And I'm out....for good...

I went to California; I got my master’s degree, and I came back to Louisiana. The chicken shack was opening a new store. I started back working at the non-profit. I could not become a counselor because my degree was out of state. I didn’t know this at the time. When they opened the store, I decided to help out with marketing. I then started working 2-3 nights a week at the older location. Within 2 weeks I was promoted to an assistant manager. I was approached on Facebook by the manager and by the owner in person to start working full time. I was told that I could look into getting my own store. I thought about this for a while and went back to the owner with a plan to be the GM of the older location and work my way up. We decided on several things including pay, and I left the non-profit after a year. I learned how to do many things. I thought this would be better since I was in charge. I was wrong. People that the owner liked could literally shit in somebody’s food and he would have looked the other way. He did not like confrontation and would not confront anybody. Usually people got into trouble when he was at work, and they did something they weren’t supposed to do. His anger would get the best of him, and he would “go off” on that person. I excelled at the older location. I maintained labor and got food costs down. I also helped the store maintain a profit despite it being the older location. I was given high marks from the business consultant. There were things that did not go well down at the older store. The new store would walk in and take things from the older store. These employees thought that they were more important than the employees at the older store, and there was a definite ridge between the two stores. After I went to a new store opening down south, I came back to find out that I was moving to the new store, and I was not happy at it… Not one bit…

There were several people that I was able to help get promoted. They would not have been promoted if it had not been for me. Their personal beliefs were a problem for the owner, even though their work was fine.

I was essentially demoted from GM to assistant GM. All of the things that I knew how to do, I was told I couldn’t do anymore. I couldn’t even have a key to our training facility. It was stupid. I worked there for a month and was given the ability to do the schedule. This was my absolute favorite thing about work. I love the schedule, and I was really good at it. I was always given high praises for my work on the schedule. I also worked with the leadership team to work on developing a higher caliber employee. I helped the supervisor work on training and worked hard to get training off the ground. This was a huge problem at this store. People had not been trained properly. I was given the go ahead from our supervisor and owner, but the GM did not like the extra labor hours being used for the store and complained and would change the schedule all of the time. I had to have a conversation about this with the owner to make sure that this wouldn’t happen again. Other things started to fall through the cracks. Things that the GM had to do were not getting done. I was told that my job was to make sure that she did her job. I told them that should not be my job. I had to schedule all of her meetings and make sure that she actually met with whom she was supposed to meet with when she was supposed to meet with them. I became a glorified assistant. My dreams of getting my own store got pushed back more years. I was told that the corporation was not hiring women to own stores. I was told that I should focus on my job at hand.

I can honestly say that I can be bitchy at times and that people don’t really like how I treat them. I just feel that if you do something you aren’t supposed to do, you should get in trouble. If you don’t do something that you are supposed to do, you should get in trouble. Apparently other people don’t feel this way. I don’t care about what people do in their personal life. However, if what you are doing affects your work performance then we have a problem. We had several and still do have several employees that do drugs at the store. There have been incidences of said employees falling into the fryer, standing around not doing their job, sitting down on the ground, etc. The owner would do nothing about this. One employee was caught smoking a joint on his break. He was fired and then came back a couple of months later. He walked out on the business 3 months after that. People would not show up for their shifts because they would be so hung over. There was no system of checks and balances. I had the support of the supervisor with regards to people calling in. Eventually people got in trouble when they would call in and not have an excuse. But it has taken almost 20 years. They may not now that I don’t work there. I also heard more curse words at this establishment than I have working with adolescent teenage males.

Anytime I feel that I have been overly mean or angry to someone I have apologized. I have taken that person aside after the fact and talked to them about what happened. There are several incidences when I feel that I was accused of doing something that I did not do. There was a particular girl that worked at the store. We will call her Barbie. Barbie thought that the world revolved around her. She was best friends with the owner’s child. Ask-off notes were due on Tuesday. She would always text me things after that day to fix. I would fix them unless I had printed off the schedule. I would tell her every time that she needed to write that down on the paper, and it needed to be by Tuesday. Every week I would complain and was told that as long as she is giving a valid reason to fix her schedule. Well what is the point in having rules if you aren’t going to follow through with them? Well Barbie sent me several texts one week about her schedule. I had already completed the schedule, and it had been printed. She needed something fixed. I told her that I was not going to fix it, and she would have to work what she was scheduled because I had changed her schedule approx. 6 times. She went to the owner. The owner got the supervisor to confront me about this because apparently he doesn’t have the balls to do it himself. I was livid. I was told I was being inconsiderate. I gave example after example of her abusing the system. I was told that it didn’t matter. She had a good reason to not work. I admittedly wanted to resign. She also accused me of slamming a tray at her when she was at her table. I never slammed a tray at her or anybody for that matter. Barbie did not show up for work one night. She did not tell anybody why she couldn’t work. I found pictures of her partying all night long with her friends and printed them out. I put them with her no show sheet. She stated that her dad was in jail. I told the supervisor that did not mean that she should not get into trouble. She was out partying. They said that she had a good reason. I decided it was time to find another job. She has since been promoted by the way.

