Archive | Values RSS feed for this section

Raises for all hourly employees

By on 1 January, 2013 in Team, Values

I’ve got great news for the new year: effective today all hourly employees (excluding provisional) will get a raise of $0.25/ hour.

The last pay increase we put in place was a $1.00/ hour increase for Team Leaders that is linked to monthly inspections. That was back in September. Since then I’ve been wanting to put in place something for everybody.

It’s always been our goal to pay everybody as much as we can, and to keep moving that mark upward. And we’re able to do that because everybody has been doing such a great job. This is something like the 7th pay increase in the 4 years Clover has been in operation. Great job everybody! You’ve earned it. Happy New Year!

NEW PAY RATES:

Provisional Employee: $8.00/ hour

Team Member: $9.75 – 11.75/ hour

Team Leader: $11.25 – 15.25/ hour

Comments { 0 }

Clover comic book (yes that’s Mr. Pita in the corner)

By on 15 August, 2012 in Design, Environmental, History, Purpose, Team, Training, Values

Antoria (HSQ) here. You might have heard we’re doing a lot of training right now. Part of the new training program for team members is a comic book about Clover’s history, values, and purpose. New hires will be issued the comic book on their first day at Clover.

I found out early on that Ayr and I share a love for comics. I was eager to make a comic for Clover. A superhero comic where we save the world by becoming conscious of what we eat. It’s what made me fall in love with Clover in the first place, so I figured it would be a walk in the park. It turned out to be a longer walk than expected. I’ve forgotten how rusty I have become over many years of not using a skill I once lived to express. So I have been working on the story and the layout off and on for the past 6 months.

Here’s a sketch of what I’m thinking for the cover. Soon I’ll get this inked and colored, and we’ll be on our way to a completed comic book.

Comments { 2 }

Does your Clover whiteboard look like this?

By on 15 August, 2012 in Design, Training, Values

We’re working through a bunch of training. We want to make sure everyone at Clover has the tools to succeed at every part of their job. This means being confident in making a perfect chickpea fritter and also in writing a perfect whiteboard.

I made these spec sheets by writing up a sample board, using colored marker to point out all the important features, taking a picture, and laminating. Managers will be posting them on the inside of their trucks today. A couple things you’ll notice:

1. Huge date (4 inches tall) set aside with lots of white space. We erase and re-write these boards twice every day. The idea is that they follow the time scale of our food.

2. Huge dollar signs (4 inches tall). We’re proud of our prices and don’t want to hide them.

3. Plenty of room for a short message above the menu, room for long messages on the truck door. We want the design to facilitate messaging that is personal, location-specific, and changeable based on season and time of day.

If you’re an employee, or just curious, I’m including all the specs (lunch board, events board, and A-frames) after the break. This is v1 of this kind of training, so tell us what you think. Continue Reading →

Comments { 0 }

No really, that’s Enzo

By on 31 May, 2012 in Brand, Construction, Design, Operations, Values

When I first handed a wrench to Enzo (MIT) you would have thought it was a slug, or something gross. He didn’t even want to hold it in his hand. Vincenzo was a chef at the Four Seasons before Clover, and fixing things, using tools, all of that, just wasn’t how he thought of himself. He came to us with spectacular culinary skills, an oversized and completely lovable personality, and a great instinct for leading others. But grease on the hands? Wasn’t a part of the picture.

That attitude “tools are for other people” collided with our DIY ethos. And Enzo and I have spent tons and tons of time together over the past couple of years learning how to use tools so that we can make you better food. We got over serious freak-out incidents, made some mistakes, discussed the difference between philips screwdriver and a flat head, and have worked together to keep Clover running.

A lot of you have been graduating or attending graduations lately. I have my own proud graduation. I found Enzo on the truck the other day doing a pretty complicated repair on the water tank. A repair that involved finding a “stainless steel self-tapping sheet metal screw with a hex head and fender.” It’s pretty amazing to think how much we’re all growing.

By the way, Enzo and I need some help. If you know anybody who would be a great full-time handy-man/ fixer person for Clover let us know. We’re looking for somebody who knows what they’re doing. Job would include some painting, fixing tables, stools, counters, installing equipments, etc. The stuff I do now.

Comments { 0 }

This is a prototype

By on 7 November, 2010 in Brand, Customers, Design, Operations, Team, Training, Values

I’ve been fielding a bunch of questions about the little poem on the wall of the restaurant. What is it, why did you do that? And hearing exclamations: “that’s so stupid!” “Did you mean to cross that out?”

OK, so it’s probably all. That’s sort of the point, right? I think the statement is pretty simple, and if you think you get it, you probably do. But here’s a little background for those interested.

First, the form is ripped off from something my Dad used to do every morning. He is a teacher in a one room school house (meaning grades are mixed) and he starts every day off with a statement from a fictional character called Max. We used to call them “Max saids.” The point is that they are always saying something real, relevant, but they are loaded with grammatical errors. So I tried to go for one of every type of error I could in a nod to Max saids.

Second, yes, it’s deliberate. I spent weeks thinking about and composing this. It’s very important to me, to the company, and I hope to all of you. This is a statement of the philosophy by which we are building Clover. We’re not coming to you with a product that is complete. Instead we’re hoping to engage you. We have big things we want to achieve and we’ll only be able to get there with your help.

