Sunday, April 15, 2007
Going it Alone
We've been having turnover problems lately. One of our drivers just up and quit a couple weeks ago without notice for a new job, so that kind of screwed us. Then, another driver absolutely refused to work all three days of Easter weekend and got himself fired because, if you don't want to work Easter, that's the wrong way to go about it considering many of us (myself included) work Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays every freakin' week so he got zero sympathy from any of us.
In any case, with him gone there were suddenly only two drivers. Side note: we're an independent chain and our primary business is with the dine-in customers, so four drivers is (usually) plenty; two at a time during the week and three at a time on Fridays and Saturdays. Our second driver works at another one of our stores on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so he's unavailable then. For the past two Tuesdays I've ended up working solo all night, and you can bet your arse I've been making great money.
Generally, we've been having a waiter work as a driver when we need him so long as he was available. Last night, there were just the two of us drivers on a particularly busy Saturday. Again, great money. The waiter will be switching to a driver effective this coming Tuesday, and we have another guy (who used to work for us a year or so ago) coming back to deliver again.
But tonight... tonight I'm going it alone. Sundays aren't like Tuesdays, either. I'll be running my ass off tonight to get all the deliveries there on time. But I'll tell you one thing: if you want respect from everyone you work with, prove to them that you can carry an entire night single-handedly. After I pull this off tonight, I'll remind everybody that I'm trying to get a raise. Soon enough, I'll be giving them the ultimatum: either I get a raise or I find a new job, period. Napoli's can survive without me, but I guarantee it'll be rough for a long time since nobody there seems to know how to get their shit together.
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Oh, right. In my last post I mentioned this was coming soon: "Assholes who don't seem to realize it's FUCKING POURING OUTSIDE"
I realize there really isn't much to say about that, let alone enough to focus an entire post on, so I'll just say this: last week we had some rain, then the rain stopped, then suddenly we had a torrential downpour. That part didn't last too long (maybe only 20 minutes) and it was toward the end of the night, but I did have to take one delivery in it. About 5-6 miles from the store. I don't remember their total, but whatever it was deserved far more than the $1 "tip" they gave me. Being that they're that far from our store, we will refuse delivery service to them. We try to stay within 4-5 miles, but give anyone (within reason) a first chance. If they tip well, they continue to get service from us. If they tip a dollar in pouring down rain after making me trod through their muddy gravel driveway, they don't.
A couple nights ago, the weather situation was pretty much the same, in fact visibility while driving was practically zero for a while (good thing it got so busy I took the phones off the hook). I had a fantastic night, though, maintaining over a $5 tip average for 13 deliveries.
