Famine, And The Demise Of A Well-oiled Machine.

I don't hate my job, so much as I hate what it has become. I deliver pizza, an easy enough job (more about that here: EP Link ), except I live in a college town, meaning that when summer comes, the money leaves. This brings me to my gripe about management. When I started, two years ago, things were simple. My GM (main boss) was not a particularly warm person, or good at hiring/managing people, but he knew how to run a tight, lean ship, keep things going smoothly. The number one assistant manager was the people person; she made sure that whatever dregs the GM hired were trained into something generally approaching competence, and, more importantly, kept after people and made sure work was completed (The GM, while an intimidating presence, was actually easy to be lazy with; all one had to do was stay out of his way.). Last fall, things started going downhill. The AM became pregnant, and, tired of being bullied over wanting to take maternity leave and generally not being respected (she was a former GM who had been competent, but stepped down due to the stress), quit. The GM started working 70 hours a week as he was going blind in one eye (diabetic, lived on nothing but fast food and pizza), while not making enough money to afford a $300 repair on his car, requiring drivers to become his personal taxi service for months (It was during this time that I got to know him and learn that, in spite of the cold exterior, he really wasn't a bad guy, nor, as it turned out, as invulnerable as he seemed.). Still, we made it, with whatever skeleton crew was scraped together. 

Sadly (or, perhaps thankfully for the GM, as it released him from his hell, living alone with no life hundreds of miles from his home, family, and friends), my GM had a heart attack at the turn of the new year, at 40 years old. He survived, but moved back home, and I hope is contemplating a change of career. This brings me to the current GM, the previous GM's predecessor, who had been fired; apparently, the regional manager couldn't get *anyone* else to take the job. I like him, he's a pleasant enough guy, but his being described as "barely competent" is accurate enough (either that, or the regional manager who hates him is micromanaging him and screwing things up; I'm not sure which). Over the previous four months, turnover had created a crew consisting largely of inexperienced drivers who were barely trained and, owing to the fact that they are students living primarily on parental support, really didn't care. The new GM came in with talk of cleaning house, turning things around, etc. which has consisted entirely of empty threats and hot air. At the time of his takeover, I did him a huge favor. Our usual day driver had his license suspended due to a DUI, and thus couldn't drive. Nobody else could or would do it, so I opened 5 days a week (Day shifts are lots of work for typically not a lot of money.), averaging 45 hours a week while taking 12 credit hours, bad news for my grades (It wasn't so much the hours that got me, but working dayshift, which totally inverted my work/sleep schedule.). The day driver came back in March (how they're getting away with having a driver with a DUI on his record, I don't know), so how am I thanked for my hard work? A return to my usual diet of late and closing (high profit) shifts, opening on weekends? No, I get a cut in hours (from 40-50 hours a week to 20-30), and a schedule consisting mainly of rush (dinnertime) shifts. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for his hiring spree (four new drivers), meaning that our store is now absurdly overstaffed most of the time, meaning that rush shifts are a disaster, income wise. Worse yet, none of these new people (really, none since the AM's departure) have been trained. None of them know how to answer phones or make pizzas in a remotely competent fashion, and they're slow and incompetent, because no learning occurs when taking one delivery at a time (any idiot with a GPS can do that). Also, oversight is nil, so, in spite of numerous threats, none of these new drivers do anything more than pretend to work in the store, cellphone use being rampant. Almost all of the work is being done by a few veteran drivers. The new GM's favorite pastime when not busy (i.e. when he should be training people), aside from having people scrub baseboards on occasion, is to go outside and smoke, with a couple drivers in tow.

Apparently, the secret is that the GM is looking for another job, and is planning to bail on the first opportunity (This would explain his lack of effort, when I've observed that he's capable of better.). The most competent AM is also planning on leaving soon. Even assuming he doesn't leave, things are going downhill fast. With the college kids gone for now, money is scarce (as are hours), and the GM apparently assigns them based on begging and brown-nosing, rather than competence. To his credit, I appreciate the weekend closing shifts (The only time I make money these days.), but the smattering of weekday rush shifts with twice the number of drivers in the store as necessary (even to run singles only) is ridiculous. I hope things will get better with the start of summer school in June, because as they are now, I'm going broke, and I've got fall semester to pay for in August. Assuming that's the case, we will still be going into football season (our busiest time of year, by far) with a crew consisting mainly of people that are inexperienced, untrained, and don't care, which is a nice way of leading up to the fact that it's going to be pandemonium. If he quits, heaven only knows what will happen, who the regional manager will drag in to run the place. Either way it should be interesting. In the meantime, I'll be taking my place in line to sell plasma.