Life As A Chick-Fil-A Jordan Landing Employee

Elsa C. Wybrow

Salt Lake Community College

Anthropology 1010 - 404

Professor Adela Rahmati

11/30/21

Life As A Chick-Fil-A Jordan Landing Employee

Chick-Fil-A has always been a business where kindness and going the extra mile is super

important. Whenever you head through the drive thru or go inside to place an order, you are

given a warm welcome, and feel valued the whole time you are there. Do Chick-Fil-A businesses
act this way for the most part? This leads me into my topic of studying how the Chick-Fil-A store

in Jordan Landing, in West Jordan, Utah follows along with the practices and procedures all

Chick-Fil-A businesses should abide by. At this location, I was able to work first-hand as an

employee, observe the behaviors of the employees towards the guests and their co-workers,

and many other things. Going into this project, I came up with a few questions:

● How do employees work and communicate together?

● What do employees do on their break?

● How do employees talk to guests?

● How is the work environment after hours?

● How do the front counter employees get along with the kitchen staff?

With these questions, I found answers and learned more about the Chick-Fil-A Jordan Landing

establishment.

Background

Chick-Fil-A Jordan Landing, and other Chick-Fil-A businesses have been, and still strive to

meet the standards Chick-Fil-A Founder, Truett Cathy, has set for all locations around the

nation. Steve Robinson, former chief marketing officer for Chick-Fil-A (2019), states, “Truett

Cathy believed God is the creator and owner of everything (including Chick-fil-A) and that the

company's role should be the same as any human's: to be a good steward of God's gifts.” Ever

since Chick-Fil-A has been on this Earth, many guests that come in, say that Chick-Fil-A is unlike

any other fast food restaurant. This restaurant is known for going above and beyond with

generosity and compassion towards anyone that comes to dine with them. Juliana Pignataro

(2018), the author of “Hey, You Left Your Money Here”, talked about a time when a guest came
in to order and a Chick-Fil-A employee flagged him and told him he left his money here a month

ago. This guest was shocked that this employee kept his change with him for a month till he saw

him. That just further proves that the way Chick-Fil-A employees act around their guests is just

extraordinary. These standards are important because they are what make Chick-Fil-A a good

business. And to relate back to my questions, I wonder about how the Jordan Landing

employees act around their guests, and if they follow Truett Cathy’s standards.

Methods

Going into my first participant observation, I had to think of different considerations to

make this research ethical. I had to make sure the Restaurant Operator and Managers were

alright with me coming in to observe and study how they operate the store. I also talked with

my co-workers, and they have asked that I hide their names, so I will be respectful with their

decisions. I am just grateful I have had the opportunity they have given me to study them.

Approach 1: Physical Mapping

The physical location of Jordan Landing Chick-Fil-A is that it is a stand-alone restaurant. This

means that it is a separate building, unlike locations that are in a mall or an airport. The actual

location is: Chick-Fil-A, 7676 S Campus View Drive, West Jordan, UT, 84084. Inside the store, there is

a drive thru section, a front counter section, the kitchen, the dining room, and the outside. All

sections of the store play a huge part in making this Chick-Fil-A a successful business.

Approach 2: How I Conducted My Work

During my period of fieldwork, I was able to conduct my work in a couple ways. I mostly

did a lot of participant observation. I am grateful for that because I was able to be up close with

employees and work first hand as a Chick-Fil-A employee. Throughout these past few weeks, I
was able to work as a bagger, a dessert maker, an order taker outside, a drink maker, and a

window person. These were all beneficial positions because it gave me access to co-workers,

guests, and the kitchen staff. With being a bagger, there is a little opening that looks into the

kitchen, so when the hours were a little slower than usual, I would slyly watch the staff in the

kitchen, and what they would do once there were not any orders to prepare. I also got to see

how front counter employees got along with employees in the kitchen. They definitely loved

when times were slow, because you could always see people in the kitchen goofing around with

people up front. When I was outside taking orders, I got to watch my co-workers, and how they

talked to the guests as they placed their order. That was also how being a window person was, I

was able to watch the expos, and how they also talked to the guests as they handed them their

food and drinks. As I did participant observation, I found that if I never experienced that type of

fieldwork practice, I do not think I would have gained greater knowledge about how Chick-Fil-A

