In light of recent news about the medical center closing down their Au Bon Pain location, I thought I would share my brief experience working there. At the start of this semester, I decided that I wanted to be more independent. I was a junior in college and still had never had earned a dollar and it was time to grow up. While meeting a friend for lunch at ABP, I happened to notice a small flyer screaming out to me: “NOW HIRING UR STUDENTS”. As frantic as the flyer sounded, I swiftly handed in my resume to the cashier at the register and within minutes set up an interview with them. The interview lasted 5 minutes. Maybe I took it too seriously but I was surprised that they didn’t even take a look at my credentials but instead just turned over my resume and immediately asked what hours I could work. It was clear that they were severely understaffed, as there was one person behind the counter madly churning out sandwiches like some kind of sandwich-making machine, one after the other, one after the other —to seemingly no end, as the wave of starved doctors and med students came barging through the doors. Unfortunately the only time that I could come in was 6-9am MWF. At the time I thought this was manageable, I thought “Hey I could wake up around 5, see the sunrise, go for a quick run, take a shower, and all before driving over to my beloved job”. I never saw the sun rise. I never went for a quick run. [I did take a shower]. Apparently the sun rises at 6 am. Who would’ve thought.
On Monday morning, my housemate(who joined me in this time-to-get-independent adventure) and I drove over in our dull black “uniforms” and sluggishly entered the med center to begin our first ever day of work. Our supervisor welcomed us and quickly gave us our caps and aprons. To our surprise, our duties were handed to us by seemingly nothing more than a flip of a coin: she was assigned cashier and I, “sandwich maker”. Without much training, I was thrown in the deep end and expected to swim. I would say I more doggie-paddled my way through that first hour. I cut my hand, dropped some avocados, and accidentally called my supervisor the wrong name, but it was okay-- I lived. After a while the process became as monotonous as doing times-tables in 3rd grade. Cut the bread. Spread the sauce. Add the meat. Add the arugula (Okay I still don’t know taste the difference between this and lettuce but to each his own),close up the sandwich, and we’re good to go. One hour turned to two, and my third housemate came to visit us, which was enough of a psychological push to make it through the day.
The next work day seemed exactly like the first, sans cutting myself and ruining the avocados [took me until my third day to call my supervisor the right name]. It seemed repetitive and boring but I ended up enjoying myself and actually looking forward to Friday when I came in again(which unknowingly turned out to be my third and final day). On our last day, the cash register shut down for a few minutes, and due to the ever growing line of coffee-deprived customers that came with the morning shift, our cashier was asked to let them go without paying and told to come back later to pay out of the kindness of their hearts. I wasn’t around to see how many people did infact come back, though it seems like that was a regular occurrence. #ThatAintMyBusinessTho. The free coffee and breakfast sandwiches were a nice perk of course.
However when I came in to work the following Monday, I was told I had to go home indefinitely. Apparently the management had hired my housemate and I without the proper procedure for hiring students and now the restaurant was in a dispute with the med center and the university about this practice. I personally felt fine about the way I was hired and trained, but definitely see how the lack of communication between Au Bon Pain and the med center was an issue. I don’t want to say that this dispute was the reason for ABP closing its doors here on campus, but I think it would be a safe bet to say that it had an effect.
Though my time with you was much too short lived, I will forever miss your delicious 50% off raspberry cheese croissants. Please come back soon.
Side Note: I still don’t really know how to pronounce their name.
