While doing a Panda shop, I recently noticed two young employees in the parking lot with scrapers, scrub brushes, and buckets filled with foamy liquid. They were on their hands and knees cleaning and scraping the lot while somebody who appeared to be a manager stood over them, pointing and giving instructions. I went back today (non-shop) and saw a pothole had been repaired, and the entire parking lot had been restriped. What they were doing was in preparation for that work.

There's no way that's part of Panda's job description. I felt bad for the employees and wanted to say something, but I held my tongue and noted it on my report. How outrageous to expect your associates to scrub and scrape the parking lot. Stop being cheap and hire somebody with a machine to do it.

I think I would have told him where he could stuff his job.

A good manager would've been down on their knees helping out...

I wonder if the editor of the Panda's shop will keep that part in there, or they will take it out?

Panda pays $22-$30 an hour to start for cashiers and cooks.

@BayShopper22 wrote:

Panda pays $22-$30 an hour to start for cashiers and cooks.

For that amount of money shouldn't they know how to cook?

@BayShopper22 wrote:

Panda pays $22-$30 an hour to start for cashiers and cooks.

Sure, in California. Minimum wage here is $7.25 an hour; if they get $10, they're doing good.

@drdoggie00 wrote:

@BayShopper22 wrote:

Panda pays $22-$30 an hour to start for cashiers and cooks.

Sure, in California. Minimum wage here is $7.25 an hour; if they get $10, they're doing good.

In OK, Panda start employees at $16 an hour.

When you work for any business, there are going to be some parts of your job that you don't necessarily like but someone has to do it. It's part of a good work ethic to do your best at whatever task you are asked unless you think you are too good to do work that millions of other people in tbe world do.

Children and entry level employees should know the meaning of work. It builds character. It also gives you drive and determination to do a good a job and get promoted, get recognized, to move up and onward. I was fortunate enough to work in a refinery during summer break before college. I did a variety of jobs in that refinery from digging ditches, cutting grass, to scooping up the most disgusting smelling waste from a water chiller, to crawling in a tank rail car to wipe it dry, to standing around doing nothing as a fire watch for an entire shift.

STOP looking down on these tasks. Stop looking down on people. Stop looking down at opportunity.

START looking at how policies in this country are slowly destroying the economy and in particular, small businesses.

I was the first in my family to graduate college, cum laude, and did well enough to retire early with my spouse. I now do these shops for fun and discounts.

@tstewart3 and @maverick1

Getting on their hands and knees to scrape and clean part of the parking lot is not part of the job of a Panda Express kitchen or service staff member. I can see a manager telling employees to sweep outside the restaurant or pick up any trash that was in parts of the parking lot that were close to the restaurant. By your logic, why not have those employees fix the pothole, too?

If the young employees drdoggie00 saw volunteered to scrape and clean in the parking lot, that's one thing. If the manager made them do it and didn't even join in, shame on that manager!

(Was this in Texas? How hot was it?)

I was the branch manager of a computer hardware company. I taught myself how to drive a forklift so that I could move pallets in the warehouse. Being able to drive a forklift meant I could do monthly inventory counts on the weekends or at night -- when we were closed and I could work by myself. I also fixed a leaky toilet at work once to save money.

Those were not part of my job description but I chose to do them. My boss (the owner) did not ask me to. My sisters were upset I fixed that toilet, especially when my other boss (the owner's wife) did not appreciate what I did and mistreated me (and other employees).

Would I have asked my salespeople to do either of those things? No! They were not part of the job description. Asking salespeople to drive a forklift or fix a toilet would be unreasonable, inappropriate, and probably bad for morale.

Many things need to be done but that does not necessarily mean employees should be the ones to do them. It's not a matter of thinking a task is beneath an employee or work ethic.

Your job is anything your employer says it is. You don't like what you are doing, find another job. If you think you are too good to do it, might as well leave since you are making a toxic work environment for those employees who are there to work.
As far as fixing the pothole, those employees more than likely don't have the tools or knowledge to fix potholes or they would be working for a parking lot or road maintenance company.

