I work at a daycare..

[astrogiblet]

I know this is long.. but I need advice.. hear me out!  :|

Today was going great at work, I was getting lots of tips and making lots of money...

The night was wearing down.. and all the sudden everything went from great to terrible.

First, we have two 16 year old cooks, who are big trouble makers, have been yelled at several times, smoke pot behind the building, like to stop working whenever they feel like it (or when we get busy), etc.. typical teenagers.

Well.. they went on break tonight, after the two head managers left, so the only people in the store were me, the two cooks, a mid level manager, and an MIT (Manager in Training). Well these two kids were on break, one of them pee'd in the parking lot, then took newspaper and proceeded to poop on it. First, evidently, they stuck it behind my Jeeps tire cause they thought they would get away with that and I wouldn't know who did it. Then, they realized that wasn't a good idea, and decided to show everyone in the lobby (me, the manager, the MIT, and two of the MIT's friends) through the window. Then one of them thought it would be funny to run through the store with it. The MIT locked the front door, but the cook ran to the back before anybody could get there and ran through the store with it.

Then he decided it would be funny to stick it to the door of the tax place next to us. When he realized that wasn't a good idea, he threw it out, leaving a big.. uh.. chunk of it on the window, which my manager, after much hesitation made him clean up. After the MIT got done laughing her ass off, she threw up 4 times in the parking lot (around all of our cars).

Then the cook threatened all of us that he was "going to take it to a personal level". Which, originally, was going to be splashing a cup of water onto one of the MIT's friends' face. I explicitly said if he does ANYTHING to me or my Jeep, then that will be crossing the line. I said this about 4 times.

Next thing I know, my jeep is covered in paper from the receipt printer. They took several rolls, wrapped my jeep, then decided to throw them across the parking lot so there was paper everywhere in the malls parking lot. I finally saw what they had done, and, needless to say, I was quite pissed. I don't touch anybody elses stuff, why the heck would they touch mine? I was mad as hell. I grabbed my manager, he came out and got serious when I said this was way out of line, he told them to clean it up, and eventually made them apologize (which, the one that did most of this came out, said sarcastically "I'm sorry I destroyed your Jeep with paper" and slammed the door while he walked back in. The other decided he would make it into more of a joke and said "Do you need a hug" and proceeded to try and hug me).

Keep in mind, the entire time, the MIT is laughing her ass off. Screaming, tears running down her face, shes laughing so hard. Then she proceeds to go on this rant about how I'm taking this way too seriously and I'm way out of line.  And how this happens to everyone, etc etc.

So all the sudden I'm the asshole, and everyone is pissed at me.

My manager comes back outside from making sure the cooks got back to work, and I said "You should write them up, this has gone way too far, the store manager needs to here about this, its like we work at a daycare."

This is when my manager gets all defensive, "This could come back at me, I should have been watching them, I could get fired, they were technically off the clock and on break, theres nothing I can do about it." Then the MIT starts saying how she didn't see anything, if anybody asks her about it shes not going to say a word. That I am way too serious and its not like they did anything that hurt my Jeep.

Now, obviously they didn't actually hurt my Jeep or anything, but I don't like people doing anything to my vehicle. On top of that I don't like that I explicitly told them not to touch my Jeep and they did anyways. On top of that, if I had just taken it as a joke, what would they have done the next time?

Am I out of line to go to the store manager (she would definitely fire them, shes an.. uh.. angry pregnant lady)? I have pictures and videos of everything, including one of the cook proudly displaying the store next doors window and laughing about it. The manager is my friend and we hang out a lot, and I really don't want to get him fired, but he wasn't doing his job and he only let it get worse. I'm also afraid that if I do get them fired, what kind of a war will I start? Will I come out of the building one day to find my tires slashed, or something in my Jeep, or some sort of retaliation?

I can't see this just blowing over and me going back to work tomorrow and acting like nothing happened. Like I said before.. whats going to happen the next time? I do only have 4 weeks left until I'm moving back to MI..

What do you guys think? I don't know what to do..



-Brandon

[astrogiblet]

Well I just got off the phone with my manager.. and he said he wrote them up for "putting excrement on the window next door and papering my jeep" and he's leaving it out for the store manager to see tomorrow. He also just guilt tripped the hell out of me because he "knows its gonna come back at him and he didnt have to write them up because it was all fun and games until my Jeep got involved". So he's all pissed at me, but this was definitely the best possible outcome. And he said "You know, I can kinda see where they are coming from. It was a very slow night, and they are teenagers, and they were bored. I can understand why they'd do something like this."



