During my near five year employment with Chipotle, I had never been negatively documented for any unprofessional or disciplinary reason. In fact on my last performance review, I was labeled an above expectations overall, and in the most recent company wide, crew survey, my store and staff thought higher of my managing style and overall restaurant operation, when compared to the overall company average.
With Chipotle I was on a career path, Beginning in 2004 as a crew person, and working my way up the ranks to become the General Manager of the flagship location which I took great pride in. At the time of my termination I was working with Joe- Restauranteur Mentor to attain the next level of restaurant management a Restauranteur myself, the only thing that held me back from achieving this was my bench strength of managers. I needed to actively locate, develop, and train every level of management so that my restaurant would be fully staffed with all management gaps filled with “top-performing” progressing candidates; all with a hand in their own development, guided through their individual personal development journals.
In December, due to my lack of management coverage, Denise, an Apprentice Manager, came to work at my store to help get my Service Manager Chavone to the level or Apprentice relatively quickly, in addition to helping with coverage of shifts during my vacation.
Prior to this Denise and I were good friends whom hung out and spoke to one another outside of work on a wide range of topics.
From the time I had hired Chavone, I had also gotten to become good friends with her and her boyfriend Danny, which I put in a good word for him at a neighboring location Chipotle where he was ultimately offered a position. In a time when Chavone and Danny needed some help.
While working together Denise and Chavone (Shay) also became close friends.
In January sadly Shay needed to rush back home due to a Family Death. I let Shay know not to worry about Chipotle, but to do what she had to do back home and take the time she needed. I was fully supportive.
While Shay was away, Danny her boy friend came to me and said he would be heading back to home as-well for the funeral and to be there for Shay. Danny asked if I would dog sit for one of their two dogs, while he was gone. I agreed.
The original plan was that Danny was going to be gone only a couple of days. Yet in total he was gone 11 days. The dog that was left, was a dog that was not house broken, and urinated on my floor, couch, chewed up shoes, dug up rose bushes as well as holes in the backyard. Being that it was January and cold I could not leave the dog outside 24-7. At night, and during the day I brought the dog in. The dog cried and barked, non-stop. To say the least it was pure hell for 11 whole days.
During this time I never phoned Shay or Danny leaving them time to grieve and I wanted to give them the space they needed and not bother them with additional problems so many miles away, with their dog whom I agreed to watch and care for.
After a few days I ran out of the dogs regular food blend, which was left by Danny. Originally, there was only enough to last a few days. I was scared to switch the dogs food, for fear that the dog may get sick due to switching its food so I began cooking for the dog. I boiled noodles for the dog and served the dog softened noodles and canned pumpkin.
As a friend and as a manager I was barley contacted by Shay or Danny, while they were gone until right before Danny returned when I, fully irritated, sent a series of text messages to Danny’s cel phone about his irresponsibility in being gone for as long as he was, while I had put in a good word and gotten him a job all the while their dog still at my home was a real inconvenience / nightmare.
While away, Shay did all of her communication through Denise. Rarely contacting me.
At one point I had found out through Denise that Shay had plans for taking a full additional six weeks off to visit Haiti. At that point I had expressed concerns to Denise about overall store coverage. This conversation was one that I deemed a confidential conversation between a GM and an Apprentice.
At this point I was already working 7 days a week and two of the days I was pulling double shifts, while Denise refused to work any extra hours than her 5 days as she was a salaried employee. It was at this point I expressed my concerns to Houman Iskandani about if she was in deed the right person for the job, if working extra when needed was such an issue.
It was at this point Denise told Shay that I had expressed concerns about her decision to take that amount of time off.
Shay called me furious! She was crying and screaming, threatening to quit. Saying family was more important than Chipotle. I agreed wholeheartedly and calmed her down and reassured her that her job was not in jeopardy, and that I wanted her to do what she had to do and take care of all the loose ends left from her brother’s passing and attend to her family and worry about grieving not about Chipotle that she would still have her job and the opportunity to grow with the company, upon her return.
