The Art of Firing!

We come back after a long break with a new video setup, then pivot from gaming choices to the real-life choices managers hate making. We tell stories from Chipotle and a senior facility kitchen that reveal how empathy, anger and staffing pressure shape the way we fire people. 
• switching WDYM from audio-only to video and what the reset means 
• why Baldur’s Gate 3 feels limitless and why choices matter 
• learning boundaries through roleplay moments like the portal hand and the vampire reveal 
• the first hard termination at Chipotle and the emotional fallout 
• how repeated lateness turns a hard firing into an easy one 
• hiring friends into a new workplace and handling personality clashes with leadership 
• firing a no-call no-show while trying to avoid escalation 
• dealing with broken promises on a two-week notice and the trust damage it causes 
• how understaffing in culinary and senior living work raises the cost of every decision 

Be Apart of the Show!! Text and Talk!!

Email me! Thewdympodcast@gmail.com


Intro  by Kobeofei via Fiverr
Season 2 Artwork: Ishida1694 via Instagram

Transcript

Back After Break And Video

0:04

You're listening to the WDYM, the What Do You Mean podcast. Hamilton's number one podcast. Now sit back and relax. Here's Hamilton's own Michael Gillespie. Hi. Welcome. Welcome back to the WDYM, the What Do You Mean podcast. I'm your host, Michael Gillespie. Hope everybody is good, hope everybody is well, 'cause it's been a very long time. And I know what you guys are gonna say "Mike, it's been, like, forever. Where have you been?" And I had to take a sabbatical and, set up some things like today's sponsor, I guess you say sponsor, but it's not really a sponsor. We are sponsored today by the Emeet Smart Cam S800 See? We are bringing the WDYM to live and in living color. Hope everybody can see me. I have transitioned from just purely audio to audio and video, as you can see. So yeah, it's brought to you by the Yi Mi Smart Cam S800, Look how crisp and clean this boy is. i'm learning how to do all that, That's what we're at right now. what I like to say is I don't like to operate out of anger and frustration.

A Quiet Warning About Abuse

1:27

This is not good product if you're always angry or frustrated and all that stuff. Something happened way back in November, and this is all I'm gonna say because right now I'm not really gonna talk about it right now for obvious reasons. The reason why I'm not is because there may be some legal actions to it. But all I'm gonna say is this: one, elder abuse is real. Two, these companies don't care about you. And three, all this over pizza. That's it. That's all I'm gonna say right now. Hopefully I will be able to get into it, but I'm still in the beginning stages of what I wanna do next about that. What have you been doing? Michael