-Brandon

[naypalm]

I'd say that theres definitely something wrong with those kids. And if the MIT is laughing about all that stuff, then they aren't manager material and should be shitting on newspaper right along beside em.

I worked at KFC in Davison as a cook for 3 years and we did alot of stupid stuff, but definitely not pooping on a newspaper and proudly displaying it or wrapping ones car up in receipt paper.

I think one of the worst things I've seen done to sombody is taken a case of rotten chicken and put it in the backend of one of the lazy cook's "garbage riddled" truck. I guess it was an attempt to get the kid to clean out the bed of his s10, but it took him several months to finally decide to clean it. When he finally did, he went to the auto carwash and watched it fly off into the machinery as he went thru. lol

[diablosjeep]

I think having them written up was the right thing to do. The manager and MIT sound like they are too immature for their positions. I worked in many restaurantes when  was younger, and pooping in paper is way worst than anything I every witnessed. And, no one should ever mess with your Jeep in any way!!

[Anonymous]

wow, makes me rethink eating in restaurants if that's how the employees act and the managers respond... Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.


Anyway, IMHO, the teens' behavior is inappropriate at work, whether they are on break or not.   I'm sure (well, maybe not with the manager and MIT you have....) that if those kids had smoked pot on break then come back in high, they most likely would have been sent home and probably fired, so the whole "off the clock, can't do anything about their behavior" statement is bull.


As for your your Jeep, maybe it was all in fun, but my issue would be the waste of paper that was taken from the place of business.  Yeah, the paper didn't hurt your Jeep, but the rolls of paper have a cost for the business.  I'm fairly sure (well, then again, your manager and trainee sound like idiots---the hiring market must SUCK there if that is the quality of folk available...) that those kids didn't have permission to take the paper and decorate your Jeep.


I would follow up with your real manager and make sure things are addressed. So what if the pretend manager and the trainee get axed--they aren't doing much good for the company from what you have presented.  Chickee laughs a lot sounds like she will be a pillar of leadership when she needs to make a decision.  That's a clusterfyck waiting to happen, IMO.   If there is recourse and your Jeep gets played with, call the cops.  

Best of luck with it--I hope your last four weeks don't last too long...

[4x4x4JK]

The way I see it, you have to stand up for ypurself and show the two teenagers right from wrong.  Even though it is just stupid fun, these kids need to know right from wrong in a workplace.  If the do end up getting fired, they will surely have to expain what hapened to their parents and hopefully they will realize how to act in a work environment.

[astrogiblet]

Thanks for the advice guys..

I couldn't get to sleep last night, all I could think about it coming out from work to see my jeep with shit on it, or see my tires slashed..

I feel kinda helpless cause we arent allowed to park in front of the building, we have to park out back in the alley behind the building.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, the main cook that was behind all this stuff is a twice felon for burglary. He claims he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people.. but just who I want to piss off right, someone who's going to steal everything out of my Jeep..

I wish I could just walk away from this entire situation. Who knows, I may get fired over all this too...

 :roll:

You would think if they got high behind the building and came back into work they would get fired.. but the manager in question is a pot head, and the MIT "doesn't see anything", so, like you said Mel, its a big clusterfyck of issues. I'm glad my time down here is winding down.

Well, no matter what, I'm going to be walking into a hail storm at work today. The two cooks will probably get fired (so thats 2 out of 5 cooks gone, and we already don't have enough), if the MIT gets questioned she'll either get fired or quit because shes been interviewing elsewhere anyways (so thats 3/5 cooks), and then if my manager gets fired or quits, then we are down a much-needed manager... So basically, our situation of not having enough cooks or managers is only going to get terribly worse.

Nothing good will ever come out of this situation.. argh. I wish none of this had happened.

-Brandon

[94_xj_country]

not sure why you'd get fired, they were the ones who were outa line

[astrogiblet]

not sure why you'd get fired, they were the ones who were outa line

Well, I guess all the little things would come into play.. like.. I was in the lobby talking to people instead of working, I was outside when all this was going on instead of working, etc..


-Brandon

[astrogiblet]

Well I just got back from work. Went in, and everybody was all cheerful and happy like nothing ever happened. I said to one of the cooks "So I hear you got written up" and he said "Yea, but its just a write up so I don't think anythings gonna really happen."

The assistant store manager was there, and she was cheerful too, like she didn't see the write ups. So I'm thinking either (1) they hid them, or (2) they didn't actually get written up, they just told me that so I wouldn't go to the store manager.

