jobs and things

My new job will be working as a secretary, oh sorry, an "administrative assistant" at a computer company in Kansas. Good times. I'll be living in KC though, on the good side, the Missouri side (eh, Cowboy?!). I start on the 15th of August, and I've committed myself for an entire year. I'm going to make a calendar of 365 days in which I can rip off the number of days until it's over. I've done secretary work before, and it's not my cup of tea, or even my cup of coffee, both of which sound good right now. I had "Prince of Wales" tea this morning. Quite good. Anyways, I'm not much for sitting in front of a computer all day and answering phones. I really don't like to talk on the phone, unlike the majority of my gender.

I'm a phone snob and screen my calls like no other. I feel that just because I have a cell phone, does not mean that anyone can reach me at anytime, 24-7. Think of the days when we just had land lines. People could only reach you when you were at home. Now, somehow we feel that we have to carry our phones wherever we go and answer them whenever they ring. Not me!

So that's my new job. I will be entering the buisness realm, which I somewhat dispise. I was taken out to lunch during my interview and reintroduced to this different world. It is a world of business lunches, power ties, and eating so fast you don't even enjoy what you are consuming. It is a world where people leave their phones on all the time and answer them immediately if they ring. A world of handshakes, fake smiles, and briefcases filled with papers that couldn't stay on the office desk unattended for an hour.

We went to Applebee's and the feel there was so different. We went at the prime "power/business" lunch time, from 11-1. People filed in in their suits and power ties. I observed the man who answered his phone every five minutes and whose conversation was filled with "go for it" "let's do it" "can we get it?" Do it!" A man who barely even looked the waitress in the eye when she came by; a group of people who waited patiently for the third person in their party and when he showed up, it turns out he was a friend of the man who was introducing him to his friend. Ah...networking, connections. It is an atmosphere of power and control, yet the power and control is often fleeting and false, and yet people try and grasp it for just a moment. An atmosphere of competitiveness that never takes a break for lunch. Lunch is a time to impress, to win hearts and minds through food. An atmosphere of getting to the top no matter the cost. I can see it in their smiles and firm handshakes. They smile politely and warmly, but behind the smile, I can sense a determindness that says, "I'm going to the top, don't get in my way." A smile that doesn't quite meet the eyes, as if there's something more at work. I see people as pawns, mere players in this world of business. I know that not all people in this world are like this, but it's a totally different feel. They aren't there to eat and enjoy, they are there to work and satisfy a need for food, not savor it. Yes, I join the world of those who will get in their cars every morning, wait in lines of traffic to be herded into offices with small cubes and cells, and then join the rush back home again to sigh and start it all over tomorrow.

Good times! So there you go. I hope to bring something different to this world, something off-beat, away from the norm. Shake things up a bit. We'll see what happens. It could be fun.

El Fin

Song of the Day

Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield

The end. e-tha, e-tha, e-tha, e-that's all folks! My days at McD's are over. I must say, while it is mostly sweet, there's a little bittersweetness to it as well. I met some really cool people there and I will miss them. But the job...hm, not sure if I'll miss that. But think of the skills I've learned! I can make a cheeseburger in about 10 seconds (not an exaggeration) and wrap a sandwich like no other.

Here's how my day went:
I arrived at work early (whoa, definintly did NOT plan that one) so I waited to clock in until it was 7:00 (6:58 to be exact). I was in grill. Ah, I started there, so it seemed right that I finish there as well. Also, I saw that three of my favorite people were going to be in grill also, so it was a promising day. I headed back and so did one of the new guys. He doesn't have a lot of experience in breakfast grill, so he's kinda slow. I started out making the sandwiches, and my manager sent him to bring up stock. Pretty slow start. Then, he came back and I told him to take my place while I brought up some boxes for grill. So I did that, and got my grill stocked and ready for lunch. Meanwhile, we get SLAMMED and he's pending about 4 orders. He's getting confused and going fairly slow, but that's understandable. Our egg grill lady left so I was on egg grill and also trying to help him make all the stuff. He forgets to serve stuff off so I was getting confused in knowing where he was at. My main manager was getting frustrated because she had to wait and I really wanted to take his place but didn't want to be rude about it. Finally, my manager told us to switch places, which relieved him, and made me happy. So I finished up the orders and cleared the screen. Things were pretty steady and then my first favorite person showed up. I ate my last free McMeal, and took my last McBreak. After break, my second person showed up, right before change-over. Change-over was easy and I got to do breakfast stock, which oddly enough, is one of my favorite things to do. No one else really likes to do it, but I do.

