Hello, apologies for the formatting, on mobile. I was working at a Sonic location and oh boy was it awful. Never had I met a more awful manager, workspace, or lack of respect for employees. And it says a lot to see a noticeable difference in the lack of respect in fast food.
The story is a fairly easy but all too familiar one. I was a new hire, got placed into the job and immediately was expected to know everything. Ice cream, slushies, drinks, money, carhopping, order taking, putting orders in the correct place, etc. (I have worked in other fast food places before but it's pretty different all in all)
I learn fairly quickly so I picked it up. (I was also taught these jobs not by the GM. Who said she was going to teach me, but by the shift managers who ik still friends friends to this day) I was put on carhop. Now, anyone that has carhopped for sonic will give two answers if you ask them if they liked it.
“I LOVE carhopping, I get more money on busy nights!”
Or
“I despise carhopping, no one ever tips.”
That ^ the tipping part, is what killed my chances of staying there long term. I was put on carhop EVERY DAY even when there were people better suit for it. Then, when new people came in I was tasked with teaching them everything while the shift managers did the work that I couldn't do because I was always hopping.
Now, I want to be clear, I wouldn't have minded carhopping if it wasn't a tip job. Like a waiter. But, since barely anyone knew you could/should tip, we would be paid minimum wage (9.50 here) on our paychecks. Which, I wouldn't have minded if crew didn't get 12.50 an hour and I was doing their jobs as well as mine. They just wanted to pay me less for more.
So, we pass on to the General manager is. Now, the GM was extremely insistent On everyone being good at communication. She acted like she was good friends with everyone, and as though she knew everything about everyone. But, she could never seem to tell any of the shift managers, or other crew members, that certain people wouldn't be there even though she was in charge of the scheduling.
I had to leave for about a week, because of a seizure that I had that was becoming a recurring problem. When I texted her about it telling her that I probably wouldn't be there for a while, she was really Snarky with her response. Which is an interesting response to give when I have been the hardest working person and haven't been off in about 8 days? But, I get over it and after 3 days, which was way less than the doctor recommended, I came into work anyway because I needed the paychecks.
Some of the crew members were soon to be managers, and would be working overnight shift to make everything a bit easier and to get paid a bit better. One of which, who for namesake and For anonymity Take, I will refer to them as L. L had previously worked at sonic, and enjoyed it. They was however, fired from the previous store for getting into arguments with the managers who were just as bad as the one that is currently At that location. They fought to get back into sonic because They loved working there but did not like the previous management. They had been promised a job of management for a long time and finally after about 2 months of working there again, got the job.
They were the manager that I was closest to, because I knew them when I went to school. So I followed them, They taught me the ropes. We became much better friends, and for a long time it was Good. everyone, all of the crew would have a good time. Everything started to change, when the GM started making comments about how good of a manager L is.
The way the GM seemed to work, was that you very authoritarian Stance. You could be friendly, but you were not “friends”. If you were told to do something, you would do it. None of the shift managers or, the person who is being trained to be A GM in the store, ever treated The crew that way.
Now, don't get me wrong, that may work for some people. However, that did not work for the group of 17 to 18 year olds who Just got out of high school and were sick of that s. We worked better when she wasn't there, on which was a good, until people started to leave because of the GM.
Soon enough, people who were trained we were trained to become a manager, people have been there for years, and people who really liked the store and how it worked were beginning to leave because of the GM. They were seen as Losses by most of the store, except for me and L And a few choice managers, and they were just marked off the schedule.
It didn't become bad, until there were nights where we only had 4 people, myself included most nights.A full shift, is supposed to be 9 to 10 people.
So, the GM never worked night shifts. She refused to let herself be scheduled then, and repeatedly when being asked to Come in, would have any excuse for not being able to come in. even though, she commonly told all the crew that if they needed, they could call her and she would come in.
I did find out while working there, that she has a kid and that is why she leaves at 5 every day. However however, she definitely had ways for other people to pick up her kid and take care of the kid.. She would commonly go and hang out with friends, with the baby daddy, or generally just do whatever on days she was off.
Now I wouldn't expect her to Devote every single moment of her life to the store, because I should never expect that of anyone. However, when you only have me, a new hire, L, a new manager, and no one Else… That doesn't work.
We close the actual stalls, and put everyone through the drive thru. It was working out fine except for the facts that we were both burned out. We ended up getting L's boyfriend, who was another one of the managers at the store to help out for the Night. By then, all h had already broken loose.
All of the managers had a group chat together, explaining things that would need to be done for the store communications et cetera. But lately, all it had been with people complaining At the GM for not doing their job right. Both the managers who were part of this, were telling me about all of this but not showing it to me since I technically was not supposed to see it.
So, one night we had gotten absolutely destroyed it was a Friday night and me and L Working along with their boyfriend To get the store running. After we were denied being able to close the store early because of the short staff. We ended up closing at 10:30 like normal, but not leaving the store until 1:15 in the morning. The GM, who was able to come in had some kind of excuse. So, we finished it up we got home and Hoped tomorrow would be better. It did not get better, and on Saturday night we got hit just as hard with the same 3 people. So, this is where the quitting part comes in.
We get finished with our shift, people generally being rude as they usually do. But the crew inside was having a good time, because we were able to relax and do orders one at a time and not overwork ourselves since we decided to close the stalls anyway. So we finished up our shift, getting more and more worked up over what our GM kept saying about All of our lax communication. If so, the managers went off on her in the group chat. Saying all the things that they knew that she did wrong, things that they would change, and sincerely telling her to go f*** herself. We then, while still on our shift, got whatever food, drinks, ice cream, and whatever else we could have wanted from the store to take with us (since that was something you could usually do on night shift when There's food left over)
Now, I will admit that I am not the most proud of this move that I've been. But, I felt that it was necessary. Me and the other 2 managers, took our exit slips slept, signatured them, and told everyone on the slips that we quit. We left the store in an absolute wreck. Because we knew, that the GM would have to clean it up in the morning before the shift started. We left no food out, we didn't do anything that would be harmful if any customers ordered something. But we left everything a mess. We had such a power trip afterwards, because as because as manic as we were about the whole thing, we knew We did the right thing for our mental health and for the health of everyone else that worked at the store.
Soon, other people began to leave, and before I knew it Facebook groups for my town begin talking about how sonic was struggling and how they had basically no workers. I even heard, about has someone heard a story that 3 people left on the same night And left the store a wreck. They now are down to about 5 people in total that can work any of the night or lunch shifts, and I have never been more proud out of ruining someone's job and frankly life For a while.
There were Some workers that I liked, and I did feel bad about making them have to do all the work that they did by us leaving. But, we couldn't stand it, and it was everyone's last straw. We've told them all, that we will come back if that GM is fired, but since I've publicly posted about this I will probably never be able to work at sonic again. I took pictures and put it on social media everywhere, telling people in my area to not work there until that GM changes.
TL;DR: Me and 2 managers left on the same night, leaving the store around because of the terrible GM.. She lacked any communication, was super hypocritical about everything, and couldn't stand to help anyone who needed it.