As the Burger Turns part 4

Tuesday, June 30, 2020, at 5:00 a.m.Today my oldest Daughter is officially old. She is 40!

Here are the morning COVID numbers - straight from the google. All USA only. 

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/ 

 Cases of the virus 2,681,811 Cases with an Outcome                 1,245,960

 Deaths                     128,783 Recovered or Discharged (89%) 1,117,177

 Recovered 1,117,177         Deaths (11%)                                     128,783

Disclaimer: The title of this post is the start of my soap opera for old people called "As the Burger Turns" or it could be titled "Tales from the Grill" or maybe even "Flipping for posterity", not sure what to call it yet. Anyway, to make this clear right from the start, everything in this post is wholly created from my own recollections, which may be faulty because I am old, or because I choose to lie about it, take your pick. At any rate, everything I post here today belongs to me, the good the bad and the ugly, and is a product of my highly developed imagination. If I use a situation that you know about and it was actually different, then shaddup! , just read it and don't ruin a good story with a correction about some trivial things called facts. It's a story, stories are based on what people think and everybody knows that people lie. 

Today 40 years ago in about 3 hours I was driving like a madman from the Franklin Rd Steak `n Shake to the old St. Francis hospital complex in Beech Grove IN, where my wife at the time was giving birth to my oldest daughter Kelley Ann. At the time, she was known as Baby girl Jordan because we had not officially named her anything yet. All I remember about that day at work was giving someone my keys, telling them to call my boss (No cell phones back then), and taking off. I'm sure I left somebody in charge but don't ask me who. As I sit here and think about it, I remember seeing my daughter and holding her and listening to her scream and then watching her sleep, and that's all I can conjure up. It was a glorious day.

Anyway, when we last left our feckless hero, the clueless and now well dressed but blameless grill man, we were in the middle of a sales bonanza. As the less desirable elements of the staff were replaced (and I'm sure a lot of them were probably great people), the customers responded to being catered to and sales went through the roof. The proverbial chart with the upwards arrow that broke through the ceiling was broke out and we went through a period where doing it right led to the result we wanted and so much more. Back then there wasn't much in the way of competition in the area (unless you counted the Arby's and a Bonanza steak house) and soon after that, we had all the business we could handle. Or so we thought. 

At the time, we did not serve breakfast, we were not open 24 hours yet, and in this one store, we almost doubled the sales per week volume in about 6 months. We were not the only store like this, the was a couple of others that were stiff competition to us, the store on Stop 11 road and the one on West 38th street both had strong leaders and big staffs and had the same sort of sales explosion underway. These were unknown times with unknown limits and our leadership was intent on finding out just exactly how high we could go. I never worked so hard in my life. The funny thing was my primary job changed almost overnight even though I was a Manager in Training, I really became the defacto hands-on trainer for new hires. Unless they had prior experience no one worked the grill in this store, for a long time that I did not personally train. They had to be able to perform at a high level in a certain amount of time and could not be let loose on their own until they could demonstrate their abilities to John's satisfaction. 

You remember me telling you how non-verbal he was in the beginning? Well, that shit went away quickly. After a couple of days, he was in the middle of everything and all the time, non-stop sometimes. It didn't matter where you were in the store you could hear his voice sometimes telling somebody something. A lot of times he was telling them something and it was something very loud. I remember customers asking me at the front register if that was John in the back making all that noise? I would say yes it sounds like he is training somebody. They would chuckle and say things like "Yeah, training them not to screw up again! Everybody knew John. His name tag a lot of times was just an employee tag that said "John" on it. I remember asking him about that and he said, "What do I need to put my title on it for?? I know who I am." One concession he made to my question was to put his last name on it because as he put it "If they want to complain, I want them to get my name right." 

Everyone talked to John and there wasn't anyone he would not talk to you as you just could not intimidate the guy. Every single customer wanted to get to know John. I can't tell you how many times I had moms and dads come up to me and ask if they could speak to John about giving their kid a job because they needed someone like John to kick their ass and get them to straighten out a little bit. We had a lot of employees sourced like that. When report cards came out if you were in school and you wanted to keep your job you had to bring your report card in and show it to him. If you were failing you got your hours cut and if it was bad enough he would lay you off until your grades came back. The funny thing was I don't think anybody ever quit because of that, I might be wrong and I might just be adding to the myth that is him, but I don't think so. 

