Or Day 11, something like that. It feels like I have worked at Harvey's for an eternity, but I only started on the Thursday of the week before (it's Monday night right now); I haven't even gotten a god damn paycheck yet!
Anyways, I am settling into a routine now. So far, I've been getting a full day off per week, and this week I got 32.5 hours ... less than I needed but about what I wanted. Sometimes I work 3 hours a day, and sometimes I have to work for 8 to even 10 hours a day. Usually, the 8 to 10 hour days are divided into 2 shifts with a 3 or 4 hour gap in between. This is okay for now, because I can bike home during that time and play some League of Legends or relax and watch some TV or something, but when it snows, it's going to be a lot more difficult for me to do that.
Basically, if a day has me starting during breakfast time, I would be doing prepping. What I would be doing is using the slicer machine and slice bowls of pickles and tomatos. This would take approximately two hours. Then I would make the salad, which takes around 20 or so minutes. I've done this three times so far: last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I hated doing this before, because I had to wake up early and the job is pretty tedious. But I don't really mind it as much anymore, cause I tend to whistle random songs while working, and sometimes I would talk to my manager about random crap to pass the time. Maybe I'll ask the guy if I'm allowed to listen to my iPod in the future.
The worst part of the job so far, other than the tedium and the seemingly slow passage of time that incur in the building, are the co-workers. Most of them are nasty, ill-mannered people with terrible attitudes. They are people (not to be sexist or anything but so far all of them are women ... just saying) that have been too stupid to get another job or gain better job prospects or go to school and thus condemned to crappy places like this for the rest of their life. The more upbeat/less irritable people tend to be the kind that actually realize what this place is, which is a place where you get some money and then get the hell out. These people are trapped here for life. To be honest, I would feel the same way if I am trapped in this kind of lifestyle as well. Hell, I'm only going to be working for six months, being at it for only 2 weeks, and I'm already getting a taste of what it feels like to be "trapped". I really hope I can get back to school next September. As I said, I will never be academically suspended ever again.
Anyways, one woman is particularly vile. From hence forth, I shall refer to this individual as "Troll", because that's what she looks like. She looks like Lady Ashton with 50 extra kilos of the burger grease that we cook with in her belly. She looks like a freakin' troll, and she has a foul attitude and tends to snap at everyone, predictably she causes few co-workers to be sympathetic to her. Unfortunately, one of them that is sympathetic to her is the manager, because the manager is her husband. As well, she also writes the schedule, and thus can deal some sweet scheduling retribution on me if she suddenly decides to dish out her wrath on me. She's horrendous to deal with, and even customers that have seen the way she dealt with me have offered words of condolences, and she's connected as fuck. Crap.
From my experience, I just find customer service to be a hilariously two-faced affair. There's another women that works the drive-through a lot, let her be henceforth be known as "Hobgoblin", because she will eventually transform into the Troll in her future. Anyways, she would be apologizing to the drive-through customers on the headphone, going "Aaaaaaaam sorry about that" on her drive-through speakers every five fucking minutes. Just try going through the drive-through at Harvey's one time and see for yourself! Anyways, that phrase is so overused that it's becoming an ironic kitschy defining character of hers. She's just so sorry all the time! Except she's not! Sure, it could be interpreted as manners/politeness, except she is an inherently nasty, arrogant bitch, for she has shown most condescending and impolite attitude toward me. In other words, Hobgoblin is going to grow up to be a troll.
Customer service is hilarious, because when I worked at Canadian Tire as a cashier, there was this manager that's more two-faced than Harvey Dent. She would literally come to my cash, in front of a customer, spew to me the nastiest insults on my intelligence and my dignity in the most arrogant, brash and condescending tone with a nasty snarl, and then in the same sentence return to the customer and talk in the sweetest voice like you would use on a child. It's like going from Hitler to Mother Theresa in the same breath. It's hard to explain, so if you see me, ask me about that Sports Manager from Canadian Tire. Power corrupts. A little bit of power corrupts assholes absolutely.
Other than that, I find that there are little to complain about so far except for some other idiotic, anal-retentive women (the guys are generally not as irritable and most have good humor), and the fact that I have to work itself, that kinda sucks too. Going back to the first point, I'm not saying all women that work here are annoying, stupid, and inflexible. There are some cool ones, like one particular manager, whom I shall call "Skipper". Apparently she worked here for two and a half years, and is, of course, a full time student about to graduate, and therefore, has a half-decent future ahead of her. She's generally very pleasant to deal with thus-far, and I actually confided in her about Troll. In general, she said that she will help me deal with Troll if Troll is going nuts and decides to fire me or royally screw me over like give me like, 7 hours a week from 7 to 8 in the morning each day. I just find it incredible that "Skipper" has endured this for two and a half years. I guess doing this part-time while going to school keeps you from being demoralized and knowing that you'll be doing something else eventually. Working in a burger joint full-time and sometimes you start to think that you might be stuck doing this for the rest of your life, and that's scary.
Anyways, my usual routine is do some garnishing, do cash if they tell me to, sweep the floor, wipe the tables, change the garbage bags, and restock some items and garnish. I alter it up, just so I can look like I'm doing something constructive and therefore will not bitch at me or tell me to do stuff that I'd rather not do, like mop the floor. The thing is, I kinda like doing the aforementioned tasks because they're fucking easy to do and aren't physically demanding.
Basically, try to bleed out as many hours as possible. I'm making progress on saving up money, and haven't gotten fired (lost and exiled to Quebec) so far, so I guess that's a plus. Approximately 26 weeks left in Survivor: MW!
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