Things started going downhill from that point on. I was not happy about how employees were being treated and how concerns were being ignored. We are constantly asked what we need to make our job better and what we need to make daily life better. All the suggestions were heard and then ignored. I asked for help with the GM and others with the schedule and what would make things better. I asked for them to be in the kitchen prep in order to learn and nobody did it. I asked for many things and was given false hope that things would happen that did not happen. I also had a friend at the store and our relationship began to dwindle, which only made my attitude worse.

I was constantly being told about things that I needed to work on and things that I need to do. I met with the owner several times in order to help explain to him things were not going well on my end, and I felt like an assistant. He acted like he listened, but he didn’t. I started looking for jobs elsewhere. I even thought about taking a demotion, so that I wouldn’t have to be the GM’s assistant. Well the GM and supervisor went on a vacation and all hell broke lose. One of my good friends at the store got angry at the way the schedule was and openly asked why she had to work with certain people in her area. I was already on edge, and she just pushed me over the edge. I talked to her about the problem that I had, and she accused me of yelling at her and being mean. She left crying and went and talked to another manager. The other manager asked me to come speak to this employee. I told her that I was told by the owner and supervisor to take some time before I speak to someone to make sure that I am not too angry with them. I told the manager to let the employee know that I would gladly talk to her the next day and settle this. The employee went to the owner and said that I was belligerent, ugly, and mean to her and that she didn’t know what else to do. I was then called into the office and accused to yelling, screaming, and being a bitch to this employee. I had a witness that stated that I was not yelling because nobody could hear what I was saying to this employee. I became frustrated and told the owner that I would submit my two week notice because I am so tired of being accused of doing things that I didn’t do and not being believed by him or others that I didn’t do these things. (I mean after Dani and her behaviors I feel like me yelling at an employee is the least of his concerns if I did yell at an employee). Anyway, he lost it. He got mad and said that all I have been trying to do is change things and that this is his restaurant not mine. I told him that I was only trying to make things better because he asks for ideas and ways to improve, and I have met with him many times about things that need work on. Anyway, I went to write my two-week notice, and he told me that I didn’t need two weeks, that I was done. He said, “Give me your keys, now.” I gave him my keys, nametag, looked through my box and left. I didn’t yell at him. I didn’t scream at him. I didn’t cry. I just left. So anybody that has told you otherwise is a liar. It was on camera. Why don’t ya’ll watch it?

The thing that hurts the worst about this experience is that only one person called and texted to check up on me. Nobody at the store that I gave 13 years of my life called, texted, responded to Facebook messages or anything. I was abandoned. I was left alone. And to all of you that are reading this that still works there, that hurts. That hurt more than you could ever imagine. Just because I didn’t work there and the circumstances were strained did not mean you couldn’t talk to me. Even if the boss told you not to talk to me, you are your own person. He does not control what you do outside of work. He does not control you. So for that, I am hurt.  Very hurt from most of you. I thought we were friends, family even and when I needed you most you weren’t there.  I don’t know what else to say or do regarding that because I have tried to reach out to some of you and you guys wont’ respond to texts or to messages. I guess that means we weren’t as close as I thought we were.

Well that being said, I guess I am done with this chapter in my life. I have found a good job that lets me utilize the skills that I have. And when I have an idea, people listen. Things that I have thought about have been implemented and done. So I guess all of this was done for a reason…. But that doesn’t make it hurt any less.

And I'm back...

When I came back to Louisiana, I had no other choice but to go back to the chicken shack. I started off as a team leader but quickly worked my way back up to the assistant manager position. Dani was still in charge, and I was still not happy about it. However, I tried to ignore her as best as I could. I don’t remember as much about this time in my life. One reason could be that I was driving from Ruston to West Monroe every day that I had to work and was working a significant amount of hours. I still had to write my ask-off note every week even for scheduled events because if I didn’t, my ask off note would be wrong. I was also placed in charge of a Wednesday night catering event. I was in charge of preparing for the event, loading the van for the event, and working the event. I had other helpers, but I was in charge of the operations of the event.

