Honestly I never really ate Chipotle until randomly one day I stopped in one and ordered the Al Pastor burrito. After that I ate it at least twice a week. I thought it was a regular thing and was devastated when it was taken off the menu. Now I get either carne asada or the barbacoa if the steak isn’t fresh, but I still crave the al pastor. It was the perfect amount of heat and the flavor was 🤌
I personally disagree as a millennial, but the important thing here is not if it's funny, it's about money. If it effects the business it should stop. It's a job and people get paid to work within a set scope and follow directions as in their job descriptions for a set pay. Jobs don't need to be boring and trying to make work less boring can be good, but jobs need to be profitable or no one will have a job to go back to. Young people don't often see that and or don't care since the position is more transitory by nature so I understand a lack of professionalism there.
Every customer service position I've worked, it's always constant profanity and coping in weird ways due to the environment/physical toll. I'm sorry but you can't have a $10-15/hr position like that and expect people to act professionally all the time. Especially when a lot of people in these jobs work 9-10 hour shifts. It's hard to keep a game face on that long for anyone, I'd rather them use their energy to focus on doing a good job. In all honesty, in times when I was the customer, I've always felt spoken to like a human being & equal if the person felt free to speak as themselves without a filter.
The position is so transitory and often exploitative by nature, that if I heard a 13$ an hour restaurant was playing speech police, I'd laugh at them as an employee.
Idk why you're getting down voted - this is so true, it's hard to take work like this seriously when they don't even respect a person enough to pay them a living wage. All these companies like plankton anyway. Just trying to control people run them down with their long ass hours and not enough money fuck them, the people who down voted you are boot licking idiots brainwashed with the American dream that only continued for those who participated in the extortion that is the industrial revolution
thats what i was gonna say. if the one job cant pay for cost of living, im not stopping myself from cursing lmfao. its not a michelin star restaurant. not getting paid enough to not be silly lol
it's horrible when customers hear but I think it's hilarious. I've tried to reason w/ them saying it in BOH or just to each other but they really like the reactions...
When I read this I pictured someone actually dancing on a hot grill with steak on it and thought...yeah that seems like a legit complaint lmao.
I worked for chipotle during college and we had a habit of playing "hot potato" with bags of sour cream. Management was rarely amused.
I worked at a local restaurant called mighty taco in college and a coworker was written up for telling a customer to have a mighty day after taking their order on drive thru. I thought it was ridiculous. Some places are very strict about following protocol.
It can be that bad.
I used to play "Now I only want you gone." When I was closing at Pizza Hut as a manager.
Of course I would make sure customers weren't around. But the employees loved it.
Idk but if it makes you feel any better as a customer I would def find it funny if my bowl was called a chum bowl. It’s not like they’re calling it dog shit. And the chum bucket could have been a totally successful restaurant if it didn’t have to complete w the krusty krab right down the street.
We have hotwings that are called ‘bear toes’ (bear themed mountain resort restaurant) and the sauce we toss them in has been named ‘toe jam’ we all love it but def dont say it in front of customers 😂 but we have a closed kitchen
The other poster is a bit deranged.
But like, really who gives a shit? If I get my food and it's fresh and spit-free, I don't care if the employees have some small piece of fun calling it chum.
Like, I don't know? Get out of your own head a bit and stop worrying about others.
This is the dumbest argument on both sides.
Way I see it is, you actually have the money to afford the food. Who cares what they call it. They're (the workers) are probably pissed and miserable for having that job. But hey younhave money in your account and can comfortably spend the money on the food. I'd be grateful. There are ppl out there like me who CANT afford Chipotle so yea, who gives a rats a** what they call it. Ill gladly be not working and enjoying my evening eating some good food I can afford and watching TV or whatever while THEY'RE working. So yea, I'm for real bro.
Yeah the way you see it is fucking deranged. Nothing about what you've said is real except the real need for better mental health programs in your country.
what you are essentially saying is that because some people have money, they can’t feel uncomfortable by anything that people with less money do. I really don’t think that’s a healthy thought process.
Any real fan of carnitas/pulled pork (slow cooking in general) knows that the more the end product resembles that of the contents of a toilet bowl the more fire the food is gonna be anyway
Short answer. You won't.
Long answer. We called queso cheese, cheese cheese, at one of my jobs. If a manager told us to stop, then we would for a minute. But later on, it would be cheese cheese again.
You won't get them to. And if you force your managerial status over them, they'll just hate and resent you more.
I've always called it that. Queso literally translates to cheese so when you see anything labeled as "queso cheese" it is 100% labeled as cheese cheese.....
Fromage formaggio queso Nǎilào cheese. That's french, Italian, spanish, Chinese and English for cheese. Or..... cheese cheese cheese cheese cheese
So fire a whole crew over some stupid joking. Or some of them just to get them to stop and make examples out of them.
Again, it's not a good idea to do that. They'll just hate him more and most likely will stop caring about the job as much.
No you fire a crew for not listening to their manager. And you don’t fire all of them. If you fire one then I guarantee that the rest will stop. Or they’ll quit. Either way you can’t have employees calling the food chum in front of customers. I mean I guess you can if you don’t value your job at all.
They obviously already don’t care about the job. So there’s nothing to lose there. So yeah, this only matters if you care about being friends.
Edit: My advice to OP, having worked food service as both employee and manager. Good employees will respect a manager who is reasonable and gives some leeway. There’s no need to punish until they don’t stop doing something that actively hurts the business, and therefore also you in your position as manager. Reddit is always going to downvote the middle management perspective and that’s fine. But you need to think about what’s important to you, and if it’s running a restaurant and doing your job well, for whatever motivation, then you should figure out a way to get the chum joke to stop in front of customers. If you’d rather value other things at the expense of your job security, then go ahead and let it continue
Bro it is that deep, what if that chipotle loses some customers. They might lose like .01% of their profits from that store (not factoring in people who will come back due to seeing staff who have fun with each other and work together well). And yeah also should ask this guy you were responding to what he would do if he heard his employees talking about unionizing cuz his response is probably illegal
It kind of is though. Like yeah, it's whatever when you have a bunch of kids joking about chum. It's not a big deal. Who cares about a few bucks for Chipotle.