Well.. it just so happens I work tomorrow for 7 hours alone with the store manager... So.. I guess tomorrow we will see...


-Brandon

[Yager]

Maybe this is just the kind of person I am, but that is horrible, disgusting and unsanitary. Personally, I'd destroy them. I'd bring it to manager, I'd go to the better business bureau, I'd go to the health department, I'd go to the cops. Crapping on newspaper in the parkinglot? Wrapping your jeep in paper? Smearing it on the window? Indecent Exposure, Gross Indecency.. What do you even call shit on a window? I'd make sure those little shits rotted in hell. And if the authorities fell through for me, I'd probably take things into my own hands, and just beat the hell out of them, covertly..

If you only have a few weeks left, call the central office and tell them you are working in a hostile work place, that there are people shitting in the parking lot on break and coming back in and making food. Tell them you feel violated, harrassed and unwelcome in your own work place... Then watch them all burn.

[astrogiblet]

Yea.. thats about the point I'm at.

I asked my store manager today if she had seen the write ups, and she said "yes" in a plain tone, and thats all she'd say. Then she went home for the day.. They still have not gotten ANY even I'll regard towards them.

So my other manager showed me the writeups in the computer today, that bastard manager I worked with on saturday sugar coated the HELL out of the write ups.

"They took some kind of feces and threw them at the window next door, then they cleaned them up and apologized. They also papered Brandons Jeep which irritated him a lot and they got back to work and apologized afterwards."

Thats the writeup. I'm gonna type up my side of the story, and give my boss a letter with a copy of it in there. I think I'm gonna send one to the area manager too.


-Brandon

[astrogiblet]

This is the letter I'm going to be submitting to my store manager. When I do it, I'm not exactly sure. If I give it to her, I may get fired (which I honestly do not care about). If I give it to her, and I don't get fired, I have to live in fear for the next three weeks that I could get my tires slashed, or I could come out to see some sort of major retaliation against my Jeep. My mom suggested maybe I give it to her in three weeks on my last day, but by then I think the effect will have worn off, and that it may not matter to anybody anymore. What do you guys suggest? I could just straight up quit and tell her I do not want to work in this kind of environment, but 3 weeks pay wouldn't be all that bad to have (especially since I just bought a $400 Glock pistol from a coworker).

Anyways, this is the letter I just typed up:

Amy,

   Judging by the response, or lack of, to what happened Saturday night at the store, I felt I should let you know my side of the story.

   At about 9 o'clock, the store slowed down, to a standstill. Billy and Marc took their second break for the night. During their break, Billy decided to pee in the parking lot, and then poop onto a piece of newspaper. First, according to them, they put it behind my Jeeps tire, thinking I would never know who did it. Then, deciding that wasn't such a good idea, they took it to the front window, knocking, yelling, and pointing at it for all the lobby, which consisted of Tasha, Me, and a couple former employee's, to see. After we realized exactly what he had on the newspaper, we ignored him. He tried to open the front door, which Tasha ended up locking, and instead ran to the back door. I tried to make it back there to lock it, but Billy beat me to it, and ran through the entire store with the poop on the newspaper to the front lobby. Afterwards, he stuck it to the door of the tax place next to us. A few minutes later he pulled the newspaper off, leaving most of the poop on the window. At this point, Billy decided to leave the poop there, that the tax place would find it next time they came in. Marvin told Billy to clean it up, which he did after much hesitation. Meanwhile, Tasha threw up in the parking lot 4 times from seeing the poop. Then, Billy came to us and said "Now I'm going to take it to a personal level." At which I responded "Do not do anything to me or my Jeep" several times.

   Next thing I know, my Jeep is covered from front to back in receipt paper. I ran out of the store yelling, and as I came out Marc ducked behind the car next to mine. After he realized I knew where he was, he ran towards the front door, apologizing and telling me Billy had run to the back door. Billy came back out, laughing, and grabbed another roll of receipt paper and through it across the parking lot, so that it unraveled in the middle of the lot, all the way down to the front of the Hong Kong Chinese restaurant. Marvin came outside, stating that he was not going to write them up, that if he did it would all come back at him, and he'd end up getting in trouble or fired because he didn't have the time to baby sit them (Marvin was inside doing his work while this was going on). Marvin then made them clean it all up off my Jeep, and then he brought them back inside and made them get back to work. As you can imagine, I was quite angry, I do not touch anybody else's stuff, let alone their vehicles, and I expect that nobody else touches anything of mine. I said if Marvin wasn't going to write them up, then I was going to come talk to you. That's when Tasha said "You can do whatever you want, but if anybody asks me about it, I'm going to say I didn't see anything."