Sometimes you got special tutoring that he would arrange for you. You were not allowed to work there if you were in school and were flunking. We had employees on probation who had to deal with John and their probation officer to keep working. He just didn't tolerate failure because you couldn't get your head out of your own ass. He would put both of his feet on either side of your ass cheeks and pull your head out whether you liked it or not. If you were worth saving and would put forth the effort, John would help you, even if you didn't want his help or even know you needed it.  

We trained incessantly on all kinds of things that were never covered in any of the filmstrip videos. Things like where to stand, how to exactly use the spatula, how to exactly hold the grill fork, how to leverage your body, how to keep the spatula sharp without rounding off the edges and a lot more were some of the things I was in charge of teaching our rookies in addition to how to cook quality products. Cooking and cleaning was only a tiny bit of the equation. Soon there were a lot of grill operators that were almost as fast as I was or faster, and could produce at my level or better. I remember thinking at the time that I had heard John say on more than one occasion to someone to go "Train your replacement". 

I remember wondering if I was being replaced. It turned out I was. 

As time went on he taught me all kinds of things that made sense at the time, but I didn't even think about before. Ordinary seeming things like how to hire the right person, how to start conduct and end an interview especially if I wasn't interested in hiring the applicant, what real kinds of things I wanted to know in an interview, how to plan my work out in advance (Plan your work and then Work your Plan.) He also taught me how to think strategically, how to think ahead and have more than 1 plan in place at a time, how to deploy staff to make a point, how to have fun at work, how to begin your day, and most important;y how to protect your own ass against people who wanted nothing more than to see you fail. Believe it or not, he also taught me how to have compassion and how to make decisions under fire, how to keep my cool (I got pissed off easily sometimes), how to tell somebody what was on my mind and so much more that there is no way to remember it all nor document it here. Suffice it to say the only thing I didn't ever learn properly I think was how to negotiate the politics of a corporation. I think I never learned that one and it got in my way about a dozen times in the oncoming years.

We had math conversations that I didn't even realize were math conversations sometimes until I was heading home sometimes. He definitively proved to me that everyone was wrong whoever said those words in Algebra class that went something like "Why do I have to learn this stuff, putting letters in the place of numbers, I will never use this in real life." I enjoyed the discussions because I thought of myself as somewhat of a math wizard, well. he proved me right and wrong about that too. I was great at math when compared to my peers but didn't really know how to apply it in the real world. Most of my peers could not do basic computations in their heads and need paper and pencil or a calculator to compute most equations. Usually, I didn't because I could (and still do) just see the answers. John taught me to apply this skill in the real world. For example, if someone at another store called to borrow a product, most people would just go look to see if they had any on the shelves, and if they did, they would loan it out or if their boss was a tightass they were not allowed to loan anything out without express permission. 

John didn't believe in that theory, and he didn't want you to call him with stupid questions that you could answer on your own. So he taught us how to use estimated sales, the case average, or the usage per $1000 of that product to estimate how much of it we would need to have until the truck came in.  If they could pay the product back on their truck day and the math worked out then you could loan it out. You had to document your math and show your thought process on paper, but it was no problem. Unless you were wrong, then you could be driving to Bloomington IL to the distribution center if that is what it took to have the product in stock in our store. We were never allowed to be "OUT" of anything for any reason, ever. Yes, it was challenging, and yes it was hard but it was invaluable training to learn this as it prepared you for running your own unit. 

You see, he was training his replacement too.

Oh, The algebra thing? That was easy but maddeningly simple too. He wouldn't tell you the answer unless you were absolutely sure of yourself and couldn't think of a single way it was used by even the most basic simpleton who couldn't count to twenty-five without more fingers and toes. It was a suckers bet and I wasn't dumb enough to fall for that one. I saw others do it though and it was always a hoot. John would just say are you sure you don't use algebra? Inevitably somebody would be of the stubborn variety who hated the idea of it and would challenge him, somebody would suggest a bet and money would be wagered. It was never a lot, maybe $5 or so, but as soon as it was John would say to the person, "Have you ever been just about out of gas in your car?". When they said sure he would walk them through the X= Gallons of gas left, Y= Miles to the Gas station,  Z= What is your Miles per Gallon and then do the math on the board and they would just sit there and know there were beat. 