If they had wanted to scrape parking lots, they'd have gone to work at a parking lot or road maintenance company. They didn't; they applied and accepted a job at Panda Express. Just like a road maintenance worker wouldn't expect to be asked to serve people lunch, a Panda Express employee wouldn't expect to scrape a parking lot in anticipation of repair work. It has nothing to do with thinking you're too good for a task. It's about the scope of your expected and logically anticipated job duties.

When I worked as a secretary for the state of Texas, should I have anticipated being asked to go out with a scrub brush and clean the six-level parking garage each day? What about the bush that was dying outside the administration building? Should I have expected to be sent over with a shovel and a new bush to replace it?

Busy, yes. This was a couple of weeks ago in Texas. We've already had days when the temperature reached 97.

@drdoggie00 wrote:

If they had wanted to scrape parking lots, they'd have gone to work at a parking lot or road maintenance company. They didn't; they applied and accepted a job at Panda Express. Just like a road maintenance worker wouldn't expect to be asked to serve people lunch, a Panda Express employee wouldn't expect to scrape a parking lot in anticipation of repair work. It has nothing to do with thinking you're too good for a task. It's about the scope of your expected and logically anticipated job duties.

When I worked as a secretary for the state of Texas, should I have anticipated being asked to go out with a scrub brush and clean the six-level parking garage each day? What about the bush that was dying outside the administration building? Should I have expected to be sent over with a shovel and a new bush to replace it?

Busy, yes. This was a couple of weeks ago in Texas. We've already had days when the temperature reached 97.

Oh, a state employee, huh? Well, now that explains a lot...

(My mother was a secretary in a "for-profit" business. The type that required merit.)

My husband works as a manager in a warehouse.... he has served Thanksgiving dinner to employees every year. They also have management serve for employee appreciation day and Christmas dinner (not open on Christmas, the meal is on Christmas Eve)
That's DEFINITELY not what he interviewed & was hired for. Should he have refused?!? Nope!

@drdoggie00 wrote:

If they had wanted to scrape parking lots, they'd have gone to work at a parking lot or road maintenance company. They didn't; they applied and accepted a job at Panda Express. Just like a road maintenance worker wouldn't expect to be asked to serve people lunch, a Panda Express employee wouldn't expect to scrape a parking lot in anticipation of repair work. It has nothing to do with thinking you're too good for a task. It's about the scope of your expected and logically anticipated job duties.

When I worked as a secretary for the state of Texas, should I have anticipated being asked to go out with a scrub brush and clean the six-level parking garage each day? What about the bush that was dying outside the administration building? Should I have expected to be sent over with a shovel and a new bush to replace it?

Busy, yes. This was a couple of weeks ago in Texas. We've already had days when the temperature reached 97.

ROFL. What a ridiculous post!

@tstewart3 wrote:

Your job is anything your employer says it is. You don't like what you are doing, find another job. If you think you are too good to do it, might as well leave since you are making a toxic work environment for those employees who are there to work.
As far as fixing the pothole, those employees more than likely don't have the tools or knowledge to fix potholes or they would be working for a parking lot or road maintenance company.

Are you seriously comparing serving dinner to employees in a building to getting on one's knees to scrape and clean in a parking lot when the temperature is in the high 90s?

@viv0412 wrote:

My husband works as a manager in a warehouse.... he has served Thanksgiving dinner to employees every year. They also have management serve for employee appreciation day and Christmas dinner (not open on Christmas, the meal is on Christmas Eve)
That's DEFINITELY not what he interviewed & was hired for. Should he have refused?!? Nope!

@drdoggie00 wrote:

If they had wanted to scrape parking lots, they'd have gone to work at a parking lot or road maintenance company. They didn't; they applied and accepted a job at Panda Express. Just like a road maintenance worker wouldn't expect to be asked to serve people lunch, a Panda Express employee wouldn't expect to scrape a parking lot in anticipation of repair work. It has nothing to do with thinking you're too good for a task. It's about the scope of your expected and logically anticipated job duties.

When I worked as a secretary for the state of Texas, should I have anticipated being asked to go out with a scrub brush and clean the six-level parking garage each day? What about the bush that was dying outside the administration building? Should I have expected to be sent over with a shovel and a new bush to replace it?

Busy, yes. This was a couple of weeks ago in Texas. We've already had days when the temperature reached 97.

@tstewart3 wrote:

Your job is anything your employer says it is. You don't like what you are doing, find another job. If you think you are too good to do it, might as well leave since you are making a toxic work environment for those employees who are there to work.