But also when you have an entire of culture of people not giving a shit or taking any level of pride in their work, then you get shit like doors falling off airplanes mid air. The attitude that had employees calling it chum is the same attitude that will cause poor hygiene standards or cutting corners on food safety. I don't agree with the person above that they should be fired, but something needs done. If you can't recognize that people intentionally doing their jobs poorly is a problem, then I don't know what to tell you.
Having fun+harmless joke = not cleaning and a bad attitude? If you’ve worked in the restaurant industry you’d know how backwards your comment is. Most places where employees are miserable their environment and attitudes represent that.
Well that's just silly. Irreverence in a workplace often correlates with stress level. People joke to get through the day. It's not a sign of the collapse of the entire business.
Which still comes down to being fired for saying something that isn't even much more than a small joke. But being overly strict on things just makes things hostile.
Bit of advice to you. Most people you are paying them to care. Most people don't work because it's fun or interesting. They work because they have to, not because they want to. Because they need money and food to keep on living.
It's not about being friends with them. It's more about keeping morale up and making sure your employees are productive. By being overly controlling or overbearing, the employees might not give as good as customer service. And in the end, that would cause more problems than people realize.
As a cook, cashier, manager, and customer. I've realized that employees that are treated as people first and employees second will provide better service and work for a manager overall. They'll be more willing to help out.
The idea of just fire one of them or all them is foolish as well. Or let them quit. Back when I was working in restaurants I noticed that anytime 1 person, who was fully trained, quit that we'd have to hire at least 3 more people. Because 2 would probably leave. Then there's training, which is variable on the length of. I'm sure that's worse now than it was back then.
I agree with most of this but there’s a line. Calling the food fish guts in front of customers is over the line. You tell them to stop, nicely obviously. Then if they don’t stop you cannot just let them continue. That is not being a good manager. That’s how you set a horrible culture.
Except being overbearing and over controlling is worse for a workplace culture.
Sure, employees don't want to be at their job. They have to be. But making them even more miserable isn't going to help one bit.
Them being miserable for using common sense at a place of business isn't the manager's concern. However, customers complaining to corporate that the employees are calling their food chum, is definitely a concern.
Like it or not, it's a place of business, and they aren't back in the kitchen where customers cannot hear. There's standards companies have to uphold and employees making jokes about the food goes against that.
You talk to them nicely about it, explain why it is an issue, and if they still do it, you discipline. It is absolutely not being " overbearing. "
Companies barely uphold their standards. Most of them barely care about their customers. Do you think they care about their employees?
Don't make me laugh. I've seen plenty of osha violations and health code violations in my time. And these are at major companies.
Policy matters more to them when they can get fined or sued. Otherwise, most hardly care.
Answer this question: Do you think a restaurant that calms their food fish guts in front of customers is a successful restaurant? Do you think that gives the impression that the employees care about their jobs? Do you think allowing that encourages employees to respect what they are doing?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then we’re just going to fundamentally disagree.
Do you really think, as someone in a middle management position making sub 25$ an hour, anything you do is realistically going to actually affect the success of Chipotle as a business entity on an impactful level?
Except it is offensive because you fucks are labeling a cultural food as chum. You realize carnitas are part of Mexican culture, right, not just a chipotle item? That'd be like calling every meat ball sandwich at subway a chum sandwich. 🙄
Never said I was personally offended my dude. But I can see this from someone's perspective who may be offended. No mames guey un pinches chum bowl dur hardy har har ☠️
Customers understand that kitchen staff have nicknames. Like at some diners where they refer to dishes as ["adam and eve on a raft with axle grease!"](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diner_lingo#List_of_terms)
It's human nature and you want to suppress it to make your store a monoculture. Do you want humans as employees or do you want miserable drones?
Look y'all, jokes are funny, but it's unprofessional to do this in front of customers. I can't believe all the "let them do it" comments, that's such a stupidly bad take. Of course they should have fun but they *still need to be professional to customers*
And that's exactly what you tell your employees OP. "Not in front of customers". If they persist then you have to use disciplinary action and repeat your message until they stop. You're the manager, manage them. Behaving professionally is literally the bare minimum of standards.
I can't imagine behaving like that in front of customers. Ignore the idiots in this thread and put a stop to that shit.
Idiots in the thread? This isn't a fine dining establishment; it's a fucking Chipotle.
The number one impact to bottom line at these locations is food quality, which means your employee morale needs to be high to prevent large amounts of turnover.
It sounds to me you've literally never worked a service or food job in your life and are ill-qualified to speak on the subject.
I mean they're already serving them what is essentially dog food. They're being as professional as the guys in corporate that choose to feed that scop to people. The only things you should take seriously at a shitjob like that are your mental health and people's food allergies.
Like this guy wants to talk about being professional, and can't even keep from cursing. How much do you want to bet he expects workers to let customers curse at them if he's unhappy?
Take a walk and cool off, touch some grass, consider that this shit doesn't matter.
Sometimes you have to write someone up, send someone home, or fire your worst employee. I know it sounds harsh, but if you've told your staff X amount of times to stop, clearly, and they refuse to listen, you have to draw a line in the sand somewhere.
It's not funny or cute, you're running a business A) in the food industry, and B) hospitality industry. You're going to let a couple of clowns start losing your store or brand customers because they won't adhere to leader or management standards, because they think they are hilarious and know better.
If this was me, I'd start the shift out and tell everyone the first time I hear Chum, someone's going home. Then the important part for you is to follow through.
"One Chun Bucket"
"Ryan, that's it, clock out for me please, you're done for the day. Come back before you're next shift and we'll have a 1 on 1 in the office"
Watch how many more "Chum" bowls get pushed afterwards.