After my conversation with Shay I called Denise and asked her why she had called Shay and bothered her during such a rough time in her life, and blown a mere side comment into such a huge deal? She denied everything. I told her that at that point I wasn’t able to trust her either personally or professionally, due the the outcome of our private conversation becoming an additional burden on Shay. Denise was really upset that I would say I no longer trusted her and she had said she had to let me go and she hung up the phone.
In retaliation of my phone call and conversation with Denise, Denise decided to call in to the Global Compliance Complaint Confidential Hotline for Chipotle, to report me as a manger whom managed through intimidation and through her complaint painted a picture of me that was unflattering, unprofessional, and untrue.
On February 3, 2009 I was approached about said complaint after a Reporting Services Meeting at the corporate office. I was told in that meeting that a full investigation into the complaint was going to be followed through and that HR, would be sitting and talking with my staff. Knowing this information I said nothing to the crew or anyone about what was going on or planned. I wanted the feedback to directly reflect what they had felt, and observed, from me as a manager.
On February 5, 2009 Joe- Restauranteur Mentor, Houman- Area Manager, and Allison- HRG, sat down and spoke with the employees that were working that AM shift. Prior to my arrival to close the restaurant.
On February 5, 2009 when I arrived to the store, my presence was requested across the street at the Starbucks Coffee shop where I was officially documented (written-up) after the crew interrogation. The concerns noted by the crew after the interrogation was that they never knew what my attitude was going to be, and they didn’t feel comfortable coming to me sometimes. Because they felt uncomfortable. This was a violation of Chipotle’s Zero Tolerance Policy. At this time, I was warned that if any future complaints were reported it would be grounds for immediate termination.
After I was documented a few of my employees had come to me to tell me that Denise was the one whom called the Confidential line on me and was bragging about it to a few of the crew. It wasn’t until after I had been let go that I had also found out that Denise had also coerced the crew into saying disparaging remarks about me during the crew interviews conducted by Joe- Restauranteur Mentor, Houman- Area Manager, and Allison- HRG on Thursday, February 5, 2009.
It is no secret or surprise that Chipotle Mexican Grill has changed its hiring and development process. and due to the economic downturn the candidates I had been recently hiring were different, and they were also coincidentally Caucasian and all english speakers. Due to this I did experience some back lash perviously from some of the veteran employees about this noticeable change. Due to being down in sales, while also training a large group of candidates to take on managerial roles in my restaurant, I had to evenly cut hours from the schedule to meet the demands on me as a General Manager to make numbers and stay with in “matrix” guidelines.
Denise had been through Human Resources investigations prior. Once with Chase, and Adam at her first location, and she had also called the Global Compliance Complaint hotline on her former general manager, Irma. Knowing the process for investigation, Denise spoke with some of the employees, Juan-Carlos, Joel, Manuel, and Benita, and told them that when people from the corporate office come in and ask about David the GM, to remember that he is cutting everyones hours and hiring only whettos, so they had better tell them, just exactly what kind of manager David really is. Leaving the crew confused and scared for their own jobs.
After the Written Documentation was presented I was upset, but realized that now was the time I needed to be there for my crew. Unknowing at that time of all the behind the scenes sabotage, by Denise. I planned to use the feedback gathered by HR and the investigation to work toward making my crew feel comfortable, and altering their perception in proving to them I was truly devoted to their development and helping them be successful, all of them. I contacted Frannie from the Culture and Language Department to help me create a plan of action as how to approach this issue most effectively. I got some great pointers from her, and we had planned to meet together with Houman and the crew, date to be determined.
Soon after my written documentation was delivered I heard news through Houman that Shay was going to be returning to Evans for 6 weeks prior to her planned move back to Miami Florida where she had already asked for a transfer.
After receiving word on these plans I agreed to allow Shay to come back and work as she had done a great job before her departure and based solely on her professional history prior, there was no reason to not allow her to return.
However based on the fact that Denise wouldn’t work extra hours or additional shifts I requested from Houman that she be placed back at her pervious store, which she was.
On 2-11-2009 Chavone returned to work at Chipotle. She was scheduled to close, and Joe was at the store to sit in on a meeting I had planned for Shay.
