Chili's...

So, after being hired at Chili's, I gave my two weeks to my other two jobs. I was supposed to train for Chili's the week before I officially started there while working at my other jobs. If that didn't work out the manager would just let me train the week after when I was free. Sounds fine to me right? I have to go to orientation before training can commence. So, on Monday, a week before I am completely free to work Chili's, I head over to some random hotel to have orientation. I can't find the place. I'm driving around going, "Where the hell is it?!" Finally, I realize that they had put down the wrong hotel name on the sheet they gave me. 15 minutes late, I walk in.

As I'm coming in, the woman behind the front desk suddenly says, "Are you here for the Chili's orientation?" I reply with a yes and then she says, "Well, it has been canceled. I'm sorry."

Okay...I think to myself. So I head back home the half-an-hour it took me to get there. Orientation for Chili's is once a week on Mondays. So, I have to wait another week to do it. Alright, no problem, we had talked about this. I will just do it next week.

So I do orientation the next week. It goes smoothly. I am told to call and find out my training schedule after I get out of orientation. I get home and I call the restaurant. They say that I need to come in that Saturday to train. Wow. Five days of no work? Well, I had been working quite a bit at my old jobs, so I will just call this "time off".

I get there Saturday and train. When I finish, I ask to have my training schedule. They say to call later and they will have it ready for me. Okay, will do. I call later that day for it. They say they are training other people and that they couldn't get my in until that next Wednesday or Thursday when the schedule changes and that they will call me about it. I'm a little frustrated, seeing as it will be another week without work, but fine, I guess I can understand.

Wednesday night rolls around. I am at a friend's house at about eight or nine pm and wonder what is going on. Will they call me? Well, I decide to call them. The training manager, Sarah, answers and seems angry that I called to find out, like I should know already when I work. She asks if she can call me back because she has to see if a trainer can come in tomorrow. I get a call back and she wants me in tomorrow. Fine, nothing like short notice for both the trainer and myself. I need to start working ASAP, however, so I go along with it.

The next day, I go to training. Now keep in mind, two weeks have gone by without real work and I'm on day two of five in the training. I get there and train. It has been a good day of training. I got to shadow the trainer, serve, and see how its done. At the end I fail the menu test, however, for which you are only allotted 30 minutes to study. The training manager, Sarah, comes up and starts saying that she has no one to train people and that I screwed up big time and if I don't pass the same test the next day, I am no longer in the training program (fired). If I do pass she will try to slot me in the next day Saturday. I am fuming, but, I keep my mouth shut and go along with it.

Friday, I take the test and pass. When I ask, though, they tell me that I can't train again until Monday. This is getting ridiculous but fine.

Monday rolls around. I go there to train and they let me study for 30 minutes for the next menu test I will be taking right away. I study, I fail. I'm sorry, but I cannot memorize every ingredient and preparation method in 30 minutes. Since I fail, they send me home with instructions to come back tomorrow to take the test again. If I pass I go on to train (they never said when). If I fail, I'm fired.

This is ridiculous. The next day, I call the general manager, James. I go and meet him there and tell him the whole story. I also lay out that he had promised me that I would be trained as soon as possible so that I wouldn't lose money. I outline the fact that I feel like I'm being dicked around and also this entire time I have never seen a training schedule or know who I am training with. He apologizes many times saying he had no idea and that someone who had been hired way after me was already on day four. He also said he was very angry and someone would be hearing about this. I think he was happier that I didn't just go to corporate with it. Anyhow, he said that it was up to me whether or not I wanted to work there because I told him that I was disenchanted with the job. If I did, he said he would get me a schedule that day. I went home to think.

After a couple hours of thought, I couldn't get passed the fact that the environment would be awkward in some way. So, I called him up and quit.

That was yesterday. Today, I wonder what I am going to do for a job. I have been in this apartment for about four months and I haven't been able to pay a month's rent. My parents are floating us through this which is unfair to them and makes me very angry. I haven't been able to save money since I lost my job at Brain Snacks (a small bookstore) last November. I don't want to be rich. I just want to be stable and have some saving money so that we can be alright here.