Burger Boy Case

Burger Boy is based on a true story written by Jerry Newman, who spent over a year working in seven fast food restaurants and wrote about his experiences. The story particularly references an incident while he cooked at a restaurant. He explains that it was a Friday afternoon and the lunch rush was just beginning. That day 2 out of the 10 employees had called off sick and they were significantly short staffed. It explained that the assistant manager, Otis, had moved employees around from their regular positions to compensate for the missing staff. Marge, who normally works the fries (the easiest job) is put to service the drive-thru window. Newman, who has been working as a cook for only 3 days, finds himself cooking on his own and the only cook for the restaurant, Chuck who is normally in the Drive-thru line is going back and forth trying to help Marge, and assist Lucy with assembling the sandwiches. Needless to say, the stress level is high and everyone is feeling the pressure of being short staffed during a high traffic workday. Finally, there is a big argument between Leon (shift supervisor) and Otis. It starts off because one of the employees who is scheduled to leave at 2:30pm, (Marge) actually takes off after telling Otis she had to leave, and Otis ignoring her statements. Leon, stomps back to confront Otis, and they begin to air out their differences. Leon seems to be upset because he feels he is always coming in to find nothing stocked for the afternoon shift and feels that stocking is part of Otis's job. Otis is supposed to have the employees stock for the afternoon in their spare time. Otis, then replies in frustration and explains that he is fed up with his whining, and that he works far too many hours to deal with it. He drops what he is doing and stomps out stating that "he is going home to try and forget this place."

2. What appear to be the problems at this Burger Boy?

There are several issues with this location, one being they do not have clearly defined job description. Another is that they do not have the necessary staff employed to account for emergencies such as people calling off of work. I believe the organizational culture needs to be re-evaluated, as Newman mentions that after two weeks of working he was given only one compliment for his efforts. It appears to be a very stressful location which would indicate a high turnover and also employee dissatisfaction.

3. How many of these problems could be explained by compensation issues? Expand

I believe that determining a compensation plan appropriate for each position would definitely alleviate some of the stress as will incentivize employees to work harder. For example, Otis who is the Assistant Store Manager complains to Leon about the long hours that he puts in and is sick of hearing him complain. If Otis's position was not exempt, he would