A Life changing experience as I arrived to San Antonio, Texas; from Los Angeles, California. Two very different cities. Adapted to being fast paste, and involvement in my community, I was excited to change enviroments and try new things, it was time for some change in my life. Here, I found my very first JOB, Taco Cabana.
At first, it was very hard, I'd never had a job before. As time went by, I got used to it. Going to school and working as a Full-Time Employee, was turning out to be a very challenging experience. Taco Cabana worked with my schedule and was able to attend to college with no agitations. 3 months later, I started to realize that it was getting harder. Why? I worked long hours and left the restaurant very VERY late! Since it was 24 hrs., it is very busy. I was working long hours, short-handed, no breaks, taking and doing orders by MYSELF, cleaning the patio by MYSELF. There was one time that I was alone in the store by Myself.
This was very frustrated for me, and others. At first, I was very excited to go to work at one of the places where families most enjoy going, and spending time together, where the food is our tradition, and being part of it. NOW, now I feel lazy! I'd never felt this way before; after I saw that my co-workers were eating in the kitchen and talking on the phone while they were all in the office, I felt very disappointed. I wanted to do the same. If I were to do so, I will get in trouble.
Taco Cabana has great food, but, as an employee that I was, I really don't recommend it! Customer Service is horrible! Yes! I know, how can an employee say that, she is putting her self down? I can raise my head up and say: I ALWAYS treated every customer with respect. However, other employees did the opposite.
I don't recommend it for a "career" or a job. I still cannot believe the horrible treatment I received while a employee in Taco Cabana. It is NOT only me. Many others are afraid of speaking up. I have witnessed many situations where employees "call in" letting the store they are not coming in, or emergency in many situations. The manager's ALWAYS think it is a LIE, they think they just don't want to come in. They do bring a doctors note or an excuse of why they didn't come in. The Next day, when they show up, they have to do a DOUBLE SHIFT. Just because they did not show up the day before! I mean, we do love having hours to work, but in many cases, those employees are not notified that they are going to be doing a double shift. Now tell me, DON'T they know that we have a LIFE? We certainly do.
I have a co-worker that has 7 kids, and she work's in Taco Cabana. I really do admire her for working and still managing to take care of her children. Now, there was this time were All of her children got sick, and she had to take them to the hospital. She called the store and told the GM (General Manager) she wasn't going to go work... He only said" I am going to need a Doctors NOTE", and then he hung up and didn't let her talk. Rude isn't?
This lady has a lot of potential, and was working as a Shift Leader on the Night Shift. She did an amazing job. Cleaning, and serving the customers as she was supposed to. Just because she was working as a Shift Leader, doesn't mean that she was certified or was compensated with a fair/good salary. The minimum salary for a Shift Leader is $8-8.50. This lady was getting paid 7.65 and HOUR. Doing paper work and doing the job of a Restaurant Manager/GM, was getting paid 7.65 for a more than a year. Even when she was expecting a baby she still worked very hard until she had to go for Maternity Leave.
This is not all. There is more thing's to be mentioned.
When I started working in Taco Cabana I wasn't trained by a manager. I was trained by my aunt that had been working for 15 years in Boerne, Texas. While working and talking other employees, I learned that Managers HAVE to train you. At that time for me was NOT a problem. I learned fast, and was accurate. Form Boerne, Texas, i transferred to the nearest Taco Cabana in San Antonio, where I lived. They knew I had been working in another Taco Cabana. However, the way I did the orders and what I put in the orders, they thought that i needed to be trained. I was trained by a regular employee. I did learn, but i wasn't thought many things that I needed to "know".
After being there a year, I trained new employees. As far as I'm concerned, I don't get paid to train other people. As far as I know, I'm only a line server, when I do cashier, and cook stuff in the back.
This is where I'm leading at.
Our Afternoon Shift-Leader arranged a meeting for only afternoon employees and with the GM. The say that we found out that we were going to have a meeting so we can talk about the things that concern us; We were so happy. But I asked, why? Why did it take them 3 hours to organize a meeting during that shift we were busy. We didn't have a cook. The Shift-Leader and the GM were talking in the office for 3 HOURS!!!
The day of the meeting came, and our after-noon shift leader handed out a quiz based on our shrimp Quesadillas. I was shook. I didn't know how many ounces or how to prepare it. The only thing that I knew was to cook the quesadilla and the amounts that had in it. I got very angry. We Never been trained or informed about this. I was going to be test on something that I wasn't thought.
I was scared, but then the Shift Leader started to give us the answers, and then soon I found out that our GM (General Manager), agreed with us knowing the answers, basically cheating. He was the one who gave those answers to our Shift-Leader.!!! Everyone was happy, except for me, and you know why? Because those quizzes were going to be sent to corporate, so that they know that WE do know how to prepare our Shrimp Quesadillas. But, I knew what was going to happen later on. We always receive a visit my the District Manager in this case: Pete Palomino. So I'd thought; "if he sees us not doing the shrimp quesadillas right, we are going to get in trouble; because our store "trained us", and we are the ones who get in trouble.
There is so much more to say. This is NOT only in Taco Cabana #111, it is in every store. So for whom ever is reading this, I am letting everybody know what goes on "behind the scenes." It is not always a good thing to work in Taco Cabana, sometimes is scary. All this and More goes on. But I cannot stress enough the Importance of this message. There are lot of employees who are being over worked, adn I am not talking about 10 hours, I'm talking on the average of 15-18 hours a day with out any breaks. Really, these people feel like they don't have a choice, they feel like they need to stay after having a very busy shift.
I really hope that I can get somewhere with this. I am going to strive until there is change made. It is unfair, very unfair what goes on behind the "scenes" in Taco Cabana.
Thank You for reading and God Bless those who decide to work there. I finally quit this Friday After 2 long years.
Halley
San Antonio, Texas
U.S.A.
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