What It's Really Like Working At Chipotle Now
Just about every day, I meet an aspiring comedian. Sometimes, if I'm lucky, there are two during the same shift. They all recycle the same opening line, though:
"Can I have a burrito, but hold the E. coli, please?"
I just smile. In my position at Chipotle, my whole goal is to make the lunch rush go as smoothly as possible, whether that means helping out with food prep or cleaning up. Even though my store wasn't affected by the E. coli and norovirus outbreaks, it's had enough of a chilling effect on business to make the lunch 'rush' feel a bit more leisurely. At least a few times a week, someone is let go from their shift an hour early (usually around 2 or 3 p.m.) because it's so slow. Before the outbreaks, that was a pretty rare occurrence.
That's not the only difference I've noticed at work. Here are a few of the ways being a Chipotle employee has changed over the last few months.
Our Policies Have Gotten Stricter.
The biggest change is the company's crackdown on its rules. At the top of the hour, every hour, every employee washes their hands. That's always been a policy, but now, it's better enforced. And just washing your hands with soap and hot water isn't enough; Chipotle now requires you to use hand sanitizer after washing your hands.
We also have hotel pans-deep-walled, stainless steel trays-that are filled with sanitizer, water and detergent where you put used utensils until they can be properly cleaned. (Tongs, for example, have to be swapped out for a fresh pair every time they touch raw meat.) Every hour, the sanitizer-water mixture is replaced. Again, we've always done that, but now our managers are being extra-cautious to ensure it's getting done.
Similarly, if you take out the trash, you can't wear gloves. Gloves are just for handling food. And, once you've taken out the trash, you need to wash and sanitize your hands again. That's something you'd think goes without saying-but apparently, you need to remind people.
We're Changing the Way We Make Your Food.
Another big update is that we now blanche all vegetables before preparing them. Basically, we stick them in boiling water for about five seconds, then immediately refrigerate them. It doesn't change the way the food tastes, but it's another precaution to help kill off any bacteria that could be on the produce.
We've made a few new hires since the outbreaks have happened, and we're really, really careful to train them properly. That's kind of the mentality overall right now: be really careful.
We're Using Up Our Sick Days.
If you're sick, you're supposed to take at least four days off. That's something managers are really enforcing now. I was feeling sick one afternoon last month, so I took the day off, and that night, I got a text telling me not to come in the next day. (I had the next two days off.)
Luckily I have paid sick days, so it wasn't a problem for me. I'm not sure if that's the case for everyone, though. [Editor's note: As of July 1, 2015, all hourly Chipotle employees should receive paid sick leave.]
We Repeat the Same Thing Over and Over.
People have been really confused about the stores closing on February 8. We're just shutting down for part of the day-probably to go over food safety procedures and any other changes, though we haven't been told exactly what will go on-but we regularly get asked whether we're closing for good that day.
Let it be known: No, Chipotle is not shutting down for good. It's just for a few hours, just so that they can get information to us quickly and all at once. Your days of enjoying barbacoa and cilantro-lime rice are not numbered.
We're Seeing A Whole New Kind of Customer.
Though the number of overall customers has gone down, we're definitely seeing more of those wannabe comedians I mentioned-as well as some conspiracy theorists. Those are the diehard Chipotle fans; the ones who insist the outbreaks were created by Monsanto or the government or some other group just to ensure the company's downfall. Those comments get weird.
Again, I just smile.
We're Cautious, But Ultimately Not Too Stressed.
My coworkers and I aren't too worried we'll have an outbreak here; our store is in Texas (where there haven't been any outbreaks), our food is locally sourced (again, no known outbreaks), and we've been following all of the safety procedures Chipotle has outlined.
Frankly, none of this has stopped me from having a chicken bowl just about every shift.
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