Whataburger is a regional chain. There are a lot of them in Texas. You may have heard Hank Hill or Bobby mention Whataburger on King of the Hill. I have never been in or had a Whataburger. The restaurants look real tacky with their striped roofs and odd building shapes and garish signs. I assumed Whataburgers were likely not a good thing. Wikipedia seems neutral on the issue.
And then a couple days ago I got one of my favorite emailer's periodic email newsletters, in which she described her "working" experience at Whataburger. After reading that I know I'll never visit a Whataburger.
I share my friend's experience with you as a cautionary tale....
"I was able to escape my captors at Whataburger. I've been working/slaving at Whataburger for a coupla months now. I hate it. They work you like a dog. Without any training, teaching or explanation, Frank, the GM, started me on the grill.
For breakfast that means I was responsible for the tortillas, the bob eggs, scrambled eggs, the sausage/egg taquito mix, sausage patties, any meat patties, and bacon. You have to anticipate the volume of food to cook. We'd get busloads of people. If you run out of any of the above items, it means the cook has to hold up production. They are rude when that happens.
You must scrape the grill when the grease and meat get cooked/caked on. They were working me 10 hours a day. I couldn't feel my toes when I'd get home and my back ached for every year of my age. It's a young person's job, for sure. My face looked like I suffered from rosacea. All red and pink from the heat of the grill. Occasionally, my grip would slip and my knuckles or fingers would scrap the 350 degree grill.
If the cook ran out of anythng like large or small cheese, lettuce, buns, tomatos, onions, pickles, I'd have to run into the cooler and fill up their pan. If I'd take a step back to take a drink of water, the manager was on my like white on rice and would command me to sweep and mop the kitchen floor, take the trash out, clean the grill, make more gravy or whatever he felt like.
Again, they worked me for 10 hours a day. Did I mention I hated it? And while they were no rocket scientists and while they provided me with no training - they just threw me on the grill and I was just supposed to know the lingo and how to do the job.
Next time you go to Whataburger, peek at the trash can you just emptied your tray into. I had to empty those trash cans and lift those bags full of food and drinks.
That was just the grill gig...They put me on the board to make sandwiches and again, with minimal explanation, wanted me to be fast at making all the sandwiches. I apparently wasn't fast enuf.
The next thing they put me on was produce in the back. I had to carry the boxes full of lettuce or tomatos and chop about 30 or more heads of lettuce into hamburger size pieces. I routinely had to core and slice enuf tomatos to fill 8 6x12 and about 6 inch deep pans. I got a hole in my right index finger that is just know healing from the core-er thingee. That was just from it rubbing my finger. It dug a hole in it.
The tomato slicer was scary. One bad move and I'd cut my guitar playing fingers. It never happened, but I wasn't swift at that either.
Part of that job was washing all the dishes. At 11am, when breakfast was over, they'd start bringing all the pans from breakfast that held greasy bacon, all the scambled eggs which by now were cooked on the pans pretty good. They'd bring for me to wash the metal spatulas they used to cook the eggs, the cooked on gravy dishes, the bob eggs rings, the pancake ring (oh yea...I had to make tons of pancakes), and everything had a layer of grease.
Next they put me on the front register. Easier in a way, but their register was a trick to learn. It was not logical and as they showed you stuff (only after you made a mistake), they would punch the keys so fast (almost like they were pathetically showing off) that I couldn't tell what the hell they were doing.
I had to refill all the drink cups -soda and coffee. I had to maintain coffee in the lobby caraffs, clean the soda station, refill all the cream, sugar, salt, pepper, forks, knives, spoons, napkins, sweet and low, stir sticks, and make sure there was always sweetened and unsweeten tea.
The customers were asses if I made a mistake and held them up. I had to sweep and mop the lobby and let me tell you - I hate people. They would just throw food and paper on the floor like it was a middle ages castle.
I had to make fries, onion rings, chicken strips, fish patties for their fish sandwich, and enuf fried pies. After a day of making fries, my eyes felt like there were boulders under my one remaining contact lens. They hurt.
As the food was made, I had to make sure the order was complete on a tray and go into the lobby and call out their order number. Did I mention they would work me 10 or more hours a day for $7.50 an hour. They really got their money's worth. And after all this, if I went anywhere in my Whataburger uniform, people would laugh at me and treat me like I was a moron.
My feet always hurt and I couldn't feel my toes.
I had no life left when I got home. I had no energy to do a gig and canceled a few of them out of pure exhaustion. And my hands were ugly. My nails always had meat or something under them and they looked awful. This is not a good job. You could not wear earrings. Your hair had to be completely under your cap or you had to wear a hair-net. The uniform was dark blut pants and their t-shirt. I was forced to buy some ugly non-skid shoes before the would let me start work and they hassled me everyday because I didn't have a belt until Kenneth brought me one from home that he gave to me. I got hassled if I forgot my stupid name tag.
We had had a few scary busy rushes the last week and so they brought in some outside workers to help us. Two of those helpers were the Area Managers kids - Andy and Briana. Nice enuf kids, I guess.
