WITHOUT CONTROL
This is a true story.
During the summer before my sophomore year in college, I worked at a small Mexican food joint. It wasn't a chain -- just a local place called Hacienda Enchilada. It was more popular than it should've been. The food was not good (except for our curly fries, which actually were amazing) (yes, we sold curly fries at a fast food Tex-Mex restaurant) and the prices were higher than they should've been.
Nevertheless, it was popular. Really popular. Especially during lunchtime. It was pretty busy after five, but lunch was when things were always busy. Lots and lots of customers, lots and lots of work. I never figured out why -- unless it was the curly fries.
And the owner was a jackass. If you've worked in fast food or retail, I bet you know the type. Cheap, mean, arrogant, dumb, racist, sexist, etc. Arthur was white, and he desperately hated Hispanics, so I have no idea why he wanted to run a Mexican food restaurant.
There was no single job in the place. Sometimes you worked the grill, sometimes you ran the counter, sometimes you ran the drive-thru, sometimes you mopped. Our manager was Louis. He was the owner's brother. He was an asshole, too, but he wasn't nearly as bad as Arthur was. Louis worked his ass off during the lunch rush and helped clean the place before we closed down at night. He was still an asshole, and he lost his temper with us almost as often as Arthur did. But he kept working there, 'cause he hoped to take over the business eventually.
It was a bad job in a bad restaurant, but I liked all my other coworkers. Everyone seemed cool, everyone pulled together to get the jobs done, and I still think they were all genuinely great people. I can't remember their names anymore, but I loved working with them.
And one day, Arthur came in -- just before the lunch rush, no less -- and announced that none of us were getting paid that week. Not delayed paychecks, but no paychecks at all.
"You're all stupid," he yelled. "You're all dumb, you all suck, and none of you deserve to get paid. I'm a producer! You're all parasites! You should be paying me! You should worship the ground I goddamn fucking walk on!"
"Arthur, you gotta pay people," Louis said. "I don't care if they're all shitty employees. You gotta pay 'em."
"Fuck you, Louis!" Arthur yelled. "You're not getting paid either!"
So everyone quit. Basically all at the same time. Including Louis.
"You can't quit, you bastards!" Arthur was screaming at us by now. "You've got to get ready for the lunch rush! Get back to work! We can't give up that much business! I own you, goddamn it!"
And then the clock ticked over to 12 noon, and the lunch crowd started pouring in.
"Fine!" he yelled. "You're all useless! I don't need you! I can do this better than all of you put together!"
He did alright for a couple minutes, because we'd already made a lot of our more popular menu items and put 'em under the heat lamps before the rush started. But it wasn't long before he ran out of the pre-prepared food. And then there was no one else to run the grill, no one else to run the register, no one else to run the drive-thru.
I'd love to tell you exactly what happened after that, but all of us split as fast as we could. Yes, it would've been funny to watch, but we were all mad, we all hated working there, and we all wanted to get the hell out as soon as we could.
We only found out what happened on the news that night, when the local TV station aired footage of the Hacienda Enchilada burning to the ground. Apparently, Arthur lost control of everything sometime around 12:20, had a screaming fit at the customers, tried to sling a tray full of hot grease at them, and ended up setting the kitchen on fire. There were only minor injuries from people trying to get out of the restaurant, thank god.
But Arthur spent over a decade in prison. And he deserved it.
Louis started his own restaurant, the Taco Temple. It was also bad, and it closed down after two years. Don't know where Louis is, but I hope he's not in management.
I still know how to make the best curly fries in town.