Burger Store Episodes and Frustrations

By: Greg Tate

Chapter 4

1989

During the first week of January, I was on my break. Mark came in and said something to Tawney about there being some tiny rocks on the parking lot. Nina comes downstairs to tell me about it. I said, "I would sweep them up after I get off break." She said, "Mark wants you to do it now." I got mad and said, "That's a bunch of god damn bullshit. I'm so fucking tired of this god damn place."

About a week later, I was coming back in from sweeping the parking lot. I immediately noticed that the plastic strips were put up over the cooler door. Tawney comes up to me and says, "What are those strips doing up there?" I said, "I didn't know who put them there." She said, "Well, you're back here quite a bit aren't you?" I said, "Yeah, but I didn't put them there." She said, "If I find out you put those strips up there, you're going to pay for that food if it spoils." I (angry) said, "Oh no I'm not." If she would've said another word about those strips, I was going to cuss her out.

A week later, the basement flooded. Walter and I had to clean up the flood. That took a good hour and a half. Well, 12:30 PM had rolled around and the basement flooded again. This time, it was worse. Walter and I were supposed to get off at 1:00 PM. Instead, we got off at 4:00 PM.

The next day I was on break. I was taking my food downstairs. Swing manager John Balson was attempting to ring me up for my food. Swing manager Carla Dallion had already rung up my food. I told John I had already been rung up. He said, "Who rung you up?" I said, "Carla did." He then said, "Who rung you up?" I said, "Carla did." He again said, "Who rung you up?" I (angry) said, "Carla did." After that, I just walked away.

During mid February, someone on night shift mopped the lobby with grease. Guess who had to re-mop the lobby? You guessed it, I did.

During the first week of March, the store was out of glass cleaner. Ward was accusing Walter of not doing his job. Keith said something to me about the windows not being cleaned. I told him there was no glass cleaner. He said, "Use dish soap." I went and washed the windows. When I got finished, Ward said something to me about the windows not being cleaned. I told him there was no glass cleaner. He said, "Why didn't you say something?" I had mentioned there was no glass cleaner. I had also left a note in the office saying, "We need glass cleaner." Ward said, "There was no note." He said, "I'm going to put an ad in the newspaper that the Burger Store needs a janitor." He sounded like he was going to fire Walter. Ward then said, "I might put an ad in the newspaper that the Burger Store needs 2 janitors." He sounded like he was going to fire me. If he was to fire me, I would go on unemployment. The thing was, he had to chew me out in front of everybody. Ward wouldn't chew me out downstairs where nobody was around. I think he was afraid that I would kick his ass, and he wouldn't have any witnesses. A lot of times when we were out of a certain product, we would tell Ward. He always said, "I'll order it." When it didn't come in., he would say, "Why didn't you tell me?" A few minutes after Ward and I got into it, Ron Stolver made sarcastic comments about me not cleaning the windows. That really pissed me off. I said, "Hey look, I said I wasn't able to because there was no glass cleaner." If Ron had said another word about the windows, I was going to kick his fat ass.

In mid March, Cody quit the Burger Store. He was scheduled to work one Saturday but was scheduled to work at a local grocery store. He called and told them he couldn't work. LuAnn said, "We'll just have to fire you." Cody said, "No, I quit."

At the same time, the Burger Store hired Sherwood Chelburn as a janitor. Ward had him trained at the store in Long Branch. He didn't want Sherwood to be trained by Walter and me. After Sherwood worked a few days, my co-workers were complaining about him. They said he stunk. He sure did. I don't think he ever wore any deodorant. I remember on time Jeanette was washing dishes. There were 3 basins in the kitchen sink. She said, "Greg, when you clean the filtering machine, you always keep the grease in one basin." She said, "Sherwood gets grease in all 3 basins." She was almost crying that day.

Also in mid March, I was getting this pan down from the cabinet for Fonda. Well, when I went to get it down, pickle juice splashed on the both of us. We were both extremely pissed. Ward opened that morning. Someone on night shift put that pan in the cabinet with pickle juice in it. It was also caked with grease. Ward found out about it and looked at the schedule to see who worked the night before. He said something to the night shift. It never happened again.