Baldur’s Gate 3 And Hard Choices

2:13

you haven't been doing the podcast. What have you been doing? And I'll keep it real simple. I've been playing Baldur's Gate, man. Baldur's Gate 3 specifically is probably one of the greatest games I've ever played. I'm a type of guy that likes RPGs and all that stuff, and Mass Effects and your Final Fantasy 7s, any RPG type stuff. What am I playing right now? Anyway, I play these RPGs, and then around the Christmas time area, I bought Baldur's Gate 3? Baldur's Gate 3 is a open-ended RPG type game. And it's crazy. It is absolute crazy how open-ended it is. You can be different races, orc, elf, barbarian, wizard, warlock whole bunch of things. Changelings, you could, whatever you want to be, you could be. Sword, bow and arrow, whatever. It's so open-ended, and it's so great. You could be a jerk, you could be a good guy, it is so fun. I was playing it nonstop for roughly three months, and it's just so open-ended. It's fun to have, fun to play, and I don't wanna rush through it. I have a friend of mine who's beaten it four or five times, and, we talk back and forth about did you do this? Did you do that?" And it's "I didn't know you could even do that." Prime example, in the game you come across a portal, right? Just a portal swirling energy and all that stuff, and there's a hand sticking out doing all this waving stuff. Now, in this case, I am a barbarian with a big old sword, and you know how barbarians usually think. they think about strength and don't think about things that would affect them Let me ask you guys a question. If you ever come across a portal and a hand sticking out, flailing around What would you do? My fear is that if I grab the hand, I'm gonna get pulled in, and I don't know where the heck I'm going, right? So this hand is flailing around. I'll just say, "You know what? You're on your own, kid, 'cause obviously you got stuck in that portal for a reason. I can't help you 'cause I don't want you pulling me in because I don't know how strong you are. I don't know how big forearm is on said person, so I don't wanna get pulled in." So I go about my business through the village and go to the next part of the game. So I'm telling my friend this, and he's wait. You didn't pick up Gale?" I'm like, "Who? Who's Gale? I don't know who Gale is." He said, "Did you come across a portal?" I said, "Yeah." "Did you see a hand flipping around in there?" I'm like, "Yeah." He's "You didn't pull him out?" I was like, I didn't know I could pull him out. I was afraid I'm getting pulled in." He said, "Dude, you're missing one of the best characters in the game." I'm like, "What?" So I pick up this one guy who's a, curly hair, curly white hair- dude, and he has a little knife and all that. And I'm like, "All right, cool, come ro- rolling with us." And we roll a couple missions and he's helpful. He's okay this guy is very helpful. So we go to camp, right? My character's sleep, and then until he feels hot breath on his neck, right? He wakes up and then he- I'm mad. I'm like, "Hey, what are you doing, man? I'm a barbarian. I need my sleep. What's going on?" He's "Yeah I'm a vampire." I said, "You're a vampire? what do you mean you're a vampire?" He's "Yeah, I need a peck of your blood just so I can, I don't know, eat something, drink something, whatever." And I'm like, dude, this dude was all over my face when I'm asleep. I felt his breath. And now he's, "Yeah, I need to bite you 'cause I'm a vampire." Now tell me who in the real world would let this happen, then I'm talking to my friend and he's "You didn't let him bite you?" I said, "No, dog, would you let a vampire bite you?" I'm like, Am I thinking too much in this? I'm like, am I just too real world right now? I'm like, "I don't... No, you're not biting me." So I tell him no, and then the next morning I'm like, "Look, dude, I think you crossed the border. You're all in my face. I, I actually thought you some, you were gonna kiss me or something. Nah, you were trying to bite me. If you see me or I see you, your ass better run. Think I'm playing I'm not playing. If I see him again, I'm gonna take my sword to him. You don't do that to me. You don't be on my face when I'm sleeping and hot breath talking about I need a pack of your blood. So if I see him, he better run 'cause I'm gonna get him. I'm going to get him, take my sword and start hacking and slashing. that's unacceptable, bro. But that's what Baldur's Gate is. It's all about decisions and everything, and your decisions impact your game The whole time. I haven't done nothing wrong 'cause I'm the barbarian that's good. I don't use my strength to manipulate people or force people to do anything. I'm a barbarian with a brain. You know what I'm saying? So that's the part of the game that I like that. I'm right now being a good guy type and, I'm going around being nice and everything and helping people out when needed and everything. I don't turn people away. There's, there was this one fight where these goblins and tieflings, they don't like each other and they're beefing and everything And I gotta choose a side. So the goblins and the tieflings have beef, and then I'm like in the middle of it, like who do I help? The goblins are like, "Oh, you come to our village, you could help see our god and go see this person and help her out And the tieflings that are like we just wanna go to Baldur's Gate, some kind of place." And I'm like, "The goblins are there, they're gonna kill us if we come out of this village and all that." So I'm like, I'm in the middle like I should help the tieflings 'cause that seems like the nice thing to do. But these goblins, they are like, "You go see our god." I'm like, "Oh, that's not a bad idea." What did I do? As the barbarian with brains, I wanna, I'm gonna help the people that need help. Help the helpless, right? So that's what I do. I killed every goblin I found. I killed 'em all. You green, got pointy ears, you're dead. That's what I did. And there hasn't been that many ramifications 'cause not all the goblins know I killed them all. So I'll come across a goblin, it's "Weren't you at the goblin camp?" I'm like, "Yeah, I was." Said, "Yeah, we ain't been back there yet." I said you probably don't wanna go back there 'cause the tieflings wiped you out. Blame the other... the tieflings did it. I didn't do it. I just saw 'em. I just saw what they did." And that was crazy, right? So Baldur's Gate 3, if you get a chance to get it, I suggest you go ahead and buy it. It's a great game. Great fun to play just to chill for a couple hours and everything. And I think it won game of the year years ago and everything, so it's a great game. Hands down, one of the greatest games I've ever played, actually. And that's saying a lot 'cause I played Final Fantasy VII, which is a great game in itself. Mass Effect 2, not 1, not 3, 2. Mass Effect 2 was a great game. So if you like open-ended stuff, you could switch it up, be different races, different classes and everything.