When I worked at night, I would come in and there would be nothing done. That being said, I started coming in early just so that I could prepare for things in advance. One particular time I came in and had no salads, no wraps, no desserts, and no sandwiches. It was a good thing that I came in early. I frantically made the items necessary, but I still ran out of everything. I made a comment about the prep team not doing what they were supposed to and let another lady who was in charge of the manager know about the situation. Dani approached me the next day and started screaming at me. She stated that if I had a problem with her I needed to come to her face, and that she didn’t appreciate that I was ALWAYS talking about her behind her back. I walked away. Walked directly into the office with the owner and told him that it was she or I. She came into the office and started crying. She is a liar, so I am sure they were fake tears. I told him that I am tired of her coming up to me and others and accusing us of things without asking questions or finding out the situation. I told him that I didn’t even know she was on the prep team, and I told the appropriate person about the situation. It ended up with him taking her side and telling her how great a manager she was. I left approximately one month after this incident.

There was a lot of drama at this business. People were always spreading rumors about other people and saying things about others that were not true. I tried to work on these problems, but it didn’t matter. Our opinions never mattered. Our ideas never mattered. Why ask us for ideas if you aren’t going to use them?

I went and worked at a non-profit organization in town. I decided after a year that I was moving back to California to finish my master’s degree. I decided to see what I could do at the chicken shack in order to make some extra money in the meantime. They decided to do an overnight shift. This seemed awesome to me. Working with 1-2 other people, no customers, and just food prep. My friend Loren and I decided to see how we could work this in our schedules. I worked Thurs., Fri., and Sunday. She worked every night of the week. It wasn’t bad at the beginning. However, our lists of responsibilities continued to increase and increase until one night we just left. Our shift was from 10p-2a. That is just like anybody else’s shift. Nobody else is required to stay later in order to finish his or her tasks. They finish what they can in that time, and they leave. We were asked to go to Wal-Mart in the middle of the night to buy produce or things that we run out of. We were not managers. We did not have access to the safe. We were required to squeeze lemons, filet all chicken, prep for salads, prep for bulk salads, etc. One night the day person did not move the chicken over for us, so we had no thawed out chicken. We said screw it. There is no reason for us to do more work when we aren’t given the credit for it. We always did the most that we could.

Another time an agency came to clean out the vent hoods. People are not supposed to be in the building when this happens. They are also not supposed to be making prep. Nobody told us about it. The GM at the time, that’s right Dani was finally gone, told us that it would be fine. After 2 hours we could not breath, we were coughing, and we were nauseous. I got walking pneumonia from this experience. Never a thank you; never I am sorry. Nothing. All we got was ”why didn’t you finish your list?” That is how it always was at this store. The GM at the time wanted to get their own store. They asked me about things that they needed to work on. Needless to say that 5 years later she still hasn’t worked on those things. Every single thing on that letter that she said she would work on - she did not work on. That is when I went back to California to finish my master’s degree.

Advice Needed

Hello all,

I have for the past 4 years been dealing with health concerns. I have been to many specialists and nobody seems to know what is wrong with me. I have been diagnosed with things from Depression to Narcolepsy. Currently, I am on Thyroid medications for an under-active thyroid even though my blood tests show that I do not have hypothyroidism.

These are my symptoms:
Extreme fatigue - without the medication I will sleep an average of 16 hours a day
Constant weight gain and inability to lose weight
IBS
Tendonitis in ankles
Skin Fungus
Joint pain in my shoulder and hips
Headaches
Irritability
Heart burn
Easily stressed
Low heart rate - even when exercising it does not get above 134
Low blood pressure
Rosacea

I have been treated for depression, lyme disease, adrenal fatigue, abdominal yeast, restless leg syndrome, serotonin deficiency, positive Epstein Barr, gene mutations, fibromyalgia, Food allergens, rheumatoid arthritis.

Currently the thyroid medication has started not working for the fatigue. I am having to go to bed significantly early to get enough sleep to make it through the day. As far as the weight gain, I have done everything imaginable to lose weight and it just does not come off. It will the first week that I diet, then it stops. I have done weight watchers, advocare, plexus, used adipex and topomax, used Belviq. I have done Ideal Protein, Shakeology. I have done several Beachbody work out plans. The weight does not come off. And if I don't micromanage every single thing that I eat or if I miss a workout the weight comes back immediately. I have done no carbs, low carbs, high protein, no protein, only fruits and vegetables, no yeast, no gluten. I am told by different people to just eat 1200 calories then told that's not enough. I just don't know.

I just wanted to know what other people were doing or if they had any suggestions. I am just super frustrated. My current doctor does not know what to do and she is a specialist. Any HELPFUL input would be appreciated.

Do you mean raspberry tea?

The chicken restaurant journey is continued...