Since Shay was planning on working an additional 6 weeks at the location. I thought it was important to come up with a plan of action for her and for the store. This plan was documented in her Development Journal. The plan, introduced, included Shay would help further the Development of Andrew, Lane, Joann, and Scott the Kitchen Manager hopefuls at this Chipotle. Andrew was not yet signed off as a Kitchen Manager, but the hopes were to get him developed and signed off as a Service Manager in 6 weeks. I also asked Shay to help me keep up on cash audits, and to keep a positive attitude. During the meeting Shay was short and to the point, her input was minimal. During the meeting Shay inquired if she would be transferring to the Florida market as an Apprentice, I let her know that that would be up to her new Area Manager. Shay also let me know that due to her culture, she needed sundays off in order to fast and grieve for her loss. I agreed to this new demand even though this had not been perviously mentioned. I told Shay that I was 100% devoted to helping her move forward and committed to the overall development of the store, as evidence I told Shay that I and Joe would sit down with her every week and enter a new entry into her development journal to help guide her and keep her on track, while also giving her documentation to take back with her to her future location concerning her development .
Shay initialed her development journal to conclude our meeting.
On 2-11-2009 Denise came in to the store on her day off to talk with Chavone. Manuel had to leave due to one of his children being sick and Denise came in. The next day some crew had come to me to tell me that Denise and Chavone were sitting and talking for a long time.
On 2-12-2009 when Shay came in to close, Shay was really short and barley spoke to me. When I pulled Claudia’s Drawer to go count it Shay asked me to wait up stairs for a minute that she had to go make a phone call, Shay went downstairs and left a message for Allison. Wondering why Shay was calling HR, I phoned Joe to tell him of the situation. Joe advised me not to worry about the phone call, that he knew I was trying to make it work and she may not have been calling about me at all.
When Shay came back to the location, she communicated very little to me while I was in the store with her. At times she ignored me and spoke rudely to me. However when I would leave the store and not be working Shay would then deem it necessary to phone me and taunt me about whatever she wanted, and numerous times in one night or day.
During my almost 10 days working with Shay it was pure hell, which I went to Houman, and Joe about on many occasions to no avail. For 10 days Shay made me feel uncomfortable at work and outside. Shay harassed me and nothing was done when I reported it to my immediate superiors.
On 2-14-2009 Shay called me at 6:45pm to confront me about a wide range of topics. That were bothering her. I wanted to be supportive of her and so I took her phone call even though I was off, and not working that evening. Shay was upset and extremely confrontational. She wanted to confront me about her job responsibilities as well as our personal relationship. Shay was first of all upset that that I had written a development journal for Joann after I had, had a conversation with Shay about what she thought about working with Joann after her shift with her the previous evening. It was the first time Shay had worked with Joann since her return to this location.
She felt as though, that after working with Joann for only one evening that her comments shouldn’t have been made into an official development journal entry. Shay was also upset that I included her in a meeting about Andrew with Joe. Her thoughts were that i had never included her before and why now was i trying to be her friend.
Shay went on to say that she could not trust me. She couldn’t trust me on a personal or professional level, because she felt as though I didn’t want her back at the store and that I was not going to look out or care for her own development into helping her become an apprentice manager for Chipotle.
Shay brought up concerns about not having the proper amount of people scheduled to be able to train and develop people. On this evening for example, Shay had 6 people on the clock and schedule including herself until 7pm.
Shay brought up a personal situation when I had watched her dog while she was away grieving a death. She was upset by the text messages that were sent to her boyfriend, Danny. Additionally Shay felt as though I was out of line to tell other people about my ordeal with the dog, as in Houman, as it wasn’t anyone else’s business.
Shay confronted me on a series of issues she felt were going unattended at the store concerning overall store development. I suggested to Shay that we start utilizing the store station checklists to help newer employees learn the ins and outs of each station. Shay dismissed this suggestion saying I was just merely talking the talk, but not willing to actually follow through with my suggestions.
Shay told me that she thought I was “dead wait” and was wondering why I was even a manger for Chipotle. Shay’s rant went on to tell me that she wasn’t going to do both my job and hers during her mere 6 week stay at this location.