The Art Of Firing People

9:29

I suggest you go pick up Baldur's Gate 3. Also, the main story of the day today is the art-- what I call the art of firing people. Since I've been in management positions and everything, this has been my struggle. I'm not the firing type. Again, I guess this must be the brain barbarian type, where you like people and you wanna help people, and you wanna help yourself at the same time. When I used to work at Chipotle, I was a manager at Chipotle, and this one store I was in, it was two co-managers because The main manager was having immigration issues, right? So the area manager put two co-managers together so we could manage, and we worked well. she had a little more experience than I did, but I had the degree. So that's how that came all about. So when we started working together, we started building a roster, and

Chipotle Lesson On Letting Go

10:35

we started putting people together and everything, and we hired this one lady. She was, like, early 20s, already had a kid and everything, and we were... Me and let's call this girl Sarah. Sarah, she would always look at people in the line and make sure they're happy and smiling, and make sure you're doing the Chipotle thing. "Hi, welcome to Chipotle. White or brown rice? What da," like that, right? We hired this one lady, and we looked at her, and she just had this RBF face. Like that. White or brown rice? Pinto or black beans? Not even happy or anything, Okay, so side note on this. Guacamole and sour cream, when it's mixed together, just nasty looking, by the way, And you have it at the corner of the mouth, and it has that line where it connects the lips is all nasty, right? She's up there chewing on her rice bowl, making that noise, that ASMR stuff before ASMR was a thing. And she points out, "Look at her. Look at her." I'm like, "Yeah, you know her." Renee was right there. She's "She has a permanent RBF face." I was like, "Now that's cold-blooded for you to say that." She's "Yeah I don't like her in my line, and we're trying to be an excellent restaurant, aren't we, Michael?" I said, "Y-yes, Sarah we are." She's "Yeah." She's "Yeah I want you to fire her." I said, "You want me..." I said, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You want me to fire her? I I don't..." I had never fired nobody before at this time. And she's "Yeah, I want you to fire her." I'm like, "Oh, boy." I said, "I don't... Let me..." Then I said, "Before we do that, let me go talk to her first. Let me go talk to her just to say, 'Hey, look, you gotta change,' Just give her a heads-up before we just go to permanent fire. She said, "All right, I'ma give you, I'ma give you the rest of the day to talk to her and see if she changes." I'm like, "All right, cool." So I go her over to the side, say, "Look, I don't know if you know this or not, but just your energy level's real low, and we need you up... You down here. I need you right here. I need you right here. I need you to get your energy up, 'cause that makes the whole dining experience better." She's "Yeah, okay, I can do that." I said, "Cool. Let's see it. Put it in action." She said, "But the only problem I have is I'm not good at rolling burritos." "I don't wanna be in the first part. Can I be somewhere else in the middle or something?" I said, "Right now, since you're brand new, you need to learn the basics. You gotta learn how to roll a burrito." And then we go from there. She's "Okay, so just start smiling, be happy, and all that stuff. And then, maybe we can talk about putting you in the middle or whatever, where meats are at, and put all the proteins on," or something like that. So we're working together, and then lunchtime, peak hours, a whole bunch of people come in, and I'm on the line with her, so I'm, like, tapping her foot, making sure she's happy. "Hey," "Make sure you're up, make sure you're happy. Let's get the RBF off." And she's "Okay." So she's happy 'cause I'm like, I'm tapping her, bothering her. "Give me that burrito," being all happy and stuff. That's what I do, you know what I'm saying? Food makes me happy and all that stuff. So I'm like, we're doing it, and she has a smile on her face. Everything's good. Until the next day. Sarah comes up to me, she's "Yeah, did you talk to her?" I said, "Yeah, we talked to her. We had a good time and all that stuff. She was smiling. She was