Staff and new things

I'll do the products first, it is easier:

--We now have BBQ pizza. It has a BBQ sauce base, bacon, chicken and red onion on it. It is vile.

--We now have cheesecake. It has cheese, cake and no fruit. It is also vile.

--We are getting a meatball pizza. It will probably - be vile.

Now we stock bacon I scrounged a bun from KFC to make a bacon butty. I was told to put it on a full oven pass. Gradually the kitchen filled with smoke and the distinct smell of cat wee. Then out popped my bacon! It was extremely crispy, black and about a fifth of the size it started. The smell put me off entirely so I didn't bother trying again.

Then the staff...we have some new team members.

They worked well for about 2 weeks. Now they just stand there. Doing nothing. They're all desperate to work BOH but they can't even be arsed to do their front jobs properly. It isn't that they don't know what to do, they just leave it...and have no sense of urgency EVER. I taught them my good ways (ha) with "If you have no one to serve then do things which will make it easier later." So for example, rather than standing there playing Snake, restock the fridges...clean up that puddle of Pepsi...get receipt roll for that till which has had an error message for 2 hours etc.

I mainly work BOH now so I don't get to watch them all the time but I'll go out to the front to fetch a drink and the tiled floor for customers will be sticky with patches of black dried drinks. I look round, and there are 3 front team members standing there staring at their tills but with no customers. Because I trained these people I try and make sure they do things right. So on one occasion I asked "Umm maybe one of you could get the mop out here, it's sticky and going black with dirt..thanks.." and I smiled. The response was "You ain't a manager!" by the gobbiest of the lot. "I know but I trained you to not just stand there doing nothing, and when you do, it makes me look like a prick who hasn't showed you anything". "K." "Are you going to mop it then..?" "Later". A manager then walked in returning from his break, and the first thing he said was "___ clean this floor if you're doing nothing." to the person who gobbed off. Ha, I smirked at her and walked off!

Also, when they get out late, they are surprised - but blame it on being busy not that they stood there doing nothing.

RSS

I'm not too sure how RSS works but I hope if you subscribe to this blog you aren't getting loads of updates...I'm adding labels to my posts...?

Apologies if you are!

Prank call

The phone rang and I decided to get it:

"Hello do you delivery?"
"No sorry.."
"Do you do pick up?"
"Yes. We are an Express store though..so we just have set pizzas"
"What toppings do you do?"
I went through the pizzas extremely monotonously.
"Right ok...I'll pay extra if you shit on them"

I went silent and then I heard a lot of laughter in the background. It didn't really bother me so I laughed back at them and they were the ones who hung up first...I won I reckon!!!

I tried 1471 just to see if I could call them back, but it said they were international...do they not have pizza restaurants abroad..?!

No smoking

I find it quite funny that we now have No Smoking signs on the back door and in the kitchen. Like anyone is going to light up in a commercial kitchen!

Oh well at least we won't be fined.

Early and late

Early
When I mention to someone I have to be in at 8am...they usually go "You work at Pizza Hut though...who wants pizza at 8am!?" and I suppose it is understandable.

But we have to do quite a bit in the morning... Pan dough, it arrives frozen so it is put into pans - defrosts - proofs and then retards. We have a machine called an ADPR for this task. The A stands for automatic and well the rest I'm sure you can work out. Panning dough basically involves putting 11g of oil in the bottom, putting a frozen disc in, twisting it to remove any air bubbles and then 2 times round with spray release. Spray release is a glorified oil. We use trolleys to put the dough on. Each trolley can hold either 180 or 240 pizzas depending on how busy we are. We have 7 trolleys so can effectively have 1680 pizzas but we never do as the system isn't designed for that. We have a large quantity of pans and seperators. These are Pizza Hut branded (with the old Pizza Hut logo, not because we're old but they still make them with this logo). Quite a lot of the utentils are Pizza Hut's own including spoodles, rockers etc.

