I have been wasting my potential here at the 'bux for almost two years now. Perhaps it's just my store (I know...it probably isn't) but I'm noticing this trend of complete and utter incompetence being rewarded ad infinitum. It's at the point where I'm wondering if someone actually needs to burn the **** store to the ground before they'll actually get the axe. In my tenure here I have seen but two souls sent packing, and what they had in common wasn't their lack of common sense but the hatred of our store manager, who seems incapable of firing someone who truly deserves it. Bare with me while I illustrate my point.
Case #1: one shlub of a barista, a dude in his early 20's, was finally taken off the schedule when he failed to show up for 6th consecutive time. After coming in to work drunk, belligerent, etc., this was somewhat of a relief. He'd also been caught stealing twice from the tip jar. But our relief was short-lived, as he returned a month later: he had contacted a lawyer who informed him that since HE'D NEVER SIGNED ANY OF HIS CORRECTIVE ACTIONS he actually had a wrongful termination suit on his hands. He did eventually leave, though, after a shift walked in on him doing coke in the back room. But he wasn't actually fired.
Case #2: We have a shift who I coarsely now call "the highest paid barista in history." She's actually shift supervisor who's racked up more customer complaints than the entire store COMBINED. She's a nightmare to work with, and the only people who don't mind being served by her probably also enjoy lit cigarettes being extinguished on their skin. For some reason, she's the highest paid shift (I think there was some type of bonus when she was hired), paid more than shifts who have worked there 2 years more than her. Well, our DM was finally phoned by some irate customer, and what was the penalty? She now needs to have another shift supervisor there with her during her shift, at all times. So that means no opens, no closes, no nothing inconvenient. Is it just me, or does this sound more like a reward? I've heard the words "final written" used like half a dozen times (money's gone missing on her watch, she's closed the store early, health code violations whenever ecosure comes on her shifts).
Case #3: Forget what I said about burning the store down getting you fired. A few months ago I come in to open and I turn on the oven and am doing the pastry case when I smell...something...something burning? I open the door and look inside but everything appears normal. 45 minutes later, things are clearly not normal, so (against the advice of my shift supervisor, who said we should just leave it) I grab some rags and get the plate out of the oven only to find...A RAG SLOWLY BURNING AWAY UNDER THE COILS. Had this been one small mistake in this partner's time here, I wouldn't even be mentioning it, but this kid's ideas of hygiene actually make me squeemish. Oh, and that shift who was in the back nearly the entire time those noxious fumes filled my lungs, the one who told me to leave the oven on, the one who made me turn it back on later: she filed for worker's comp.
Sometimes I wonder what I did wrong in a past life for this to be my fate in this one. Maybe I was a war criminal.