A job is a great thing to have but it can be challenging and overwhelming juggling work and school. The loads on homework and classes are one challenge on its own. Now, adding a work schedule to that can be complicated. The last thing I want to deal with are angry coworkers. Nobody has time for that.
Working at Panda Express has its pros and cons. Obviously, a free meal a day is great especially being a broke college student, bringing my own lunch would be difficult. My manager is kind enough to work around my schedule…but asking for a weekend off, now that’s a problem, but that’s an entire different issue. The lunch rush is a nightmare.
Around noon, people can get hangry..that is the combination of being hungry and angry. The line gets to the doors and people are waiting to eat their food. Behind the scenes…it is chaotic. My job is to scoop the rice and chowmein, ask the guest if they would like a sample, call out food if it is running low, change out the old food with the fresh food, keep my area clean, write the food codes on the boxes, and clean the dining which means refilling the forks, lids, straws, napkins, and taking out the garbage.
Sometimes during the rush, it is hard to call out food since I am so focused on scooping quickly so I can move the line faster. This causes a problem because then the cooks do not know to cook the food which results in angry guest that get mad at us since their food is not ready. This also leads to my coworkers working beside me more stressed out since there are these guests impatiently sassing them which make them angry at me.
During a rush, I rather focus on moving the line more quickly than asking them for samples. If they do want a sample, I have to wait for them to tell me what they want and grab it for them instead of just serving their plate. My manager always bothers me while a rush and tells me to ask for samples. It can be annoying since I just want the line to go faster so guests won’t be mad.
I also work with two of my closest friends. We see each other at school, in class, and at work. Spending too much time with the same people can also get frustrating. We spend too much time together so we see their flaws much more than the average person. Sometimes we need a break from each other because it can be too much to deal with. This can be an issue when one of us comes into work late, because it affects everyone. Then the problems we deal with at work sometimes collide with our personal lives. Work is work, school is school. We have been working on separating these two so that we do not ruin our friendships.
Working can be a struggle, but the end result…the money is great and well worth it. I do not regret having a job while being a full times college student because it gives me the ability to spend my money on anything I’d like.
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Do you think the customers understand how hard is it for the employees? Are they mainly rude or sympathetic?
ReplyDeleteFirst time I encountered the word Hangry -- hungry and angry. It is so unlike the image of the Panda bear that the restaurant symbolizes. Thanks for giving us a peek of the struggle and frustration behind the scenes.
ReplyDeleteFirst time I encountered the word Hangry -- hungry and angry. It is so unlike the image of the Panda bear that the restaurant symbolizes. Thanks for giving us a peek of the struggle and frustration behind the scenes.
ReplyDeleteI am so with you! I worked at Chipotle and we did the same thing, serving and maintaining a clean work station, calling food, etc. It is truly challenging and people get so HANGRY and this is Chipotle we are talking about so the line is around the entire restaurant and out the door. By the time people even get to the food they are already mad at us for being so slow, and it is so hard to deal with with a smile. A lot of it too because the reason the line is so slow is not because of us, it's because of our hangry customers who take an extra minute or two to decide what kind of rice and meat they want, which just delays the line even more, and I'm sure you experience this as well seeing the line being held up by a few indecisive people who can't decide between rice and chow mein. Which is a bigger struggle than anything because there's no way you can explain to the customer that it's partially their fault that the line is moving so slow. We just get to sit there and watch it unfold and struggle to keep up.
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