interjecting with the customers and all that. We had a good time." Said, "Okay. How about right now?" She worked the next day, and she had the same RBF face. I'm like, "Man." She said, "You talked to her, right?" I said, "Yeah, I did." She's "Yeah guess what? We gonna fire her." I said, "Lord have mercy." I was like, "You can't be doing this. This is the culinary field. Not everybody's meant for culinary field, and it's hard to get people in here to work, customers. People have the customer's always right attitude, and You just can't be firing people like that." She's "We're firing her today." Like, all right, you know what I'm saying? So we get at the table, and she said, "Go get her." So I go get her. I say, "Hey, can you come up here and we're gonna talk about your performance 'cause you've only been here a couple weeks and everything." So we're like, "Hey, let's talk about your performance." So me and Sarah's sitting there, and Sarah's we noticed your RBF face." She kept saying we. "We noticed your R- your RBF face, and we don't think that's acceptable here at Chipotle, and we have no choice but to fire you." Ain't that right, Michael? And I'm sitting over there right next to her, and I'm about to cry myself. I said, "Look we trying to keep you and everything, but it looks like we, we have no choice but to let you go." I'm crying with her, like I'm about to get fired. And then she starts crying. She's "I really need this job. I can't be afford to be fired. I just started three or four weeks ago." Her tears trying to make me cry. I'm biting my lip, trying to hold it in and stuff and everything. And we eventually let her go, right? So we let her go, and me and Sarah's in the office. And she pushes me. She said, "Why you do all that, Michael?" I said, "I can't help it. I ain't used to firing people, man. I don't know why, I just can't fire people like this, man. I can't do it. I can't." I said, "I'm just too sensitive. I don't know, but I can't fire people." She's "You better develop that. You supposed to be a manager and all that stuff." I said, "I'm still a manager." It's just that I'm not used to firing people that I like, you know what I'm saying? I'm help the helpless type. I'm like Angel of Buffy and Angel. Angel, help the helpless. I just can't be cutting people's throats like that. I just, she needed a job. We said she should've got rid of that RBF face." Michael said, you right." So after that point, me and Sarah separated. She got her own store, and they let me have this store. So I had to quickly develop the firing phase, like you're fired. So I had this one cook, right? He would come in late all the time Make me angry. I'm waiting on him. I'm I get there first and, get everything started, turn the grill on and everything. I'm sitting there with arms folded, right? I'm 5'5" and a half. Don't forget the half. He was taller than me. And everything, and he's late. And I've told him before "Dude, you can't be keep showing up late. You want these opening shifts, but you can't start late." He goes, "Yeah, man, but Mike, I know you got my back. You gonna have the grill ready. You gonna have this done. You gonna have the chips made." I said, "Yeah, that's not the point though," right? I got my arms crossed. and I'm getting angry 'cause he's taking advantage of me, right? So as he's taking advantage of me, my anger starts kicking in and it's starting to become easier to fire him, right? So he comes in late for the fourth or fifth time, racking up all these points and all that. I call my area manager, say, "Look, dude, Will keeps coming in late. I wanna let this cat go." He's "Okay, let him go." I said, "Bet." So I pull Will to the side. I said, "Look, man, you keep coming in here late. You're not giving me excellent service. Bro, you're fired." Just like that. He's "You firing me?" Mind you, he's taller than me I said, I stood on 10 toes like, "Yeah?" I said, "Yeah? You fired Mean mugging, not moving, dead in the face. "You fired." He's "Okay, cool. I'm out." And then he left. I said, "Oh this firing thing ain't too bad," right? And it went to my head a little bit at Chipotle. I started firing people left and right just for no reason. "Yeah, you fired." But I was getting people in, so I was like, "It didn't matter. Yeah, you fired. Get out of here. You hired. Come on in here." It worked for a minute. So Chipotle

