Life update.

[son_of_darkness]

So... I lost the job at the Beatles Story.

I lost it just over a month ago, actually. And have been desperately job-hunting since then. I've had a couple of interviews, but not been offered anything yet. I'm currently on Universal Credit, which is JUST about covering my rent and bills and such, but basically gives me NOTHING to save or spend for the rest of the month, so... things are a bit tight at the moment. But, y'know... I'm pulling through.

The reason I lost my job is fairly long and and involved, and I actually wrote up a letter of complaint and sent it in to the company to multiple managers to make sure it was seen. So far, over three weeks later, I've heard nothing about it. I have no idea if anything is going to be said, or if the issue is going to be addressed, but... I've done my part. That's about all I can do

I'm actually going to put the complaint letter here so you guys can see what went down.

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to file an official complaint against [NAME], line manager of the Fab4 Café, regarding an event that occurred on Thursday the 2nd of June. Before I can get to the heart of the complaint, I feel I must explain the events leading up to it.

At about lunch-time (approximately 12:45), the café became quite busy, with a queue sometimes stretching from the till area back toward the ice cream machine. At that time there were only three members of staff in the restaurant, and as more and more people made various food, drink, and ice cream orders, we each found ourselves with very specific jobs to do. One team member was assigned to preparing food in the kitchen, the other to bussing and cleaning tables, washing and replenishing the dwindling cup and plate supply out front, and myself left to cover as many other positions as I could.

With the queue being as long as it was, we had many orders coming in. With the other staff busy, I had to cover four positions alone - the till, coffees and frappes, panini grills and ice cream counter. Obviously these are not the tasks of a single person in normal circumstances, but we were understaffed, and since we had found ourselves unexpectedly busy I tried to my best ability to fill these roles alone until the next team member arrived for their shift.

We had recently been informed by higher management that due to the amount of fire alarm incidents caused by the microwaves, anyone working on food is not allowed to leave the kitchen under any circumstances, which is why I could not ask that staff member for relief or help. Added to this, because of the large number of food orders, our supply of crockery was quickly diminishing, so bussing and washing up quickly became a very important and on-going job, which meant the other team-member was unable to help me out behind the till as well.

Despite this, I feel I did the best I could in the situation, and worked hard to make sure orders were taken and seen to as quickly as possible. I would take orders and payment, make the customers their drinks, take any food orders to the kitchen, put any paninis on the grills (and subsequently take the cooked paninis over to the customers tables) and serve anyone who had ordered ice cream at the ice cream machine, too. Unfortunately this did mean that there were sometimes delays in seeing to the next customer, and it also meant I did sometimes have to leave the till area for very brief periods of time to make sure people’s orders were being taken care of. Had I not done this, customers would have been waiting much, much longer for their paninis and ice cream. Given how long the queue was, their potential wait could have been anything up to twenty minutes.

It went on this way for nearly 40 minutes. Although I found the whole situation stressful, I remained professional and worked as hard and as efficiently as I could during this time. When the fourth team-member arrived for his shift, instead of putting him on tills to help me, which was clearly needed, [NAME] told him to take the deliveries from the kitchen into the backspace.

That is my recount of the events leading up to my complaint. However, I believe if you ask the other team-members - [A], [B] and [C] - they will verify just how busy that day was and confirm my account.

Most customers seemed very understanding of the obvious issues being had, however due to the delays and the backlog of food orders - in part due to us only having one working microwave instead of the usual two - we did have one customer whose food took too long to arrive. I apologized profusely and asked [NAME] if she could refund the gentlemen.

After another few minutes, and the help of the arrival of a fourth-team member, the queue eventually died down and things seemed to go quiet again. It was at this point that [NAME] took us all into the kitchen to tell us that this standard was not good enough. That our customer service was appalling, and that we were not working hard enough, or doing a good enough job. I know I cannot speak on behalf of any other individual, however I know that the whole team was shocked to hear this, but I even more so, considering how hard I had been working for the past 40 minutes.

[NAME] specifically mentioned how unprofessional it had been to leave the till area, even though I had only done so to make sure customers were getting their grilled paninis, since there had been no one else around to do that for me.

