There's a Burger King about 1/4 mile up the street from my house. I don't eat there much, mainly because I don't care for BK food much, but also because it has a history and a reputation for gawd-awful customer service. The time before last that we went there, we waited 30 minutes for our food before asking for a refund and going elsewhere.
This evening we're watching our neighbor's kids, so we decided to treat them to BK. I'd seen commercials for the Italian chicken sandwich and wanted to try it, so off we went to BK to get us some grub. The teenager behind the counter took our order without any problems, the food was served to us in a reasonable amount of time, and when we dug through our to-go bags (we always do that; we've learned many a lesson about food being missing when we get home) the order was complete.
Could this be a new era for BK, we wondered? Could it be that they had changed their ways?
Upon arriving home, I happily unwrapped my sandwich, expecting to find marinara sauce and mozzarella on the inside of it's paper wrapping. No such luck. Had they forgotten to put any on, I wondered? I peeled the bun apart to see what was up.
There was maybe a teaspoon of sauce on it, and the cheese wasn't anywhere near melted. Matter of fact, when I touched the chicken, it was tepid. Not hot, not even warm. Tepid. Room temperature.
I wrapped it back up, took the bag with the fries in it, and we drove back to BK. "Be cool with them" my husband said as I went into the store (I can be a bit overbearing when I get shitty service anywhere).
When I explained to the kid at the counter (the store was empty, I can't imagine why - and that was sarcasm, for those who aren't adept at spotting it) that my food wasn't even warm, he simply said "uh, ok" and turned away from me. No "I'm sorry about that, let us fix it for you", no "I'm sorry for the hassle". No. None of that. Just "Uh, ok". Even the manager didn't seem surprised not only that we'd brought the food back, but that it was cold. She never apologised either - she never even spoke to me.
The thing that really gets to me is that the people cooking the food were women my own age. I could have understood if there were kids back there; sometimes kids in their first jobs are a little apathetic and have to be guided, but grown women turning out shoddy product like that? That's unsatisfactory. Completely unsatisfactory.
It's not just my local BK, either. I run into shoddy work and surly employees all the time. Cashiers that don't ackowledge my presence, wait staff who think it's ok to serve food an hour after it's been ordered and who look at me like my hair is on fire when I complain that it's cold or burnt or even not what I ordered at all, nurses who are at best snippy and at worst borderline abusive, receptionists who don't...well, you get the picture. A great portion of American workers simply don't seem to care. It seems to have become acceptable to simply show up for work and not even make an effort.
When did this happen? When did people stop being proud of their job performance? Yes, they may work at BK, but if they're the best damn BK employee you can be and turn out the best food you can, they're more likely to get promoted or get a good reference when they leave and go work for someone else. People don't seem to understand that, and if they do understand....well, they don't seem to care. Simply showing up and doing the minimum is unacceptable in my opinion (and I don't think I'm alone), and I don't know when it became okay for employees to do that.
When did this country get so lackadasical about job performance?