Finally got my concerns addressed

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So I work at a fast-food restaurant 3 days per week. They usually put me in the drive-through because apparently I'm good at it.

For the last several months, I've been having an AWFUL time with the intercom. Either I can't hear people, or they can't hear me, or both. That might be expected due to static, noise from the kitchen, etc. I can deal with that by asking the customers to repeat themselves and then repeating back the order (which we're supposed to do anyway). No big deal there.

However, there are times when I will not hear the signal in my headset when a car pulls up (it's supposed to chime), and someone will be sitting there for 10 minutes without being able to order because I'm elsewhere doing the dishes (which the drive-through cashier has to do) and didn't know they were there. Then I hear the chime and walk over to see the person has already pulled up and I have to take their order there.

I've been voicing my concerns to my manager for months and nothing was done. A few days ago, she informed me that oversized vehicles often aren't detected by the sensor and that we just have to explain that every time. That doesn't sound right to me, but....

Yesterday, however, this kept happening with cars of ALL sizes--large, small--didn't matter. Thankfully, the area coach happened to be on-site and was wearing a headset, so she experienced first-hand what's going on. She placed a phone call to someone to get this taken care of.

Don't know if anything will actually be done about this (I'd shut down the drive-through if that's what it took, but I doubt they will) but at least I'm finally being taken seriously.

Anyone else ever have a work-related concern ignored until it was "proven" to someone of higher rank?

Conundrum, you managed upward, and congrats on pulling it off. However, however . . . it is a somewhat risky thing to do, and I don't recommend it as something to do on a regular basis.

Look, a lot of managers, their attitude is 'get here on time' and 'don't puck with me.' Okay, I've cleaned it up somewhat, but that is basically their attitude. This individual is either hung over or might just as well be hung over. It's like they put zero effort into the job, have zero patience for the normal ups and down of any job. You wonder how such an individual ever became manager. Well, at one time, they may have been kind of good, and frankly, a lot might have to do with the 50 and 60 hour weeks managers are expected to work, enough to grind anyone down.

The analogy I like is that some of these managers are so bad that if you're working in a grocery store and a faucet is leaking onto the floor, not real bad, but leaking onto the floor, if you inform such a 'manager,' it's 50-50. There's a 50 percent chance such a manager will classify this as 'pucking with me.' Incredible! Yes, it's absolutely incredible.

Okay, now your manager doesn't seem great, but so far she doesn't seem terrible either. The part where she tells you oversized vehicles often aren't detected by the sensor . . . yeah, that doesn't seem real logical to me, too. You'd think an oversized vehicle would be more likely to be detected by the sensor. But let it go. It's like the human thing to try and find meaning, to try and weave it into a narrative, almost like dream logic. I'm almost tempted to say NTs do this more often . . . but let's just let it go.

We could also go into the Japanese concept of kaizen---continuous improvement. And how most companies are just miles from this!

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Now, I am currently looking for a job. You already have a job. And the standard advice is that it's easier to find a job with a job. I have never been able to follow that because a bad job just drags me down and grinds me down so much. But with you working three days a week, I don't know what else you have going on, but if you're able to follow this advice that might be an opening for you. And I like to recommend, like a detective you gather facts and then you trust your gut.

Perhaps you could even put humorous accounts here (sure, use pseudonyms like *Susan, *Robert to protect the innocent, and not so innocent!) And by the way, noticing stuff like this gives you some of the skills for entrepreneurship. But the failure rate for new businesses is 80%, straight up, that's it (yeah, really, four out of five) and the biggest reason is undercapitalization. So, like they say, keep your day job. And I recommend the Fred DeLuca (of Subway fame) strategy, test the basic idea as cheaply and inexpensively as possible, and then ramp up from there. And I also like, I guess it's the General Patton strategy, a good plan today beats the heck out of a perfect plan next week!

Aardvark, thanks.

It seemed kind of impossible NOT to notice this problem. My main concern was that customers were eventually going to get p***ed off at being "ignored" and lodge formal complaints. Thankfully, most are pretty understanding when I explain the problem to them...so far.

And no, I don't blame my manager. There really wasn't much she COULD do about it, considering she's constantly getting "ridden" by people above her and doesn't have time to address every concern. We've been managing okay, even with the intercom issues. I would NEVER want her job--too much stress. Regarding her explanation--that was just what SHE was told by someone else....Like I said, "proof" was needed that the situation was worse than previously thought.

You're right about not "rocking the boat" anymore. Thankfully, this was the only big problem.

And it can be even simpler . .

[angry complaint]

'Okay.'

[one Mississippi]

'What can I help you with?'

Thanks, Aardvark. That's pretty much what I've learned to do (and very close to what we're explicitly instructed to do when a customer complains).