u/Technical-Form8994

I worked at Subway back in 2014 and held employment with them for about 6 months. At the end of those 6 moths, I got fired for having three customer complaints against my name, 2 of which were bull and one was just funny to hear. I've since then gone on to do more jobs and get paid more, so in the end it was for the best.

That being said, I can honestly say if all the crappy jobs I've held before and after subway, I hated subway the most.

As you read this, please keep in mind that subway probably has changed policies so I might sound like an old man bring up stuff. Also, I can recognize that my complaints against upper management are possible an entirely localized thing and not a thing for every store across the world. But, it's my story, so here we go

To start things off, I worked at a subway in the town I lived in and was able to bike to work if I ever wanted too, but usually I just drove, since it was in Washington State where we have a very good amount of consistent rainfall. The store I worked at supposedly was the 14th most busiest subway in the state and it really really did show. The store was in a wide parking lot amongst a bunch of other small businesses and restaurants right next to a popular lake at the edge of town. We would get lots of foot traffic, people would come in to just use the bathroom or get out of the rain for a moment, the YMCA folk would hang in the back and just socialize over the view if the lack in our back section. I had gone through the training online, watch a ton of videos and gotten my food handlers lic for $15. I was ready.

As it turns out, my store is a common place for the regional manager to throw their entire workforce at. I spent the first day just working the POS system and learning how to ring up people. Everyone, including the store manager, worked very very frantically and the store manager herself seemed just run ragged and scared to make a mistake, meanwhile the rest of the crew seemed to be dead silent the whole day. I came to find out that actually everyone is very sociable and buddy buddy with each other specifically when the regional manager isent dangling from everyone's tonsils and up in their business. She was a very large woman who seemed to enjoy being crass and rude, even to someone like myself who knew nothing about the job because I had just started. She consistently knocked over pans in the back because the work space is very narrow and her hips were pretty wide. After a week of training and getting into the groove of things, I learned to enjoy days where I didn't see her.

About a month in, here's what I learned:

The productivity rating is either absolutely useless or it's used in the most inappropriate way possible. From how it was told to me, the productivity metric is just a way to show how many sandwiches you have sold vs how many people you have on staff at the moment. For our store, mornings could be either moderate or ridiculously busy because we served a community that had a lot of local farmers who would come in first thing in the morning to order a bunch of sandwiches for their crew, meanwhile the opener and the second person in ar proofing, cutting, opening bags and leaning everything in preparation for lunch rush. Everything in the morning involved prepping and cleaning, then lunch rush would start and we would add one or two more crew members to help keep things moving. Lunch for us was 11am to 2pm and after the rush was a major clean up operation because we are low in line stock, the front of house has a good build up of dirt and rain water from the foot traffic, the bathrooms have been endlessly pissed on and need cleaning, and there is plenty of sauces that need refilling plus fallen food behind the line needs sweeping. We typically would keep the third crew member around for about an hour after the lunch rush do that we could get back up to spec and be ready for any dinner time orders which at our location was moderate to low. We did the pre closer and closer deal with end of day cleaning and checking in possibly expired stock out front, all while completing orders from stragglers and online orders where they may appear. Alllllll that being said, the productivity rating should show that we have a middling number in the morning, high numbers at lunch and middling numbers at the end of day.

