n o m o t i o n . o r g

It is amazing to me how, in this day and age, reflecting on all the things our species has accomplished and learned, that we allow stupidity to remain the star by which the masses guide us. Why does popular opinion matter so much, aside from making money off of that opinion? Why do we still tolerate the horrific acts committed in the name of an imaginary being in the sky as if they are acceptable in some way? Why do we allow people to make decisions for us who think our planet is only a few thousand years old? Why do we allow people to teach children that dinosaurs and humans walked the planet at the same time?

Why? It depresses me that so many people I run into on a daily basis have no idea why they think the way they think. They accept whatever is told to them by their preachers, parents and politicians without question. Why? Is it just because that is how they were always taught or it’s what they were always told? Why are kids coming out of high school who can’t speak properly? Why do we allow stupid, dark age mentality people the power to try to force their stupidity on us all?

It’s because we don’t want to offend anyone. We don’t want to get sued because someone’s feelings got hurt. Someone needs their vote or their money or their support. They need to watch the latest bullshit reality show or be distracted by their home sports team. (Guilty of the last one during the World Cup – but it’s only once every four years). If people actually paid attention, read other points of view, hell just read something period they would see how fucked up everything really is. Just, step out of the cell phone texting, iPod listening, reality show watching bubble placed around you by society and pay attention for a day. You’ll be saddened but at least you’ll wake the hell up.

Teach evolution not creationism. There is no controversy. Teach kids to actively think for themselves and to question everything they see and hear. Teach them to be individuals and not sheep in a flock. Teach them how to speak, read and write properly. Teach them to fucking think not regurgitate the shit they hear on the television.

This really had no purpose. I’m just disgusted with ignorant, stupid, lying assholes who twist words and edit things to prove their own misguided ideals. I’m sick being nice to pricks and self centered assholes everywhere. I’m tired of seeing people who do nothing but have everything and keep having more given to them because they already have so much.

Doesn’t fucking matter…

Ok, so I took a job as a manager at a fast food restaurant, I won’t say which one but we sold food that’s served in tortillas and U-shaped corn shells. Aw screw it, it was Taco Bell.

Anyway, this was my first, and only ever, foray into the world of the fast food industry. Seriously, never again will I do that. It’s not that the job was hard, on the contrary, it was shit simple, a trained chimp could have done my job. It was the nature of the fast food industry itself that led to me finding employment elsewhere. There is no focus, at all, on quality. It’s all about getting it out fast, getting it right fast, getting the money fast. For someone who has an extensive full service restaurant background, this screamed against every essence of my professional being.

As for safety, there are a lot of check lists, colored dots and times needed to be placed on everything to ensure the product being used was still good. Thing is, those dots and time stickers are just that, stickers. Stickers can be removed and new ones can be put in their place. Which was done all in the name of meeting an insane food cost level.  Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t use bad or expired food, but, if something was supposed to be good for 4 hours, sometimes it went to 6 hours. Generally speaking, 90% of everything didn’t last past 2 hours due to being busy.

As for me and my position, it was, as said, shit simple. Almost everything was automated for paperwork and things of that nature but, pay was an issue. As a “salaried manager” I was expected to work 50 hours a week as this was what my pay was based on. In other salaried positions, on some weeks I would work 55 hours and other weeks maybe 45 hours but, in general, it averaged out to 50. I always got paid the same whether it was a 55 hour week or a 45 hour week. Not so with this last job. If, as usual, I worked more than 50, I got paid for 50, which is as it should be. On those weeks where I may have only worked 48 hours, I got paid for 48 hours. I’m sorry but, that ain’t salaried, that’s hourly.

Once I realized this, if I was scheduled from 8am to 6pm, you bet your ass I was out at 6 to 6:10 pm. I took no pride in my job, there was nothing there in which I could take any pride. The general manager, who is a hard working man, allowed his life to be consumed by a job he has been doing for 18 years. He’ll never go higher than he is because he’s too valuable where he is and his bosses know he will bend over ass-backwards to make them happy. Why should they promote him? He’s a right proper trained pet where he is. He doesn’t see that at all and that sucks for him. He makes good money but, he spends 70+ hours a week at the job. He’s going to run himself to death. He operates at one speed – super fast all the time.

When my general hatred for the human race kicked into overdrive, I had to actively prevent myself from pointing out how stupid are to their faces. The non-stop onslaught of customers in that industry is mind boggling. It was generally worse the later into the early AM hours. Open until 4am, knowing that a good portion of the people in the drive-thru are probably DUI doesn’t make it any easier. I called everyone either a fat bastard or a hooker when they kept ordering more and more food.

Suffice to say, that fast food industry is something that I think everyone should do at some point in their lives, the earlier the better. Any retail, customer based position will do because it shows you how much shit you have to put up with and maybe, you will think twice about being nasty to the person at the counter asking you for your order.

Finally, writing up managers and staff because of someone’s opinion is complete and total bullshit. If we go a survey and scored less than a 5 out of 7 for hospitality, we got written up. I don’t know what happens when someone gets more than 3 or 5 of those for that reason but, to get fired over that would be a ton of bullshit.

Check out Not Always Right to see what kind of people we have to deal with on a normal basis in customer based jobs.

I will never work fast food again. More power to those who do it as a career.