At 11, my third person showed up so M and I declared that we were going to have "a fiesta" now that he was here. A Fiesta de la Grill, as we like to call it. We were going to have confetti and streamers, but alas, little did we know my time was going to be cut short. We entered lunch rush, and they called me off of stock to help out. I jumped in assembly. We had two people on side two, three on my side, our meat man, and then the head manager was our Prod Man. We were staying very busy and then a whole group of cheerleaders showed up, so Ms. Manager told me to leave and go back front-counter. I found that slightly silly, since that meant that they were losing a grill person, leaving two on our side, and front-counter already had a runner, so they didn't need me. That rush lasted about 5 minutes. They were cheerleaders, they didn't eat a lot. So then I stood around and asked to go back to grill, but John told me to stay up front. So I stayed. Ms. Manager then came up and said we were overstaffed and she was going to cut people. I was told I could go home once my replacement got there. He arrived and asked where I was so he could take over. "I'm right here." "Doing what?" he asks. "Standing." He was all too eager to take over that position, and I gladly relinquished it. So I went home an hour early after saying many goodbyes. There was no "fiesta de la grill." I was sad about that.

We only got to have two real fiestas. The first was with confetti. Not sure if I told the story, but my grill homie had ripped up a grill slip and given it to me. She told me it was confetti. So what do you do with confetti? Have a party of course, or as they say in Spain, a "fiesta." It was mid-afternoon and there were only three of us back there. The meat man totally was an accomplice although he denies it to this day. But he turned the fan for me to throw the confetti. So I held my hand up and opened it and the confetti went a-flying. "It's a celebration!!!" we declared! A Fiesta!!! John walked back later and asked, "which one of you girls did this?" Not ashamed, I raised my hand and he just smiled and shook his head. Apparently he thought it newsworthy because soon all the other managers knew about it. Our second fiesta involved the mock grill printer slips (post-it notes, pastel colors!). I ripped one up and threw it in the air, not in front of the fan because there were a lot of managers around. So up went the confetti. "Celebration!" That one involved streamers as well. One lady dropped the roll of stickers and they went rolling (or, unrolling) across the floor. "Streamers! It's a celebration! A Fiesta de la Grill!" We became quite well known for our celebrations.

Oh yeah, they got a cake out for me too. It was either for me, or in celebration of the new grill printer. I like to think it was for me.

*note to all McD's breakfast eaters - we have new Canadian Bacon. It smells funny, almost sweet. Tastes a little weird too. Eat cautiously.

So thus ends this chapter of my life and work experience. I will blog about what I've learned at a later date. Right now, I want to relish the fact that I am done with it. I've flipped my last piece of processed cow meat, wrapped my last double cheese without pickle, thrown down my last bag of nuggets, and served my last order. I've said my last, "Hi, what can I get for you?" "What to drink with that?" "Small, medium, or large?" "Is that all for you?" "Your order number is 16, please pull around and pay at the middle window" (or variation,) "That'll be order number 16 at the middle window please." I have a year of memories, good and bad, and I can say that it hasn't been all bad and I've met some really cool people. I doubt my new job will have much to blog about, but I'm sure I'll find something. Adventure can be found everywhere, even in a torn up receipt thrown into the fan in the grill of a small-town McDonalds.

Celebration!

stuff

Song of the Day

"Girl You Know it's True" by Milli Vanilli

What the flies ordered:
-Child chocolate shake
-Child vanilla shake
-2 hamburgers
-2 small fries

ONE day and counting everyone!!! HOORAY!

My manager was nice to me today and scheduled my homie and I in the same spot - one presenter (her) and one the order-taker (me). It was good times. The grill team was NOT John's A-team, so he was mad all day, but not at us, so it was all good.

People were sort of rude today, and again, the ruddest people to come through drive-through are women, between the ages of 29-45 (give or take), in essence, women who should know better. But if they're with their husbands, they'll be the ones to lean across and say something rude or question us. Wonder why.

This perplexes me: Two girls came through and ordered a number 5 (Big and Tasty), a McChicken, and a drink. Okay. Typical meal price, right? The lady behind them ordered JUST a medium coke - $1.29 with tax. Somehow, the girls paid for that, instead of their meal. Now please explain to me how that happens. You sat at the window, and gave the person a dollar twenty-nine for a meal that both of you know costs over $5.00. When did the light come on? They had already paid for it and gotten the change before they realized it, because the pit person called up to me and said they had switched orders. How in the world? I just stood there and stared for awhile. So did my homie.

