At a recent stop at Burger King in the booming metropolis of Anchorage, Alaska, Michele and I walked into a firestorm behind the counter. Some young guy with what looked like a 5 o’clock shadow but was most likely a 5-week old beard was being yelled at by the manager in a pressed white polyester shirt, a pair of Dickies, and a headset like you might see on the sidelines of an NFL game.
He was asking for a break. Why not. Every barely-above-making-minimum-wage worker in this great country is ENTITLED to a break every couple hours to munch on a meal that he prepared himself, right?
The lady manager was ASSERTING her authority to the lowly hourly workin’ stiff in full decibel that you might just be able to hear all the way across the busy Dimond Boulevard.
The guy just wanted to sit down and rest his tired feet. That’s all.
After three or four minutes of this back and forth she asked–no demanded–I want respect from people on my shift. And sent him to drop a batch of fries.
Within minutes the guy did finally get that break and was chomping on his Whopper with a huge smile on his face.
As you may know, Burger King has been struggling of late with not only their food but their image. Wendy and the Clown have beat out the King in popularity for the last year or so and they realized that they needed to do something about it.
That they did.
They just released a new, or shall we say “updated”, menu with what they are calling Chef Choice Burgers. This is what we ordered and it was dang good! It looks and tastes just like one of those mouth-watering sandwiches being hawked by supermodels and gals named Paris.
All that aside, how can you update you image if your staff behind the counter is berating the uniform-with-the-name tag set? Why do they wear name tags anyway? Does the customer really care if John, Adam, Suzie or some guy named Q is serving him? I doubt it.
That being said, the lady manager that was sportin’ the head set and a pair of Dickies isn’t doing much for the King. In my opinion she needs to head down the street to a place that is named after a Queen–but my guess is they won’t tolerate that behavior there either.
What do you think?