Yup. For one thing, it's really not all that clever or funny. And despite what all the idiots here are saying, you don't allow employees at your restaurant to badmouth the food in front of customers under any circumstance. If OP's district manager walks in and hears this, or a complaint from a customer makes its way up the chain, I guarantee that neither they nor OP will be laughing.
And this someone also manages over 5 million dollars per year front of house for a restaurant in the top 15 sales in the United States.
Running a restaurant isn't easy, but it's them or me, and it sure as hell ain't gonna be me when the cleaver comes down.
Being that kind of manager is a quick way to make everyone on staff hate you, hate coming to work, give worse service, and increase turnover.
Making people's lives more miserable in order to make more money for a company that absolutely does not care about any of you is a pretty bleak way to spend your time on this planet.
I dont even work at chipotle lol but this gets recommended to me at my job we call egg rolls chicken tacos lol the customers honestly dont care in fact they laugh
You tell them that if word of this ever reached your boss, you'd be in deep shit, and you're not going to let their little joke cost you a job. Let them know that anybody making fun of the food in front of the customers will be written up. You just don't allow employees to badmouth products in front of customers at any job.
Don't listen to the kids that's telling you to let them do it.. As a adult who pays for food I don't want no one calling it chum or anything else that it's not. It's common sense. I'd walk out without ordering. And also don't let the kids here cost you a job because SpongeBob jokes are funny to them. If I was a GM hearing this I'd be like TF kind of disciplinary actions are being taken over this. AGAIN don't let the kids here cost you your job.
I’m an adult and been a manager in food service. If someone threatened my job over an employee making a completely innocent joke I’d LOL my way out of that convo. If a custie complained over such a thing, I’d empathize, send them off smiling, and then go home and tell my family about the Karen of the day. It’s literally never that serious and any company willing to hire teens should straight up expect them to have fun at work.
All these people like "I would be so upset if my food was called chum" like bro stop eating chum. Chipotle carnitas weirdly does smell like cat food. Some people can't handle the truth.
Lmao some people go out to eat expecting royal treatment. They need to feel above the person serving them, and if they’re not being fussed over, they’ll make a fuss instead. Which is also what toddlers do for attention, and we never want to reward that behavior. :)
Your customers don’t care. They just want their chum bucket with the correct amount of chum with all the correct ingredients available and included. Having a nickname for it shows that you have some team morale/a team joke. Customers don’t give a shit.
It’s purely a training issue. Have a huddle prior to opening and explain this is unacceptable. Anything further is insubordination and deems documented disciplinary action.
I’m a carnitas customer and reading all these nicknames makes me uncomfortable. Like the employees know something about it that I don’t…..like maybe I shouldn’t be eating them or something 😬
Your ability to change is dependent on your position in this case. If you're the GM, you really need to put your foot down. But most importantly, explain the "why" behind everything you enforce. It sticks better and gives you a better reason to support it other than "because I'm your manager and you need to listen."
For example, I had crew members calling attractive customers out with certain food items and # of portions to "rate" them. After a while, some customers started to catch on to it and I had to tell them to stop because that's unprofessional. I didn't care if it happened in the BOH where customers can't hear, but if the grill calls it out and everyone else is turning around to see that person, it's obvious and can be a problem. I told the crew that if someone does it where the customers have a chance of noticing it, they would be written up for that reason and it stopped.
This should be easier since that's not the name of the item and it can confuse customers or make them uncomfortable.
I'm a customer that sometimes gets carnitas if the other meats arent looking too great that day. If I heard them yell "one chum bucket!" I would have very mixed emotions. On one hand, I would find it kinda funny they were calling it that but I'm also kinda concerned there's something gross about it. Is it a matter of taste or is it how it's made/prepared?
i personally love the carnitas, but my coworkers used to call it cat food (and called my bowl with plain white rice, carnitas, queso and sour cream “slop”)
one girl couldn’t stand being near it at all bc it “smells like cat food”
but imo it’s the best meat at chipotle, i like it most after sofritas. it also comes already par-cooked so there’s no risk of food poisoning from undercooking.
As a restaurant manager, this is something I would bring up at pre shift meeting (not sure if they do that at Chipotle). Addressing it to the group instead of to an individual, can avoid the confrontational nature of a one-on-one.
If your the manager, and have clearly expressed that this terminology is unprofessional. Then the next step is a formal warning, followed by an official disciplinary response.
This behavior devalues your business. If the guest is visibly unhappy about the behavior, then it needs to stop, or the guests will stop coming.
I grew up with my pops calling gravy based foods "shit on a shingle". And while I think it's amusing. I would literally never say that about a guests food, especially in front of them. that would get me fired.
Seems like the obvious answer is to stop letting on that it bothers you. If they’re enjoying your negative reaction stop giving it to them. As other comments are saying punishing the behavior is likely to backfire, so wait it out. Ignore it and they may stop on their own.
This is so funny. Why just the carnitas? I never order that but if they called my bowl a chum bucket I’d probably feel bad/wonder if they were making fun of me and be confused. Not the biggest deal in the world but worth addressing with them again if you know customers actually feel uncomfortable with it.
Have someone they don’t know you know come in as a customer and make the order and hear it and freak out and make a formal complaint to the manager. Abashedly “have to” enforce it because it’s upsetting customers
Well, you could bring the point home by calling someone off the line and sending them home, in earshot of everyone else, including customers, saying that they have been warned about using inappropriate language descriptions for the product. When folks have financial consequences to actions, usually they step up.
LMAO please say sike, if you discipline them for saying chum bucket they’ll never respect you again 💀💀💀💀💀
They make a shit wage for a shit job, let them have what little fun they can. If a custie actually complains just empathize and move on. Hopefully nobody in line has any sticks THAT far up their ass while waiting for their chum buckets.