Was the productivity number used to understand that? HELL NO. The productivity number was used as a budgeting tool against the store employees. We would literally just be getting out of a lunch rush and doing bahor clean up and that general manager would call us, asking in the most wretched if tones "why the hell do you have 3 employees on when your productivity number is below (insert number)??" It's like, dude, we just got freaking slammed by 70 - 80 customers! We are trying to get ready for anymore that may come in and clean us out! The management DEMANDED that we be a certain level of clean at all times and we would try our damndest to do it, but it requires more then just two people to do it!! Ffs 🫩. So if we dedicated time to cleaning, it ment we weren't "selling enough", but if we dedicated time to selling, we were dinged and yelled at for being too dirty. Our plan was just have the their person help clean up and then send them home, not just invite everyone to come in and grab an easy pay check. I swear to you people, I was in the middle of scrubbing a toilet after lunch rush, on my hands and knees scrubbing urine out of corners of a toilet when the regional manager came barging in to complain to me that the productivity numbers were low and it didn't justify having one extra guy watching the line while our other guy did prep in the back. I'm in the middle of cleaning and this woman has just barged her way in with out a knock, helping hand, sympathy, non of that, just endless complaining as in face form near random customers urine. Idk what is damn woman wants! I'm doing my job as I was instructed to. I'm not the store manager, I don't write the schedule, I don't have the authority to send someone home or call them in. WTF DO YOU WANT FROM THE MINIMUM WAGE EMPLOYEE? The worst one, I swear, the worst ones were days where we were open right before a holiday. The store is clean and immaculate, the stock is fresh, there is bread in the cabinet, the chicos are up to date as well as the soda, cookies are made, everything is labeled, we are good and ready for anything. We get a call from the regional manager and she AGAIN is complaining about the productivity numbers. We haven't had a customer come in for 2 and a half hours. We literally had no one to sell to. Could the store manager or regional manager have called us and said for one of us to go home? Yes. Did they do that? HELL NO. Instead it was just a complaint fest about how low the number was and how it was all our fault and that we needed it to be higher. Like....wtf???? You want me to go out on the sidewalk and kidnap people, bring them into the store and force them to by food? How is that low productivity number OUR fault? Did you ever stop to think it might be because people don't want subway right now??? Did you???? Every damn opportunity this woman had to complain, she took it. I'm 90% sure she was married and I still to this day wonder how it is that man every stands to have sex with her. Probably invests in a cost size pallet of duck tape and some earplugs.

I learned very quickly that the "eat fresh" motto is very... Questionable. Most everything we used to make sandwiches came out of a vacume sealed bag, even the sauce. The only thing that legit came in fresh was the onion, tomato and cucumbers, all of which got the Mandolin treatment and then boxed up. We sold lettuce that was going brown, even if the customer didn't like it. The bread was meticulously measured because of that footlong scandal years back. Food was dropped all the time and we were required to log any sandwichs we had to toss out as well, which I found ultimately pointless when just a scrapped cut of bread was counted as a "sandwich".

The pos system worked like a good luck charm on opposite day, everyday. The screen froze, the system needed rebooting, data would just disappear as you punched it in, the screen was always dirty from some crew member who had touched it with their sauce covered glove. Not fun

The back room I really really wish wasn't what it was. There were cameras everywhere in the store, including the backroom. I was told that they had microphones, but I think that was a lie. Any particular down time was immediately scrutinized because the regional manager would be on her system watching us. A simple 20 second conversation with my coworker when we had no customers or cleaning to do was like a slap in the face to this woman even if I was asking my coworker about how to do something that the job required us to do, the regional manager would call us up and ask us why we haven't moved In the last 20 seconds. The one place I couldn't be houded outright was in the freezer. I could go in, it would be quiet and cool, I could peacefully get my labeling done and not be bothered, all because there wasn't a camera in my face. The micro managing from this place was absolutely ridiculous. Two times I was complained to because I had pulled out or step ladder so I could clean the over head light fixtures. I set it up, stated cleaning and then a customer would roll in so if have to stop, get behind the line, make food and then Get back to my work. The store and regional manager would come flying off the handle at me because the ladder wasn't put away in the presence of the customer. 🫩🫩

The free sandwiches were ok, but I do have something to complain about. After learning how to ring up my allotted free sandwich and making it how I liked, I found that some meats in the line up were considered "premium", meaning they were expensive and didn't count for my free meal because it would cost the company too much if I at a pastrami instead of a cold cut combo. I thought and still think this is bogus and petty.

