Titles. Is it me or have titles become too silly these days? Job titles especially. Important jobs, meaningless jobs, management jobs, minimum wage jobs. Doesn't matter. They're some titles out there...
The other day I was at Walgreen's. I had to do a double take at the check-out counter when I saw the name tag of the guy checking me out. Executive Assistant Manager. Huh? What the heck does that mean? Assistant manager I get. But what is an 'executive' assistant manager? Does he have more responsibility than an assistant manager but less than a manager? Does he get keys to the cash registers but not the safe? Is he allowed to develop pictures but not allowed to do refunds? I don't know.
When I was at Best Buy last month I needed some help. A lady at customer service kindly told me she'd get me a 'CSR' right away. "Thanks' I said and thought to myself what in the hell is a CSR? Well, a zit-faced teenage boy came over to me and helped me. His name was Clayton. His title: Customer Service Representative. Wow! I couldn't believe it. That's a fancy name for a pee-on making 7.75 an hour. No offense, Clayton.
I've seen at restaurants lately this title: server assistant. Now I've been in restaurants all my life. My dad managed one. He was the general manager. So I'd like to think I know the restaurant business a little bit. It has only been very recent that I have seen the title of server assistant. Why? Because for the last 75 years normal people have been calling them busboys!
General manager. Head Manager. In-store Manager. Assistant Manager. Associate manager. Executive Manager. Good grief...
My profession: Teacher, Professor, Instructor.
My favorite? Guest Teacher. That's what my PC school district calls substitute teachers. Hell, I find 'substitute teacher' much too fancy. I call them 'subs.' Sue me.
Doesn't starbucks call their employees something cool? Like Barista Technicians or something? Nonsense.
It's in sports too. Assistant head coach? Huh? Associate head coach? Again, huh? Sports Information Director???
And I still don't know what a key grip does. Do you?
The 80's- What a Decade!!!
The 80's!-- What a Decade
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
My Papa Johns Experience
Better Ingredients. Better pizza. That's funny.
I'd like to recommend a new marketing slogan for Papa John's.
Better customer service. More return customers.
Or....
Give us 90 minutes. We'll get you a pizza.
I guess mine aren't that catchy.
The other night I had a terrible experience at Papa John's. But as I waited more than an hour and a half for my mediocre pizza I could only laugh at the whole situation. And I will return to Paps John's because the help wasn't rude, they were just buried with orders. They didn't lose me as a customer.
As if our society isn't lazy and fat enough we can now order pizza via the internet. Don't even have to talk to a human being. Just a few clicks and your pizza order gets rollin'. What a country we live in!
I ordered 2 pizzas for carry out from PJ's the other night. The order time was 6:22 p.m. The wait time I was given was was 35-40 minutes. Hey, no problem! I got to PJ's at 6:58 thinking that was about right.
I paid for my pizza at approximately 7:00. The sweaty girl with flour on her shirt told me: 5 minutes, sir.
Sure, no problem. I'll just wait.
Fast forward to 7:24 and I'm getting a little annoyed. I'm sitting in an area no bigger than my house's food pantry waiting for my order. The place is a zoo. A zoo! 9-12 employees frantically trying to keep up with the chaos. I kept myself entertained by counting how many delivery orders went out and how many drivers would return and yell "Driver In!!!" right in my ear because there was nowhere else to stand. If I moved anymore to the left of this place I would have been inside the soda machine. I could have gone outside but I was afraid they'd forget about my order.
There was an older gentlemen who was hating his life that appeared to be in charge of the pizza zoo. He kept looking at me as if to say: i'm sorry, this is a little more than 5 minutes, please don't flip out on me, it's really not my fault, and if you do yell at me I'm not going to care anyway because I hate this job and hate my life.
7:32- no pizza order yet. I've counted 12 employees working. 8 workers inside the zoo and 4 yelling delivery drivers. The zoo keeps chugging. I'm starting to just hand out sodas to people.
7:37- manager guy says my order is just about ready. He's trying his best but I'm tired and want to go home. Had I not paid for my order already I would have been at home with Wendy's by now.
