Convincing You I'm Me

Chapter 18: Authority

I walk through the back of the restaurant, peeking into the staff room to see a few staff sat at the table eating their dinner or doing their make-up in a mirror. I push open the door, walking into some kind of bitching about someone. They fall quiet and their eyes stare at me.

"Hi." I say, closing the door. 

"You're the owner, right?" a brunette girl with glasses asks me as she looks up from her phone at the table.

"Right," I say. "I'm Jason. I wanted to ask you some questions, if you're free."

"Sure," the girl from the mirror says as she plucks at her eyebrows. "What do you want to know?"

I lean against the wall with my arms crossed. "I just wanted to ask how you're finding working here. If there's any problems that I should be aware of."

"How long have you got?" a young man snorts as he chomps on a sandwich. 

"There's always problems," the girl with glasses says. "Mainly with the managers. They talk to us like shit and patronize us in front of customers."

"Lee's not so bad," the girl at the mirror says. "I enjoy his shifts. Everyone gets on with him."

"It's just Rachael," the other girl says. "And Helen. We can't even stop to breathe when it's their shifts. They're on our case straight away."

"Can't you supervise?" the male asks me.

"Yeah, you're actually cool," the girl at the mirror laughs as she adds lip gloss. "Everyone loves it when they hear you're dropping by because Rachael backs off. She had a go at me earlier because the chef made the wrong meal for the wrong table, it wasn't even my fault. She practically yelled at me in front of a table."

"And if we're so much as three minutes late off our break, she gives us the busiest tables when it's not even our section."

"Or if we're late turning up, even though we call in to give her notice, she'll give us less or extreme shifts the following week. I rang in sick for a few days because I was really ill with flu and she requested to see a doctor's note. Why the hell would I give her a doctor's note for the flu? The following month she put me on seven days straight, without a day off."

"Right," I nod, tightening my arms. "I'll be speaking to her about all of that. And Helen?"

"Depends on her mood," the girl from the mirror says quietly. "Sometimes she's okay, other times she's a nightmare. She made this new girl cry once, the girl even formed a complaint to Rachael that Helen was bullying her, but they're pals so not much was done about it. We told the girl to contact Lee, but he was working at the other restaurant and she had quit by the time he came back."

I rub my head, frustrated that I hadn't heard anything about this. "Is Helen at work tonight?"

"Yep," she sighs, tying her pinny around her waist. "She's working the bar. But I think she went into the office. Lee's in there too."

"Are you going back to work?" I ask.

She nods with a frown. "The joys."

"Could you tell Rachael to round up all the managers? I want to see them in the office in five minutes."

"Sure, pretty much all the floor managers are on tonight," she smiles. "Nice to meet you."

I open the door for her and she shuffles out of it, fiddling with her blouse. I follow her out into the hallway and I go the opposite way, pushing open the door to the office at the end.

 Lee is sat at one of the computers, rubbing his bald head in circles that imprint dimples into the side of his face. He's a few years younger than I am, and he worked as an assistant manager at McDonald's before I hired him. He's intelligent, sophisticated and he's good with authority, but he's also a big kid deep down. He looks up at me with wide eyes. "Jase! Nice to see you, bro."