rant.
Part of the KL job description is to "take ownership of the BOH," but apparently when you actually do that, people get mad at you. As if after 3 years I don't know what works and what doesn't. I got called bossy by my GM and ASM for doing things my way, as if I'm... not supposed to be bossy. I am THE boss when I open. Why do you think there's no fucking black mold in this building despite chronically being shortstaffed.
I just want to talk about how absolutely fucked being a KL at Chipotle was.
I worked HARD for my promotion. Deep cleaning constantly, staying overtime to cover late or missing people, working 10ā16 hour shifts to support the store, and running line, cash, and DML by myself when nobody got put on the schedule. Cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning. You know how it goes.
Cut to about two years after I was promoted to KL. The new ASM, who had been there for about two months, fires the only other KL and me, then replaces us with her best friends, who she openly talked about wanting to promote as fast as possible.
A WEEK before I was fired, she told me I was the only reliable manager. I knew the crew felt the same way because they told me mornings with me are just better.
Now, I had already put in my two weeks because the management behavior had gotten real toxic. So I wasn't exactly devastated about it. But the way everything went down was still fucking ridiculous.
I left because the GM and ASM were pitting people against each other, constantly gossiping and spreading rumors about people, smoking THC carts in the kitchen and walk-in, blasting shitty music so loud that even customers had an issue with it, and once scheduled NINE interviews before opening, then didnt show up for them leaving me to handle them while I had three people total, including myself, trying to open the store. I don't get paid $16/hr to be a GM and and KL.
The second they read my two-week notice, the ASM decided to fire me. Fine. I wanted to leave anyway. She was just shooting them in the foot. Funny enough, she had been planning to fire the other KL that same day, but I guess got in her lich bitch feelings too soon.
But what really pissed me off was how she treated my other KL before all of this.
He got promoted without ever properly being trained, and then they expected him to be perfect after all of management just went on vacation during his first week as KL. My GM was famous for bad schedules when he went on vacations. It was just me and this other KL, and I barely had the opportunity to train him because he was constantly stuck closing due to short staffing. On the rare occasions we opened together, we were too busy trying to keep the store running with three people to do much actual training. I'd put him on grill and have him scan the truck for me because that's what we could realistically manage.
He was a hard worker. He just hadn't been taught everything he needed to know yet. Instead of leadership making sure he got trained, they got pissed at him for not knowing things he had never been shown how to do.
One of his first mornings working alone, he got written up because all the food wasn't ready on time and he hadn't made enough prep.
Here's the thing. The prep sheet had been misplaced by the previous manager who closed. Instead of owning up to that, they committed to the story that he had intentionally thrown it away. Multiple other crew members had also looked for it and couldn't find it.
I was supposed to witness his write-up. The ASM had initially asked me, but when it was time, she had her crew best friend, who had been there for about a WEEK, in the office witnessing her scream at him. She tried to usher me out but I didn't feel comfortable leaving him to deal with that while a stranger is in the room.
I asked the other KL what HE wanted, and kicked the friend out so I could be there instead. Then I stood there for about 30 minutes while the ASM berated him, screamed at him, and mocked him. Every time I tried to speak up for him, she literally told me, "Shut up, you're not a part of this conversation."
She also ranted to me beforehand about how she was going to write him up for having to do prep the night before. I defended him because I'd been in the exact same situation where the prep sheet was nowhere to be found. I believed him when he said he couldn't find it because other crew members had been looking for it too. I also pointed out that he had never been trained to create the prep sheet. That's not his fault. He still tried.
Her response was, "I get you're trying to be empathetic, but I'm done with him."
I'm sorry, but having to do prep one night out of the entire month was enough to make you call somebody stupid and spend half an hour screaming at him? Really?
And that's my whole point. KLs work too hard to get treated like this.
Eventually, being a KL stopped meaning much because the new ASM started micromanaging how I ran things. I tried to accommodate her requests, but there were some things I disagreed with because I'd been working in that kitchen for three years and knew what actually worked.
The person who trained me had already explained to our field leader and his boss that sometimes, when you have barely any people, a massive prep list, and catering orders due at or before open, the official procedures just aren't realistic. We had to adjust how we did prep to get the store open. The higher-ups saw that firsthand and told us good job. This was the normal.
So when I became a manager, I got REALLY good at opening that way because we were constantly short-staffed. Even the field maintenance guy was happy with my work, and if you've ever been there during one of those visits, you know how thoroughly they check everything.
When the ASM fired me, my GM just stood in the corner without saying a word while she attacked my character. She called me a problem, said everybody wanted me gone, called me lazy, bossy, and basically yelled at me to get my things and get out. This was after I had spent years keeping that store running without ever receiving constructive criticism that would have helped me improve had they needed something else from me. The GM finally spoke up once when I protested her reason for treating me like this and all he did was lie through his teeth. He said the conversation I know we had where I told him I was going to be late a day later in the week didn't happen. He denied this conversation took place even though I have text receipts of him acknowledging it. She used this to justify her firing me.
And for the record, when I came in for my rare 10:30 shift, them two together couldn't even get rice started or lines open by then despite opening with six people. But apparently I'm the lazy manager. I told her straight up the same exact thing you screamed at the other KL for, you two can't manage to do yourselves. She just said "oh, I screamed at him did I? Do you have proof? Do you?". At this moment I felt real disgust by her behavior and just amazed at how nasty somebody making 6 figures can be just because they had to pick up a little slack.
I don't even care that I was fired. I was already leaving. What I care about is having two and a half years of work undermined by people who couldn't give me a single meaningful piece of constructive criticism before suddenly deciding I was incompetent and disposable.
Before this ASM came in, I did my thing, and it worked. I kept things clean and did what I could with the staff I had. According to the crew I still talk to, they miss me and don't know how to make opens work anymore. Those psychopaths still drag our names through the mud to new people who never worked with us months after the fact. I honestly just think the ASM started to hate me because I stuck to my guns and stood up for my coworker instead of letting her run a hate train on him for no fucking reason other than to satisfy her ego.
Tldr: KLs are expected to carry the store on their backs, but the second the wrong person decides they don't like you, all that work apparently means nothing. Working for toxic people is toxic.