7:44- manager guy has my order! And this is when manager guy says to me:
Here's your order sir... I think you'll like it.... Looks good.... Please be careful, it's very hot, it just came out of the oven.
I started laughing out loud and thought to myself:
No sh!t it's hot and just came out of the oven! I've been standing in your sweaty zoo for more than a half hour now waiting for this order I placed an hour and a half ago. I watched you make my pizza and put it in the oven. I then watched you take it out of the oven and put it in a box and hand it to me. I know it's hot and yes I'll be careful. Just give me my damn pizza.
He was nice about it but I couldn't help but laugh at his silly comment. The whole experience made me realize why I don't ever really go to PJ's in the first place. The pizza's OK- perhaps a step above Pizza Hut- but it's not worth a 90 minute wait. And nothing is worth hanging out in that little zoo of a pizza shop.
All in all, I thought pizza manager guy's comment was great. Truly made me laugh all the way home.
Oh Big Papa, oh big papa!
I'd like to recommend a new marketing slogan for Papa John's.
Better customer service. More return customers.
Or....
Give us 90 minutes. We'll get you a pizza.
I guess mine aren't that catchy.
The other night I had a terrible experience at Papa John's. But as I waited more than an hour and a half for my mediocre pizza I could only laugh at the whole situation. And I will return to Paps John's because the help wasn't rude, they were just buried with orders. They didn't lose me as a customer.
As if our society isn't lazy and fat enough we can now order pizza via the internet. Don't even have to talk to a human being. Just a few clicks and your pizza order gets rollin'. What a country we live in!
I ordered 2 pizzas for carry out from PJ's the other night. The order time was 6:22 p.m. The wait time I was given was was 35-40 minutes. Hey, no problem! I got to PJ's at 6:58 thinking that was about right.
I paid for my pizza at approximately 7:00. The sweaty girl with flour on her shirt told me: 5 minutes, sir.
Sure, no problem. I'll just wait.
Fast forward to 7:24 and I'm getting a little annoyed. I'm sitting in an area no bigger than my house's food pantry waiting for my order. The place is a zoo. A zoo! 9-12 employees frantically trying to keep up with the chaos. I kept myself entertained by counting how many delivery orders went out and how many drivers would return and yell "Driver In!!!" right in my ear because there was nowhere else to stand. If I moved anymore to the left of this place I would have been inside the soda machine. I could have gone outside but I was afraid they'd forget about my order.
There was an older gentlemen who was hating his life that appeared to be in charge of the pizza zoo. He kept looking at me as if to say: i'm sorry, this is a little more than 5 minutes, please don't flip out on me, it's really not my fault, and if you do yell at me I'm not going to care anyway because I hate this job and hate my life.
7:32- no pizza order yet. I've counted 12 employees working. 8 workers inside the zoo and 4 yelling delivery drivers. The zoo keeps chugging. I'm starting to just hand out sodas to people.
7:37- manager guy says my order is just about ready. He's trying his best but I'm tired and want to go home. Had I not paid for my order already I would have been at home with Wendy's by now.
7:44- manager guy has my order! And this is when manager guy says to me:
Here's your order sir... I think you'll like it.... Looks good.... Please be careful, it's very hot, it just came out of the oven.
I started laughing out loud and thought to myself:
No sh!t it's hot and just came out of the oven! I've been standing in your sweaty zoo for more than a half hour now waiting for this order I placed an hour and a half ago. I watched you make my pizza and put it in the oven. I then watched you take it out of the oven and put it in a box and hand it to me. I know it's hot and yes I'll be careful. Just give me my damn pizza.
He was nice about it but I couldn't help but laugh at his silly comment. The whole experience made me realize why I don't ever really go to PJ's in the first place. The pizza's OK- perhaps a step above Pizza Hut- but it's not worth a 90 minute wait. And nothing is worth hanging out in that little zoo of a pizza shop.
All in all, I thought pizza manager guy's comment was great. Truly made me laugh all the way home.
Oh Big Papa, oh big papa!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)