Shay told me that she wasn’t someone to mess with and said point blank
“David, don’t mess with me!”
During this entire phone conversation I watched what I said and thought clearly and calmly about what I wanted to say prior to opening my mouth. I wasn’t going to engage in an argument with Shay.
Shay also expressed concerns over the store schedule. It seems as though some of the crew had been coming to her with questions regarding days and numbers of hours each crew member had, her response was to send them to talk with me. Due to having the crew confront her she told me she wasn’t going to do the store schedule anymore, for the remainder of the time she would be at the store.
I tried to communicate to Shay that I was indeed here for her and the store and that in order to be successful we needed to be on the same page, and that Shay couldn’t continue to express such a negative attitude towards me. I went on to explain myself that we could not have a back and forth type of disruption going on and that we needed to be on the same page, as not to cause a rift in the store and make our people feel uncomfortable at work or in their positions. Or furthermore negatively impact the overall store development. Both goals which were laid out in Shay’s first development journal entry. I told her that we needed to be a team right now and that we couldn’t have a David vs. Shay type of power struggle going on that the crew could play off of, and if that occurred there would be total chaos, and no-one would get trained.
At this point Shay interrupted me in my explanation and said,
“Oh so your against me huh? David vs. Shay is that how it is? Well, I’ll just call Houman then!”
and then she hung up the phone on me.
I waited 10 minutes and called the store back at which time I told Shay, that I would be in to help her that evening, and so after I visited another chipotle location to vent to Joe and tell him about the phone call in hopes of gaining some advice in handling this situation, I arrived at the store around 8pm. During our phone call Shay’s biggest complaint was that there wasn’t enough people to cover the stations in order to get training done so I came in, on Valentines night, in my off time, to assist Shay with her goal.
After Shay hung up the phone on me, I had heard from Andrew and Scott whom came to me to tell me that Shay was happy and bragging to them that I was going to come in and that she had “gone totally ghetto, on my ass!” Shay followed up by telling them and Joseph that she wasn’t going to do anything (work) while she was back at the store until she planned to transfer, her attitude was “fuck the shit then!”
When I arrived at the store the cashier Joseph, was scheduled to be off at 7 but was told he had to stay until I arrived. Joseph was upset that he was made to stay since he too had plans that evening. I helped Joseph count his drawer and helped him stock the upstairs as per Shays request, and then Joseph clocked out around 8:30. After Joseph clocked out and left I asked Shay what I could do to help her. Shay directed me to the back of the house, to assist Joann in some final store prep. I helped Joann and then went to the front to approach Shay again. I asked her again how I could be of help to her she then very hatefully said,
“Well, I haven’t gotten a break!”
I said,
“Well go ahead and have a seat I’ll help watch and maintain the front while you take a break.”
Shay went on break and had Barbacoa Tacos, crispy.
One thing struck me as interesting after Shay had said she didn’t get a break, while I was helping Joseph count down his drawer, Joseph vented to me about his evening with Shay. He told me that Shay had spent over 2 hours sitting in the lobby doing nothing earlier that evening and wasn’t sure why I had to come in at all, when she doesn’t even do her job. He was also upset since he was supposed to be off at 7 and now nearing 8:30. Joseph had had plans for the evening and said he had gone to Shay at 6:30 to ask her for help in counting down his drawer when she was in lobby and she refused, and asked him to wait.
Not wanting to bad mouth Shay to anyone to create further issues for myself or the store, I told Joseph that I was here to help and that everything was alright, I also apologized for his plans and thanked him for staying late.
But I must admit his comments did get to me. What did he mean Shay was sitting in lobby for more than 2 hours, Was she working on Development Journals, or some store administrative duties? I checked into it and watched the camera system. What I found was shocking. Shay was one hour and eighteen minutes late for her shift on 2-14-2009, at which time she arrived, soon after Cassie showed up off the clock to get food which was not rung in appropriately. Shay proceeded to sit and talk with Cassie whom was off the clock for a little over an hour, and then proceeded to text message and talk on the phone for a total of 2 hours and 30 minutes of sitting in the lobby area, prior to Shay’s phone call to me in my off time to rant she didn’t have the proper coverage to train.