So, the last straw for me was last Sunday when I was working the grill. I had a great sense of accomplishment because I hadn't run out of anything during the breakfast rush and was keeping up with the demand of the job. When breakfast ended - the new GM, - Mark was trying to score points with the Area Manager and he asked Briana "what do you want to work today" Right in front of me the little princess sez - "the grill". So, Mark simply told me to go into the back and do produce and wash dishes. Needless to say, this pissed me off pretty good. Because it had been busy, there were lots of dishes to wash and I had to chop and slice even more produce than usual. I release my frustrations by banging the dishes pretty good. I asked him what I had done wrong and he tried to bullshit me and say I was the only one he could count on to do a good job. Yea... right. Then he said he didn't know if the others knew how to do that job. Yea...right...It's rocket science."
Well, that about ends the Whataburger part of the newsletter. The happy news that follows is that Whataburger was told to take their job and shove it. Because a new, much better, opportunity opened up for the former Whataburger slave.
Below is a Whataburger TV ad, for those of you have never been to the South or Southwest....
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5 comments:
I don't think you can post something like this without adventuring into the tacky orange and white striped building yourself. I look forward to your Whataburger Blog Documentary.
I recommend the triple meat, triple cheese Whataburger on wheat.
The amount of grease alone will cure any stomach disorder you may have.
I used to work at Burger King. One place I worked was real nice. The next one was horrible. I think her story is more about the management than the chain.
Gar----
I just can't get past the tacky buildings. If they don't have good taste in how their buildings look, how can they have good taste in other things? Like burgers.
You are not the first to indicate to me that Whataburgers burgers are good.
If you were to tell me they are as good as an In and Out burger, I'd go there tomorrow.
As for the problem being the management at that one store. A well-managed chain makes sure its management is good in all its chains. It's called the "McDonald's Model" of operating a fast food empire.
Quit cryin already! You took the job and knew what the pay was. What did you think was going to happen? You sound like management material to me! I guess they should have been more considerate so you could still have made your "gig" and drank away your $7.50 an hour in Busch Light. Pack up your El Camino and head to the unemployment office where you can drain society with the rest of your "band". You sound like a birth control poster boy to me!
nah ive worked there for over 5 years, ours wasnt that bad. every shift did their own dishes. cook was responsible for cook duty and at the end of his/her shift they take out the trash, only after it has been gathered by someone else. cook takes out trash, cleans grill, rotates meat, and fronts meat.. obviously they cook.. the situation above is shitty ass management.. that dude should not have to empty the lobby trash cans.. nor work a 10 hr. day.. nor wash the dishes for breakfast and lunch shifts.. register is responsible for taking money and cleaning the lobby.. yeah that means the lobby trash cans.. for a person on register to have ANYTHING to do with the food is against the rules at my store.. you cant touch money and food, ever.. for this dude to be running the lobby, register and fry station when the store is supposedly getting busloads of people is insane. that is extremely poor management. this person should be getting a pay rate of 8.25+ (min.) for being able to do all parts of the job(in texas).. and the AM (area manager) never tells the GM (general manager) what to do when it comes to a work location.. the GM is a floater.. they are mostly in the office and in the event of a rush they aid whatever station needs help.. not stuck on one specific station.. once again poor managment
our store is very slow though.. we dont stock up on food.. when i am there as a cook everything having to do with the grill is made to order.. be prepared to wait for the full 6 min when im there.. but it will be damn tasty.. cause i aint servin anything i wouldnt eat myself..
however i have been to stores where i am SCOLDED fir throwing away food that has been on the floor.. food that has bee on hold for way longer than the recommended time.. lifetime of a patty is 5 mins.. if not im putting it in the fuckin trash can.. fire my ass if you want that is whataburger policy.. this dude should have thrown the employee handbook in the GM's face constantly.. because the GM obviously didnt give a shit about what sounds to be a bad ass employee.. one that got the job fuckin DONE.. that dude should have been allowed to progress up the ladder at least to manager. and like i said paid way more for what he did.. gj getting out man no job is worth that shit
I work for Whataburger as a "Team Leader", pretty much an assistant manager. Let me tell you, this woman's experience is not an isolated incident. It is as classic in Whataburger as the burgers and ugly buildings. It is a HELL HOLE.
I work 9 hour shifts, with punks for associates and I can't do a thing about it because the MANAGER is putting her own ideas and agenda into these people and it has RUINED them as workers--they act as if it's high school and they are forced to be here, and they can act how they want. I try to follow the inane policy because, let's face it, it's my job and I was brought up with a great work ethic. These kids get ornery and talk-back, they walk out, don't do what I ask, and everytime I bring it up to the GM she says she will do something but WON'T. She is actually a very good GM but she is overloaded with her own work because the MANAGERS are the problem!! They have their own agendas and own beliefs and don't follow half the policy or care about the customer or fellow workers. They are constantly late, sometimes by HOURS, but no one is allowed to call them on it. And then we hire new Team Leaders who are dope-smoking punks! I can't believe it myself.
It's dirty, it's hypocritical, everyone complains about the amount of work because the labor costs are so strict we can only have about 4-5 people for a $1500, 8-hr shift. Everything is low quality, TRUST ME. So many things break too, and they are left for months before finally it somehow gets replaced, it drives me CRAZY!
To answer your question, quality is dog garbage compared to IN-N-Out. I used to work for In-N-Out, and maybe it's spoiled me, but it's also definately given me my work ethic. I wish they had it in Texas, it would absolutely CRUSH Whataburger.
I could go on and make a whole other blog about it, my experiences, I'll even email you A story if you want, haha. But let me tell you, I have heard stories from friends from other stores, this is the Whataburger way--abusive, neglectful, and money-hungry all the way around.
----Jeremy B.
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