Generally true. There certainly are limits.

This is often added to job descriptions: "Examples of duties performed by employees in this class may not include all required duties, nor are all listed tasks necessarily performed by everyone in this class."

Everybody is going to view this differently.

All I can say is, shop or non-shop, it bothered me to see Panda Express employees, regardless of age, on their hands and knees without any kneepads or protective equipment, wearing the Panda uniform and apron, in the Texas sun scraping and prepping a parking lot for repairs. Not that it makes a difference, but it wasn't a smooth concrete parking lot; it was blacktop asphalt, so ratchet up the pain factor for knees and palms.

It would bother me to see a Walmart employee doing that. A Macy's employee. A Great Clips employee. A McDonald's employee. You know who it wouldn't bother me to see doing it? An employee of a parking lot resurfacing company...because it's in the scope of what they were hired to do. I guarantee they'd be operating a machine rather than being on all fours.

@maverick1 wrote:

Oh, a state employee, huh? Well, now that explains a lot...

(My mother was a secretary in a "for-profit" business. The type that required merit.)

Shush it, mav. -smiles sweetly-

The person I quoted did!
They said 'a road maintenance worker wouldn't expect to serve someone lunch'
it's all about what you expect the work to be....


Work ethic! Doesn't matter what you are doing, as long as it's not illegal and you're being paid.

@BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz wrote:

Are you seriously comparing serving dinner to employees in a building to getting on one's knees to scrape and clean in a parking lot when the temperature is in the high 90s?

@viv0412 wrote:

My husband works as a manager in a warehouse.... he has served Thanksgiving dinner to employees every year. They also have management serve for employee appreciation day and Christmas dinner (not open on Christmas, the meal is on Christmas Eve)
That's DEFINITELY not what he interviewed & was hired for. Should he have refused?!? Nope!

@drdoggie00 wrote:

If they had wanted to scrape parking lots, they'd have gone to work at a parking lot or road maintenance company. They didn't; they applied and accepted a job at Panda Express. Just like a road maintenance worker wouldn't expect to be asked to serve people lunch, a Panda Express employee wouldn't expect to scrape a parking lot in anticipation of repair work. It has nothing to do with thinking you're too good for a task. It's about the scope of your expected and logically anticipated job duties.

When I worked as a secretary for the state of Texas, should I have anticipated being asked to go out with a scrub brush and clean the six-level parking garage each day? What about the bush that was dying outside the administration building? Should I have expected to be sent over with a shovel and a new bush to replace it?

Busy, yes. This was a couple of weeks ago in Texas. We've already had days when the temperature reached 97.

And we shall a2d.

@drdoggie00 wrote:

If they had wanted to scrape parking lots, they'd have gone to work at a parking lot or road maintenance company. They didn't; they applied and accepted a job at Panda Express. Just like a road maintenance worker wouldn't expect to be asked to serve people lunch, a Panda Express employee wouldn't expect to scrape a parking lot in anticipation of repair work. It has nothing to do with thinking you're too good for a task. It's about the scope of your expected and logically anticipated job duties.

When I worked as a secretary for the state of Texas, should I have anticipated being asked to go out with a scrub brush and clean the six-level parking garage each day? What about the bush that was dying outside the administration building? Should I have expected to be sent over with a shovel and a new bush to replace it?

Busy, yes. This was a couple of weeks ago in Texas. We've already had days when the temperature reached 97.

C'mon...97 was just the temperature. The heat index was 108.

My thought was always this...I'll do anything my employer asks of me if it's not illegal, immoral or dangerous. But at some point, job satisfaction does come into play. It would have come into play immediately if I was asked to mop a parking lot.

You can really tell that Panda has a problem with turnover. Many of the locations I shop at have the starting pay painted on the exterior glass of the restaurant. They wouldn't be doing that if they were not constantly looking to hire new people. And often times inside the restaurants, the TV screens are constantly running ads for working at Panda Express.

Ah, I love a good debate...

The military shaped my work ethic. Dangerous?....HA!!

The reality is an employer can tell an employee to do pretty much anything as long as it is legal and safe, unless the employee has a contract or union.Their only recourse would be to refuse and file for unemployment if they are terminated, saying the scope of the job changed, and maybe the claim gets approved.