Denise returned back to ............. location on Monday, February 16, 2009.
I went to Joe on 2-17-09 in the morning to report my security tape findings to him. He was shocked and surprised since he already knew about Shays phone call earlier that same evening when he himself was training in his restaurant and he was the mere 5th person scheduled at his location. Joe watched the tape, and said he would report the incident to Houman.
Joe left the store that morning and returned in the afternoon after telling the news to Houman. I delivered the second Development Journal entry for Shay now that she had been back for one week. During the meeting I approached Shay about my security video findings, based on Houman’s request to simply ask her what she was doing.
Shays response was she admitted to sitting around and said it wouldn’t happen again.
Nothing more was done or said about the incident.
After this meeting things started to turn around between Shay and I. Shay was speaking to me without and attitude and about work related communication.
Between the date of my first and only disciplinary written documentation from Chipotle Mexican Grill and the date of my termination I received a Mystery Shopper Report which read,
“ The manager was a male, about 5’10”, with short black hair wearing a grey polo shirt with red long sleeves, jeans, and black shoes. The manager came out from the back about ten minutes into my visit. He was energetic, as he was singing and having fun with the employees and customers. He made funny comments and joked around. The manager made one visit through the dining area stopping by every customer asking them how their meals were. He carried on a short conversation with each customer. Also, he was seen giving instructions to one of the female employees. He definitely brought an upbeat atmosphere to the restaurant...
The employees were laughing and having a good time with each other during some of the down time. They seemed to really be having fun...
The manager was awesome! He was energetic, upbeat, and made sure he had conversation with all of the customers. His caring attitude definitely made me want to return!”
On February 21, 2009 I arrived to work and Joe- Restauranteur Mentor, Houman- Area Manager, and Allison- HRG, were all in the store waiting on my arrival, I was taken downstairs, and Houman delivered the termination. Houman was stuttering and shaking, while Allison looked at the floor and Joe to the wall away from me. The entire “meeting” lasted mere seconds, as I was told that,
“On February 5th it was documented, after an investigation which stemmed from a Global Compliance Complaint against me, based on that documentation I was warned that any further complaints would result in immediate termination of employment and, and at that time i was obliged, that additional complaints had been made, and that my employment with Chipotle was now terminated”
I was then given my final check and a copy of the written documentation of the termination, which I did not sign.
During the meeting I was never told of the supposed new complaints that lead to the resulting termination. Throughout the delivery and execution of the termination, I said nothing, and kept a professional composure. I simply listened and then took my final check and the supplied documentation and left without issue, or disturbance.
This blind-sided approach to my termination with Chipotle was so unorganized that I wasn’t asked nor was I presented the opportunity to turn in store keys, my final expense report, or the remaining Chipotle property in my possession until I personally contacted Houman, late the following Tuesday afternoon, on February 24, 2009, in which all said items were in fact turned over at Commerce City Chipotle at 1:30pm
After the termination was conducted, on one occasion tuesday evening, and three times wednesday I received calls from Chavone. Her calls came in as Blocked ID, and when I answered she proceeded to taunt and berate me. Saying things like,
“What goes around comes around, Bitch!”
“You got what you deserve, Faggot!”
“I told you not to mess with me, Bitch!”
She would ultimately hang up after her quick comment. There was no mistaking it could have been anyone other than Chavone calling my phone. Additional Blocked ID calls have rang my phone after Wednesday, however I let them go to voicemail as of this time no messages have been left or received. I was advised by the Denver Police Department to allow all Blocked ID calls to go to voicemail, based on the current allegations, in attempt to gain a recording of said phone calls. I have also contacted Sprint, my telephone carrier whom were unable to trace or track the phone calls which came in.
In addition to Shay’s phone calls I have also received phone calls and emails from my crew crying saying that they are sad for what happened, and begging me to come back as they are not happy. Through these conversations additional information has come to light in regards to how this whole “situation” has gone down.
This is my story, which is documented here in writing.