Taking a Wrong Turn

This was long before Anne Boonchuy was magically transported to Amphibia. In the sequel to Where Everything Went Wrong, a Host at P.F. Chang's was looking for a new job once he came back from Idaho. However, around Thanksgiving, some mysterious circumstances changed everything.

Story
It was November 12, 2018, Alexandros Martinez was done with his training to be a Host at P.F. Chang's. He was delighted to be hosting at Chang's until the day he graduates from California State University Dominguez Hills, which is in May 2019.

The next day when class is over, Alex looked at his HotSchedules to see any shifts he would like to acquire. He sees an available Hosting shift from Maria Banuelos, a hostess at Chang's. He was the first to respond, even before she texted him about covering her 4:30pm shift that evening. Alex was delighted to cover Maria that night, marking it his first hosting shift.

While walking to the bus stop, Alex called the restaurant to check in that he will be covering for Maria. The manager who responded to the call was Darnella Lupiba, who joined the Management brigade in January 2017. She told Alex that, while she appreciated his commitment to covering Maria, she has to deny his request, and anyone else also wanting the shift. Lupiba will keep Maria on board. The next afternoon, Alex ran into Cynthia Escalante. She asked him if he worked last night. He responded that he got denied by Darnella, who told him that she will keep Maria on board. Cynthia also told Alex that she was also denied.

The following week, on November 20, 2018, Alex saw Maria Banuelos and told him how sorry he was that he didn't cover her shift. He also added that Darnella had to keep Maria on board and deny Cynthia and Alex's requests to come in last Tuesday night.

If what Darnella did constituted as "horrible management", Alex is definitely on the bandwagon of employees who want nothing to do with poor managers, or those who treat employees unfairly. Darnella is still sweet, but if she was going to be unfair to employees like that, I am finding a new job. Alex came up with a plan. As soon as he and family come home from Idaho, he will think about finding a new job. It did not seem logical to find a new job and get hired before going out of town. In other words, Alex is going on a job hunt when he comes home from Idaho around New Year's Day 2019. The next part is where things took a wrong turn and changed everything.

However, on Black Friday 2018, someone saw Alessio Potts' story about Fabian Barba, saying that this douche needed to burn in hell. Barba suspected that it was Alex Martinez who wrote the story. Martinez had doubts about the story, saying if he is in dead meat or if everything will be okay. The next night, Alex came to work and saw the Kosonoy-Rousell sisters talking in the patio. Before his shift, he talked with the Crespo girls--Daniella and Mariana--about what he learned in Hosting so far. One of the things he learned was the AM host (11-4:30p) makes BOTH server assignments, meaning that if he was the PM host (4:30-10p), he doesn't have to worry about it.

Once he clocked in, Alex was excited to run food. That was until Ashley Rousell called Alex Martinez into the office, telling him that his employment is on suspension. They can't go into any detail on the investigation, with Ash telling Martinez that HR will be in contact, implying that Martinez is in dead meat. On November 30, 2018, Alex received a call from "No Caller ID". He thought it was a scam number. Ashley told him that he needs to answer that call. Alex finally realized that the "No Caller ID" is HR. It was Chad Larsen. He called to tell Martinez the reason why his employment with P.F. Chang's in Torrance was suspended. It was confirmed that Alessio Potts is actually Alexandros Martinez. Larsen bluntly told Martinez that it was obvious that he was the one who wrote the story.

Martinez had a reason or two on why he wrote this:
 * Fabian Barba: This guy was just a dick. Although Martinez talked to management about his trumpet/caw-caw sound, he still never learns from the talk. To makes things worse, he takes a peek inside the bathroom stall to see what Martinez was doing.
 * Alexander (Alex) Kuiken: He was one of the employees who got to see Elizabeth Garriott as GM. When Alex came to the restaurant in 2015. Alex Kuiken's brash nature, with swearing and rude attitude, did not mesh well with Martinez's good nature. Feeling pissed that Kuiken is blaming Martinez for overreacting, Martinez decided that Kuiken also burned in hell with Barba.

Larsen thanked Alex for his time and that they will further investigate the situation.

On Sunday, Martinez wrote Ash a behavior plan, detailing his intent on not resigning from P.F. Chang's. He added the last time he quit a job (Arclight Cinemas), his parents were not pleased. Instead, Martinez will stay, if resign meant to quit or stay.

During Operations Management class, Martinez received a call from Ash, with her asking how he is doing. Martinez added that he is confirming that he will not resign from Chang's if asked "would you like to resign?". Later on, Larsen (under No Caller ID) informed Alex that said story featured strong language. Moving forward on December 5, 2018, Alexandros Martinez is no longer an employee at P.F. Chang's. He is officially terminated. He will not be coming back to the restaurant and he will be given separation documents. Chad asked Martinez if he wants to say one last thing to Ash before he leaves. He had nothing. Ash asked Martinez on where he wants his final PFCB pay to be mailed to. He wanted it sent to his house.

I wrote this story to reflect on how I originally wanted to end P.F. Chang's before the incident.