Hiring Friends And Workplace Drama

18:09

is where I started to get my thing for firing people. So fast-forward to my lat- my latest job, right? I'm in charge again, and the boss at the time she's "We need help. We need help. Michael, do you know anybody?" know a couple people. I could bring people in." She said, "Please bring them in. We need them." I said, "Oh, cool. Say less. I got you." So I start bringing my people in, right? So I brought Thug One and Thug Two. I've talked about them previously before. So I brought Thug One, Thug Two, and let's call him Beanstalk. Beanstalk was six foot. This dude went forever. Like forever. I'm looking up at him like, "Jeez Louise." And we worked together before, so we had a good relationship. I worked with two out of the three, Thug One and Beanstalk. We worked together before, so we didn't have that problem, right? So I'm at this new facility, and the old employees are there, my new employees are there. We're doing some good business, right? we're having staffing. Here and there it goes up and down. So that's all happening until I get Thug One in there, and then my boss rolls up on her. She's "Hi, pleased to meet you. Welcome." Thug One turns around like a thug. She's "Who are you?" She goes, I'm the boss. I'm the big boss." They say, "Okay, cool." And then she goes, scurries off, takes the orders and everything. Big boss comes to me and she goes, "Who was that?" I said that's Thug One. It's acquired taste, but she's cool. She's a good worker." She said, "Yeah, she was very rude." I said, What do you mean?" She's "Yeah, she was very rude when she walked in. I tried to say hi to her, and she gave me the up and down." "Okay." "You need to handle that." I said, "You want me to handle it?" So I said all I pulled Thug One in the office. I said, "Man." I said, "What you doing, man?" She's "What?" She said, "You were rude to the boss." She said, "She just said hi. I didn't know who she was." I said, "Okay, but she said you gave her the mean mug." She said, "And?" I said, "Okay that's the big boss. Leave her alone and get back to work." She's "Okay, cool, whatever." So eventually, the drama at that place, Thug 1 would be up and down. She would do great work, and then she'd be like, "Yo, we don't have a front of the house manager. What you think about me?" I'm like, "That's the only reason why I brought you in, to be real with you. You do good work. We've worked together before. You do good work. I need you up front." She's "Man, say less." So I'm, like, pitching the idea like, "Look, Thug 1, she a little rough, but you know that she's here all the time, right?" She said, "Yeah, I do." I said, "Okay, so how about we put her in that front management position?" She's okay. So I'm like, "Cool, we got this working. I got a front of the house manager, got people in the back. I'm cool." But then the next time I come in over the weekend, I come in, she's "Yeah, we can't do this." I'm like, "Why?" She said she hasn't been with us for six months." I said, "Okay, that's cool, but y- you didn't say that before, so why are you saying that now?" She's giving me some run-off excuse. Eventually she gets to a point where she runs Thug 1 off, right? Thug 1, she pissed. "Yo, this place is bull crap." I said, "You don't take it to heart, she's just trying to... I don't know. She trying to do something." She's "Yeah guess what? Two weeks, I'm out." I said, "Dang, it's like that?" She said, "Yeah, it's like that." Said, "Cool. I ain't mad at you. You do what you gotta do. I'm not mad at you. We still cool, right?" She said, "Yeah." So she put her two weeks in, and remind you, this Thug 2 And beanstalk, right? Okay, so Thug one She on her way out. Thug two, or in this case we're gonna call her- Little one. Little one It's on 4'8" on a good day, 4'11" on a bad day. She 100% thug. She is Hamilton blue blood to