Busses outside of Oakland arent very good. From their perspective, bus route changes, closures, weather, etc. Lots of things cause people to be late or choose to call off when the commute it's too shitty. Not saying you are like that, but enough employees have been they no longer consider it reliable. I worked for that company for years and years. The reality is, constant calls off and no shows have made them pretty strict. Not saying it's right, but that likely the mindset. Regional and XO chefs were picking up kitchen shifts over that last year's. They probably can't keep up across all the stores. Again not justifying this move in any way.

On the other hand they're probably the only restaurant group that can afford to pay managers and kitchen staff more and actively fight not to and often choose the lesser qualified cheaper person for the job. Leadership in this company had been ravaged before covid. So ultimately it's my opinion, they've done this to themselves.

If anyone was around for when they fired the woman who open Kaya. She was the soul of that place for over twenty years and who made it great, she was that store. They treated her like shit and kicked her to the curb at the end. Big Burrito fucking sucks when it comes to how they view and handle employees. The era of Tom Baron is gone, the company sorely needs him back. They're gonna strangle themselves out because they're selfish, greedy, and don't give a fuck about people....

Edit: it's not -that- bad, I was just irritated after reading the OP. I didn't dislike my time with big Burrito, I learned a lot and working for them definitely made me better. That said I'm glad I moved along. They are big part of service industry workers in the city and have been for a long time. So it sucks when a company who could be an idol in the industry for the city does shady things like the OP posted.