The absolute worst thing I can tell you about this place, besides the regional manager, is what I ultimately picked from working there. Since everyone want to be away from the regional manager at any cost, the most common place to find employees when they were on their break was out in the parking lot, out of their uniform and hat, smoking cigarettes. It was a quiet place, no customers asked for your help, the cameras were not pointed at you and you could curse in side your car if you needed to blow off steam. I, did not some or chew or vape at that time but was pretty new out of highschool and was clean as a baby with that stuff. But, what I came to learn is that if you weren't a smoker and you asked either of the managers for your break, it would always result in "why do you need a break? You don't smoke". Now, I should have known that I was entitled to my break under law, but it didn't click with me that I should have called it out for what it was. I too wanted to get out of the store and not be near the she-devil. I wanted to go crack jokes with my coworker and blow off steam in my car. Soo....yea. I ended up picking up the habit. Worst idea of my life so far.

Mandatory meetings were stupid. Idk if subway still does this, but when I worked there, once a month we had a mandatory meeting at our store and every employee was required to attend no matter what, or they would face termination. We would all show up to the store at 6am, non of us in uniform, just our hoodies and sweat pants so we could at least be semi warm during the meeting (they didn't bother to turn on the HVAC for our store because we were only going to be there for 30 min or so.) I say "meetings" but it was more like a big complain fest coming from the she-devil herself. The meeting was supposed to be time set aside to show us new products that were going to be sold in stores and how to make them, plus a show case of new posters and ads we would put in the windows. But that's not what it was used for. Instead, the regional manager just used it as a time to complain about stuff we were doing wrong, productivity numbers being low (which is a huge stretch considering how consistently busy we were all the time. 199 might be just slightly lower than 200 but gosh darn she's just gotta point it out like it's the end times), certain places in the store not being cleaned (a lie), customer complaints against specific employees (which she would read aloud for everyone to hear) and then she would just throw in thing about the employee s she just plain didn't like (your hair color, tattoos, accent, eye twitches, you name it). Lastly, she would complain about certain products that were not selling and demanded that we push for them to be sold because they were just going bad in the fridge. I think it was exclusively the soup and the veggie patties. The rule about the meetings being mandatory was just held to standard because we had plenty of crew members that didn't show up and only one or two ever got canned for it, the rest were just given a pas for no particular reason. To add some drama to this whole thing, one day I had somehow gotten a nasty cut in my sinuses that was causing me to cough when blood came down my throat. Obviously coughing up blood is a very serious issue and I had to go to the emergency room in my town to get it checked. I spent the whole night up and yet still had to get to that meeting. Sure, I could have gotten a Drs note and given it to my manager to show them I had reason for not being at the meeting, but I my mind that she-devil would find a way to lie and say I had to come in, so I just came in anyways. There I was, with all my coworkers in the cold store, huddle over a hot coffee with an hour of sleep under my belt, still wearing my hospital wrist band on my right arm and the medical papers stashed in my pocket. My coworkers were sympathetic to my issue, so that was nice. The regional manager really didn't care vthe meeting dragged on with her doing her usual complaint fest and the rest of us just sat in silence. after she complained her heart out and got no response from us like usual, she looked at me and said "you look rough. What's up with you?". I simply lifted my arm and pointed to the band. My coworkers chimed in and told her "he was in the hospital all morning" she replied "yea? So?" I didn't have anything else to say. I just sat and let her carry on with her complaining.