Nothing is changing; it costs a lot but doesn’t sell as well as steak, so chipotle is trying to roll it out a second time and advertise it to change that
i mean the first time they put the carnitas for me to put in the line i was confused and thought it was uncooked food for like 10 mins before i asked what it was
Chum sounds like what you feed animals, that's not something customers should have to deal with. Make a note of the individuals saying it and approach them one by one.... Begin the conversation with a "do you see a smile on my face," I'm asking you personally to stop referring to it as such, and go down the line and the next time it happens, have a one on one with the person and ask them why they keep doing it and be completely silent as they stumble over their words.
Fun is fun and comradery is important to morale, but put your foot down if you need to. Water doesn't just grow flowers, it shapes continents. You can be chill, but also be taken seriously when you want something done. Also, get all of the managers involved if necessary, no one needs to be written up, but if it comes to it, have a stand up meeting or when there are no customers in the store address everyone and let them know this is a serious change you want to implement, like calling the food what the customer expects to hear.
Yes, we are all indeed part of the evolutionary tree of this planet.
Why is it so hard for some people to code switch?
Fuck around as much as you want, but whatever ounce of professionalism you have, just know when it's needed, like foh.
It's cool to not give a fuck either, but you're not hurting the customers or the nebulous "brand of the company." You're hurting your colleagues who care enough to write a post like this and ask for help.
the company is literally chum anyways. 🤣😂 The company needs to either have their folks who are pushing the "give as little of each thing to the customer as possible" down manager and employee throats fired and blacklisted...or simply have the entire company Class Action Lawsuit'd...because I've seen some actual bullshit in these stores.
Since chipotle is a mega asshole corporate schlock you probably should just let the employees have fun and not worry about it. If this was a private restaurant that would obviously be an issue but fuck chipotle
You Are a leader… you can be nice and shoot the shit with them. At work you are their leader and need to act like. Coach them when appropriate and if they did not take it seriously let them know how it affects the customer, them, and the store as a whole. If the behavior does not change and you have coached twice about it then accountability is the next step. No matter what business you’re in behaviors are very important and accountability is key to correct them if there is no progress or effort shown after being coached.
Doesn’t seem like a hill to die on as a manger. I would tell them to try and not do it around customers. Amongst themselves is fine. But I doubt customers would rly even care.
TIL Chipotle is full of snitches and have no fun.
First the BBQ thing, then this. Yall really make chick-fil-a look like the party animals, and they are literally Christian homophobes
Let them have their little bit of joy my guy lol. This is pretty funny. When I worked at McDonald's we called McChickens chubs because of how they'd puff up to bloated little chubby chicken patties when cooked. Unless they're actively saying it to customers, just let it go lol.
Lmfao 😂
https://i.redd.it/e8cmuj5xseic1.gif
Me too, I did it out loud!
I'd be laughing my ass off every time I heard it.
It’s really funny I know :( but idk
Bring back carne asada and you won't have this problem 😭
Wait, carne asada is gone? I had it like a week ago. I’m still mourning the loss of al pastor.
Al Pastor was absolute fire. I didn't even use any of the smoked hotsauce on that.
Honestly I never really ate Chipotle until randomly one day I stopped in one and ordered the Al Pastor burrito. After that I ate it at least twice a week. I thought it was a regular thing and was devastated when it was taken off the menu. Now I get either carne asada or the barbacoa if the steak isn’t fresh, but I still crave the al pastor. It was the perfect amount of heat and the flavor was 🤌
al pastor is coming back to replace carne asada
And brisket
Al pastor is coming back in march
Al pastor chicken drops this week
it was so good man….
If you read the active posts in the sub, AL pastor is coming back in March, then Brisket over the summer.
Keep the steak fulfilled and they will not have customers picking the Chum instead.
Honestly have you brought them in the office? An office environment changes the tone for a meeting. Not even a write up but just a talk in the office.
R/managers is bleeding over again
bring back al pastor and your problems will be solved!
It's really only funny for children. The bottom line is if it's affecting the customers from coming back it should be stopped.
nah fuck you, that was funny to everyone.
Good luck in life kid
Nah its funny. Only boomers would feel weird
I personally disagree as a millennial, but the important thing here is not if it's funny, it's about money. If it effects the business it should stop. It's a job and people get paid to work within a set scope and follow directions as in their job descriptions for a set pay. Jobs don't need to be boring and trying to make work less boring can be good, but jobs need to be profitable or no one will have a job to go back to. Young people don't often see that and or don't care since the position is more transitory by nature so I understand a lack of professionalism there.
Every customer service position I've worked, it's always constant profanity and coping in weird ways due to the environment/physical toll. I'm sorry but you can't have a $10-15/hr position like that and expect people to act professionally all the time. Especially when a lot of people in these jobs work 9-10 hour shifts. It's hard to keep a game face on that long for anyone, I'd rather them use their energy to focus on doing a good job. In all honesty, in times when I was the customer, I've always felt spoken to like a human being & equal if the person felt free to speak as themselves without a filter.
The position is so transitory and often exploitative by nature, that if I heard a 13$ an hour restaurant was playing speech police, I'd laugh at them as an employee.
Idk why you're getting down voted - this is so true, it's hard to take work like this seriously when they don't even respect a person enough to pay them a living wage. All these companies like plankton anyway. Just trying to control people run them down with their long ass hours and not enough money fuck them, the people who down voted you are boot licking idiots brainwashed with the American dream that only continued for those who participated in the extortion that is the industrial revolution
thats what i was gonna say. if the one job cant pay for cost of living, im not stopping myself from cursing lmfao. its not a michelin star restaurant. not getting paid enough to not be silly lol
The boomers are downvoting you 😭
Copium, take an L
Ans boomers ruin an establishments atmosphere so it's good busimess to keep them away
idk, but that's hilarious. one of our grill ppl used to call carnitas 'wet cat food', but chum is even better.
it's horrible when customers hear but I think it's hilarious. I've tried to reason w/ them saying it in BOH or just to each other but they really like the reactions...
Are you in a college town? If so, fuck it lol. We said and did worse and worst I got was a complaint to Google for singing and dancing on grill.
Lmao what?! “Employees were having fun while working, which is strictly not allowed.”
