5 guys -multiple gray shirts

Often when I do a 5 guys, there are 2-3 people with gray shirts....it is often hard to tell if anyone is acting as a manager. I try to look for one that might be directing more than the others.
How do others deal with this?

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If there was a white/gray shirt you have seen a manager. It is not unusual, depending on time of day, time of week and time of year, to have everybody in the kitchen area wearing manager shirts. If any of them are directing or interacting with customers, they get the credit.

@Flash wrote:

If there was a white/gray shirt you have seen a manager. It is not unusual, depending on time of day, time of week and time of year, to have everybody in the kitchen area wearing manager shirts. If any of them are directing or interacting with customers, they get the credit.

Ditto to Flash's excellent post!

"We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl -- year after year..."

Grey shirt = manager, per guidelines. So whatever these managers do will be reported, as-observed.

Shopping the Greater Denver Area, Colorado Springs and in-between in Colorado. 33 year old male and willing to travel!

Ever see a bunch of gray shirts and no red shirts? Like who exactly are they in charge of? Too many foremen and no fieldhands, as my grandpa used to say.

@FrugalCat wrote:

Ever see a bunch of gray shirts and no red shirts? Like who exactly are they in charge of? Too many foremen and no fieldhands, as my grandpa used to say.

Above our pay grade to think about it that much.

Shopping the Greater Denver Area, Colorado Springs and in-between in Colorado. 33 year old male and willing to travel!

@FrugalCat wrote:

Ever see a bunch of gray shirts and no red shirts? Like who exactly are they in charge of? Too many foremen and no fieldhands, as my grandpa used to say.

In spirit of your grandpa, my grandparents felt----->"that they were too many Chiefs, not enough Indians

I swear the district manager calls them and tips them off that we are coming! If I go in on a normal day, I'm lucky if there is one grey shirt there. The crew is mostly red shirted college students. Come shop day, there are 4-5 grey shirts behind the counter. EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!! They know we are coming.

I have gone when it was the manager, assistant manager and two other grey shirts. Not a red shirt in the place. Four of the grey shirts can handle lunch rush.

They keep several assistant managers around at each location as they can burn through employees at some locations and they need to have plenty of assistant managers ready to step up when a manager slot opens up.

I think with a lot of those jobs, assistant manager is more of a promotion with pay upgrade than anything else. My Five Guys locations usually have a couple of each at any given time (though I don't think I've ever gone there when I wasn't shopping, to compare).

We are all here on earth to help others....What on earth the others are here for I don't know.

--W. H. Auden

Is this the place they are just called shift leaders, not necessarily a manager?

It really does not matter what they are called. The definition by the MSC is that a white or gray shirt is a 'manager'. We aren't asked whether the shirt had a collar or not, whether they wear slacks or jeans. It just doesn't get much easier. Gray or white = manager per guidelines.

At every 5 Guys I've shopped, there have been two "grey shirts" on duty. At the one where there weren't, there was no grey shirt until just before I was done with the shop.

Oddly enough, at the only shop in which the cashier did NOT ask the required questions, it was a grey shirt who didn't ask either one....

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

Black shirt has been thrown in as a possible color... if you look at your guidelines.

Oops.... I had meant to write, "At every 5 Guys... but one...." Duh.

Never have seen a black shirt. At least not yet.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2016 11:12PM by BirdyC.

@BirdyC wrote:

Oops.... I had meant to write, "At every 5 Guys... but one...." Duh.

Never have seen a black shirt. At least not yet.

Me either! I think they are DM's perhaps.

Or perhaps the locations general manager?

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

@Kr wrote:

I swear the district manager calls them and tips them off that we are coming! If I go in on a normal day, I'm lucky if there is one grey shirt there. The crew is mostly red shirted college students. Come shop day, there are 4-5 grey shirts behind the counter. EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!! They know we are coming.

Who cares? That's in them, not us.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

Some days I see 4 grey shirts and some days I see one.

@Flash wrote:

If there was a white/gray shirt you have seen a manager. It is not unusual, depending on time of day, time of week and time of year, to have everybody in the kitchen area wearing manager shirts. If any of them are directing or interacting with customers, they get the credit.

The problem with this is if the cashier is a grey shirt you have to say you saw a manager interacting with customers. In my last shop I tried to say that the person that appeared to actually be the manager was not interacting with customers, but because the cashier was a grey shirt, I had to check the "Yes" option.

If I see an employee wearing a grey polo (and not just a grey tee) then I try to give that person credit for being the manager.

We are the people our parents warned us about ~ Jimmy Buffett

I work on the assumption (and you know what potential dangers that has) that they want to know if the manager is visible and working rather than sitting in the back room directing traffic or--as has happened on one visit I did--off site entirely. As long as the shirt has the logo it is an 'official' shirt whether it is polo or tee. Someone mentioned there are now 'black' shirts though I have not seen that yet in my instructions or on site, so for me as long as someone wearing white or gray with a logo on it interacted with any member of the public, they get credit. It could be a shout out greeting as a customer enters or exits, cashiering, handing out the bags or chit chatting while working in the dining room, it all counts. "Two at the door" does not count as a customer interaction as it is an interaction with the crew, not the customers.

@FancyNancy wrote:

The problem with this is if the cashier is a grey shirt you have to say you saw a manager interacting with customers. In my last shop I tried to say that the person that appeared to actually be the manager was not interacting with customers, but because the cashier was a grey shirt, I had to check the "Yes" option.

I think you are getting what they want to know and what you want to tell them confused.

They want to know if someone in a gray shirt interacts in any way with customers. You want to tell them the person you think should have been interacting with customers wasn't two different things.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

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5 guys -multiple gray shirts

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