One thing that surprised me was the fuxuation in what was and wasn't acceptable. We had people fired for customer complaints, myself included, but we had people do thing that straight up should have had them canned right there. One girl dropped a half way made sandwich on the ground for a mobile order and then she picked it up and carried on making the order. I saw this, pinned it out and told her to stop and make a new one, but she ignored me, all while a customer who was there ordering their own sandwich was watching. That guy just flat out left the store. Two days later, I get reemed for "making a scene in front of a customer" by the regional manager. As far as I know, the girl who did it had nothing happen to her and never got chewed out. Freaking great. The other one that comes to mind was one night while me and another guy were working together. I had stepped out for a smoke when there was suddenly a big influx of customers who pldrive up, parked and came in. I crushed my ciggie, walked in, put back in my polo and hat, washed my hands, only to waltz into a roid raged guy yelling at my coworker. What essentially had happened was my coworker had put regular mayo on the sandwich when the guy wanted light mayo. My coworker for what ever reason insisted on making the sandwich over again, even when the guy said it's not an issue and wanted to be rung up so he could leave. My coworker refused to stop doing what he was doing and the guy was screaming his head off at him. When I was washed up and in the line helping the other customers, the guy then came to yell at me, but I had to follow my coworkers instructions because he was the closer and I was the pre closer. What I didn't know before I walked in was my coworker had actually told the guy "go f**k yourself" under his breath before I had walked in. The guy loses his temper, grabs the sandwich and hucks it at the wall and storms out after we got past the big crowd, we had a second to go behind the store and talk about what happened, that's when he clued me in on what he said to the guy. Nothing happened to that coworker for this incident and the next week he never showed up For the mandatory meeting, not suffering a termination either.

I had the opportunity to work at other subway stores when there were staffing issues. I had such a wonderful time at those stores, quietly getting my work done, cleaning and cycling stick without phone calls to trip me up. Our productivity rating wasn't terrible, but it wasn't on the same level as the other store. I envied the others that didn't have to endure the she-devil like we did.

We had a Christmas party! The stores in my town and one in the town over from us were all franchised to the same guy, so come Christmas time were were invited to come to a dinky little hall and bring food for a pot luck. I laughed eith my coworkers, saying it would be a riot if the owner brought us subway sandwichs for the nights meal. Luckily that didn't happen. The most eerie thing was how quiet the whole event was. Besides groups at their tables, no one talked beyond a whisper, no one cheered or really looked like they were enjoying themselves. The owner and regional manager made speeches, telling us good job on another year. Of course, the regional manager used the opportunity on stage to complain to us again, because WHY NOT? 😂🫩

As for the elephant in the room, my firing and customer complaints.

The first complaint I ever got at subway nadd me burst out laughing. A woman had came in, orderedchervfoid and she left with it with no issue. I'm not sure if it's still a thing in subway, but at the time we always told customers that they could fill out a survey in the back on their receipt, get the code at the end and bring it in for a free cookie. Turns out this lady had given me a glowing review, complimenting the cleanliness of the store, freshness of the food, speed of service, the whole thing. But, at the very end she included a note, saying "the guy who made my food didn't smile". That was it. That was the only thing she had to complain about. And I got dinged for it. My manager literally showed me it and said it was a ding on my record. I reread it and started laughing in the backroom. The store manager was really confused and I didn't say anything else, but when I got home and showed my buddy, I told him "I wish this lady was in front of me so I could explain that the reason I wasn't smiling was because I work at subway" 😂

The second ding came from an old classmate who I was in football with. The guy had a grudge against me and I figure he got his revenge by complaining to get me in trouble. I could fly off the handle about this, but I know if I found where he worked, I might just do it too out of revenge or just to be a jerk. The old me would do that, but current me would just let it lie since I don't want to screw anyone out of their job.