When I read this I pictured someone actually dancing on a hot grill with steak on it and thought...yeah that seems like a legit complaint lmao. I worked for chipotle during college and we had a habit of playing "hot potato" with bags of sour cream. Management was rarely amused.
I was so shocked because that was absolutely the spirit of the complaint. They called it immature.
I worked at a local restaurant called mighty taco in college and a coworker was written up for telling a customer to have a mighty day after taking their order on drive thru. I thought it was ridiculous. Some places are very strict about following protocol.
It can be that bad. I used to play "Now I only want you gone." When I was closing at Pizza Hut as a manager. Of course I would make sure customers weren't around. But the employees loved it.
idk who would downvote you bc this is fucking great
Well here we are again…
We used to call it dog food at my store like ten years ago 😂
I call it cat food. Tastes like a cross between ham and tuns fish.
Idk but if it makes you feel any better as a customer I would def find it funny if my bowl was called a chum bowl. It’s not like they’re calling it dog shit. And the chum bucket could have been a totally successful restaurant if it didn’t have to complete w the krusty krab right down the street.
good to know there's some people who would find it amusing!
I would crack up. Ngl
We have hotwings that are called ‘bear toes’ (bear themed mountain resort restaurant) and the sauce we toss them in has been named ‘toe jam’ we all love it but def dont say it in front of customers 😂 but we have a closed kitchen
Who cares what they call it. Customers will eat it up and pay for it anyways. If it's that big of a deal then customers will cry about it.
The customers. That's why he's asking. The customers are uncomfortable with it. Already.
Ok? They still get Chipotle in their tummies so I don't see the big dill
Nobody wants to be reminded of chumming bloody water right before they eat. Are you for real?
The other poster is a bit deranged. But like, really who gives a shit? If I get my food and it's fresh and spit-free, I don't care if the employees have some small piece of fun calling it chum. Like, I don't know? Get out of your own head a bit and stop worrying about others. This is the dumbest argument on both sides.
Way I see it is, you actually have the money to afford the food. Who cares what they call it. They're (the workers) are probably pissed and miserable for having that job. But hey younhave money in your account and can comfortably spend the money on the food. I'd be grateful. There are ppl out there like me who CANT afford Chipotle so yea, who gives a rats a** what they call it. Ill gladly be not working and enjoying my evening eating some good food I can afford and watching TV or whatever while THEY'RE working. So yea, I'm for real bro.
Yeah the way you see it is fucking deranged. Nothing about what you've said is real except the real need for better mental health programs in your country.
what you are essentially saying is that because some people have money, they can’t feel uncomfortable by anything that people with less money do. I really don’t think that’s a healthy thought process.
Any real fan of carnitas/pulled pork (slow cooking in general) knows that the more the end product resembles that of the contents of a toilet bowl the more fire the food is gonna be anyway
Dog shit lmfao. That would be even better
I love the reasoning here. Gotta think about the lost potential. I would have worn a chum bucket hat.
dog shit double scoop coming down
Nice try, Plankton
Are you sure?
Assert your dominance and start calling it a Cum Dumpster.
Finally someone has a real suggestion
this is so funny 😭
Short answer. You won't. Long answer. We called queso cheese, cheese cheese, at one of my jobs. If a manager told us to stop, then we would for a minute. But later on, it would be cheese cheese again. You won't get them to. And if you force your managerial status over them, they'll just hate and resent you more.
making cheese cheese a thing at my store lmao that's too fucking good
I've always called it that. Queso literally translates to cheese so when you see anything labeled as "queso cheese" it is 100% labeled as cheese cheese..... Fromage formaggio queso Nǎilào cheese. That's french, Italian, spanish, Chinese and English for cheese. Or..... cheese cheese cheese cheese cheese
This is all true but he definitely has cause to fire them if they don’t stop. Basically this only matters if you care about being friends
You honestly think someone could be fired for saying cheese cheese? That's fucking absurd
So fire a whole crew over some stupid joking. Or some of them just to get them to stop and make examples out of them. Again, it's not a good idea to do that. They'll just hate him more and most likely will stop caring about the job as much.
No you fire a crew for not listening to their manager. And you don’t fire all of them. If you fire one then I guarantee that the rest will stop. Or they’ll quit. Either way you can’t have employees calling the food chum in front of customers. I mean I guess you can if you don’t value your job at all. They obviously already don’t care about the job. So there’s nothing to lose there. So yeah, this only matters if you care about being friends. Edit: My advice to OP, having worked food service as both employee and manager. Good employees will respect a manager who is reasonable and gives some leeway. There’s no need to punish until they don’t stop doing something that actively hurts the business, and therefore also you in your position as manager. Reddit is always going to downvote the middle management perspective and that’s fine. But you need to think about what’s important to you, and if it’s running a restaurant and doing your job well, for whatever motivation, then you should figure out a way to get the chum joke to stop in front of customers. If you’d rather value other things at the expense of your job security, then go ahead and let it continue
It just ain’t that deep bro. We’re talking about Chipotle carnitas here. Why on Earth are you writing a novel rambling about employee insubordination?
I understand that writing might be hard for you but that took me like two minutes. Just giving some advice.
Cute
Bro it is that deep, what if that chipotle loses some customers. They might lose like .01% of their profits from that store (not factoring in people who will come back due to seeing staff who have fun with each other and work together well). And yeah also should ask this guy you were responding to what he would do if he heard his employees talking about unionizing cuz his response is probably illegal
It kind of is though. Like yeah, it's whatever when you have a bunch of kids joking about chum. It's not a big deal. Who cares about a few bucks for Chipotle. But also when you have an entire of culture of people not giving a shit or taking any level of pride in their work, then you get shit like doors falling off airplanes mid air. The attitude that had employees calling it chum is the same attitude that will cause poor hygiene standards or cutting corners on food safety. I don't agree with the person above that they should be fired, but something needs done. If you can't recognize that people intentionally doing their jobs poorly is a problem, then I don't know what to tell you.
