Senior Project--Week 1 (sort of)

For my senior project, I am continuing my job at Domino's and becoming one of the managers at the store. I was inspired to do this project since I've found fast-food work to be a really humbling experience, with long grueling hours in a greasy environment, working nonstop and having to learn to deal with not-so-nice customers. There are also often many misconceptions about what fast-food work is like, both with the work itself and the people you work with. This is something I hope to address throughout my project as I've made many close friends and interesting people through this work. I chose this project because given how long I've worked at Domino's, I knew that after I turned 18, my experience would most likely land me a job as a shift-runner. In the fast-food industry, employee turnover is rather high, and having worked at my local Domino's since June/July of 2020, I'm considered to be more experienced compared to some of the newer hires. Thus, it was pretty easy for me to land a promotion, citing the opportunity of senior projects and being able to commit myself full-time if I became a manager. However, becoming a manager does not make me exempt from doing the same work as all of the other employees in the store, which we refer to as "insiders." In fact, one of the biggest responsibilities as a manager is being a shift-runner, helping to delegate tasks to different insiders in order to keep up with the flow of orders that we have to make. These tasks include the makeline, the dough table ("slapping" and preparing sides), the front counter, the ovens, and the phones.

This is the makeline, with the dough table and lobby in the background

The makeline is the place where all the food is made, whether it be pizza, pasta, sandwiches, wings, or other sides (cheesy bread, brownies, lava cakes, etc.). The dough table is where people stretch preprepared dough into usable "skins" or "slaps" in a process that people like to call "slapping." On a nearby table is where people will prepare pan doughs and bread sides (bread bites and bread twists) and right next to that table is the front counter, where insiders put labels on boxes and interact with customers. The phones are pretty self-explanatory, as its where most of the employees (insiders and drivers) take phone calls, either taking phone orders or dealing with customer complaints. There is also a computer for people to dispatch drivers by the phones, as well as above the cut table at the ovens. At the ovens, employees (who are of ages 18 and up) take food out of the ovens that operate on a conveyor belt, put items in boxes, cut them if necessary, and top the food with the proper toppings (i.e. garlic butter on the crust of pizza to make that iconic garlic crust). There are many more tasks to cover, depending on the time of day and how well stocked the store is. For example, in the back of the store, boxes need to be folded and if it is earlier in the morning, different sauces and toppings need to be prepped. If it is later in the day, usually past the rush, drivers will occupy themselves with cleaning dishes between delivery runs, so that when the store closes, they will have less tasks they need to complete before they can go home.

Pizzas coming out of the oven with the cut table to the left

Beyond the many daily tasks that must be attended to by all of the employees, managing a Domino's comes with many more responsibilities. Of course, this depends on your shift and the time of day, but no matter what shift you work, managers have to be able to check out drivers, answer questions, help handle unsatisfied customers, and handle the store's financials. If closing, managers are required to clean the store, organize the store's money (counting money in the till, making "banks" and "bundles" for the next day, making a deposit at the bank, and calculating tips which are usually very small amounts--plz tip, its is very appreciated thx), and filling out closing paperwork. If opening, however, responsibilities include getting a "bank" (a wad of cash equivalent to $20 in varying bill sizes) to every driver, getting the store running, setting up the makeline, preparing everything needed to run the store that day (a.k.a. morning prep), making sure the dates on every single tub and bottle are not expired, as well as paperwork when the store receives a food order. While this might seem like a lot, many of these tasks (like morning prep) can take a very long time to finish, and hours can extend way beyond your typically 8 hour shift.

While most seniors are concluding their first weeks of their senior projects, I've only worked two days of the week prior to writing this blog. In the fast-food industry, the busiest days are often Fridays and the weekends, so I am working a Wednesday-Sunday schedule, where my "weekend" falls on Mondays and Tuesdays. Because of this, I have not had as much time to start my informal manager training (my formal training begins on Week 3), but I have started to learn how to do different manager tasks, including checking out drivers, helping with prep when helping on an opening shift on Thursday, and staying late to help close on Wednesday. While I still have three days of work ahead of me before my "first week" concludes, I hope that I will have many stories to share with everyone next week. My goals for this project over the next few weeks is to learn to manage/run a fast-food store on my own, learn to be quick-witted in problem solving when dealing with unsatisfied customers, and to better my communication skills by building strong relationships and friendships between myself and other workers. So far, I've found that building good relationships with managers helps motivate me to be a better worker and I've realized that good communication within a fast-food restaurant is key to making the food fast :)

P.S. If you wanna visit, 17531 SW Tualatin Valley Hwy. Beaverton, OR 97003. I'll be there most days