Disclaimer Part I: California contained some of the most ignorant customers I have ever served. This chicken restaurant was a new concept for them. They got mad about not having baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, etc. They didn't know what sweet tea was and thought we were being a smart-ass when we said it is tea made with sugar. They wanted everything on their sandwiches with no extra charge, and even though we had a strict policy of not putting condiments on sandwiches or salads, they wanted us to do that for them as well. I hate to say this, because I loved my little California life, but most people had a sense of entitlement.

Disclaimer Part II:
I know that I made the last owner seem completely horrible; however, the owner in my hometown is ten times better than the owner in California. I just need the reader to understand that fact first…

Jeffrey and I moved to California in 2005. I was scheduled to start school in early September, so we moved in August to get a job, find a place to live, and figure out the area. We were basically working without a net. With the help of the Louisiana restaurant, which I had so many problems, I was able to get an interview at a store in California. Jeffrey needed a job, and the owner was willing to interview both of us. We went into the interview thinking this would just be a short time gig because we really wanted to use our bachelor's degrees and make careers out in sunny California.

The owner told us that we would be able to start the next week and told us that we could work similar shifts but not exactly the same shifts. We stated that as long as we could both be off by 3 (because of my night classes and the fact that we only had one car) that we were willing to work that out, so our life in Cali began.

The owner was very young and was part of the expansion team for California. This store was not making any money, so he was just making a salary as was his wife. This store's sales were 1/2 of the sales of the tiny restaurant that I worked for. We lived and worked in an area of hundreds of thousands of people, but the store was rarely busy. As a result, there was no motivation. Not a lot of people worked since we were rarely busy, and it was pretty boring most days.

The next week was our first week. Jeffrey had training the first two days, and they just threw me in there like I knew what I was doing. I did not know what I was doing. This was a sit down version of the restaurant. I worked at a little drive-thru version of the restaurant. They had new fancy registers, and I didn't know how to work them. It took some getting used to, and I finally was able to pick up some stuff. The manager, Unique, was different. She was originally apprehensive and unsure of me because I had worked for this company for significantly longer than she had worked there, I was older than she was, and Jeffrey and I already were college graduates.

It wasn't long before we realized that we would be here for a while because we couldn't find any jobs in California. People did not want to hire us as outsiders. The first month I decided that was a mistake. I decided that we needed to return, but we were too much in debt. We talked with some people, and we just decided to stick it out. The beginnings of our California adventure were not going well, and the chicken restaurant did not help. As a result of our age (22/23), we felt like outcasts at the store in the beginning.

Eventually the manager saw that we were intelligent, educated people that were just trying to pay the bills. We weren't causing drama. We just needed a job. She finally opened up to us, and this was one of the first big steps. We also became good friends with a group of workers at the store. Socially – things were much better, but the problems with the store persisted.

I was accused of coughing and sneezing on people's food and still serving it to them. I was not believed, and there were no cameras to back me up. The rules for employee meals and working long shifts were completely different.

Jeffrey and I had a hard time being told to do mediocre jobs when we knew that we were capable of much more. It didn't take long for me to get promoted as a manager. This store ran quite differently than the other one. There were only 3 managers before I was promoted, and I made 4. We were responsible for a vast majority of the work, including paying the bills. Jeffrey promoted himself to head of deliveries. He even ordered himself a new shirt. He unloaded the stock truck by himself every week. He was never given any help.

While at the restaurant, I became the Training Director for the store. I was given the title and promotion, but I was told that I could not be paid for the work that I did for the store. They just didn't have the budget for that. I stupidly agreed to the conditions. I had to do all training “off the clock”. Anything that I did for that store was not considered payable. I worked a ton on getting the employees trained, but I was never given credit. Another problem with the store was that Unique and the owner liked things their way, even if it wasn't the store’s method or trained way. They made me teach people the wrong way of doing things, so that it was done their way.

That was only the beginning of the problems at the store. Another problem was the night manager, Lupe. Lupe was the owner's favorite employee. She was bilingual which was very beneficial and very helpful where we were located. However, she was not reliable, and she was lazy. She had been going to community college for 6 years and had not completed her core requirements. At this store nobody could count down their own register; however, you were not allowed to leave until someone counted down your register. Lupe would take an entire hour to count down mine or Jeffrey's register when I had to leave to get to school. She would sit at the end of the counter and talk to employees and have to recount and recount registers. One day Jeffrey and I left because we had been there for one hour after we were supposed to get off. This is an ineffective use of her time and an ineffective use of her labor hours. If the drawers were wrong, they could just get us to sign
 the book the next day, but that would be a logical and reasonable way to help the problem. Since this was not the owners method, it did not matter. It also seemed that the owner, although married, had feelings for Lupe. I do not have proof of this, but he always worked her entire shift with her. He would sit in the office with her during her shift from 2-close every night even though his crew would be suffering. Nothing would get done, and most of the time everyone would leave frustrated.