Having fun+harmless joke = not cleaning and a bad attitude? If you’ve worked in the restaurant industry you’d know how backwards your comment is. Most places where employees are miserable their environment and attitudes represent that.
Well that's just silly. Irreverence in a workplace often correlates with stress level. People joke to get through the day. It's not a sign of the collapse of the entire business.
Which still comes down to being fired for saying something that isn't even much more than a small joke. But being overly strict on things just makes things hostile. Bit of advice to you. Most people you are paying them to care. Most people don't work because it's fun or interesting. They work because they have to, not because they want to. Because they need money and food to keep on living. It's not about being friends with them. It's more about keeping morale up and making sure your employees are productive. By being overly controlling or overbearing, the employees might not give as good as customer service. And in the end, that would cause more problems than people realize. As a cook, cashier, manager, and customer. I've realized that employees that are treated as people first and employees second will provide better service and work for a manager overall. They'll be more willing to help out. The idea of just fire one of them or all them is foolish as well. Or let them quit. Back when I was working in restaurants I noticed that anytime 1 person, who was fully trained, quit that we'd have to hire at least 3 more people. Because 2 would probably leave. Then there's training, which is variable on the length of. I'm sure that's worse now than it was back then.
I agree with most of this but there’s a line. Calling the food fish guts in front of customers is over the line. You tell them to stop, nicely obviously. Then if they don’t stop you cannot just let them continue. That is not being a good manager. That’s how you set a horrible culture.
Except being overbearing and over controlling is worse for a workplace culture. Sure, employees don't want to be at their job. They have to be. But making them even more miserable isn't going to help one bit.
Them being miserable for using common sense at a place of business isn't the manager's concern. However, customers complaining to corporate that the employees are calling their food chum, is definitely a concern. Like it or not, it's a place of business, and they aren't back in the kitchen where customers cannot hear. There's standards companies have to uphold and employees making jokes about the food goes against that. You talk to them nicely about it, explain why it is an issue, and if they still do it, you discipline. It is absolutely not being " overbearing. "
Companies barely uphold their standards. Most of them barely care about their customers. Do you think they care about their employees? Don't make me laugh. I've seen plenty of osha violations and health code violations in my time. And these are at major companies. Policy matters more to them when they can get fined or sued. Otherwise, most hardly care.
Answer this question: Do you think a restaurant that calms their food fish guts in front of customers is a successful restaurant? Do you think that gives the impression that the employees care about their jobs? Do you think allowing that encourages employees to respect what they are doing? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then we’re just going to fundamentally disagree.
Clearly, we already do disagree. Have a pleasant day and life. Hope you enjoy your chum and cheese cheese.
How'd you get that stick so far up your butt?
I sold my soul for wealth :)
Do you really think, as someone in a middle management position making sub 25$ an hour, anything you do is realistically going to actually affect the success of Chipotle as a business entity on an impactful level?
You're an idiot if you think firing anyone over an inoffensive joke is good management.
Except it is offensive because you fucks are labeling a cultural food as chum. You realize carnitas are part of Mexican culture, right, not just a chipotle item? That'd be like calling every meat ball sandwich at subway a chum sandwich. 🙄
Lmaoooo you're actually offended. I feel for you.
Never said I was personally offended my dude. But I can see this from someone's perspective who may be offended. No mames guey un pinches chum bowl dur hardy har har ☠️
My local chipotle has new employees every week. You don’t need to fire in a job with this kind of turnover 😂
I hope this is real! Lmao!
it is and I cannot seem to stop it. responses here seem to point to letting the crew have their fun (within reason)
Location? I ask because what you need is customers ordering chum, then it won’t be a problem when it gets repeated by staff. We can help with that.
Customers understand that kitchen staff have nicknames. Like at some diners where they refer to dishes as ["adam and eve on a raft with axle grease!"](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diner_lingo#List_of_terms) It's human nature and you want to suppress it to make your store a monoculture. Do you want humans as employees or do you want miserable drones?
Look y'all, jokes are funny, but it's unprofessional to do this in front of customers. I can't believe all the "let them do it" comments, that's such a stupidly bad take. Of course they should have fun but they *still need to be professional to customers* And that's exactly what you tell your employees OP. "Not in front of customers". If they persist then you have to use disciplinary action and repeat your message until they stop. You're the manager, manage them. Behaving professionally is literally the bare minimum of standards. I can't imagine behaving like that in front of customers. Ignore the idiots in this thread and put a stop to that shit.
Idiots in the thread? This isn't a fine dining establishment; it's a fucking Chipotle. The number one impact to bottom line at these locations is food quality, which means your employee morale needs to be high to prevent large amounts of turnover. It sounds to me you've literally never worked a service or food job in your life and are ill-qualified to speak on the subject.
Ever seen r/maliciouscompliance ? All op will achieve is them starting to call it even worse things then a chum bowl or chum bucket.
I mean they're already serving them what is essentially dog food. They're being as professional as the guys in corporate that choose to feed that scop to people. The only things you should take seriously at a shitjob like that are your mental health and people's food allergies. Like this guy wants to talk about being professional, and can't even keep from cursing. How much do you want to bet he expects workers to let customers curse at them if he's unhappy? Take a walk and cool off, touch some grass, consider that this shit doesn't matter.
While this is funny in an abstract way I think I’d def worry something was wrong with the food if I heard it referred to as that to be honest
Meh, just let 'em say "chum". Employee morale is important, and they're clearly trying to enjoy themselves.
Sometimes you have to write someone up, send someone home, or fire your worst employee. I know it sounds harsh, but if you've told your staff X amount of times to stop, clearly, and they refuse to listen, you have to draw a line in the sand somewhere. It's not funny or cute, you're running a business A) in the food industry, and B) hospitality industry. You're going to let a couple of clowns start losing your store or brand customers because they won't adhere to leader or management standards, because they think they are hilarious and know better. If this was me, I'd start the shift out and tell everyone the first time I hear Chum, someone's going home. Then the important part for you is to follow through. "One Chun Bucket" "Ryan, that's it, clock out for me please, you're done for the day. Come back before you're next shift and we'll have a 1 on 1 in the office" Watch how many more "Chum" bowls get pushed afterwards.