The complaints about Sherwood continued. My co-workers said that he was lazy. I remember one time in late March, Sherwood was going out to the freezer to bring in stock. He accidentally hit a customer's car in the drive-thru with the two-wheeler. It did some damage to the car. When Mark found out about it, he was not happy. The last Thursday in March, truck ran that day. Well, Sherwood decided to call in sick that day. LuAnn was trying to get him to come in to work. She was saying, "You can't call in, it's truck day." She wasn't able to get Sherwood to come in and work. I was supposed to get off at 9:00 AM that day. Instead, I had to work until 1:00 PM. That left me to do truck and the rest of the work by myself. The following Sunday, truck ran that day. I was scheduled to get off at 9:00 AM. Sherwood showed up that day and complained that he was sick. He wasn't sick. He just didn't want to work. We unloaded the dry stock and the cooler stock. When it came time to unload the freezer stock, Sherwood used that fake cough like he used the Sunday before. He said he couldn't do freezer stock. When I was unloading the freezer stock, Fred kept on saying, "Come on Sherwood, do something." When I was finished, Sherwood kept trying to switch schedules with me. I wouldn't do it. Sherwood kept saying he was sick and throwing up like crazy. Take my word for it, he wasn't sick. LuAnn asked me "Did Sherwood ask to trade schedules with you?" I said, "Yes he did." LuAnn was furious. She made Sherwood stay until 1:00 PM. Later that day, Fred was unloading stock at the Crestenview store. He was telling Paul Chelburn about Sherwood. Fred said, "You ought to see that asshole who's helping Greg at the Jedsen Street store." Paul said, "Are you talking about my brother?" Fred said, "I'm sorry, I didn't know. I really didn't know." Paul said, "Hell, don't be sorry. Sherwood is the sorriest son of a bitch I've ever seen. He's lazy and won't do anything." I know it's bad when people say terrible things about you. When your own family says terrible things about you, it's even worse. Two days later, Sherwood quit. He no-showed that day. He was going to get fired but came in that morning and told Tawney he quit. She said, "OK, but please stay back." She said that because he stunk.

A few weeks later, both of the water nozzles were stolen. I kept them in a cabinet in the basement. The thing was, one worked and the other one didn't. People will steal anything.

A month later, Molly told me to put shake mix in the shake machine. I put a full bag in the machine. She said, "It still needs mix." So, I put in another full bag. It was totally full. Molly (angry) said, "We need shake mix." Mark was there and I showed him that the machine was full. He said there had to be something wrong with the machine. One of the lines was loose. Molly should not have talked to me the way she did.

The next day, the Burger Store had a picnic for all the employees. Tawney and Cheryl wanted me to fix them a plate of food. I said, "Get it yourself." I guess they thought I was their butler or something.

Two months later, I had scrubbed the drive-thru pad one morning. One hour later, Lyle comes in and tells me (from a distance) to scrub it again. That really pissed me off. As Lyle was walking to his car, I ran after him. I ran after him because I was going to kick his ass. As I was running after Lyle, LuAnn stops me and says, "Don't worry Greg, you don't have to scrub the drive-thru pad again." She said, "I saw you scrubbing it this morning."

During late July and early August, Kent Wervington, manager of the Crestenview store, filled in while Tawney was on vacation. He made everybody's life a living hell. He would make my co-workers triple stack food in the bin. It wasn't even that busy. The store had wasted a lot of food because of Kent's stupidity.

During the first weekend in August, there was a sign in the break room that said, "Certain employees were going to get paid vacations." Well, come to find out, the Burger Store was not going to do that. Jay was pissed and wrote "bullshit" on the sign. Someone had torn off the word "bullshit". Jay wrote "bullshit" on the sign again. The sign was taken down the next day. The next weekend, another sign appeared in the break room. This sign said, "Employees should bow down to their managers." I showed the sign to Jay. He wrote "fuck you" on it. The next day, the sign was taken down.

In early October, the Burger Store had a meeting. It was held at a church about a half mile away. Colleen Shellwater would not attend the meeting because it was in a church. Colleen was a devil worshipper. She had been known to drink blood. Lamar Bachtold and I said, "If she tries to drink our blood, she was going to have to fight us." Colleen quit a week later. However, at the meeting, Mark decided he would give employees who had been at the Burger Store a year or longer, a week's paid vacation.

In mid November, night swing manager Darby Ferk was making enemies left and right. Nobody liked him. Darby had his car egged just a few days before Thanksgiving. I never did find out who did it. A few days later, Darby was driving a brand new car. He had rich parents.

During the first week of December, Darby made yet another enemy. That enemy was Marilyn Kromes. Darby was making her do 10 things at one time. He was getting angry with her. Marilyn finally snapped. They were arguing in the office. She grabbed Darby and slung him in the chair and said, "Look mother fucker, don't you ever do that to me again." Darby goes and tells Ward about Marilyn. Darby begged Ward to suspend Marilyn for a week. Well, Darby got his wish. After the suspension, Marilyn quit.

During the second weekend of December, Arnold Pretz and I were out in the freezer getting stock. Some guy walks up to me. He asks, "Do you know of a place that is hiring a mechanic?" I said, "I don't know of any." He kept on asking me the same question. I said, "You need to look in the newspaper. You can also call some of the local garages." He continued to ask me the same question for about 10 minutes. I thought that guy would never leave. I guess he thought I was a newspaper. I wasn't black and white and read all over.

A few days later, Molly had been writing bad checks and signing Tawney's name to them. Molly got caught and was demoted to biscuit maker at the store in Long Branch.

During mid December, Darby was going out with Trisha Balen. The thing was, Darby was gay. He was just trying to hide his homosexuality. About a week later, Trisha no-showed and Darby wrote her down as a no-show. Trisha found out about it and broke up with him.

A week before Christmas, Vern Doyce was fired after a week. He did his job. Ward fired him because he had a touch of green coloring in his hair. I think Vern was fired because he was black.