Third, like most things Clover this wall is going to change. The white paint comes out in 3 weeks.

Comments { 2 }

UNCLE! DWY! UNCLE!

By on 23 September, 2010 in Customers, Greenway (DWY), Location, Operations, Training, Values

OK DWY, it’s my fault. I told you all to test us, challenged you to challenge us. To our credit, I did say that we were going to fix this line thing by the end of next week. We still have another week to get everything right. And in our defense, we were prepared to face an additional 50 of you yesterday (but you sent 100), and we were ready for an extra 100 today (but you sent 200).

So why did I say 2 weeks, well, because this isn’t our first dance. Here’s what happens: (1) we decimate the line – Monday, Tuesday, check, (2) more people come, uh-oh the line is back, (3) we kill the line, (4) more people come, you get the idea. Don’t worry, we’ll get to a point where we can handle the line. If we have to I’ll try to convince the Greenway to let us park 2 trucks side-by-side: a Clover wall.

Sorry, that picture isn’t from today. It’s from yesterday. Today I was too busy trying to clear the 30 sandwiches that had built up on us in less than 10 minutes even though we were going our fastest. It goes without saying that we fed more mouths at lunch today than any given day in Clover history.

We’re trying guys, hang in there, we’ll get it perfect. Think of this as an investment in your future. Look, I’m not trying to say you shouldn’t be annoyed if you had to wait too long today. I would be too. I’d be mad. I get it. We all do. I’m just saying thanks for putting up with us anyway. And know how hard we’re working at this. That staff today was sweating and putting their hearts on the line for you. And know that we’re going to come out the other side of our little 2-week campaign together with a better Clover for all.

Comments { 0 }

What is Skinny Water doing at Clover?

By on 17 September, 2010 in Menu, Training, Values

A rep from Polar Beverages came by the truck yesterday. He said he had an appointment with Rolando. He came with a bunch of samples. The photo is kind of hard to see, that’s a bottle of Skinny Water on the right, on the bottle it says: “0 Calories, 0 Sugar, 0 Guilt.”

I told him we make all our own drinks. He didn’t believe me, so we got these samples anyway.

Turns out he’s going to be helping us get seltzer delivered every week so we can make the homemade sodas a reliable thing (we’ve been running out way too early, or getting flat soda water too often). Thank you, Polar. But please, no more samples of Skinny Water. It was lying around, I got curious, I’ve been known to drink these types of drinks before, so I tried it! It was really bad.

Comments { 0 }

Bootcamp MVPs: Justin and Paulina

By on 11 September, 2010 in Customers, Training, Values

This was amazing. We had this massive line when Start-up Bootcamp let out. We fed 600 people in less than 90 minutes. That sort of serious line. And we didn’t staff for that. So I was the only order taker, with only 5 on the truck.

So I called back to the end of the line to see if there were any volunteers who would like to try to take orders. One of our loyal customers Justin volunteered. When his friends made it to the front another customer, Paulina volunteered. She stuck with it for more than 45 mintues! Thanks Paulina. I know everybody in line appreciated it moving at the speed of two. If either of you ever want a job at the truck you’re hired, just let me know.

Huge thanks from us all! It’s good to have friends!

Comments { 0 }

That’s me, sort of

By on 16 July, 2010 in Team, Training, Values

Once upon a time I was a summer associate at McKinsey and Company. For those of you who don’t know (I was in your camp 6 years ago) McKinsey is a somewhat, OK very, secretive company. They work with world leaders and business leaders. At one point they all wore easy to identify uniforms, sort of like the IBM salespeople. These days they’re wearing jeans and stuff and sitting on the greenway, much harder to spot!

I loved my time at McKinsey. I never expected to, but it surprised me. I’m not sure what I was doing there was important. Mostly I was helping big companies sell people more stuff they didn’t need in the first place. But I learned a ton and loved the people I worked alongside. This crew here are summer associates. We used to just call them “summers.” Blair, the guy gesturing, brought them by to have breakfast and say hi. Thanks guys, hope you enjoyed the food.

Comments { 0 }

Great drink disaster

By on 6 July, 2010 in Menu, Operations, Training, Values

Some of you may remember the great sandwich disaster. This time drinks were struck.

Rolando and I just figured out last week that we’ve been serving up some really awful drinks. What does that mean? Some were way way to bitter, some too sweet. Many were watery. Few were balanced.

The problem is that we moved from a small operation to a large operation and didn’t put the proper tools (e.g., recipes) and controls in place. We may have been at this for as many as 3-4 weeks. That’s a lot of bad drinks. Sorry everybody.

We’ve completely re-worked both the Assam and the Hibiscus iced tea recipes. Tomorrow we’re going to be giving them both away for free on both trucks. That’s right, free. For everybody. It’s our way of apologizing. If you’ve thought our drinks could be better, you were probably right, give them another try tomorrow. If you never tried them, that’s OK, they’re free tomorrow. If you’ve had them and loved them, that’s great. Love them more tomorrow (they’ll taste better than ever and they’ll be free). Did I mention, free?

Comments { 5 }