The last complaint which sealed the deal was a doozy. So one night my area got hit with a crazy wind storm. The back area that included the view of the kakevas well as the bathrooms had a side door to the store. You could just park on the side of the building and show up at the line in about 5-6 seconds of walking. Because of the wind store, that side door had been damaged and the hinges needed to be fixed. The building owners just had us hard lock the door until the repair could be made and we put up a sign to the door that said "door not working, please use both entrance" along with a big black arrow pointing to where it was. Something I have learned from working in customer service over the years is that people just... Ignore signs. They will skirt past huge flashing signs right at eye level, completely ignore alarm noises, push over caution cones to get where they want to go, safety or convenience be damned. Heck even drivers will ignore construction crews and just plow right into them when there are cones and flaggers and barricades because they can't be bothered to fire on at least one braincell. But, younger me didn't know this yet and I figured all was well. It was the end of the night, I was the ore closer and my coworker was the closer. We were cleaning and getting ready to be done with our shift when someone pulled into the parking lot. An old man in a newish Subaru had parked in the sidle lot, got out of his car and had waltzed up to the side door with the sign. I happen to be in the back area swepping and wiping down glass windows and tables. This guy, in all of his mental glory processed to try to open the door but found he couldn't. Rather than look at the big f**k off sign right at his eye level, he proceeded to throw a tdmpur tantrum, demanding that I open the door right now. I don't have the key for this door and I never did. I tried over and over yo pint out to him that the door is broken, the sign says it too, and that he needs to come through the north entrance, even pointing it in that direction. Dud loses his mind, screaming at me to open the door, saying "you people are trying to keep out business! What's wrong with you??" I don't even humor him, I just got grab the closer and she tries to tell him the same thingd I did. Needless to say he listened to none of this and loudly told us "I have to go to the bathroom! Let me in right now!" We could open the door still, so he finally started walking to the north entrance but when he got to the door, he had clearly pissed himself while getting there. Dude threw an absolute conniption fit, calling my coworker slurs that I'd never even heard and calling me a whole lot of other. No amount of explanation was going to call him this guy down, we just had to endure it. After he took it down a notch, we let him clean up in the bathroom and then he left without saying anything to us.

The next day I got my final ding and was fired for it. I literally got dinged for a complaint over something I have no control over. I guess when the managers read these complaints, they don't care to even glance at the context. The door was BROKEN. I don't have keys and have never had keys to this place. There was a sign that instructed you very clearly where to go. What the heck else is a man supposed to do? Should I break the glass and carry him in on a bed of feathers to his porcelain pot? Should I take off the sign and pretend that the door magically fixed it self? Seriously, how is any of this my fault?

I walked in for my shift that next day, got told I was fired and was asked to hand over my polo and hat, plus name tag. that day when I got in, the regional manager was on the line making sandwiches for a group of people and had not even said hello to me. I should have clocked this as my last day right there because she only busted her rear end when we were going to be short from a termination. I handed over my gear and walked to the front of the store where the line was. I stopped and waited politely for the customer to be rung up and leave the store before I said what I said.

All I said was "see you" and left. The regional manger honestly looked shocked for a half second. All the other terminations she had a hand in ended in screaming and throwing ships and soda everywhere. I'm sure she exited me to do the same thing but I didn't, so her shock was reasonable. I didn't want to scream or make a scene, I just wanted her attention for a moment. I left the store, went home to tell my parents and girlfriend at the time, then the next day I was job hunting. Got my old job a week later and was very very happy to be there with all my old coworkers.

Subway is this strange little blip on my professional history radar. It was only 6 months of my life yet it felt like I was there for 3 years. I grew to love Subway sandwiches because I got them for free. Then I found them sickening and now I'm back to thinking they're okay. Thinking back on it today. I'm blown away all the things that happened within that 6-month period. I seriously don't think the job actually would be that hard if not for the store manager and especially the regional manager making it a miserable experience. From working at those other stores it looked like the others were at least very passive or enjoying themselves. I wish that was my experience but it really wasn't. But then again I'm happy that I at least had one very very bad job that I could walk away from and have a couple stories of.

For anybody that's wondering. Yes, I did smoke after I left Subway but I'm happily 5 years clean from the habit. I wish that I had the balls to actually tell the regional manager off in the moment that she was saying that to me about my brakes but that's in the past

I've since caught up with old co-workers who either still are at the store or who have left. I'm very happy to find out that the regional manager apparently got canned because she called one of the workers a really bad thing and it got pushed up the chain of command. Really hope that follows her the rest of her life. I doubt she remembers me

To all my fellow metalheads across the world, what non metal music do you listen to on the side?

My crazy experience with working at subway