In the middle of May, my good pal Ryan said to me, "Erik, McDonald's needs a crew overnight worker. If you do that, I can do the management stuff." I responded to the affect of, "Whatever." That was the moment that sealed our fate for the summer of 2006.
We had demoed the shift a few days later by showing up at the store at 3 am. Ryan peered over his paperwork duties with the other overnight manager and I looked at my list of duties. It went something like this:
11 PM: Table stock (portion tomatoes, lettuce, onions, etc. for the grill fridge)
12 AM: Roll burritos
1 AM: Put together grill (stock the grill fridge, table sauces, grill seasoning, put out all tools, freezer stock)
2 AM: Finish anything leftover, double check the grill
3 AM: Start breakfast (cut the last grill, take out breakfast food from freezer, start on bacon needed, put out level charts)
4 AM: Limited breakfast starts (have sausage, canadian bacon, round eggs, muffins, and cheese ready; put out all breakfast tools for assembly sides 1 and 2)
4:30 AM: Start on full breakfast (biscuits defrosted and in the oven, griddles in the oven, hotcakes out on the table; folded, scrambled egg, steak, bagels made for 5 AM)
5 AM: Hold the line in grill, assemble and cook as needed.
6 AM: First crew in helps/takes assembly spot; finish up anything leftover
7 AM: Ask manager running the floor for a list check, clock out
Little did I know that this would almost never happen.