Jordan Landing runs. The other way I conducted my work was simply sitting in the dining room

and observing the whole environment. I sat near this bar table that is close to the front counter,

and I just watched my co-workers and my manager work. I brought only my notebook with me

and I found myself constantly writing different observations I was seeing. This way of fieldwork

was neat too because I was able to keep track of my thoughts and it provided me to sit back

and look at what's around me. These two ways of fieldwork made such a huge impact on my

project, and I am grateful that my manager and operator gave me the opportunity to let me do

this project on their establishment.

Approach 3: Fieldnotes
 In total, I created three fieldnotes for my ethnography. My first fieldnote was on

October 12th, at 8PM. During that time, the dining room was closed so I mostly observed the

drive thru area. For thirty minutes I observed, and then did participant observation for the last

thirty minutes. I did my second fieldnote on October 26th, from 6PM-8PM. I did participant

observation the whole two hours because it was dinner time. It was really busy, so I was able to

see how my co-workers worked during a rush. My last fieldnote took place on November 24th,

from 7PM-9:30PM. This day was the day before the Thanksgiving holiday so I was able to do

two hours of participant observation. During that day I was an order taker, so I heard of many

orders being over $70, containing large trays of nuggets and different platters. Lots of guests

came in that day purchasing huge orders for their Thanksgiving dinner, so it made it a busy

work day. During the last half hour, I observed Chick-Fil-A Jordan Landing after hours, and let

me just say, these employees love Katy Perry songs.

Approach 4: Thick Descriptions (Pictures Included)

The first description is the Chick-Fil-A front counter. This is where all the cash registers and

drink machines are. When people come inside, the front counter would be one of the first things

you would see. Usually there would be a person that welcomes the guest by saying, “welcome to

Chick-Fil-A!” They take orders and make drinks for those that choose to dine inside. Front counter

workers also focus on DoorDash and UberEats Orders. They also focus on their curbside and

delivery orders. There is one bagger who bags all orders except delivery orders. There is a delivery

director that focuses on bagging delivery orders and sending bags to his or her drivers. Along with

the baggers, there is a drink person and a runner. The drink person makes all the drinks and

organizes all desserts and drinks for each order. The runner is the person who runs orders out to

parked cars who ordered through curbside, and also places orders on a shelf designated to
DoorDash and UberEats. The runner also runs orders to tables and makes sure the guest(s) are

situated and satisfied.

Another description is about the dining room. It is right outside of the front counter. Now

that the dining room is opened, there are tables and booths everywhere for guests to sit and dine.

There also is a dining room person. This person makes sure the dining room and the bathrooms are

cleaned and sanitized. He or she also walks around and makes sure guests are enjoying their food

and time at Chick-Fil-A. He or she will even hand out mints to guests.

Lastly, this description is about Pathways. Pathways is an app that all Chick-Fil-A Jordan

Landing (and every other Chick-Fil-A location) employees and employers have on their phones. It is

a program where all members can participate in different training lessons. For example, the Jordan

Landing director challenged us to complete certain training plans that discussed things like how to

close different positions, what temperature is safe for food, and even all the way to simple things

like what color of mop should be used for cleaning the bathroom floors. If we completed these

training lessons, and got good scores on the tests, we would receive a bonus and a raise. Pathways

is super beneficial because it provides ways for new and old team members to learn more each day

on how to become a successful Chick-Fil-A employee.