   After that Marvin made Billy and Marc come out and apologize to me. Billy slammed the front door open, said sarcastically "Brandon I'm sorry I destroyed your Jeep with paper" turned around, and walked right back in. Marc tried to make another joke out of it, came up to me and said "Aw Brandon do you need a hug?" and tried to hug me. Marvin then let me leave. I went home, talked it over with my mother, realized I was not going to just let this go, and called Marvin. He informed me that he had written them up, and that it was taken care of and that, thanks to me, he was probably going to lose his job because I couldn't let it go, and it was all going to come back on him for not babysitting them, and they were bored teenagers on a slow night and he can understand why they'd do this kind of stuff.  

   The next day I came in, and everybody was cheerful and happy like nothing happened. Marc laughed to me that "Yea, we did get written up, but it's just a write-up and I don't really think anything is actually gonna happen." That's when I assumed that either Marvin had not actually written them up, or they had hid the write-ups from you.

   That's why I asked you Monday morning if you had seen the write-ups, wondering why nothing had been done yet. Not only am I angry from my Jeep being papered, but the fact that a manager and an MIT would think that human feces running through the store is a silly teenager prank is beyond belief. This is disgusting and unbelievable, and could be cited as a major health code violation. If necessary, I have picture and video evidence from that night.


Sincerely,


Brandon

I ended it kinda abruptly, I know.. but I think it sounds good. Also, the last line about the picture and video evidence is to let her think about whether I'm referring to me using that evidence to prove to her what really happened, or to report it as a major health code violation.

Also, even though I sound kinda threatening, its mainly because she is very hesitant to do anything right now because she leaves on maternity leave in a month and wants to have a full trained staff while she is gone. I'm trying to make sure she doesn't just ignore this.




-Brandon

[Anonymous]

I guess what I would do before giving her the letter is figure out what you hope to get out of this after you are gone.  What I mean is, what kind of a reference do you hope to get out of this.  If your manager is leaving in a month for maternity leave, she is probably short timing it (been there/done that) so she just wants to make sure the place doesn't blow up so she can enjoy her time home with her baby.  

What I would do is ask her if you can talk about the situation and how it impacts you, since you both are short timers.  (I'm kinda assuming you have told her you are leaving in three weeks.  If you haven't, then you need to do that ASAP, IMO.)  I would approach your manager from the standpoint that you hope to get a good recommendation out of her so it benefits you when you leave.  You may even want to ask her for a letter before you go so you aren't stuck having one of the asshats involved in the incident being the one giving the verbal recommendation when the real manager is on maternity leave.  Let her know that you have written out your side of the story from the incident if she needs it.  I would get rid of anything that isn't firmly based in fact before giving it to her, first. (Your first sentence or so might be good to leave out--it makes you sound like your are writing it because you didn't see heads roll and only because of that reason.  I don't mean to sound like a dick, but I've managed employees long enough to "red flag" those sort of things.)  I would let her know that your concern about what happened is for the good of the company (even if it isn't, you gotta play the game here...) and you want to make sure that she has what information she needs in order to make a well-informed decision.  You want to leave her with the impression that if you weren't leaving the state, you would want to work there and would say nice things about the place.

Also, if you guys end up back in that area down the road, you want to grease the skids in case you need another job.  Never burn a bridge--let them do the burning is my motto.  If this is a chain place, it may be worth an anonymous call to let them know what you witnessed while shopping in the strip mall.  (hey, I'm not above CYA while still making sure others know what's going on....)  That way the info gets passed on but doesn't make you feel like you are in the scope the rest of your time there.  

Again, I hope your time goes fast, but don't lose sight of the real goal which is being able to leave there with a glowing recommendation that will help you out in the long run.

[astrogiblet]

Yea, while working with her today she talked about how much she appreciates my help especially working so many shifts and working with the truck and she said shes going to make sure I have her cell number when I leave so that she can be a good reference for me even when shes on maternity leave.

So I guess, coming from that respect, maybe I don't want to do anything.

My sister said what would I even gain by getting these punks fired? They are either gonna grow up on their own, or not change a bit and end up in jail.. so what am I gonna gain by pissing them off?

Marvin the manager isn't gonna go anywhere in life.

I guess right now I'm leaning towards just leaving it all like it is now..


-Brandon