the T. Like I said, she 4'11", but she be, she... Look, this... Listen, Lil One beats up dudes. And you be like, "Michael, how you know that?" She showed me a video. Said, "Look." Showed me the video of her going, and it's whap. Like full extensions, right? Full extension punches on a dude, hitting this dude so much he went back to reset. How you doing today?" Little one scared me. And I don't sc- look, I've been to Afghanistan. You don't, you... it don't, it takes a lot to put some fear in my heart. She scares me. She pulls up To work and all I hear is this If you should know who this, whose music this is. This how bad she scares me. I gotta tuck something in because I... Don't look the person in the eye "Hey, do I work today?" "Yep." Say, "What position?" "Position two. You out on the floor, okay?" "Okay, cool, cool. All right, goodbye. Get out my office." You know what I'm saying? That's the way she was. That's the way her energy was. I'm scared. Okay? I'm terrified. The one with little one, she started missing work. Every now and then, missing a lot of work. No call, no show. So my boss comes to me, she said, "Yeah, fire her." I said, "Oh, shoot. You gotta be kidding me." She said, "Make sure she does not come in here tomorrow." I said, "Lord, have mercy on me. She's gonna beat my little butt. I'm not ready for this. I'm not ready to get taken down by little one, little blonde-haired little one. You crazy?" And the thing about it is, she had the perfect switch-up. She's "Yeah, I'll come in and kick your butt," to, "Oh, I'm just, just so nice and innocent" and all that stuff. And she's "Yo, you know my mama." I said, "I don't know your mama." She said, "Your mama my mama knows who you are. Your name is Michael, right?" I said, "Yeah." She's "Yo, you were graduated with her. Is you one year below or one year after? She knows you." I said, "Oh, Lord, have mercy. I am terrified." 'Cause I don't remember her mom. She said, "Hold on." Calls her mama up. She's "Here, talk to them." I said, "Hello." She said, "Hey," she say, "Michael, how you doing? I ain't talked to you in years." Apparently she's a fan of mine. I said, "Hi." Said, "This your kid? This is your kid?" Boy, she's such a nice lady. So anyway, back to the story. Boss is "Yo, you gotta let her go, you gotta let her go. You gotta fire her." Said, "Make sure she don't come in here today." Said, "All right, shoot." Said, "I gotta figure out something because this is wild." So I call her up. I say hey." Say, "Hey, little one this is your, i'm sweating all in my face. Said, "Little one, this is this your boss, and where you at?" She said, "Yeah, I'm in the car about to come into work." Said, "You know what? You know what? I know you wanna, I know you wanna stay home today. I know you wanna stay home today. We don't... You know what? Why don't you just stay home today?" She said, "You don't need me today?" I said, "I don't need you ever again." Said, "What'd you say?" I said, "No, we don't need you no more." She said you trying to fire me?" I said y- yeah." She said, "Okay. Okay." I said, "Is it okay?" She said, "Okay. I don't, I'm not gonna say it again." I said, "Yes, ma'am." "All right," click, got off the phone. Avoidable on that one because, woo, she bite. I'm telling you, this hurt. That type of energy. It's my bike, punk. That type of energy, right? So that was her. She was actually pretty cool. Thug One, she put her two weeks in. she started texting me like, "Yeah, what happens if I throw an ice cube in your fryer?" I said, "I'm gonna be really upset with you." Said, "Oh, okay, 'cause that seems interesting to me right now." I said, "You dirty dog, don't do that." She asking me all these questions. "Okay, what happens if I take this shrimp home?" I said, "Don't do that. There's cameras everywhere." Cameras didn't work. So she's testing me, but good at heart.