When the dough is ready we do pre-top. Which is making the pizzas in advance. HSR/RBD/FSR do not do this except for when they have buffets. We have speed rings which are plastic rings which sit on the dough so we get a brand standard crust. I did a search for an image of these but couldn't so I'll have to get one when I have a chance. I always think about getting pictures but forget. It isn't that exciting anyway. We use a spoodle a cross between a spoon and ladle to sauce. Then we use cups to get the measured amount of cheese on the base. Put the topping on, and we use a two finger space rule for each topping. If you're feeling generous you can on occasion put a piece of pepperoni on top of another and someone will get a treat. I don't do this very often!! We make pizzas in quite large batches and not individually.

Then put pizzas back in the walk-in fridge and they are cooked when required.

Late
Nothing to do with pizza to be honest but I found it quite funny.

On Sundays each store does a fire alarm test as well as the centre itself. They're all linked so when we test ours everyone else goes, but we have to test them one by one!!

We still have our shutter up, it is about 5.20pm and the last customer left about 10 minutes ago. Security check toilets etc but today they only have lady officers, so didn't check the mens.

Being a Sunday, we start the fire alarm test! Depending on the type of unit and type of alarm the system will do different things:

For example, our alarm when a sensor is activated goes to a 'standby message' on the tannoy for 1 minute then to evacuation. If we press a fire point it goes to evacuation straight away.

The alarm is going intermittently and on comes the voice
"Attention please. Attention please. An incident has been reported within the building, please wait for further instructions."

We like to test ours quite a lot because it annoys the hell out of centre management so leave it running.

A minute passes and the alarm goes constant and a REALLY loud voice (they have separate speakers for the alarm tannoy)

"ATTENTION. ATTENTION. PLEASE LEAVE THE BUILDING BY THE NEAREST ROUTE. ATTENTION ATTENTION EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

This happens every Sunday so employees know it is ok. But then from the toilets comes running this man looking really annoyed but then stops looking round at the empty place and notices that our shutter is now lowering because of the alarm, starts waving and then runs to the main doors. They're locked and he thinks he is going to burnt to death. Being a nice person I put the shutter back up and walk over to him (quite far actually) and tell him it is ok. He is going crazy though, kicking the doors, running into them, shaking them. I do wonder what he thinks he will achieve and whether I should retreat back to the Hut.

He sees me and asks
"Have you come to unlock this door, theres a fire!!!"
"No it's ok they do tests on a Sunday."
"Well I need to get out right now!"

They must have seen his antics on camera as two security officers arrived at the door and he was released. He got out and one of them went "What an idiot...he must have been on the toilet for 20 minutes!" I concurred, went back to Pizza Hut and drank an Orange & Peach Fruitshoot (new favourite drink).

Sick, fivers and short changing

Instead of going in the tradesman entrance today I went through the main entrance. There are a few bins around the area. By the side of one is the most disgusting pile of sick I have ever seen. I almost took a picture but it was just too sick. It was round, diameter around 60cm...height about 2cm - very chunky. Someone must have ate something real bad. Anyway it looked nasty and being the good fellow and general busy body I told an 'operative' of the centre:

"Hi ___ theres a huge pile of sick..."
"OH JESUS NOT IN HERE"
"No it's outside.."
"Phew" with a really pleased expression
"Yeah it's next to the bin..."
"Ok I'll radio control and tell them"

I saw her natter something on the radio and there was a rather large beeping sound so I thought that was that, I've done my busy bodying for today.

About 2 hours later, I see a security officer walking a bit faster than normal and with a nasty frown. 30 seconds later I see the same officer with heavy duty dustpan & brush and bin bag. Being a nosey git and knowing her name I shouted over the counter something like "what's up" and got the reply "I've just trod in some puke so I'm gonna clean it up!" and she carried on walking. Ha.

There has been a bit in the news and a comment from Arriva Driver about needing more fivers in circulation because they are there so long they become tatty. I totally agree with this. Most of the £5 notes in my till resemble a used tissue. Crumpled, ripped, brown, faded, damp, smelly, with tape on etc is all too common. I don't think I help the situation though as I keep all the nice notes at the front of the row so I don't give them out and try to have a neat till. A bit odd but it keeps me entertained. If I have a taped up note I save it for a special customer.