Tomorrow I will eat my last McMeal, and wear my McVisor for the last time. -

CHICKEN DAY!!!

Celebration!!!!! Hooray!! Today was Chicken Day! (that reminds me of your old "chicken days" at the Mandarin, A-rez) Apparently they were a big hit because tons of people bought them. We got to sample them around 9 this morning, which, happened to be right after my break, so I was stuffed already. But one thing you learn...never turn down the once-in-a-blue moon opportunity when McD's gives out something free. I tried the grilled club. It was pretty good, although I'm not a fan of our grilled chicken. It smells funny. The honey wheat roll thing was REALLY good.

I got put on front counter today over lunch which hasn't happened for at least six months. Weird. We had confusion on the menus, which I knew would happen. One guy ordered the 11, which is now the 10 piece nuggets and used to be the double cheese. I KNEW that he didn't want the nuggets, just because he didn't seem like a nugget kind of guy. So I said, "the number 11...nuggets?" Yes, he replied. "Okay, the nuggets and a drink" I said, still trying to get that through to him. No reply. I knew that's not what he wanted, don't ask me how, but I knew. I also knew he wasn't paying any attention to me and what I was asking. People do that. It happens in drive-through all the time. You ask them in pit, "You had the nuggets and a Double cheese?" Yes. Turns out they had a McChicken and a parfait. They just don't listen. Anyways, I didn't want to keep saying "are you SURE?" so I tried a different approach. I asked him if wanted any sauce for his nuggets. Bingo! That got his attention. "Nuggets? I wanted the number 11" he said, putting emphasis on the 11 and saying it in a way that insinuated that I was just another clueless McD's employee who can't get orders right. I smiled a satisfied smile (knowing my suspicions were correct), and said, "Double cheese?" He nodded with that knowing smile of "poor girl;" a smile that you would use for a small child who's confused. I replied, "That's the number 6 now. We changed all our menus, so it's a little confusing." The light went on. He really looked at the menu and said, "Oh! You're right! I'm sorry!!" "No problem, a lot of people are getting the numbers mixed up." So all ended well.

We had a small manager "conflict" if you will. The old saying of too many cooks in the kitchen was definitly true today, except it was too many managers on front counter. We had three managers and then our head honcho who graced us today. Honcho told us all about using indoor voices and how once she entered the business realm, she learned to lower her voice about an octave. Nice...Well, manager 2 and 3 were soon switching shifts from one to the other, and there was some confusion of where people should be placed, and manager 3 got extrememly upset, and you DO NOT want to be on her bad side, so I just stood by the front counter and tried not to move or make eye contact with any of them. It was a frosty atmosphere for quite awhile. Then I got sent to grill, hooray! because my grill homie was there. So it ended the day quite nicely. I did realize though that the smell of bacon is not fun. I don't like the smell of it anyways, because it smells greasy and hot and now we have to cook it all day.

--

Fun Fact:
Our pickles are friends, not lovers. They should be close, but not touch when we put them on the sandwiches.

Countdown...

I have THREE more days at McD's and then I'm hanging up the ol' McVisor on the shelf and calling 'er quits. That's right...no more, or as they say in Spain, "no mas para me" (grill joke). Today was a frustrating day. All our customers were grumpy and rude. They complained about getting wet. Oh, my bad. Let me turn off the rain for you. I'm pretty sure I have to hang out the window too, so you're not the only one getting wet. Also--you don't want to get wet? Don't go through the drive-through. Obviously, at some point in you drive-through experience, your window will have to be opened. So. When you open your window, you will get wet. One guy rolled down his window not even half way and I had to pass the money through this small slot. It was funny watching him trying to get his drink through the slit. The funny thing was he really thought he was going to get it through, and kept pulling and trying. Good times!