Every morning we operated the store with only five people until 9am. One morning an employee did not show up for their shift. I called everyone I could think of to come in, and I couldn't get anyone to come help us, not even the Owner. That morning Jeffrey, me, and two kitchen workers had to do all of the prep and run the store. I had to make the cold items in the back with the drive-thru headset on. Jeffrey would call me on the headset if he needed me. He ran the front by himself until the 9am person showed up. That means that there was still no-one to run breaks. There seemed to be no support. There was no system for punishment for people calling in or being late to work either.

Let me not forget the problem of the kitchen crew. Every day the kitchen crew would eat on the clock from the time that we opened until the time that we closed. They were caught with food in their mouths and would still state that they weren't eating any food. One morning the kitchen manager decided at 10am to stop making breakfast even though it lasted until 10:30. She refused to make the product. The problem is she didn't tell us she was doing this until people had already ordered breakfast food. As soon as the owner showed up (randomly for him) she acted like she had forgot about the breakfast food. She started making the items on the screen but people waited for 20 minutes for their food. She did this almost every day. I told the owner, and he said he would take care of it. It still happened up until the time that I left the restaurant.

I do not like stupid rules that people just make up. If you have a valid reason for something, I will listen and decide if I think it is warranted. BUT when we are busy, it is not necessary for me to neatly stock the dipping sauces. I want to get through the rush, and then I will stock the sauces neatly. One day we were actually busy, which was rare for us. I ran out of all of my sauces. Therefore, I just threw them in my bin and continued taking orders. I was screamed at by Unique about the sauces. I told her that neatly stocking was not my concern at the time, and if she wanted to come and stock the sauces, she was more than welcome to do so. She told the owner that I was being insubordinate, but I never did neatly stock the sauces again.

In California working more than 8 hours in one day counts as overtime. We usually worked 6-3 which would quantify as about 30 minutes of overtime. I can honestly say that I hardly ever saw this overtime. It wasn't until after we left that we found out the owner was going in and manually changing people's hours, which is completely illegal! I have no way of proving this because it will always be his word against mine.

When we had store meetings, they were always on Sundays, and we never got paid. They were also mandatory. This is against what this restaurant believed in; however, there was no time that showed we were at the store on Sunday. Again it is his word against mine.

The owner also tried to talk college aged students into quitting college in order to come and work for him full time. He said that they could just finish their degree later. This is completely unethical. Even if you don't think this was unethical, he paid us like crap, so it was not a good decision. This is why Lupe was still in school. She was working for him and not putting her education first. There were several people that complained that the owner had done this. He promised them more hours and better pay, but nobody saw it. He tried to talk me into quitting my master’s degree program in order to try and get my own store. It was completely ridiculous. I only came out to California to get my masters, and he was trying to get me to quit. It felt like a manipulative situation.

After a while at the store, we noticed the employees started to get restless. They started wanted to be supported more. And since I am co-dependent and think it is necessary for me to save everyone, I stuck my neck out for them. This did not end well. I was accused of cavorting with the employees to overthrow the management. I was on the management team, so why did I want to over throw them? One of the other managers would have also been on the side of the “over-throwers” and maybe one of the others. When two or three out of the five managers is suspected/accused of "overthrowing" anything, people should have noticed a problem.

Eventually -  Jeffrey and I ran out of money, and we let the owner know that we were going to have to move back to Louisiana. We gave plenty of notice. During that time, Lupe and I got into a disagreement about how she was running her night crew. I also was very upset that every time that I had to get off, I had to wait an hour for her to count down my drawer from the day. The owner was out of town and I let him know my disappointment in her actions. He took her side and refused to finish the conversation with me. I immediately put in my two week notice. The next week he called me into his office and let me go, which goes against the policies and procedures. I gave enough notice, but again he has all the power. He called Jeffrey into his office and told him he had been let go too. Jeffrey did not do anything. He never got into an argument with anyone. He did his job. He was never late. We could have sued him for this, but I was worried that again it
 would be his word against mine.

I learned several things from this experience. When people say they have an open door policy, don't believe them. That is never true. They say that to make you feel better, but in reality if it isn't their opinion, it doesn't matter. Even if a boss says they are ready for change, it means that it has to be their change. When you give suggestions, even good ones, if it isn't their idea, they will hate it. When you have valid, legitimate reasons behind your hurt, it never matters. It doesn't matter if you aren't the favorite. It doesn't matter if you have helped grow profit, helped grow employees, or helped run the store while the manager is going back to school. It only matters what they think. Writing this down has made me realize that restaurant employees might need a union or someone to protect them from their bosses because even the best ones have secrets.

