WORKPLACE CULTURE

I thought I had hit the jackpot. I landed a job for the summer at my favorite fast food restaurant – Sonic. I couldn’t wait for the day that I was racing around delivering food on roller blades. Sadly, that dream quickly faded.

The first day that I was scheduled to work was in the middle of the afternoon. The manager, Marla, did not believe in wasting time training, so instead she just threw new workers right into the mix of things and hoped that they caught on quick. Uhhhhhhh, what?! Sonic has thousands of different ways to make drinks and a computer abbreviation system that had to be learned. My heart was beating fast when I walked into the kitchen that first day. I was so excited to be working and I didn’t want to mess things up. Drink orders started coming in and Marla tried to explain things as she was filling the cups. I tried to catch everything she said, but I knew there was no way that I was going to remember it all. When she finally let me try I was hesitant. The first couple of drinks were easy, but the orders seemed to get progressively more frequent and more complicated. I messed a couple of drinks up without realizing, and Marla promptly let me know.  I could hear the frustration in her voice. I looked to the other employees for understanding, but they just ducked their heads and looked away. They wanted nothing to do with this.

Things only seemed to get worse the more shifts that I worked. Marla was intimidating and aggressive toward everyone that worked there. She did not hesitate to call people out when they made mistakes. I saw several people walk out crying due to her abrasive comments. The tension I felt was unbearable. Four weeks after I was hired – I quit.

I may have been a young, gullible 16 year old at the time that I was hired, but I didn’t feel that was justification for Marla’s behavior. She did not respect any of her employees and created a very hostile work environment. What about you? Have you ever had bosses that were hard to work for? What did you do?