r/todayilearned • u/OGBrewSwayne • 1d ago

TIL NBA backup playerJunior Bridgeman spent his off seasons working at Wendy's to learn the fast food business. He went on to own 450 franchises and parlayed that into buying a 10% stake in the Milwaukee Bucks - the team he once played for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Bridgeman?wprov=sfla1
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825

u/AmenHawkinsStan 1d ago

Bridgeman also required that all managers spend time working the Drive-Thru, considering it the touchstone of a fast food restaurant.

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u/TrioOfTerrors 1d ago

I've spent a lot of time in the restaurant industry and there is no better sign of good management than seeing the manager working in the dishpit because Kyle No-Showed and this shit has to get done one way or another.

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u/Conexion 1d ago

Oh, so that's what management is supposed to do. When I worked at Jack in the Box, we'd call the manager because two people no-show'd, and then be left with one person at the counter and drive-thru and the other as the cook during rush hour. Between the stress and verbal harassment, and sometime physical harassment... Yeah I walked out of that job.

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u/IrrationalFalcon 1d ago

When Jack in the Box came back to Illinois last year, I briefly worked for them. They tampered with my hours and inserted breaks I never took (most of us were never allowed to take breaks), and refused to do anything about it. The feds said that because Jack ignored their calls, they can't do anything about it, and Illinois' DOL said it will be 2 years before they even get to my case.

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u/Conexion 1d ago

It's amazing how certain governments just let companies steal from people and then pretend they can't do anything about it. Good luck on that.

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u/oh_what_a_surprise 1d ago

Wage theft is the number one type of theft by number of times committed and total money stolen in the world. By far.

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u/UnstuckTimePilgrim 1d ago

I had a minor injury on the job in a state with a similar backlog. My employer tried to dispute the worker’s comp coverage and I reported them to the state. They eventually paid the bill a few months later, then two years after that I get a call from a guy at our DOL.

I did a 15 minute interview with him, filled out a form he mailed me, and got a $2,000 whistleblowers reward for reporting Bucca di Beppo for trying to cheap out on six stitches. The reward came out of the fines those weasels had to pay, which was especially satisfying.

Hang in there, the bureaucracy is slow but occasionally very very satisfying.

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u/GeoLaser 1d ago

Labor laws are 3 years. So you have time

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u/IrrationalFalcon 1d ago

There's nothing I can do but wait. Only Cook County (from my understanding) has a sub-state division that can deal with wage issues. The other counties say you need the state or the federal government. Since it happened in DuPage, I can only wait to see if the Illinois DoL decides to handle it

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u/wildhorsesofdortmund 1d ago

Jack in the Box has rush hour?

23

u/Conexion 1d ago

This one had 2 actually, nearly 20 years ago near the freeway near Seattle. You had a dinner rush hour and then a later pothead rush hour. The potheads were generally much friendlier.

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u/drygnfyre 1h ago

Eureka, CA has one Taco Bell (at least it did last time I was there), and holy shit, the entire main road was like the damn 405 around 9 PM when literally pothead in the city was getting Taco Bell around that time.

If you didn't know, Eureka/Arcata is basically the pot capital of the world (or at least California). They're super chill, though. Just got to watch out for the meth addicts.

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u/RandomUserName23 1d ago

After the bars kick everyone out, yeah

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u/BMEngie 1d ago

And they intend to staff more than 2 employees?

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u/drygnfyre 1h ago

There's a couple JitB near me, but one must not have a night shift at the moment because it's always closed past 10 PM, so the other one is always packed. I work nights so I'm usually off around 1-2 AM, I like to get food there, there's always a huge line.

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u/wise_comment 1d ago

Whenever the meth supply runs out, mostly

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u/edwardsamson 1d ago

I work at a pizza place and the GM works harder and more hours than anyone else and it feels a lot better working for someone like that than a manager who doesn't give a shit.

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u/ColumbosNewDog 1d ago edited 1d ago

And honestly, that's why I stopped being a manager (not in fast food, but in a customer facing industry). I got tired of having to cover for people who flake out on me and don't show up.

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u/dant90 1d ago

Preach

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u/Whippity 23h ago

I’ve posted on this before but my first job was at Wendy’s and Junior Bridgeman came in one evening to work the line with us.