One day in my life

Three years ago, Vanessa Stein and her husband Tom took up a fast food challenge: they bought the franchise for a McDonald’s restaurant near Leeds.

“Early morning is always an effort for me. The alarm goes off at 6.30 a.m. and then I have 20 minutes’ “thinking time” to make some mental list before I get up. I live by lists, actually – it’s the best way to keep things organised.

Recently I’ve been arriving at our McDonald’s restaurant around 8.30 a.m. I’ve already mastered the computerised accounts now so I’m training one of our floor managers to help me with administration. Eventually this should give me more time to get involved in other areas of the business such as interviewing staff.

We have to conform to the McDonald’s standards (quality, service, cleanliness and value) of course, but the restaurant is actually our own business. We directly employ some 75 staff, order and pay for supplies (from “preferred suppliers”), take care of any maintenance or refurbishment, arrange local marketing, and so on. Around a quarter of all McDonald’s 800 UK restaurants are franchised.

Buying this franchise was a big move for us. Tom (my husband) had to do nine months’ training before we could even be considered for a franchise. It paid off though, and we are delighted with the place.

By 9.30 a.m. I’m ready for my cup of tea. I’ll have a quick chat with our regular breakfast customers before opening the post, which brings invoices from suppliers, marketing and training information from McDonald’s (they run the training courses but we pay for our staff to attend), bookings for parties, or perhaps the monthly report from the “Mystery Diner”. Much of my morning is spent updating computer records.

Mystery Diners make monthly checks on every restaurant and Drive-Thru in the country. All aspects are assessed – food quality and presentation, atmosphere, quality and speed of service, restaurant cleanliness and so on. We are currently eighth in the UK league, which is pretty good.

We have an ongoing dialogue with McDonald’s. A field consultant visits us every two or three weeks, and there are regular meetings with other franchisees to share ideas and experience.

Staff turnover varies. Sometimes when we’re short-staffed I myself can serve customers. As with any small business, one has to be flexible.

I have to head off around 3 p.m. to collect my two sons from school so I generally end up taking work home. I’ll finish it in the kitchen, while supervising the children’s homework, music practice or whatever.

If I‘m doing the end-of-month figures, I usually have to work into the early hours. Otherwise I’m in bed any time after 10 p.m. I always have three or four books on the go and an undisturbed sleep before another busy day at the restaurant.”

Notes: on behalf of – від імені

floor manager – менеджер торговельної зали

drive-thru – організація (ресторан, банк), в якій можна одержати послугу, не виходячи з машини

field consultant – виїзний консультант

 

Exercise 2. Read the text again and answer the questions.

1. What helps Vanessa to keep things organised?

2. What will give Vanessa more time to get involved in other areas of her business?

3. How many McDonald’s restaurants are franchised in the UK?

4. What does the post bring?

5. What is Mystery Diner? What does his work involve?

6. Does Vanessa have any opportunity to share her experience and ideas?

7. What does she usually do in the morning?

8. At what time does she go to bed at the end of every month?

Exercise 3. Match the word on the right with corresponding definition on the left.

1)	maintenance	a)	written documents containing information about the past
2)	booking	b)	to review and include recent changes
3)	to update	c)	without enough workers
4)	records	d)	keeping equipment in good condition
5)	staff turnover	e)	reservation
6)	short-staffed	f)	the rate at which workers leave the company and new workers are employed to take their places

 

Exercise 4. Read the text “One day in my life” and decide if the following statements are true (T) or false (F).

1. Vanessa Stein starts to organise her day before she gets to work.
2. In the future Vanessa will continue to work in exactly the same way as she does today.
3. The majority of McDonald’s restaurants in the UK are not franchises.
4. Vanessa’s husband did his training after having been accepted as a franchisee.
5. Every two weeks they receive an independent evaluation of how their business is performing.
6. If she didn’t have children, she would probably stay longer at work.

 

Look at these adverbs expressing time from the text ”One day in my life”.

Early morning is always an effort for me.

Recently I’ve been arriving around 8.30 a.m.

Eventually this should give me more time.

I’ve already mastered the computerised accounts.

We are currently eighth in the UK league.

I usually have to work into the early hours.

Sometimes when we’re short-staffed…

 

Exercise 5. Match the adverbs mentioned above to their corresponding definitions.

1) not long ago	recently
2) after a long time
3) by or before now
4) at the present time
5) on some occasions but not all
6) on most occasions or in most situations
7) all the time

Exercise 6. Complete the following sentences about Vanessa Stein by combining the verb in brackets with the appropriate form of used to or be used to.

1. She used to go (go) to university.

2. She _______ (help) her children with their homework.

3. She _______ (chat) with her customers.

4. She _______ (attend) meetings with other McDonald’s franchisees.

5. She ________(work) as a waitress at university.

6. The restaurant ________ (have) fewer seats.

7. She ________ (take) work to do at home.

 

Write a short description of a typical day in your life, using used to, be used to and time adverbs. Try to show how your life today is different to what it was before.