Leaders: Stop Offering Breadsticks

by Matt Monge

The music was absolutely dreadful, yet I continued subjecting myself to it; it was a crisis situation, after all. Anything having to do with pizza rises to that level for me. On and on the music went, pummeling me with the occasional advertisement sandwiched between 90′s pop grooves. All that was missing was Casey Kasem’s love-child Ryan Seacrest chiming in to tell me about the song I would hear next.

I heard a loud “click” followed by what sounded like a cell phone recording of the inside of a school bus carrying a bunch of noisy seventh-graders back from a basketball game. I waited expectantly, but when I didn’t hear any discernible comment, I initiated the conversation.

Me: Hello?

Manager: Yeah, hi. This is [name], the manager.

Me: OK, hi, [name]. Did they tell you why I was holding?

Manager: Yeah I guess we skipped your order.

Me: Pardon? [the reason for my confusion here will be clear momentarily]

Manager: We somehow skipped your order.

Me: You skipped my order?

Non-verbose Manager: Yeah.

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