When Loyalty Breaks At Work

26:36

She ain't really gonna do nothing. Or if she did, I don't know. Which leads me to Beanstalk. Now Beanstalk, We were cool. We used to work together previously, and I would work shifts for him at the previous location. He'd be like, "Yo, man, my stomach is bubbling." I said, "Look, dude, give me two hours of work, then another server come in, I will take your spot." We had it that good, right? So When I went to a different location, he was still there. He's "Hey, I need a job." I said, "Yo, say less." And then he was verified through Thug One. Thug One was like, "Yeah, he's good. Good people. Come on in." I said, "Cool." Brought him in and everything, and then Thug One put her two weeks in. Thug Two, I had to let her go, and he's the odd ball out. He's the odd man out, right? So I'm up here doing inventory in the freezer, and he comes in the freezer, and closes the door. My military brain kicks in because remember, this dude is like six foot forever. I'm looking at this dude like, "Whoa, there's only two things that's gonna happen here today. Either we gonna fight or some- something's gonna happen." He's "Yo, man. Look, man, I appreciate everything you've done for me, Mike. But just know that I w- I ain't gonna do you dirty, dog. I ain't gonna do you dirty. I'm gonna finish out my two weeks, man. We gonna be cool." I said, "You know what, Beanstalk? I appreciate that you were gonna come in here and be professional, and you gonna do your two weeks and everything. I appreciate that." He's "Man, You've done so much for me, man. I appreciate you, man. We always into that." "When you do that, hey man, thanks a lot. I appreciate you." Said, "No, I appreciate you." That's how we talk to each other, right? You already know where the story's going. So he missed a day here. I'm like, it's two weeks in, I expect that. Then he missed two days in a row. I'm like, he missed two days in a row. His off day was the next day. He come in on a Friday late. I'm like, "Dude, you killing me. Your first four days in your two-week notice, you call off your day off, and then you late?" He's "Yeah, my bad, man, i'm like, "Cool. You working this weekend?" He said, "Yeah." Work the weekend and all that stuff. That next following day, he didn't show up. I'm like, "Yo, man, what's going on, dog?" So I text him like, "Where you at?" He's "Yeah, I ain't never coming in there again, Michael." I'm like, "What?" He said, "Yeah, I can't stomach the idea of me working in that kitchen no more." I was heated. I was so mad. I was so mad at this dude right now. It's just because dude, we up here talking about I appreciate you, you appreciate me and everything, but he said, "I cannot stomach the idea of coming into work right now, man. I am not fulfilling my two-week notice." And that makes me mad just talking about that it makes me mad right now. However, I cut him off on all social media. You can't contact me through my Snap, through Facebook, through Instagram, through TikTok. Don't even try. Don't even try to reach out to me. Like, why you doing me dirty like that? We just had the conversation in negative 20 degree freezer about you not screwing me over, and you doing the exact same thing. It's boy, I swear. So weeks go by, it's just me. It's just me working. Busting my. I don't cuss, this is a G show, I ain't cussing. Oh, man, I'm working my butt off. Then I forgot, I'm about to hire somebody else. He has the keys. So I gotta call him up and say, "Yo, bro, I need them keys, man, when you get a chance." And then he comes in, six foot tall, everything. He's "Yeah, man. Here's the keys. My bad." I said, "Man, you know what? It's cool, man. I ain't mad." Man, I can't stay mad. if that's a character default on me, I can't stay mad at people. What's the point? What's the point of being mad over something that's so trivial, man? We cool? He's "Yeah, man, we cool." And then that was that. I was like I ain't added him back to social media yet." We cool, but we ain't that cool yet. So that's where I developed the art of firing from that point on,