This owner was stealing our time, stealing our money, and hitting on married college-aged girls. Not long after I left, I found out that he had become inappropriate with many of the girls at the store. Lupe ended up leaving because the owner made the following comment: "Why can't my wife look like you?" Unique's journey with this place ended much like mine and Jeffrey's. If we didn't agree with the owner, we were let go. EVERYONE THAT WE WERE CLOSE WITH AT THE STORE WAS GONE WITHIN A YEAR OF OUR DEPARTURE. The store is still not making money. But since he is a favorite, he is still in charge. The experience at this store with him was my first clue in realizing that this restaurant was not what it was built up to be.

I'm sorry sir, was I speeding?

As some of you know, I am currently a Family Therapist with The Center for Children and Families. I drive to West Carroll Parish, Richland Parish, and Franklin Parish every week. It is a lot of driving, especially for me. Anybody that knows me well knows that I hate to drive. I zone out, I get bored, and I am not aware of my surroundings. Well this week it happened. I got pulled over by the police...TWICE! 

I have only received one ticket in my life before this incident, and luckily I got it moved to a non-moving violation. That was 3 years ago. This time around I got pulled over in Pioneer, LA. Pioneer is a little town between Oak Grove and Delhi. The speed limit changes from 55 to 45 around a curve, but you don't see the sign until you get into the town. 

I saw the police officer in his black SUV and immediately dropped my speed, but it was too little, too late. He pulled me over, and he said he clocked me going 57 in a 45. I immediately apologized because I knew I was speeding. He took my insurance and driver's license. I waited patiently. He gave me a ticket without lecturing or yelling at me. I told him thank you for just giving me my ticket and letting me go. I explained that I have been in the car with others and the police officers can be complete jerks for absolutely no reason. He said, "Well it's just my job to give the ticket. It's not professional for me to yell at you”. I told him this would be my first real speeding ticket on record since my last one was changed. He told me that I could ask the court to change this one to a non-moving violation as well. I said thank you and went about my day. 

Later on in the day I was driving through Rayville, La on my way home. I was driving down the main road in Rayville and was stopped by two red lights. Since I received a ticket earlier in the day, I was being cautious and making sure I was not speeding and paying attention. As I entered the interstate ramp, I see blue lights behind me yet again. I immediately pull over. I was very unsure of what I was doing, but I just waited. As soon as I pulled over, the police officer passes me and pulls someone else over. I got back into the driving lane, and I went on my way. I drove about five miles, and the police officer was back behind me. 

I pull over again. The office got out of his car, walks to my window, and proceeds to tell me that while in Rayville, he clocked me going 40 in a 25. I immediately began telling him that I was not speeding. I had my cruise set the whole time because of my previous experience. He then told me that he saw two white Honda Accords (I drive a silver Honda Civic), and he thought it was the other car, which he stopped first. He then told me that “it had to be me” because I had darker hair, and he was sure that it had to me. I tried my best to explain to him that it wasn't me, I stopped at two red lights, and if had been me, he would have been able to stop me sooner.
He did not believe me, which, I mean, he doesn't have to do. He is the one with all the power. 

I tried to explain to him that I had already got a ticket earlier in the day, and if he could help me out in this situation or give me seatbelt ticket or something other than a speeding ticket. He asked to see my other ticket which I showed him. He said you were speeding today.  Without hesitation I admitted to the earlier speeding. I think that he felt sorry for me and simply let me go with a warning. 



In a series of unfortunate events it seemed, I had several police officers randomly follow me from Rayville to West Monroe (30 minute drive). It was like they were watching and waiting for me to make a mistake because they just knew that I was speeding. I am not a perfect driver. I do speed sometimes. But the way the second officer handled that situation was not professional. He admitted that he was unsure of who was speeding; he made an ID with just my hair color, and despite the fact that I did not drive a white Honda Accord, he still pulled me over. The other car he pulled over was actually a white Honda accord. What confused me even more is that I also have a LA Tech sticker on the back of my car as well as a CBU sticker, which would help him identify my car. But…he did let me off the hook, and for that, I am grateful. 

I called Pioneer this week to see my ticket cost. It was ONLY $175. I guess I’m grateful because I was expecting the ticket to be a lot higher. I went by their Town Hall, and it is only the size of a 200 square foot house. I was raised in a small town my whole life. I forget about how small "small towns" really are and how they operate. I also forgot that this is how they get their money...by speeders. So for now, I will make sure to set my cruise every time I get in my car. I am not getting another ticket....Well at least not for a while.