Also, I got a full lesson from a customer on how I should short change people as a matter of routine and make some money for myself. When I say the conversation lasted 3 minutes I'm not exaggerating and 3 minutes is a long time of pure talking. He talked about where he had it done to him, which had then given him the idea. He told me to pick "Asians and people who looked tired" and when I was given a £20 note always claim it was a £10 note. It was the most ridiculous idea he had but hey if he thinks he can get away with it...I told him to watch out as next time he comes in I'll try it on him.

Then to finish off my shift I took some rubbish outside and got trapped in between the fire doors. I've decided to take a detour from now on and use the huge delivery door to minimise the risk.

Chipped teeth

There are three girls, around..8 years old standing round deciding what to eat. They all have bad teeth. One though, in the big top front ones, has about half of it missing. It doesn't look very nice. I feel a bit sorry for her...like maybe she fell or something. But no, while this thought is going through my mind she puts a £2 coin in her mouth and chews on it. There are so many things wrong with this. 1, it is unhygienic, 2, it is dangerous and 3, it is metal - and it is going to chip your teeth. The the biggest problem though was, I got a wet £2 coin. Uggggggggggggggh round to the hand wash sink, bang bang bang on the soap dispenser and a thorough wash upto my elbows.



Then was the mother who is the MOST impatient woman I have ever come across. Not impatient with me (if customers are, I tend to go even slower, arranging items on the tray perfectly, counting out the change, getting out sachets of salt individually etc) but with her daughter. They arrived at the counter, the girl looked at the menu boards. Mother "HURRY UP WILL YOU" 3 seconds later. The girl looked at me like it wasn't unusual. She asked for the kids meal, so I asked what drink. Before she even had time to react the mother went "GET ON WITH IT." She asked for a Fruitshoot "Blackcurrant or Orange??" The girl ummed "IT DOESN'T MATTER JUST HURRY UP". The entire transaction took probably 30 seconds but at the end, the woman went to the girl "THANK GOD FOR THAT". Some parents are messed up.



Later I saw a middle aged woman trip on a piece of paper from a straw. It wasn't a big trip, tiny infact. But she put her tray back on the counter and made such an elaborate story about how she nearly fell and we should get it sorted. Whenever I see crap on the floor I ALWAYS bend down and pick it up, no one else ever bothers so I find it rather annoying when I get tips from people on how to keep the floor tidy. To prove a point to the woman who was sitting close by, I 'closed' the entire section with a barricade of wet floor signs, a broom and bucket - swept and mopped the floor.

Training

Because I've worked at Pizza Hut for a while now, I'm fully trained (can do anything in store) and am now given the task of training new people. I do get a pay rise and different title to reflect this, but no one knows when that is going to happen.

I've been doing this for a little while and it seems to have gone ok. No one has fell in the fryer or got their skin trapped in a cash draw, which are standard measurements of how well you have trained someone. Then we got the results of our latest CHAMPS check (mystery shopper), it wasn't pretty. All the points lost though, were not because I'd not trained the person properly but they seemed to have left their manners behind when they left for work, and also served cold pizza. I couldn't understand it because this person is normally full of manners it is sickening. So either Mr/s Champ or the team member had a bad day. What we all now do is go well over top with all the please/thanks/come again because...you can lose upto 15 points for not doing them or 1 point for not being genuine. So you can take the p**s and lose one point, but if you just don't do it lose 15 points. The criteria are really quite hard but the harshness of the rating varies a lot. To get the full marks according to the book we should be saying something along the lines of this every time we serve a customer

"Thank for you for choosing Pizza Hut, I hope you enjoy your meal and visit again. Is there any further assistance I can provide you with today?".

I never do that much...but I have been known to get the odd 100% CHAMPS :-D !

On a totally separate note we will soon have a BBQ pizza and strawberry cheesecake. The BBQ pizza looks nice but the strawberry cheesecake is a bit of a weird one. It's plain cheesecake, with strawberry ice cream sauce poured over it. Its nice but not exactly "strawberry cheesecake".

