant. In most chains, the core idea is that customers learn to expect the experience to be the same, regardless of which restaurant they visit.
ReplyDeleteNow I want to ask, did the story really speak to the prompt or not? If Amy was really as productive as the other food servers, then there was no issue of substandard performance at that level. It sounds like there possibly was substandard performance with opening shift service manager. He ragged on Amy inappropriately, according to your story. And now the story gets a little more interesting, because while you said Amy talked about this with the General Manager, it's unclear (from what you wrote) whether the General Manager ever saw the service manager acting harshly to Amy or if all had to go on was her story. This matters because with only hearsay evidence one is likely to react in a more muted way than with direct evidence.
So, while your conclusion that you and Amy both liked to work for the other service manager better, does any of that indicate how he would have responded if you truly had underperformed in the work? You might want to speculate on that some.
The story partially answers the prompt as it details what one of the superiors would do towards under performing employees but did not incorporate an employee that was under performing.
DeleteIt is the closest work experience I have that relates to the prompt as the other jobs I had working at a dining hall, gym, office, and nonprofit, I was either too busy servicing guests/customers or did not understand/could not see the work my coworkers were doing.
I think the second shift service manager would have sat down with under performing employees to talk about their performance instead of telling the employee to work faster. The second shift service manager was very friendly and likely would have discussed what areas the employee needs improvement in and how they could improve.