Somebody that I used to know

Dear Somebody that I used to know,

I thought we were best friends.
We acted like best friends act.
We hung out like best friends hang out. 
We had fun, went to movies, got into trouble. 
We did almost everything together.

Then one day I woke up.
And I couldn't find you. 
You had found other friends.
You left me out in the cold.
I tried to find you.
I looked everywhere. 
But you can't find someone that doesn't want to be found.

One day you came back.
You needed help.
I was there for you.
I helped you.
I thought things would be different.
I went to sleep with hopes for a new day.

Then I woke again.
And I couldn't find you.
You had left again.
You said I was being selfish.
You said that you had problems.
You said they were more important than me.

I went to sleep again.
With a heavy heart.
I thought it was me.
I thought I could be better.
I thought I could give more of myself.

Then one day I really woke up.
I realized that you were treating me like a doormat.
I realized you only wanted me when you needed something.
I realized that I had been a great friend.
I had given my 100 percent.

Where were you?
You were with yourself.
You were with the person you loved the most.
You were with your one true love.
And I realized that I would never matter.
I would never be more than a number on your Facebook account.
I was only your friend for convenience. 

I am sorry for being an awesome friend.
I am sorry for always being there.
I am sorry for being passionate about our friendship.
I just thought that is what friendship was.
Being there, through thick and thin...

So I am letting you go with this letter.
I will one day try to forgive.
I will one day try to open myself up again.
But not to you. 
Never again.  


"If you let people treat you like a doormat, you'll be quite forgotten in the end." Proverbs 29:21

"Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows your, or makes you happy. If you aren't being treated with love and respect, check your price tag. Maybe you've marked yourself down. It's YOU who tells people what your worth is. Get off of the clearance rack and get behind the glass where they keep the valuables." I deserve better than what you have ever given me. 

The Chicken?

So I heard from a little birdy that some of you are ready for the second installment of my Chicken restaurant journey... Here it goes.

So I left the store for a second time during the
summer before my sophomore year of college. I continued
working at the collection agency and was going to school. In
January of my sophomore year, my now husband proposed and we
decided to get married within the next year. That means I
was going to need to make additional money in order to
sustain my new little family. :)

I decided that the best option would be to make a
little extra money to save. I went back to the restaurant,
and I was able to get my job back. I could only work nights,
but since my fiancée worked nights too, it worked out fine.
I was also offered a babysitting job by my aunt. So during
my engagement, I was working 3 jobs and maintaining 12 hours
on the Quarter System at Tech. I was beyond stressed. I had
responsibilities at the restaurant of an assistant crew
captain without the title. Everyone asked me how to do
everything. I was a trainer without the pay or title. My
parents freaked me out about not having insurance during
this time as well, so I found out that the only place that I
could receive insurance was through the restaurant. I had a
conversation with the owner, and he decided that I deserved
a promotion to crew captain. I accepted, and I had to leave
my job at the collection agency (on good terms of course).


Due to my school schedule, I had to work 11-9 Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday and 5-midnight on Saturday. I only
ever got one 20 minute break even though this carries
through lunch and supper. I also had to travel back to
Ruston every night as well. I might have been making $8 an
hour at this time. I also worked Tuesday and Thursday for my
aunt from 3-8 and all day on Saturday until I had to be at
work. It was a very busy and exhausting time. 

I learned more information at the restaurant. I was
trained but was not appreciated. For everything that I did
right, I was yelled at about 10 things that I supposedly did
wrong. There was no formal training for managing others,
especially others that were close to the same age as me. I
just kept thinking:  “I am buying my time until I
graduate”. I constantly gave new ideas, new suggestions
for improvement in the store. The mean manager, whom we will
refer to as Danny Devito, was as mean as ever. People got
yelled at for things that were absolutely ridiculous. We
were yelled at in front of customers, told we were stupid,
and even had flat out screaming fights in the middle of the
store. The owner never did anything about it with her. On
the other hand, if someone else did something he did not
approve of, he gave them a lecture and/or fired them. People
would be openly rude to customers, but it appeared if they
were a West Monroe High School person,
  he looked the other way. If they were not WMHS
people, they were gone. It is amazing that I lasted so long.



The owner also has a short fuse. He told us to be
happy, raise the happy “temperature” in the store, but
when he got to the store, the “temperature” immediately
went downhill.  I remember one occasion where an
employee went to his car to eat his break food out of
uniform, and he got fired because the owner thought he had
stolen the food, even though we told him he hadn't.
 Another situation involved an employee that was
frequently late. Instead of writing him up or meeting with the
employee, he fired him. There were rules that we were
supposed to follow, but there were no consequences for
people breaking those rules. I got several of these things
changed. People started getting in trouble for not clocking
out for breaks, not ringing up employee meals, and for
constantly being late. BUT just like before, there was no
appreciation for these things because the main people
breaking the rules were the managers. None of these people
ever got in trouble. 