I felt that her accusation was unfair, particularly since she had been in the area and observing all our struggles and not once stepped up to help, as I feel a manager should. I mentioned to her that I was upset and explained that I thought her opinion was unfair. I reminded her of how hard I had been working, and how I had needed to cover multiple positions on my own. I told her that it was demoralising to tell us that we weren't working hard enough after we had survived such a rush. As I was clearly upset - to the point of holding back tears - she told me to take a seat in the cafe to calm down, and I did so.

She came to talk to me, and I again expressed my concerns, but I didn’t feel as if they were being taken on board. Her answers to my explanation of events were to compare this café and its staff to the Pier Head café and its staff. I felt this was only vaguely relevant to my objection, but every time I tried to explain why things had happened the way they had (not enough staff for the unexpected busy period, fewer than usual resources to fill the incoming food orders, one person trying to cover 4 separate positions behind the till…) her response was again to compare cafes.

Eventually, she asked me if I was still on probation, and I said yes - for another two weeks. Her response to that was to tell me that I then had two weeks to prove I care about this company, or I might not pass probation. I found this to be incredibly threatening, and not the warning or attitude a manager should take up with member of staff - especially as I felt I had done nothing wrong in defending myself. I have worked in customer service for over five years, and never had complaints made about me to management from either my team or the general public.

I stopped speaking after that, because I was honestly in shock. I felt the team (and myself more specifically) had been unfairly accused, and I stood up for myself, and in return felt like my job had been threatened.

I had worked so hard in my four months at the Beatles Story. I admit I may have may the odd mistake here or there, but I had never wilfully gone against any rules, I had never provided bad customer service or done anything that resulted in or had been deserving of any sort of disciplinary action. Up until that point I had greatly enjoyed my time working at the company, but to be told my job was on the line because I defended myself against an accusation that I thought unfair made me feel uncomfortable, intimidated and unsafe in the workplace.

In the days following that talk, I fell into a significant state of stress and depression. I found it hard to focus at work, due to the pressure of knowing my job was on the line, but nevertheless, I continued on as professionally as I could and worked hard to provide excellent service.

On Monday the 13th of June (less than the two weeks I had initially been given), I was dismissed from the company.

The reasons given for my dismissal were not taking enough initiative in my role, or being proactive enough with tasks. These are issues my previous manager, Janine Ruess, had discussed with me at my prior review, but had informed me had already been greatly improved upon and corrected, and she saw no issue with them going forward. Given the cause of my complaint in the first place, I feel these reasons to be highly egregious.

I want to be clear on my reasons for writing this letter. It had been my intention to hand this in before my dismissal as a formal grievance, however, I was let go before I had the chance. With this letter I am not seeking reconsideration of the decision, or my job back, I am writing because I believe it only fair to bring to light a situation that may or may not become a problem for the team in the future.

The Fab4 team at Albert Dock have all expressed displeasure at their treatment over the past few weeks, but none have felt they could say anything or come forward for fear of the consequences. A fear that has now be proven valid. Working in an environment where you feel you are being devalued and demoralized creates tension and unease, and will eventually lead to a breakdown in communication and trust between team members and management.

Although I am not asking for my job back, I will state that I feel I was unfairly dismissed, and for reasons owing to poor management. A team that does not feel valued or respected will not want to work as hard for the company. And a team that does not feel they can rely on their manager to help is a team that will flounder.

And ultimately, it is very difficult for employees to prove they “care about the company” when it has been made clear that the company does not seem to care about them.

I can only hope that the situation is remedied, as I would hate to see anyone else in the team face a similar issue in the future.

Sincerely,

Kye Matheson

But... apart from that, and daily job searching, things have been fairly relaxed. I had a friend come up to visit from London a couple of weeks ago and stay for 5 days. It was nice. :D Today I went swimming for the first time in about 15 years. My arms and back ache, but I feel this is probably a good thing. Getting some exercise and all.

So yeah... that's a quick update on the life situation. Hopefully I'll have some job news in the next one. :D