I have been working at Subway for about five months now. I really liked working there at first because it was easy to get the hang of things and it was fun. As time went on, I came home with many different stories. Of course, there are basic stories such as angry customers and those who come in without masks, but those are the ones that everyone hears about.
I am lucky enough to be able to talk about more exciting things. Something that I will never forget is the day I came into work one day and our entire system crashed. It was pitch black outside due to the crazy thunderstorm that was going on. It is usually empty when it rains like that but for some reason today was busy.
Due to our entire computer system crashing we were operating on a cash-only system. This usually is something easy to do however we could not use the computer to open the register. What we had to do was hand write all of the orders on paper and calculate the total ourselves based off of the prices on our menus. Once we calculated the prices we had to figure out how much change we owed them, run to the back safe, and use our available cash to give them change.
Many customers were understanding but some were turned away by our situation. Once the customers slowly stopped coming in we had to contact tech support to try and fix our issue. My coworker and I spent four hours on the phone with three different tech assistants. The first one was very mean to me and deleted our entire system and tried to blame it on me. The second helper told us that what we were trying to do was impossible due to the age of our computer program. The last one told us that he was going to try and fix what the fix person deleted. The store owner had to stay and watch the computer download until midnight.
This was easily one of the most stressful days that I had to work through. Luckily my coworker and I were able to handle it. Ever since then I have been scared to mess around with the computer. This made my boss realize that I was trustworthy and could handle the worse case scenarios.
The one day when I was working we lost power and had to use our cell phones as flashlights because the servers couldn't see. We also had to call all of the people with reservations with out own phones. It was so stressful, but like you said, it showed me I could handle tough situations like that.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a very stressful situation! I have heard some of the "basic stories" that you were mentioning, but none of them were like this. It sort of makes you realize just how dependent on technology we are for efficiency in today's world.
ReplyDeleteI've also heard so many stories and rants about rude customers, etc. Your story is very extreme, and I agree with your boss that you are a trustworthy employee. It's really impressive that you were able to stay calm and handle the situation for so long despite the troubles those tech people gave you!
ReplyDeleteThat really sounds like it was a stressful situation, but it sounds like you were able to handle it very well! I'm sure that it showed your boss how trustworthy you are as an employee, especially after working there for only a few months. Plus, at least you know now that you can handle a situation like that calmly!
ReplyDeleteAt my first job, at a small family owned business, we used cash registers that added up the items for us, but our boss wouldn't let us use the function that told us how much change we owed; we were supposed to count it back ourselves. He thought it was really an important skill to teach us, and it really wasn't hard at all once you knew how to do it and got in the habit. I've always been thankful to him for that little thing. It's definitely tougher to do things "by hand" when you get used to a computer being able to do it for you, like GPS for example.
ReplyDeleteI can actually relate to this! Last night at work our whole computer system crashed and we couldn't ring any orders in. I was running from the front to the back telling the kitchen orders to make and we were only doing cash. It only lasted about an hour but it was so stressful.
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