Personally I would not object it it were me, as long as it were a one-time thing. And 97 degrees isn't that big of a deal for short periods as long as you have water and no underlying health conditions. People work outside all day in hotter temperatures than that.

I remember an inexperienced manager asking me to clean the air conditioning system in the office. I refused as I had my decent suit on and had my actual work tasks to do.

A week later, a new employee started. She was dressed to impress. The manager asked her to clean the air con on her first day. Predictably she didn’t return to work the next day.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/2024 08:53PM by Book.

At my first high school fast food job we had to scrub the lobby floor on our hands and knees EVERY NIGHT for closing. There was no machine. You just hoped you weren't the lowest one in the hierarchy working that night....(and that was for $3.25/hr)

I did not see this discussion when it was originally posted but it definitely gets me worked up. After attending a state college on an academic scholarship, I went to work in the restaurant business for 9 years followed by 16 years in retail. I was always a store manager or multi-level unit manager/supervisor. I never considered it beneath me to do any job necessary. Matter of fact, as a female manager in the 70s and 80s, I was proud that I could do any job including power-washing the parking lot (with muriatic acid no less), emptying leaky, smelly, trash, and doing many maintenance chores that required special equipment and a well-stocked toolbox. We cleaned the condenser and coils on our equipment as well as regularly taking down and cleaning the ceiling vents.

I hired many 16 year olds into their first job. I was once told that the work ethic people acquire in their first job will stay with them forever and influence their future contributions to society. Heavy stuff. Throughout my career, I had a very low employee turnover rate compared to industry standards, and I fully believe my teams always knew I was willing to get in the trenches with them. Unless you have been responsible for P&Ls in small stores, you may not realize that large companies have less than a 5% net profit. Budgets do not generally allow for funds to hire professionals for every job needed.

As someone mentioned, many employees would prefer cleaning the parking lot to waiting on nasty customers. That is a fact, and smoking employees are more than happy to take out trash in exchange for a quick smoke break.

For the record, when I was in the restaurant business, our rule was the parking lot needed to be checked every half hour for trash, cigarette butts, etc. When you keep a tight ship, customers see that and are more inclined to help you keep it neat and clean.

In regards to the original, post, I will wager they were expecting a corporate visit or inspection and were working to get things in tip-top shape. My teams always took immense pride in scoring high on visits as well as health inspections. A good manager creates a team that wants to do well for the team. This makes them better people.

I once opened a new restaurant and had an employee who flat out refused to take out trash. In front of a number of other employees, I explained that we all take out the trash. When the dumpster gets full, we jump in the dumpster and smash it down to make room for more trash. She left that day and never came back.


Coincidentally, Panda was a corporate client of mine in a later career and I know them to be a well-run company with strong leaders. It is hot and heavy work lifting those woks so I wouldn't doubt there is some turnover, like everywhere else. Every week, I see posts on my local FB pages from young people looking for work that state "no fast food". Irks me to no end.

The following happened at work many years ago:

Someone suddenly began to leave used feminine hygiene products in the women's restroom. (This was a small business with fewer than 20 employees at this location. There was only one restroom each for males and females.) There were receptacles in the restroom for the proper disposal of such items but someone decided to leave the bloody and smelly things in plain view for her coworkers to discover. There were no new hires around that time. Whoever the culprit was, she was a long-time employee.

Multiple female employees reported the issue to management. The owner held a meeting; all the female employees (including me) were in attendance. Instead of trying to find out who the culprit was or announcing what was unacceptable conduct in the workplace, he decided to tell all the female employees to clean up such offensive items in the women's restroom whenever they saw them.

All of the female employees (including the owner's wife, who was the comptroller) appeared to be upset about this "solution." I was the only one who spoke up in the meeting and told the owner that I was not going to do it. He backed down. If he had not, I would have looked for a job elsewhere. I suspect some of my coworkers would have done the same.

Strangely enough, the culprit stopped soon after the meeting.

Employees sometimes refuse to perform a task not because they have poor work ethic or because they think the task is beneath them. Sometimes, a boss should have never asked employees to do certain things in the first place.

For more examples of supervisors/managers and bad orders, try watching some Undercover Boss clips/episodes.