It was about teaching them to respect their brain and use the math though, I don't think I ever saw him take anyone money after he taught them how they were using Algebra in their lives. It was a simple example, but it made a believer out of a lot of people. As hard as he could be, he was a superb motivator and was the best coach I ever had. Yes, he was an autocrat, but it was the 70s, it was his kingdom and his word was enough for us at the time. 

I'm certain I would not be the man I am today without his influence.

Several years later after I was running my own stores and thinking about some of the experiences I had working for Mr. Fair. It took me a little while to develop my own style and to shake off the nickname of "John Fair Jr." that somebody had hung on me and I wore like a badge of honor. I remember going into my first post promotion store after I had graduated from manager training as a rookie 2nd  assistant manager, absolutely sure that I knew absolutely everything there was to know to be a  manager. I walked into my first assignment at a little store located at 5401 East 38th St In Indianapolis Indiana and introduced my self to the GM, who was a wizened old guy named Ken West. Mr. West just looked at me and said something like "Oh boy, I get stuck with Fair trained, know it all-rookie huh?".  

The first thing I was supposed to do as a new manager was attending a meeting here at this store so I was a little early. I had no training for this encounter, had no clue what to say, had no clue what to do and was a tad clueless when just about then Miss Willie took me by the arm, say me on the counter, and told me not to worry he acts like he hates everybody, you ain't special. She got me some coffee and kept me busy until the jitters went away. Welcome to the real world where people are idiots and your new boss actually wants you to die, or so it seemed. Later on, we had a better relationship but that first minute of that first day?

 Who doggies, what a mess my brain was. The new store, new job, insulted first thing and pissed off.

Then I met a guy named Bill. Actually, he was ex-Air Force Captain William H. Duncan Sr., the First assistant Manager at this store and soon to be the new GM at another unit. We had our meeting that day and I have NO IDEA what it was about. I knew I was an air force brat fresh out of training with really no experience in the real world, as I had lived most of my adult working life under the wings of a gorilla man named John. 

The first few shifts I worked at East 38th st were alongside Bill Duncan. I can still see Bill, with his long sharp nose looking over his glasses at me, smoking one of his long skinny cigarettes saying to me "You don't know shit about shit yet Michael and the sooner you realize that the better off you will be." It turns out he was right,  I didn't know shit, about shit.  Every time I would see someone doing something wrong, I wanted to jump up and change it, correct that person and get them doing it right. Bill told me "Yep, you know the book, Now you need to throw the book away before it gets you fired or worse." 

He really pissed me off with that crap and I wanted to argue with him because I didn't get him at first. The hierarchy was established however and I was low man on the totem pole, you couldn't get any lower than me as a matter of fact. As much as I wanted to listen to him I could also hear my mentor in my head saying "Do the right thing". I decided to give it a while and see what he was talking about.

Well, it turns out that Old Bill was right on target, as most of the people eventually would do things the right way and it turned out that a lot of them were testing me to see what kind of manager I was. Once I got to know the crew with Vergie and Angela and Miss Willie (Don't you worry me! Don't you worry me now!!), Clyde, Meridith, Freddie, and Harry-O-Russelleri the great and a few more, I found out three important things. 

One - The real-world demands that you pay attention to what's going on around you because in the real world disrespect and inattention can get you hurt. 

Two - Respect was earned and not given, I found that out quickly. 

and Three - It didn't matter that I was one of only 3 white employees in this store. If you treated the staff with respect and were fair and honest with them, they had your back. You were one of them, and they tolerated no one talking trash to their boss, especially if they knew the people and I didn't. My people came to my defense a slew of times where being white was a hindrance to running the business. They didn't care, as long as you were straight up with them and I kept that lesson in front of me for a good number of years afterward. It was a lesson I had learned nowhere else.

The other thing that store taught me was that Clyde was strong as shit, that he loved the fact that my Dad and brother shared his same name, that he could break your forearm arm wrestling with him and that Harold Russell (Harry-O-Russelleri the great) was the funniest man alive. He made my side hurt at least once a day.

I don't know whatever happened to Harry-O, but he could have been a world-class comedian. 

Stay tuned for more 

BigMike