Let's not forget about people calling in to work.
During the first 3 times that I worked for the store, I
called in 1 time, and was late 2 times. I got yelled at for
calling in when I had a stomach bug. I got yelled at for
being late when my grandfather died, even though I called
and told them that I would be late. This was a constant
problem. Nobody felt like they could call in if they were
genuinely sick. Now there were some that called in all of
the time and never got into trouble, which is also a
problem. There were no checks and balances. As a result, I
worked sick several times when I should not have even been
in the store. Don't let me forget to tell you that Danny inputed 
our ask off notes, and every week my schedule was wrong. 
I was scheduled for shifts while I was in class. I had to find my 
note in a pile of notes every time to show the owner that I 
had put in the right note. She never got in trouble and my 
schedule was constantly messed up. 

Let me explain something. Even though we had the title
of assistant crew captain, crew captain, manager, etc we had
no real authority. Our goal was to make sure that the
employees did their job and that the customers were served.
If there was ever a real problem, we did not have the
authority to do anything about. Not even Danny. Only the
owner could do something. This is not how management works.
There has to be some form of power for employees to respect
management and leaders. Without any power or any authority
the employees know that they can do pretty much anything.
The only power we had was that we could send people home.
When an employee refused to work, I would send them home. I
always got in trouble for sending people home. I would get
in trouble, but the person not working, having an attitude,
using profane language, or being disrespectful to customers
would not get in trouble. We were told we could send them
home, but it really wasn't our place. On “Bar Rescue”, 
John Taffert always says there is no point in having a manager 
if they have no power because nobody is going to respect them. 
And the managers at this store were never respected. 

Things continued to get worse during this period. One
morning, I was in the drive-thru taking orders, taking cash,
bagging, and making drinks. I asked for help several times
since I was doing everything. My good friend was on the
other side doing the same thing as me. Neither of us was
being helped at all, so she asked for help several times.
Nobody would help us. We had a fry order, and “Manger
Danny Devito” refused to make the fries. My friend went
and made the fries herself, and Danny went off on her. She
started screaming at her and telling her that this was her
fault. Customers meanwhile waited around 20 minutes for
their food. This was a almost a daily occurrence. You
couldn't do anything without getting in trouble with
her. Customers and employees complained about Danny, but
Danny still worked there and was still in charge. I would go
home crying every day. 

One day my good friend, Loren, had recently heard
about a death of a friend. She was very upset. She went to
the bathroom before her shift and was crying. I went to her
and tried to calm her down. As soon as we did this, Danny
was banging on the door screaming at us to be at work. I
tried to explain the problem, and Danny said leave the
personal shit at home. So we went back to work. 

During the random management meetings that we had, we
were degraded, yelled at, and told that we better do a
better job. The customers are bad, but the "general
managers" were the absolute worst. I can't honestly
remember a good day there during this time. Letters were
written to the owner, so he could know about the problems
firsthand. All that I was told was that Danny was a high
strung personality, and we had to talk to her a certain way.
And that just doesn't fly with me, so if she got in my
face, I sure enough got right back in Danny's face.

So not only was the work environment inconsistent and
horrible but also we had old registers that broke
constantly. They always broke. That means that we could not
ring up any orders most of the time. We had to memorize
totals of items, and write them down. We had to take the
order, write it down, and tell the back to make it. Then we
had to figure out the total and give appropriate cash back,
etc. It was a total nightmare. When they started working
again, you had to ring it up and see if you got the right
total. It was never fixed while I was there this time. The
owner didn't seem concerned about the problem despite
the problems it caused.  

I am not saying I was perfect during this time either.
I have a short fuse and went off on people when I
shouldn't have. But that is what we were taught. I lost
my keys all of the time, but so did everybody else. Every
time I did something wrong, I immediately went to the owner
and told him, so he didn't hear it from someone else. I
knew when I did something that I shouldn't. I apologized
to the employees and went about my business. 

I am not saying there were not good people there and
that I did not make good friends that I still have to this
day (Big Red and Loren to name a few). I can't say that
I didn't learn anything from working there because I
did. I am just saying just because you are making money,
doesn't mean that your store is successful. It takes
more than money for it to be successful. 

Needless to say this went on for 4 years. I put up
with the emotional and psychological abuse from Danny. I put
up with the neglect from the owner. We never had the tools
that we needed to run that store. Items were always broken,
and it would take months for them to get fixed. After 4
years, I got accepted in the Masters program at California
Baptist University. My husband and I left to embark on our
Californian adventure....which would also include the great
chicken restaurant….    

To be continued...