Firing In Understaffed Kitchens

30:52

right? Started learning how to fire people, and then it just snowballed from there. From that point, the new employees I hired, except one, was cool. They stayed. Everybody else I hired, they were fired. I had one girl come in, it's "I want hours. I want hours. I want hours." I'm like, "I got hours. I got hours. I got hours." What happened? I gave her too much hours. She left. This one girl, I didn't even want her in here. She was like, "Yo I like to work," and all that stuff. I'm like, "Yeah, you do? But I can only work this day." Said, "No don't hire her." We hired her anyway. Next thing you know, she just completely stopped showing up. One of the people that was there before I got there, and this is the worst one. She was there before I got there, and my first week there my boss like, "Yo, give her this slip. It's a final warning." I said, "What? I just been here one week. What do you mean give her the slip?" She said, "Give her the slip and Do you? I said, "Dog, that's crazy." So my first week there I said, "Look, this is your final warning." She said, "For what?" I said, "I don't even know. I ain't read this." I said, "Okay." I was like, "Here, it says you're disrespectful." I wasn't here for this, so I didn't witness this. Said, "All you gotta do is sign this." I was like, "I don't know what you want me to do." She signs it, and she keeps it moving. So I'm like, "Okay, cool." So I get to learn her, how she works and everything, and then I get front of the house manager. And we had her... we sitting there watching her, and every time she would do something, the front of the house manager would look at me like, "Did you see that? You see that? She just left. Where'd she go?" I said, "Look here I'm cooking. I'm not even in my position. I'm cooking s- "I said, "I don't know. I'm cooking. I'm trying to cook food for these people and da." Said, "I don't know where she went." Every time she would look at me like, "Michael, where she go?" I said, "I, I don't know. That's your job, right? You need to look for her while I'm busy cooking. I'm trying to make sure this food goes out on time, it's good, delicious, So we would get together after work. She's "Yeah, we need to let her go." And at the time she's coming up on her annual and she's about to get a raise, quote unquote, and go on vacation. She has all this planned. My boss' boss comes in and say, "Yeah, we need to let her go I said, "Man, you... Seriously?" I gotta let her go. Said, "All right." We pull her in here, we have the review, and we're going over everything. We got the piece of paper. I says, "Yes, you come in on time, you pick up shifts. Good job. I pr- I appreciate that. I appreciate every time I call, you pick up, and, you always come when I need you," Then my front of the house manager be like, "Yeah you disappear on the line. We don't know where you at, and then you disappear." I says, I said, "Okay, It's like I say something good, she say something bad. I say something good, you say something bad. We going back and forth. "Yeah you prepare salads without me telling you to." She said, "Yeah, but you leave ice cream out front to melt, and then you leave it in the freezer, and you don't dispose of it." we're going back and forth. And at the end we're like, "Yeah you enjoy your vacation because you're fired." And I think it flew right over her head. She's "Oh, okay." "We're gonna go back, grab your purse, and we're gonna walk you out." She's "Oh, okay." And then we walk her out and we say, our goodbyes. "Hey, thank you for everything you've done. We appreciate you. Goodbye." And she was cool with it, allegedly. So me and front of house manager were like, "That went really well." She's "Yeah, 'cause I'm surprised she let it, it went like that." I'm like, "Me too," right? I'm like, "That's weird" Lo and behold, couple hours later, my phone is blowing up. Message message. It's her father. Her father is blowing me up. Said, "How could you do this to her? she does good work, and she's been here this long," X, Y, Z. And I'm like, I didn't even know what to say because I agreed. I did not want to do that. Again, if you're in the culinary business, you know how hard it is to have staffing Especially at a senior liv- senior facility, right? I've been to so many senior facilities where they just don't pay good, and it's hard to have staff. Or you got a senior facility and they 16, their first job. You know how terrible that is? It's terrible. It is terrible. And I had to let people go, and it's like, what do you want me to do? She blowing me up. I go on vacation the following week, still blowing me up. This can't be," I'm like, "Yo, I apologize." I ain't, I didn't text back 'cause there's nothing I could do, nothing I could say. This is what happened. So I'm like, there's nothing I could do. She's gone. And I did feel bad initially But it was out of my hands. He's "What can I do?" 'Cause she was on a quote-unquote final warning that I gave her my first week there. So that's how I developed the skill, the art of firing and it's hard to do that. It's hard to have that skill of letting people go when they don't want to Until you get fired. Until you get fired yourself. When that happens, then you understand "Dog that's wild." But in

Wrap Up And New Setup

36:25

the grand scheme of things, that happens. I'm back, ladies and gentlemen, and I got a nice new camera. Yi Smart Cam S800 Get you one if you want to avoid that video podcast. I'm your host, Michael Gillespie, of the returned WDYM. Hopefully no more breaks. Got a nice space, new camera. Spiffy new camera. Thank you guys for tuning in. I hope to see you guys soon. I'm pretty sure I'll be back soon. Until then, I'm out. Girl Scout, boy Scout, peace