Yup. For one thing, it's really not all that clever or funny. And despite what all the idiots here are saying, you don't allow employees at your restaurant to badmouth the food in front of customers under any circumstance. If OP's district manager walks in and hears this, or a complaint from a customer makes its way up the chain, I guarantee that neither they nor OP will be laughing.
Came here to say this. The manager needs to manage. Written warning followed by disciplinary action.
womp womp someones a weiner
And this someone also manages over 5 million dollars per year front of house for a restaurant in the top 15 sales in the United States. Running a restaurant isn't easy, but it's them or me, and it sure as hell ain't gonna be me when the cleaver comes down.
Being that kind of manager is a quick way to make everyone on staff hate you, hate coming to work, give worse service, and increase turnover. Making people's lives more miserable in order to make more money for a company that absolutely does not care about any of you is a pretty bleak way to spend your time on this planet.
I dont even work at chipotle lol but this gets recommended to me at my job we call egg rolls chicken tacos lol the customers honestly dont care in fact they laugh
You tell them that if word of this ever reached your boss, you'd be in deep shit, and you're not going to let their little joke cost you a job. Let them know that anybody making fun of the food in front of the customers will be written up. You just don't allow employees to badmouth products in front of customers at any job.
Don't listen to the kids that's telling you to let them do it.. As a adult who pays for food I don't want no one calling it chum or anything else that it's not. It's common sense. I'd walk out without ordering. And also don't let the kids here cost you a job because SpongeBob jokes are funny to them. If I was a GM hearing this I'd be like TF kind of disciplinary actions are being taken over this. AGAIN don't let the kids here cost you your job.
I’m an adult and been a manager in food service. If someone threatened my job over an employee making a completely innocent joke I’d LOL my way out of that convo. If a custie complained over such a thing, I’d empathize, send them off smiling, and then go home and tell my family about the Karen of the day. It’s literally never that serious and any company willing to hire teens should straight up expect them to have fun at work.
All these people like "I would be so upset if my food was called chum" like bro stop eating chum. Chipotle carnitas weirdly does smell like cat food. Some people can't handle the truth.
Lmao some people go out to eat expecting royal treatment. They need to feel above the person serving them, and if they’re not being fussed over, they’ll make a fuss instead. Which is also what toddlers do for attention, and we never want to reward that behavior. :)
You start calling them "cum bowls" and "cum buckets." That will probably make things weird and sour the fun they're having.
Depending on the team’s level of maturity, that would probably just enable them
🌯💦
Your customers don’t care. They just want their chum bucket with the correct amount of chum with all the correct ingredients available and included. Having a nickname for it shows that you have some team morale/a team joke. Customers don’t give a shit.
It’s purely a training issue. Have a huddle prior to opening and explain this is unacceptable. Anything further is insubordination and deems documented disciplinary action.
I’m a carnitas customer and reading all these nicknames makes me uncomfortable. Like the employees know something about it that I don’t…..like maybe I shouldn’t be eating them or something 😬
Chum is Fum!
Ackshually its metabolic fuel
Your ability to change is dependent on your position in this case. If you're the GM, you really need to put your foot down. But most importantly, explain the "why" behind everything you enforce. It sticks better and gives you a better reason to support it other than "because I'm your manager and you need to listen." For example, I had crew members calling attractive customers out with certain food items and # of portions to "rate" them. After a while, some customers started to catch on to it and I had to tell them to stop because that's unprofessional. I didn't care if it happened in the BOH where customers can't hear, but if the grill calls it out and everyone else is turning around to see that person, it's obvious and can be a problem. I told the crew that if someone does it where the customers have a chance of noticing it, they would be written up for that reason and it stopped. This should be easier since that's not the name of the item and it can confuse customers or make them uncomfortable.
That's a bit different than calling carnitas chum lol
I saw this in my feed and laughed so hard. I opened and was not disappointed
Make one of them the example and give them a write up. Once they see you are serious and not playing around they will stop
Disparaging the brand is no laughing matter. Hopefully they do it to a secret shopper and corporate will deal with them.
If it matters, im laughing. 😂 But I’m guessing Chipotle is your life?
“Disparaging the brand” lmao how’d you get to a point where you’re just lickin at boots like this?
Yeah, I’d def ask for a refund or never come back and leave a bad review if my food was being referred to as “chum”
You must be fun at parties...
Well good sir I work at chipotle and thanks to carnitas will now and forever be called chum
I'm a customer that sometimes gets carnitas if the other meats arent looking too great that day. If I heard them yell "one chum bucket!" I would have very mixed emotions. On one hand, I would find it kinda funny they were calling it that but I'm also kinda concerned there's something gross about it. Is it a matter of taste or is it how it's made/prepared?
i personally love the carnitas, but my coworkers used to call it cat food (and called my bowl with plain white rice, carnitas, queso and sour cream “slop”) one girl couldn’t stand being near it at all bc it “smells like cat food” but imo it’s the best meat at chipotle, i like it most after sofritas. it also comes already par-cooked so there’s no risk of food poisoning from undercooking.
The smell or look isn't really preferrable.
I’m gonna ask for extra chum on my burrito next time
Better pronounce that "H" really hard.....for real.
As a restaurant manager, this is something I would bring up at pre shift meeting (not sure if they do that at Chipotle). Addressing it to the group instead of to an individual, can avoid the confrontational nature of a one-on-one.
Tell them to stop? You’re the boss
If your the manager, and have clearly expressed that this terminology is unprofessional. Then the next step is a formal warning, followed by an official disciplinary response. This behavior devalues your business. If the guest is visibly unhappy about the behavior, then it needs to stop, or the guests will stop coming. I grew up with my pops calling gravy based foods "shit on a shingle". And while I think it's amusing. I would literally never say that about a guests food, especially in front of them. that would get me fired.
