How to get to the front of the line...

Last nite we went to one of our favorite restaurants for our Valentine's Day dinner.... Texas Roadhouse. We love the ribs there, and the steaks, and the croutons... well pretty much everything. But there is one thing I found that I DO NOT LIKE about them. Or maybe it's just the staff, Manager included.
We knew we'd have a long wait... you do on any weekend, much less a holiday like Valentine's Day... so we went early to get our 'pager' and put our name on 'the list'. My husband arrived and signed in at 4:50 pm .... and was told it'd be a 2 hour wait. Hmm Ok... dinner at 7pm, not toooo bad. He waited in the parking lot for a time while I finished my errands and could meet him there. After a bit we called (yes from the parking lot, the lobby was just too full) to find out how our position had progressed. I was told on the phone that we were still one hour away, BUT that they were calling names now from the page JUST previous to ours and were half way thru that page, so in fact it probably would not be an hour at all. Yea! oK... We decided to go inside and try to find a place to wait in the Peanut Gallery, the lobby where one munches on peanuts while waiting and is allowed, even encouraged to throw the peanut shells on the floor. We chatted with the others in waiting and thru the conversation found that one couple had come in just behind a woman that used to work there. She was given a pager, turned around and headed to the door, and just then.... her pager lit up.... and she was seated. This all happened while the other couple were still waiting, then at the head of the line, for a pager. They demanded to see the manager to complain. Once they relayed their complaint to the manager, they were told...

"Well, she used to work here" - AS IF THAT MAKES IT OK?????

What do they teach these Managers in Manager Training???? Or isn't there such a thing anymore? When the Manager saw that the people were upset... (go figure!) she then said to them, don't worry, we'll seat you next. (They used to call that Hush Money, didn't they?)
Well, being decent people, they declined and said,

"No, there are many people here that have been here waiting longer than us. We don't mind waiting our turn, but we think everyone should have to wait their turn also." So they waited alont with us in the Peanut Gallery.

A while later (oh yes, the story goes on) I decided to go up and see how our names were progressing, it had now been about 30 minutes since I had made that phone call, remember I was told it wouldn't be an hour since they were 1/2 way thru the page before us. When I told the girl our name, she looked it up and said.. "it'll still be about 50 minutes." WHAT???? Now I have heard of Microsoft Time but last nite I was exposed to Texas Roadhouse Time. I told her that I had called 30 minutes ago and was told it'd be less than an hour THEN. I further continued to tell her that I also was aware of the fact that they had been seating people ahead of us OUT OF TURN, and that I didn't think that was cool at all. "One moment please".... and in a moment, guess what I heard. "We'll be seating you next".

Texas Roadhouse... you have a lot of young pretty things working for you up front, and manager too... but if you want to keep your customers, you'd better put something in their HEADS as well.

Who Knows the Admin. Passwords in your IT Dept.?

I saw a post about this somewhere and felt I had to bring it here...The question was

"Who Knows the Admin. Passwords in your IT Dept.?"

I have worked in many IT departments... being a consultant I travel alot and get to see alot of different IT practices... one thing is fairly consistent, it is normal for a handful of IT people to have the passwords. The number will vary depending on the size of the company but it should NEVER be limited to one person. One reason is so that if someone is out sick.. you don't have to worry about contacting them. But also, you don't want one person running about logging in for other IT people when they need logged in.

You need to keep in mind, when you hire an IT person, you are also hiring a person you want to TRUST. If you can't trust them... don't hire them. Part of an IT person's job REQUIRES them to get into places that need a password.

• Would you hire a payroll person and not give him/her the confidential salary files he needs to do his/her job?
  
• Would you hire a security guard and not give him keys?
  

Same deal. These are necessary tools for an IT person. Think about it.