I was sent back to the grill for the rest of the day, gladly, but at 1:00 I lost one of my best grill people, and another guy. I was left with two guys, both nice, but new at the job, so they aren't very quick. I was initiator, and wall person, and assembly, one guy was on meat, and the other on wrap. Meat Man asked if he should clean the grill and I told him to go ahead since it was 1:30 and we were slow. He didn't really know how, so he left for awhile. Not sure where he went. Of course, at that point we got really busy, so that left me and Wrap Boy. I was scrambling to get the sandwiches started and then threw down meat and dropped wall. Wrap Boy would jump in on initiating when I was on meat, but he's slow and never serves off the orders. So that means, I would jump back in and end up making the same stuff he did. He also forgets to tell you when you're low on product, so we had to keep people waiting. But at one point, the DT lady was getting upset that she had to wait, but I had Meat Man cleaning the grill so he was out, Wrap Boy got shifted to meat, so that left me doing all the sandwiches, pulling and dropping wall product. Give us a break! Finally, my maintenance buddy jumped in a helped. It was not a fun end to the day.

My hopes were dashed today because it was supposed to be the start of our new sandwiches. I had deemed it "Chicken Day" but alas, it was not to be. Our menu boards had not arrived. What a let-down. But I was assured that tomorrow it would start. We get to try them too. Hope they're good. But that means the madness with the screens and menus begins. But hey, only three days of that, and I'm out.

So it begins

What the flies ordered:
-1 small decaf coffee
-2 medium decaf coffees

Ironically enough, I watched CNN again today and they brought in their analysts and all that good stuff and sure enough, one of the questions posed by "our" (American) people was, "So, could this have been prevented?" Ah, let the blame begin...

Flies and Blairs

Song of the Day

Theme song from Punky Brewster

What the flies ordered today:
--2 large orange juices
--1 medium decaf coffee
--2 large coffees
--2 senior lemonades
--no coffee

Our screens are super sensitive to touch, so flies like to order stuff. It's fun to see what they want from day to day. Must have been thirsty today.

Yesterday was my Monday at work. I dropped my cash drawer. Pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters rolling allll over the floor. It was very festive! So the pit person I was replacing and I played a variation of '52-card pickup.' My manager came back to switch us out, saw the mess, and I told her "don't look! Just turn around, and walk away until I call you" (you'd appreciate that Cowboy). She did and we picked it all up. I acutally ended up being over in my drawer, so we must have scored some lost coins.

While we're on the subject of accidents, I had a good one a few weeks ago, and the beauty of it is, NO ONE noticed! It was a big one too. Potentially catastrophic! Only one other person knows, and that's my grill homie, who I told and he found it rather amusing. I was in the front drive through in pre-change over time. We were selling a lot of iced tea and the tea urn was put way far back on the table. I needed a large tea, so I grabbed the urn by the spout and pulled. Would have worked, except whoever cleaned it and took it apart last didn't screw on the spout tight enough, so I yanked, and it came with me. Tea came spurting out of the hole like a fountain. I gasped and looked around to see the placement of my managers...all clear. I shoved the spout back on the stream of tea. It wasn't that effective. It was kind of like trying to put a nozzle on a hose while the water is on. I hung in there though and shoved it even harder and tried to screw it on. We battled for a few seconds and then I got it to stick. Once the fountain was stayed, I surveyed the damage. The table had been turned into a mini-lake of brown tea but amazingly, my shoes absorbed the waterfall and there were only a few drops on the floor. I sopped up the lake as much as I could with the towel I had, then calmly walked through the front to get some more towels so as not to raise alarm from my manager who had returned. I prayed she wouldn't go in there. She didn't, and I got it cleaned up before anyone noticed. I was impressed with myself as to the small degree of damage and how quickly it was contained.

Other accidents?
-I've started the coffee without a pot underneath. But then another person did the same thing the next day. We tend to follow each other with our accidents. Maybe she'll have a tea incident as well.
-Dropping a full try of biscuits. This was during my first weeks there.
-Dropping numerous utensils (happens to someone at least once a day. I take my turn with the rest)
-Dropping the try of scraps from off the assembly table