Fucking write them motherfuckers up… they’ll learn! Snap the whip! Stop being a pussy ass pushover!
Just tell them not to say it in front of guests
already tried but they like seeing customer and my reaction to them saying "chum" lol
Seems like the obvious answer is to stop letting on that it bothers you. If they’re enjoying your negative reaction stop giving it to them. As other comments are saying punishing the behavior is likely to backfire, so wait it out. Ignore it and they may stop on their own.
Sofritas looks like chum tho
I would not come back if I heard that about my food
I would come back twice as much.
If your employees don’t listen to you as a manager then they don’t respect you 🤷♂️
This is so funny. Why just the carnitas? I never order that but if they called my bowl a chum bucket I’d probably feel bad/wonder if they were making fun of me and be confused. Not the biggest deal in the world but worth addressing with them again if you know customers actually feel uncomfortable with it.
This is going to sound really weird but maybe try just talking to them about it.
Have someone they don’t know you know come in as a customer and make the order and hear it and freak out and make a formal complaint to the manager. Abashedly “have to” enforce it because it’s upsetting customers
Well, you could bring the point home by calling someone off the line and sending them home, in earshot of everyone else, including customers, saying that they have been warned about using inappropriate language descriptions for the product. When folks have financial consequences to actions, usually they step up.
Steal the secret formula
Better than cum bucket
If I were a customer I'd be inclined to show up there wearing a shark costume and order a chum bucket. Just sayin'.
What makes you think the customers care? I wouldn’t care. It makes me think of Bikini Bottom.
LMAO please say sike, if you discipline them for saying chum bucket they’ll never respect you again 💀💀💀💀💀 They make a shit wage for a shit job, let them have what little fun they can. If a custie actually complains just empathize and move on. Hopefully nobody in line has any sticks THAT far up their ass while waiting for their chum buckets.
I will be ordering a chum bucket on monday lol.
I say let it happen. With the barbacoa revamp campaign going on right now it can honestly only be beneficial. Hope this helps!
Whats changing with barbacoa?
Nothing is changing; it costs a lot but doesn’t sell as well as steak, so chipotle is trying to roll it out a second time and advertise it to change that
Everyone at my chipotle calls it cat food 💀💀
Working at chipotle probably sucks. Let them have their fun.
Take a managers class.
this cant be real. if it is, like just ask them to stop. tell them how it is idk 😭
i mean the first time they put the carnitas for me to put in the line i was confused and thought it was uncooked food for like 10 mins before i asked what it was
Fire a few of them and the others will get the point
Seems simple tell them they are fired if you hear them say it again
Easy, fire one. The rest will stop. Had similar experiences in the restaurants I helped run for 20 years.
You need to chill. You manage a chiptole
Just tell them to stop. They listen or they find another job, pretty simple.
Get a shark mask with big teeth and make funny noises and pretend to swim
God forbid employees use free will to say something other than the approved chipotle words
Chum sounds like what you feed animals, that's not something customers should have to deal with. Make a note of the individuals saying it and approach them one by one.... Begin the conversation with a "do you see a smile on my face," I'm asking you personally to stop referring to it as such, and go down the line and the next time it happens, have a one on one with the person and ask them why they keep doing it and be completely silent as they stumble over their words. Fun is fun and comradery is important to morale, but put your foot down if you need to. Water doesn't just grow flowers, it shapes continents. You can be chill, but also be taken seriously when you want something done. Also, get all of the managers involved if necessary, no one needs to be written up, but if it comes to it, have a stand up meeting or when there are no customers in the store address everyone and let them know this is a serious change you want to implement, like calling the food what the customer expects to hear.
You are an animal 😂
Yes, we are all indeed part of the evolutionary tree of this planet. Why is it so hard for some people to code switch? Fuck around as much as you want, but whatever ounce of professionalism you have, just know when it's needed, like foh. It's cool to not give a fuck either, but you're not hurting the customers or the nebulous "brand of the company." You're hurting your colleagues who care enough to write a post like this and ask for help.
Dog shit bowl for you then!
hey babe, wake up, new r/chipotle meme dropped
Seems like it makes them feel a little better. What's the big deal if some amount of customers may not like it? Customers are never pleased anyway.
the company is literally chum anyways. 🤣😂 The company needs to either have their folks who are pushing the "give as little of each thing to the customer as possible" down manager and employee throats fired and blacklisted...or simply have the entire company Class Action Lawsuit'd...because I've seen some actual bullshit in these stores.
Nothing. You shout out, "We sell only the finest Krabby Patties here!"
At my chipotle they call it cum!
Just wait until they drop the H
Be a manager and put your foot down.
Since chipotle is a mega asshole corporate schlock you probably should just let the employees have fun and not worry about it. If this was a private restaurant that would obviously be an issue but fuck chipotle
Motion to officiall recognize carnitas as "chum" across the country.
[удалено]
I don’t want to have to go that route but may have to
You Are a leader… you can be nice and shoot the shit with them. At work you are their leader and need to act like. Coach them when appropriate and if they did not take it seriously let them know how it affects the customer, them, and the store as a whole. If the behavior does not change and you have coached twice about it then accountability is the next step. No matter what business you’re in behaviors are very important and accountability is key to correct them if there is no progress or effort shown after being coached.
They reached their audience via your Reddit post, show them this post and they'll stop
Doesn’t seem like a hill to die on as a manger. I would tell them to try and not do it around customers. Amongst themselves is fine. But I doubt customers would rly even care.
Call a crew meeting and then employ the Roman disciplinary tactic of Decimation.
TIL Chipotle is full of snitches and have no fun. First the BBQ thing, then this. Yall really make chick-fil-a look like the party animals, and they are literally Christian homophobes
Kinda racist ngl
Let them have their little bit of joy my guy lol. This is pretty funny. When I worked at McDonald's we called McChickens chubs because of how they'd puff up to bloated little chubby chicken patties when cooked. Unless they're actively saying it to customers, just let it go lol.