The Final Coundown

This past weekend was the last weekend of the overnight shift. It was filled with action and excitement, but most of all, more crap.

Ryan couldn't make it to the shift on Thursday night because of class reasons. If he would have, it would have looked like this for him:

• Class from 9 Am to 9 PM
• Work at Midnight to 8 AM
• Class at 9 AM

Instead I had the joy of working with JANE, which was the regular crock of shit it always is. Strangely enough, the night was nearly dead and I managed to get all my burritos rolled and dishes put out by 3 AM. Jane, meanwhile, complained that she didn't start salads until almost 5.

6 AM rolls round and she actually gets her list done and leaves before I do. I should mention that the manager's shift starts an hour after the crew shift. I hoped that whatever fate helped her would help my efforts, but then it got majorly busy at 6:30 and there was no way to finish my list by 7 to get out on time. I ended up leaving at 8:30. Brilliant.

The second take of the weekend was with Ryan and went so terribly I can't even describe it fully. The night started at 8:20 when we were both called and asked to come into work early. It was hinted at that early meant "as soon as possible." We decided to commute into work together and arrived at 10 PM to encounter what can be best described as partial bedlam. I was forced into a situation that I had to close grill almost by myself (sans dishes done by Sam). In a massive blur, we both get done our lists around 9:30. Yes, that was a 12 hour night of pure crap. I had even managed to burn myself on a baking sheet.

The third (and last) night was bad, but not nearly as bad as the previous endeavor. When we arrived Ryan and I learned that Matt had quit. After 3+ months of not getting his closing raise he finally pulled the trigger on quitting.

By some matter of good luck, though, things were accomplished and lists were powered through by 4-5 AM. It wasn't everything, but I had gotten ready for breakfast in full. In accordance to how I wanted things to play out, Ryan had equipped his iPod with a song I requested the week before. We prepared some clandestine food to eat by prep side and queued it up at 4:55 AM.

3 2 1 And the Final Countdown by Europe blared throughout the empty space of the McDonald's. We couldn't contain our laughter and chocked down our food; ready to meet the final challenge.

In the end, nothing too catastrophic happened and we both clocked out relatively on time. When it was all over, we lounged in the parking lot murmuring to ourselves, yelling to each other, "It's over, what do we do now?"

At that point, I guess it didn't even matter, but we had beaten the shift - the shift had not beaten us.

The worst summer of my life

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.