Interview fun.

Decades ago I went on a job interview.  It was a restaurant that I had never eaten at so I got there early to try the food and just observe the place in action.

I have my lunch and I'm not impressed.  I knew that it was a soup and salad kind of joint but I was expecting that maybe they had some type of protein to put on the salad.  Maybe some grilled chicken or beef or something other than the possibly fake bacon bits.  The soup was also forgettable.  I know it was some kind of cream based soup and I even remember tasting it and looking for something in the soup to tell me what kind it was.

After lunch I sit at the table and watch.  I count the tables and chairs and make a guesstimate on their turn rate (during the interview I found out I was real close).  I watch how this store has six managers that I counted on the floor.  It also has numerous hourly employees.  The interview was for 2 PM and I was there early to watch the lunch rush.

One table near me had a dirty tray and plates on it.  I got there a few minutes past 1 PM and all six of the managers walked past it at one time or another as well as some of the hourly employees.  During the interview it was still there.

At a few minutes before 2 I clean my table and go up to manager and tell him that I'm here for the interview.  He tells me to have a seat and he'll be with me in a second.  He and two other managers are at the table in about five seconds.  Why three managers?  It was a training location and one of the managers was in training.

They spend about five minutes asking about me and then spend about 20 minutes talking about what the company can do for me.  Not a hell of a lot.  The starting pay was lower than current with yearly and not performance raises, hours were longer, distance was greater.  The benefits were the same except for the half-price meal per shift.  I thought the food was crap so that wasn't much of a benefit.  I didn't want this job so I started having fun.

I pointed out the dirty table that by this time had been there for over an hour.  Instead of one of the three cleaning it up they got an hourly employee to clean it, and they bitched at him for not doing it earlier.  I played with the numbers; I did all of these numbers in my head which I think impressed/scared one of the managers; the average check was x, y number of people, with z table turns which means they do about q in sales per day.  The main manager told me that they do about 5-10% less than that on the average for the week.

I didn't want the job and when I realized that I started having fun.  They still offered me the job but nope.  The company has grown but from what I hear the food is still crap.