Sunday, June 21, 2009

Home at last (for a while anyway)

Its been a while since I last wrote,

In all honesty I was seriously getting weary of Dunedin and those in it. I finished my paper which I cant bring myself to predict what grade I'll get as the last time I did that I got the opposite mark of what I thought so Im keeping my thoughts to myself. All I say is - I hope I passed. If I fail Im definitely out, and I'll have no idea what I'll do but I'll have to see what my grade is first.

Work has been bit of a nightmare. I work in the only McDonalds outside of the student campus, therefore itis the McDonalds all the parents and kiddies go to. So instead of having abusive drunks to serve, I have paranoid, manipulative middle class mums who insist on bring their child with a thousand allergy requirements and then demanding why do we not have gluten free bread buns etc etc. I want to shout at these immensely stupid people "why the hell do you come here?!, This is McDonalds for crying out loud!!" We do not have the same standards as a 5 star french restaurant and I think people forget this. In fact,I've always wondered why the tv show target never does a bacteria test of something on the place, and hasent anyone seen "Supersize me"?

On the other side, on most nights I genuinely enjoy the work. It keeps me busy and its not repetitive. I have two supervisors I like a lot and a lot of other supervisor who (to put nicely) make comments crop to my mind that I try to keep to myself.

Another thing I've noticed which is the same in any minimum wage job is that the people who have been there the longest are institutionalised with the work. Ive seen this in supermarkets and other places as well. There are some people at work who I get the feeling are heading towards an early heart attack. I mean - its a normal thing to yell like gordan ramsay people who arent fast enough or doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, but I get yelled at because I happen to be scooping chips in the WRONG HAND therefore Im doing it completely wrong which deserves to be yelled at next to my ear. In my head I am saying to them "Get a fucking life will you?!!" I am good at my job and proud of it, so when I get yelled at by someone to get ice and I say back "I've already done it!" They pause for a moment to say "well you havent stocked up on burger containers!" and I shout back "thats not my job, thats prep", they say back, "I dont give shit, just go get them"
A couple of days pass by and when its quiet and ive done all my jobs like stocking up, I notice prep is down on some containers so I got off to get some for them. A manager sees me and says "what the hell are you doing?" when i tell them, they say "thats not your job - go do your own!"
WELL HELLO?!! Go tell that to the other stupid manager the other day whose addicted to yelling at me! you see where Im comming from?
The other day I nearly broke down - either to punch someone or just cry. It was horendously busy as most Saturaday nights go so you needs to have your wits about you. Im getting yelled more than usual tonight again for the stupidest things that are out of my control, like drive through stealing my burgers when my customer has waited for 15 minutes. I contront them and say, no offense but my customer has been waiting bloody ages for that and you just took it - they say "thats your fault". Im sorry, ITS MY FAULT?!! The customer heard what the drive through person says and yells at me then demands free stuff and then says to me, I'm going to my table and you can bring me my order. I tell her "Im sorry ma'am, but I cant do that as theres other people to serve and its too busy." She then says "you guys are the most fucking worst place ever" - AND she SPITS on me. I nearly lose control this point as I am highly embarressed and trying so hard not to publically cry while at the same time I want to return the favour and spit back at her. I tell themanager in charge that I got spit on and that Im clearly upset and they say "I dont care get on with your work." I nearly walk out. I go back to serve and the next customer whispers to me "that lady was horrible, your doing great dear, hold on there we know your doing your best." I swear, that random lady who said that to me deserves a noble peace prize for thwarting my plans for world war 3 and bring my heart rate down. God bless her.