Front Counter Pathways

Approach 5: Archives/Other Records

I only examined two other records that Chick-Fil-A Jordan Landing cherishes in their

business. I read the CFA Jordan Landing Mission Statement a lot. It states, “To be West Jordan’s

best quick-service restaurant, by consistently providing our customers with Great Service,

Quality Food, and a Very Clean Restaurant.” Another one I examined was Chick-Fil-A’s Core

Values, which are: Customers First, Working Together, Personal Excellence, and Stewardship.

These records are important to keeping the Chick-Fil-A standards, and I could tell these workers

strived to keep those standards in mind.

Approach 6: Problems I Had

One problem I experienced while doing this project was when I had managers from

Draper and Murray tell me they had to cancel all meetings with me at the last minute due to

the Restaurant Operators decision. I kindly thanked them for their time and had to improvise. I

then decided to just stick with just studying the Chick-Fil-A in Jordan Landing because I only had

a couple weeks left to finish up my fieldwork. Luckily, during my second fieldnotes, the Jordan

Landing dining room opened back up, so I was able to do more research on how employees act

in the dining room. Another problem I had was that I got distracted quite a bit. There were

times where I would get important notifications on my phone that I had to check, and then that

would lead to scrolling on social media for a little bit. Once I got off my phone, I realized that I

missed lots of important data, and I would make myself stay a little longer to make up for lost

time.

Data Analysis

After finishing up all of my fieldwork, I went back home and gathered all my

observations into different groups for each of my questions I found answers to. One major

theme I picked up throughout this whole project was that being kind can go a long way. There

was an instance where a guest was ordering a small nugget meal, but she forgot her wallet at

home. Because it was a small cost, we decided to just take care of it for her. She was very

grateful, and happy for what we did, and it made me happy that we were able to do that for

her. Another theme was that there can be good management in any workplace. As stated in a

previous fieldnote analysis, the management at Chick-Fil-A Jordan Landing is not the kind of

management seen in movies where they do not care about their co-workers and take
advantage of their employees. This management deeply cares for each person that works here.

As an employee here, I can testify to that. For example, one of the night crew managers created

two Google Forms, where each employee could fill out. The first form lets employees fill out

their top three favorite positions and top three least favorite positions. This was so that the

manager could put his employees on positions they liked, so that they would enjoy working

that day. The second form is where employees could discuss things (anonymously if wanted)

they would like to improve, or different ideas they would like to see be applied to future shifts.

This is very considerate because it gives the employees the ability to use their voices. At this

Chick-Fil-A, everyone is important.

Conclusion and Implications

Overall, I learned a lot studying about Chick-Fil-A Jordan Landing. Even though I was

unable to study more locations, I can imagine each store values Chick-Fil-A’s standards just as

much as the Jordan Landing location. And with all these Chick-Fil-A businesses around the world

spreading this kindness and love to everyone that comes to eat, it is making a big impact. In the

bigger picture, the more positivity we see come from this franchise, it can inspire others to do

the same. Towards the end of this process, I wondered about the controversy about Chick-Fil-A

and the LGBTQ+ community, and if that could be something I could look further into in the

future. And as I finish up this project, I can say that this is an exceptional business. In the words

of the Chick-Fil-A website (2021), “Since S. Truett Cathy opened his first restaurant in 1946, we

have served quality food, made with care. We still carry with us this tremendous sense of

responsibility and believe in being a force for good – especially when it comes to our chicken.”

As I go on to live life, I feel encouraged to live as Chick-Fil-A employees do; to be selfless and
kind to anyone I come across. You never know what someone could be dealing with, so it never

hurts to be kind.

Works Cited

Chick-Fil-A. (2021). Our Chicken Story. Chick. Retrieved November 27, 2021, from

https://www.chick-fil-a.com/about/great-food/our-chicken-story.

Covert Cows and Chick-fil-A: How Faith, Cows, and Chicken Built an Iconic Brand. (2019).

Publishers Weekly, 266(13), 57–58.

Pignataro, J. (2018). “Hey, You Left Your Money Here.” Newsweek Global, 171(16), 42–43.