CCTV

I was at work, bored, as it isn't even slightly busy because of the weather, just looking round. I then counted I could be seen at the counter by 5 CCTV cameras. They're all in mysterious black domes so you can't be sure where they are looking, but I do know they all work. I'm not sure whether it is comforting or not. The security controllers are all nice though, so I don't think they'll be zooming in on me scratching or eating at the counter too often.

Later on, I was standing in the entry/exit to the service yard and I was looking around waiting for my lift home, and I counted that I could be seen by eight cameras - 6 of these the mysterious dome type, one fixed, and one motorised big thing. I did feel quite comforted by this, because if something happened to me or anyone in the area, you'd bet one of those cameras saw it, and hopefully the controller, who could get some immediate action.

So overall, I'd say I like CCTV but don't like the idea of them shouting at you (old story I know but I only realised just how many cameras there were)

Pizza Hut Express

If you do an image search for Pizza Hut Express you get this rather horrid looking...well I'd say it was a serving hatch. I'm not sure how many people have actually seen a Pizza Hut Express in the UK, never mind ate at one.

It is a lot different to that one above. We don't stand in a 6 inch gap to to serve you, or do you help yourself to pizza. I think the best way I can describe it is...like McDonalds - where they get your food, but with a lobby area (they come into the unit about 12ft x 6ft) where the self service machines are for drinks and ice cream. It is quite modern...in design - but a bit traditional too, curvy and colourful in order to be welcoming.

This one is a bit more like it but in the picture you can't see the full layout, and our counter is a lower...and we don't stand in a huddle (or wear sunglasses!) on the front.

I just thought I'd post this incase you were wondering...? Nah I don't think you were.

Are you doing it?

Although many people think that we have Pepsi and their other brands, sitting in giant tanks round the back ready to drink, we don't. I say many people think because no one ever seems to understand that although a drink has ran out...it is going to be coming back in a minute when we change the box of syrup...we're not waiting for a tanker full of it to be delivered.

So anyway...some background. We have 5 carbonated drinks, each with two boxes of syrup. These boxes...I think can make...40 litres of drink...? So that's effectively 400 litres of soft drinks we can have available instantly...plus a large stock of replacements. The gas however is another matter. It lasts a long time...well about 4 days...but when it runs out if affects all the drinks, because the go flat. So we run up, and change the gas.

But the gas, then takes a lot of water to run through the system to allow the drinks to be carbonated. We do this manually by pressing the 'soda' button (it uses no syrup - just water). But because the machine isn't drained we have to get a jug, fill it up with this water, then pour it in a bucket. When it finally works again, the bucket is about 3/4 full.

So there I am, with a jug and stainless steel bucket...making the gas come through. There is a man hovering round.

"Hi can I use the machine?"
"No it has ran out of gas...it won't be a minute though"
He hovers a bit more
"Oh so is it being fixed?"
"Yes...shouldn't be long"
He hovers a bit more
"Are you doing it?"
"No I'm just getting a pitcher of water for myself"
"Yes"
"Oh ok"
He hovers - for around 3 seconds
"So you are doing it - right?"
"No mate, I've just got my pitcher of water but I've decided to get a bucket instead, should last longer"
"YES!"
"So what exactly are you doing then...I've never seen this before"
"Why the hell would you have seen it before...and even if I explain you'll be confused"
"Just pumping water through, so it draws the gas, oh look, good - it's done now..there you go!"

Didn't say those bits, just thought them.

Then later on, I saw this woman, hammering the drinks machine. She couldn't work out how to get any of the drinks...not that difficult really but some people need it explaining. Problem was, she was very rude. I'm stood there going "Excuse me..." "Madam.." "EXCUSE ME MADAM....ARE YOU OK". Then she turned round, and looked straight at me in the eye - I thought I was going to get shot or something, she looked evil. She was actually just German and couldn't understand a word I was saying. So I just pointed at the 5 drinks, in a "Which do you want, moron?" manner...and did her drink.

Oh and the last thing I did before I went home, was make a small girl cry. I try to do this as often as possible because it very satisfying. No, actually I felt quite guilty, but I'm not going to allow her to get away with using a KFC cup on our drinks machine. Come on parents, watch your kids a bit more...she was only about 3 and wondering round a shopping centre on her own. Not clever.

