CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY

Luckily, the four manager interviews I conducted all occurred in their workplace. By observing the environment and the staff's behaviors, this paints me my own perception of the user's situation. Investigating how the management operates can also prove if they are lying in the interviews and/or further validate the previous data collected.

CHOWKING, Eagle Rock Plaza

As I observed a big line of customers before I held the interview, I noticed that there are three registers on the front, but only 2 of them were manned. Edna, the manager was expediting the products from the kitchen to the customers. The 3 kitchen crew had their own stations, 2 of them was preparing the orders while one was prepping the garnishes. Eventually, the prep guy drops his station and helped out with the orders once it started pilling up. They eventually finished all the orders, but the noticeably irritated customers waited a bit too long lining up and waiting for food. I, myself ordered a meal and it took 15 minutes to get it. I assumed that this would not be the case if it wasn't that busy.

After the line died down, I interviewed the manager, Edna, she has been managing the fast-food store for 4 years. I could tell from the look on her face that it has been a long day. While I was talking to her, the two cashiers were wiping down the dining tables and left the register unmanned. Two of the back kitchen crew was washing the dishes, while one of them took out the overflowing trash in the dining area. "Multi-tasking is one of the necessary skill you have to have in this job. You must be flexible and willing to do any of the dirty work," Edna said. I instantly believed her when she said all the staffs have vague roles. Cashiers can do back kitchen jobs and vice versa, depending on how busy it gets.

The ratio of the customers versus the number of staff (6 including the manager) is insufficient to properly operate to their claimed standards. When I asked what is her ideal number of staff in a shift should be, she suggested 3 cashiers and 4 back kitchen crew along with a shift leader, so she can focus on the managerial operations and quality control instead of expediting orders to the customers most of the time. When I asked why not do it, she said the upper management is implementing pay cuts to stay afloat and are not willing to pay more if the current amount of people can get the job done. It is clear to me that the main reason this fast-food chain is understaffed and has sub-par service is that of budgetary issues. This issue is also affirmed when I noticed that 4 of their meals were unavailable due to the lack of chicken meat supplies.

AT&T STORE, Glendale

It was noticeably slow in the store when I came in for an interview. In fact, I was the only "customer" there. There were 2 retail staff and 1 manager, and all of them looked bored. Jeff, the retail store manager came to me asked what can he help me for. He looked like he was just checking something on his computer desk before he came to me. He agreed to a quick sit down interview for my project, as long as it is not voice recorded. 

Being a big corporate franchise, AT&T has a well thought out payroll and scheduling system. They use a POS system called RQ4. In contrast to Chowking, AT&T Store is a cell phone retail store that has a very different management approach. Jeff emphasized that his utmost priority in terms of scheduling is that no one ever goes to overtime. It is an incompetency on his part to mismanage the budget by overpaying an employee/s. Jeff claims he is never understaffed since they never experience accommodating a high-volume of customers.

The schedule is  always released and announced a month ahead. Though their schedule is a bit more rigid, they are not the typical 9 -5 working office hours. The staff still rotates 2 shifts a day and work on weekends, which means employees eventually will request day-offs. Employees are then easily covered or replaced due to the ease of the RQ4 system.

JOLLIBEE, Eagle Rock Plaza

Jollibee is a Filipino fast-food franchise, considered as a staple brand in the Philippines. Thus, the demand for the food is always high.

Jaypee, the supervisor in charge of scheduling said, "it's always busy here--It doesn’t help when employees don’t show up when they’re supposed to. Finding a replacement on short notice is such a pain in the a**.” On a typical Thursday night, there are 4 front cashier staff and 4 back kitchen crew. The service is considerably faster than Chowking since most of the foods are fried chicken and other deep fried food. The environment is almost as stressful as Chowking, although, an extra staff does make the workplace more fluid. Jaypee is particularly stressed with the constant revision of the schedule. Some of the employees are not happy with his scheduling. Most employees prefer to work in the morning shift to avoid being the cleanup crew at night. There are at least 3 requests per week making the weekly schedule very erratic. They have a slight problem on being understaffed, but since they are more willing to call-in to fill the void, they get by a little better.

IT'S BOBATIME, EAGLE ROCK

As a former supervisor of this store, I have a vivid picture of how the store is managed. It does not get busy until after 2 pm, so they only need 2 employees to prep all the ingredients needed for the day, and at the same time serve the customers, b 3 pm they switch shifts and puts in 4 people. 3 in the back kitchen, one sometimes two in the cashier.

I was able to get an interview with the franchise owner. Francis handles the day-to-day operations and in charge of scheduling. When making the weekly schedule, he prioritizes the employees with more experience, and make sure they have enough schedule to pay their bills. Francis isn't shy about overspending or being overstaffed as long the operation isn't compromised. Based on my personal experience, there was never a time that I felt we were understaffed. He, himself comes over to the store and helps out if it gets too busy. One of the pain points he states is getting information and communicating with employees. Getting their numbers and availability is a bit hard to keep track. Every now and then, there is a conflict of schedule, especially for employees who have school.