--

I was watching CNN today on my break and I was very impressed with what Tony Blair had to say in his public address. He, of course, urged a sense of calm but then went on to stress that this was the act of terrorists. Why is that important? He was saying that the people should be calm because the people who did this wanted a reaction of fear. They also wanted the British to turn on themselves and ignore the root problem. Bingo. So Blair reminded the people that this was the act of terrortists, and they [British] were not to blame and the blame would not be turned on them. Hmm...kind of like what we did after Sept. 11th. The fact that our country turned away from the terrortists and began to blame airport security, CIA, FBI, the government in general disgusted me. We completely lost sight of what happened and how it happened. Suddenly, airport security was to blame for a group of men who decided to use a plane full of people as a missle. It had never been done before. How can we prevent that? Who would have conceived that? I'm not saying we should be lax with our security, but what were these men armed with that would have given them away? People were looking for someone to blame, someone to be angry at, and instead of turning that anger towards the problem, we aimed it at ourselves and the very people who work to keep us safe every single day. We don't thank them for the incidents they prevent every day but we sure are quick to point the finger when something happens. It's like suing McDonalds because your kid gets fat (oh wait, that happened). It's like every other ridiculous lawsuit we Americans bring against each other. They ignore the problem completely. I'm sure you've seen the imbecillic "caution" signs on our products today. An iron: they tell you not to iron your clothes while they are still on. Genious! But the sad thing is, someone must have done that and I'm sure it turned out to be the iron-peoples' fault. Would they have ever dreamed that someone would be that dumb? So how could they have prevented it? I know, I'm comparing a terrorist act to an iron, but stick with me on the concept here. As they say, hindsight is 20-20.

I was so glad after Sept 11th to see American's rallying together, and before it happened, I prayed that we wouldn't turn on ourselves. But...we did. People turned against the government they had rallyed behind only a few months before. They couldn't put a face to the terror, so they blamed the faces they saw. They added insult to injury, blaming the people who probably already felt horrible. But the key here--it was an accident. A horrible, tragic accident that we never conceived happening. It was no one's fault. Blair said the same thing today. He said it wasn't anyone's "fault" that the tubes were bombed. It happened and instead of pointing fingers at each other, they need to work to find who caused it, not who might have prevented it. During the Sept 11th hearings, were the terrorists ever brought up? Did anyone blame them? Did anyone call them into question? No. We blamed each other; we blamed everyone we could think of, except those who were guilty. It disgusts me.

So I applaud you, Mr. Blair, and may you learn from our mistakes.

Exclusive

Song of the Day

99 Red Balloons - Nena

**Breaking McD News**

If everything goes according to plan, we will have three new sandwiches for your consuming pleasure next Tuesday. Actually, it's only two new sandwiches, but they say three because it's on a new bun. The new sandwiches are--Grilled/Crispy chicken Ranch BLT, Grilled/Crispy chicken Club, and the regular Grilled and Crispy chicken sandwiches. The bun? A honey-wheat roll. The sandwiches: Ranch BLT - grilled/crispy chicken, ranch sauce, bacon, lettuce, and tomato. Club - grilled/crispy chicken, swiss cheese, mayo (new light mayo), bacon, lettuce, and tomato. Exciting stuff. We had to have a special ONE hour meeting all about it.

So what does this mean? A whole new menu. Meals 1-4 will remain the same, but 5-11 will change and we're adding a number 12. So here's the breakdown:
#1 - Big Mac
#2 - Two cheesburgers
#3 - Quarter pounder
#4 - Double quarter
#5 - Big and Tasty
#6 - Double cheese
#7-9 will be the new chicken meals. Not sure of the order
#10 - Strips
#11 - 10-piece nugget meal
#12 - Fish

So there you have it. Confusion will reign for awhile. This also means our screens will change so gone are the days of punching buttons by memory. Good news? The regular chicken meals will decrease in price, but the new ones will be over five dollars. Crazy. The meeting was brutal. We each had to sign up for a time as a group. I had mine yesterday. Our McHead Manager told us all about the new procedures and stuff. To dispel any rumors you may have heard, the grilled chicken is not fried in grease. We have to spray the grill with butter so it won't stick. McManager then proceeded to show us how to spray the grill with butter using hand gestures and sound effects. I think we were all capable of knowing what spraying the grill meant, but I was amused watching it.

I am perplexed by people who can miss stoping at the middle window after being in line. Do you not notice EVERY other person stopping at this window and exchanging currency? Do you think you don't have to stop? I really don't understand. My grill-homies got yelled at today for writing bilingual grill slips. Our machine is broken so we have to write the grill slips on post-it notes. They sent some that said, mcchicken "con queso, with cheese." I think they were just trying to cater to our Hispanic population. Guess our managers didn't feel the same way.