Sorted out the lime green font!!

^^^^^ That thing up there ^^^^^^

That is my attempt at making a title banner for this blog. I originally thought it looked ok but the more I look at it...the worse it becomes. Well it is staying for a while because I've deleted bits of the template and I have no idea how to get them back.

Chips

I have mentioned before I don't like people calling FRIES - CHIPS. But I know what people mean normally.

Small woman at the counter, weird accent:
"Toe cheeps ples"
"Sorry?"
"Toe cheeps ples"
"Two fries?"
"Nah - toe cheeps"
"Ehh...do you want fries...?"
"No...cheeps"
"Oh right well we only do fries.....they are similar though"
"Lemi see" - I show her the fries
"YES CHEEPS...TWO OF!!!"

HEAD-SHARP CORNER OF WALL-HEAD-SHARP CORNER OF WALL-HEAD-SHARP CORNER OF WALL

Also, the girl who called me sarcastic returned. She was a BIT more civil this time and only had one other possy member with her, but still managed to come out with her own sarcastic comment when being called to my till "Oh great, look, it's my friend...". How rude!

Plus also I don't normally do this but I must do a bit of general ranting:

• --New neighbours taking the mick with the bin collections. I've seen this bloke giving absolute total random items to the bin men three times, every week. Today, he ran out to the bin men...who were in there lorry identical to this one with an 8ft x 2ft plank of MDF. I was so bothered by this because, one, it is recycling lorry, two he had a massive flatbed truck parked outside his house as he had the builders in and three that he does this all the time and expects them to take it - how the hell can they with the lorry they are in??!! The next lorry came round and bloody hell he is there again. This time with 8 bin liners as well as wheelie bin full. He just walks up to the lorry and starts chucking it on. He manages to get 4 on before it sped off round the corner and he looked totally miffed as to why it had gone before he had but all his rubble in . Extra bags normally cost about £1.50 each!

• --The woman who, when I was a small shop, was going balastic at the girl behind the counter on the phone to what sounded like a customer. "DON'T YOU THINK YOU SHOULD GET OFF THAT PHONE AND SERVE ME" "I DON'T HAVE TIME TO WAIT AROUND" "GET OFF THAT PHONE RIGHT NOW" "THIS IS RIDICULOUS"

• --Getting phone calls when I'm about to catch a bus and then missing the bus as I answered the call.

PS: Sorry about the random layout

Very funny

I overheard this conversation:

"Oh I didn't realise you were veggie!"
"Yep I am"
"So what do you eat if you go McDonalds???"
"Oh one of them fish burgers"
"..."
"I AIN'T ANY OF THAT VEGAN SHIT"

Haha.

Now that wasn't what was very funny. What was very funny is what happened today, I can't post about it though as it is very specific (sorry, I would REALLY like to post it!). Maybe I'll put it in a post at a later date because the situation is still on going. Oh I'm chuckling now.

Tooth

I knew there was something I forgot to mention in that last blog...

I was handed from a small girls purse, two £1 coins, a 5op and a tooth complete with dried blood in return for a kids meal. I let her keep the tooth with a vicious shudder and "I think this is yours....your change and tooth".

Ugh I washed my hands very thoroughly afterwards and when asked why I used about 10 squirts of soap I explained and got a "yeah thats pretty disgusting" from everyone in the kitchen.

Psychopath Pizza Hut customer

Somehow I managed to miss probably the most angry customer ever at our hut a few days ago.

I got told about it so I don't know the full story but this is what I was told...

This woman had some issues with a pizza, apparently she'd be given the wrong one which is no problem for us to sort out, but for whatever reason...she decided to have "a spag attack" (that's how it was described to me!) and was then asked by a manager to calm down as there was not a problem with changing the pizza.

In turn, this lead to the customer getting even more angry and walking into the kitchen. It was no mistake that she walked in, there is a small door on the counter and the floor surface changes. She was asked to leave the unit or security and the police would be called, that she would not get her pizza swapped now and she can take the matter up with the RSC.

I am really annoyed I missed this woman, I'd would have laughed at her so badly and recounted every detail on here.