My Adventures as an AllStar

As promised, here is the novel containing documentation of my amazing, frustrating, random, gas-consuming experience as an All-Star (upper level associate sent to a new store to train about 50 new hires) for In-N-Out Burger.


Steph and I on our break

When I first embarked on this journey out to Signal Butte in east Mesa, I was extremely nervous. I had never been an all-star before and had so many concerns: Will the management like me, will I be an effective trainer, will I represent myself and my manager in Tempe well? I am not sure yet how I measured up in these areas now that the month is over, but it is for sure borderline..since I had a few mess-ups, yet a few great accomplishments.

So I don't even know where to begin..sooo many stories to tell.. ok I will start with a bad story.

One beautiful saturday morning I awoke with a start to my phone ringing. "Madi, where are you? it's 11:30!" Uh Oh. I had turned my alarm off in my sleep, I assume that's what happened since I don't recall doing it, and was late for work, a BIG no-no when you are all-starring since you are supposed to set the example for all of the new hires. So by the time I get up and get dressed and ready, drive all the way to signal butte, I ended up being an hour late for my shift, horrible, I know. The Manager, Anthony, is way way way cool and wasn't mad at me but just kind of teased me all day long. They couldn't really be mad at me because as I through the door I had a big bundle of cookies under one arm, which was a total coincidence since I made them the day prior. The next day, sunday, I wake up yet again to my cell phone ringing, I had turned off my alarm AGAIN and totally slept til 3 and missed church, which definitely made my sunday start off horribly. Anyways, the phone, "Hi is this Madison? Yeah, this is Stell, the lead all-star at 218, I am just calling to tell you that if you clock in even a minute late on any of your shifts we are sending you back to Tempe. I have already talked to your manager about this, and I really hope you can be a better example because we like seeing your smiling face at work, have a nice day" Sunday was officially ruined. I called my mom sobbing about all my issues and she had me drive home to avondale for dinner. I love my mom. I also called my manager, still sobbing, because I really take my job seriously and work really hard to be the best, and my manager actually said "it's ok, Stell is a drama queen and no one listens to her anyways, just make sure you are on time" I love my manager, he is awesome possum.

Ok time for a gooood story.

Snowball Saturday. Tempe all-stars vs. Tucson all-stars showdown. One saturday my friend thomas, from Tucson, and I went to Bahama Buck's for our half-hour break, which we pretty much do every day, and saw a poster saying "snow to throw" and realized that for 60 snowball, it was only 15 bucks! It was then decided to hold an intense snowball fight at ten once all the all-stars got off.


After we all got off we split into two teams: Tempe allstars plus one new hire, and tucson allstar plus one allstar from Cali. We all drove to a little park in a close by neighborhood and divided the snowballs, I won't say evenly because I gave my team about 3 extra, and went to opposing sides of the field to devise a strategy. Tempe strategy: charge, throw snowballs. The battle lasted about ten minutes, but was amazing. My only regret is that I never found out who was the one who let fly a snowball that hit me in my left temple.

The Tempe Team
Nick, Morgan, Me, Andy

Another fun story. So our goal for the last month has been to legally make things to eat at work that are not burgers. We are not allowed to put anything except meat and cheese on the grill, and the customers cannot see that we are making anything besides burgers or else they might try and order it. Quite a challenging task, yet we have had a few successes. Our first success happened on a day we called, Taco Friday. Yep, we chopped up some meat patties on the bacck grill, brought in tortillas, sour cream, shredded cheese, and ate tacos on our break. Although the managers weren't very pleased with us saying "YEAH Taco Friday!" all day long, the tacos turned out amazing!! Our next success was on Macho Nacho Monday. We Again chopped up the meat patties and put cheese on top of the meat then put it on top of tortilla chips with tomatoes and chopped onion, and had ourselves some delicious nachos nuevos. Our next goal was to try and make spaghetti and meatballs, by rolling the meat patties into balls and rolling them around on the grill but we couldn't think of any way to keep spaghetti warm, since there are no microwaves at work, and we didn't want to just leave it in the car to warm it up.

Wes and I with our Nachos

My all-time favorite thing we did was after work we all went and saw Batman's midnight showing. A couple of us bought shirts from the little boys section in KMart and wore them to the showing. We showed up super early and had an entire row of just people who worked for In-N-Out, 18 seats full of young adults complaining about rookies, quick checks, and animal style, what a beautiful thing. The movie was AMAZING, I don't generally like the comic movies but I like this one so much I actually saw it agaain this week!

Steph and I, this girl helped me survive at work


Wes and I, I will miss him when he goes back to Cali


Gwen, Me, Steph, love these girls

Ok this is the last bad story concerning my experience, thank goodness. One day, I think last week, a manager said that he needed me to come into the office for a chat, which is pretty much code for "you messed up". Apparantly a complaint was called into the resources deptartment saying that the burger they received was pink in the middle and since on the line-up (outline for who does what that day) I was the cook, I automatically received blame for the underdone burger. When I talked to another manager about this he said that I shouldn't have gotten in trouble because there was no proof that I made that burger, since I could have been on a break, or just been doing another position at that time, but regardless I have been trying really really hard to monitor the quality of what comes off my grill. On a lighter note, a couple days ago I got a compliment through the resources deptartment, which is super rare because usually customers only call the line to complain, never to say good job. What happened was, a customer in the drive thru had a pretty complicated order, and the newer associate on the headset just couldn't figure out what he wanted. I happened to be cooking and had a headset on and told the customer to pull to the window and we would take the order there. I then had someone take over on the grill, walked over to the window with a pen and paper towel and took their order the old-fashioned way. The customer called in saying that I was very patient and kind, especially with the newer associate who couldn't take the order, and that I should be recognized for my good work. I was so happy when the compliment came in, and was actually really surprised because I don't feel like I did anything that above and beyond how any other associate should be performing, but it was just soooo nice to feel like I am doing a good job and am appreciated.

When a new In-N-Out opens up we hold a "store party" where the all-stars for the store work while anyone who works for In-N-Out and their friends/family get to come and eat for free. I had never been to one before but I had a really great time seeing some old faces, mainly old managers and friends who I had worked with at other stores.


Kaci and I, she had to work unfortunately

The highlight of the store party though was when I told my store manager, Jon, that I want to go meet Mark Taylor, the president of the company, and so he just walked me and a friend over there and introduced me, like no big deal! Mark Taylor was very nice, he even said I had a beautiful name, tee hee. I was kind of embarrassed to ask, but Wes asked if we could get a picture with him, and he said he would be honored. What a cool guy.


Me, Mark Taylor, Wes

Today was my last day all-starring at 218, and I was actually pretty sad about it. I really enjoyed the new friends I made, the kind and supportive management team, the new hires who actually appreciate it when I help them, and just how much fun I was having at work. I love my job.