Yeah, nice suit, but you're still a gofer
I suppose there's not anything wrong with being a
gofer, or a dogsbody, but there's no doubt that there's this precious moment of complete disillusionment when a young business graduate finds himself fetching a dozen lunch orders at
Petit Four.
Each brutally customized by the sadists known as his co-workers.
In the name of "researching the human condition," I decided to be posh and get myself some food there too. I ended up observing the poor schmuk placing a lunch order so large, it clearly had to be his company's idea of a hazing ritual. From a distance he looked like the typical suit coming down for his Fancy Power Lunch, but up close you could see the naive youth.
"Work hard, follow these orders. Climb the ladder Monty!"
As enlightening as my research was - conclusion, he really should've called ahead with his crazy order - I did want lunch, and the one person ahead of me wasn't getting any service at the cash.
Fortunately the lunch rush was fast approaching, and Petit Four wisely opened the second cash for the lady in line ahead of me. Once she managed to get her credit card to stop declining itself - I got to pay for my own order, with cash of course. I was done, and the Kid was still finalizing his order.
I saw the order-sheet.
Indecipherable scribbles from a good dozen or so people on a piece of paper that definitely wasn't the official PDF ordering form. I stopped paying close attention as my friends showed up with their own food from the Discount Asian and Gourmet Burrito places, but I could've sworn the kid ran off without the order. Perhaps to get clarification, who knows.
Poor guy. Hope he didn't come down from one of the Big Accounting Firms upstairs. They're typically less evil, and the staff are less likely to sport the Look at Me Power Suit.
But somewhere in the downtown core of Toronto a board-room full of people were no doubt impatiently awaiting his return, while my food came out promptly. The advantage of ordering for just yourself!
The key message? My sandwich from Petit Four had Bacon Bread and Beef. It was, predictably, awesome.
The techie in me is a little surprised they don't have a pure online ordering process. The realist that has seen the insanity associated with setting up anything online, as well as the tight margins and limited resources on hand in small businesses like restaurants, however, knows that such a toy is still a pipe dream for the average restaurant.
I may have just stumbled upon another Brilliant Idea for someone with some decent coding skills who wants to flip out a smart little idea into a successful product. Watch it turn into a UFE case idea for 2012 or 2013.
"You, CA, have been hired by LunchExpressNow.com, to assist the owner rollout her new business venture. An accomplished computer programmer, the success of her online ordering system for lunches in Calgary is set to expand across Canada with potential for growth around the world. You will be helping her consider the financing considerations for the expansion as well as the tax implications from opening in new jursidictions. Attached are three proposals for funding the new version of her program as well as minutes from your interviews with the Founder as well as her two university friends who have helped run the business since it started in their shared dorm room at the University of Alberta..."
My running gag is turning an ordinary scenario in the office into the start of a mock UFE case, if you hadn't noticed by now.
Note: This random rant inspired by getting food while putting in
a long day at work devolved into the start of a UFE case so subtly I
felt a warning was in order. But after adding this text to the top I felt it spoiled the "flow" so I moved the warning to the bottom of the article, where it will not really "warn" anyone except those who enjoy reading articles backwards. So, if you're that guy, you've been warned.