--

This past weekend was the Nodaway County Fair. I went to the fair every night. The first night I just walked around, the second night I rode stuff, and the third night I was just going to get coffee at the coffee place (since they decided, hey, let's stay open past 3 in the afternoon) and ended up seeing some friends and walking around again. That night, they had some guy singing who sounded like Johnny Cash (although definitly NOT the Man in Black...he was wearing white...off-white actually...off-white bellbottoms, and a huge belt buckle). It made me think about Carnis. What are they all about? It's like a separate segment of society that really gets no attention. We all know who they are, but we really don't know them or what they do. What do they do in their spare time? How do they get involved? Why do they look scary? Is it a requirement that they smoke? Where do they live? How does one get started in the carni business? One almost got hit by the tilt-o-whirl, but he told us the ride had a three minute thing that if he were to get hit it would stop after three minutes. Comforting to know that even if the operator gets taken out, people will still get their full ride and nothing more.

Camp and things

SONG OF THE DAY:

"Words" Jason Mraz

I went to camp this weekend...not as a camper, but as a counselor, or a "cabin leader" as they call them now. I suppose I still was a camper though. It was great fun, and I wish it had been a week long instead of a weekend. I found myself re-introduced to the joys of middle/high school days. First of all, you can't get them to be quiet all at the same time. The talkative girls might FINALLY be quiet for a brief moment, but as if someone sensed a void, they quickly jumped to fill it with their whispered conversations. It was unbelievable. Also, I think there is a gap somewhere in their childhoods that needs immediate attention so as this trend will not be continue through future generations. These kids have no idea how to play the simplest of games. Capture the flag. Easy, right? NO. I couldn't believe how many questions they had. "So, what are we supposed to do?" Um...you're supposed to...capture...the...mmm....flag. They had tons of scenarios. "So what if the person who tags me and is taking me to jail trips on a fallen log and lets go. Can I run?" (that wasn't a real question, but it wouldn't surprise me). Another thing--we would get done explaining every rule and then some person would ask "so, where's the jail?" Are you SERIOUS!? We already covered that, at the beginning.

Besides all that, it was great fun. I had an awesome group of girls in my cabin so that was cool.

I never really was a big fan of camp. I mean, I liked going, but I never really had any friends at church so the social part wasn't a draw for me. My brother and I were the only ones in our church youth group that didn't go to Raytown or Blue Springs' schools. We were ghetto children. So we always sat by each other in church (still do actually) and the few years where our camps overlapped, we hung out with each other at camp. We didn't have the typical older brother/younger sister relationship. We fought of course, but it never lasted long because we were each other's playmates, so if we didn't make up, we'd have no one to play with. But he let me tag along with him and never minded. Very cool. But anyways, being on the counselor side of camp was awesome.

I just used "awesome" twice in this blog. Not sure how I feel about that.

--

On to McNews--I got to be the "prod man" today at work (production manager). Not really a coveted position. It means that I'm the person in charge of the grill and making sure all the wall product is down and they have enough of everything (chicken and stuff, not meat). It can be an easy job because all you're really supposed to do is stand there until they need something dropped, but on the other hand, if they have to wait on any food, you get all the blame. Well, I only had five grill people, six including me, and they decided to open side 2 which left me three on one side, one on the other, my meat person, and then me. I decided to jump in and help so I initiated* (I'll explain in a second) and did the prod stuff. Really busy, but it made the day go by faster. During change over, there were three of us in grill, but they sent one girl on break right at 10:30 which is obnoxious, because they KNOW we're going to be busy and change-over is hard with two people, but they tend to do that every time. If she could've waited 10 minutes, we'd of been fine. But anyways, I was left with my other grill guy, who, while he's nice, does not help you at all. He put himself on meat and was over there by the grills while I'm pending orders, doing everything myself. It was not a huge deal, I can handle it, but it would've helped if he could have at least pulled the product when it was beeping (gee, let ME get that for you) and stuff like that. My manager finally told him to help me.

Anyways, I'm going to explain the grill stations to you. I'm sure you really don't care, but too bad. You have a meat person who is in charge of the actual grill and doing quarter/reg meat and grilled chicken. The Prod Man is in charge of wall and the overall grill area and people. The bun person (not a fun job) gets to...drop buns in the toaster. That's all. Just drop buns (if you can't guess, I get stuck there a lot because no one else wants to do it). The initator looks at the screen and puts the buns on the proper wrap/box and puts on the ketchup/mustard/tartar/mayo/mac sauce as required. Assembly person puts on all the rest of the condiments and finally the wrap person puts on the meat/chicken and "wraps" the sandwhich. This makes me happy, but some managers, when they write the schedule and place people, will abbreviate those positions without thinking. So if you're on "assembly," you get to be something else for the day. Makes us happy.

Enough.