Oxley’s-To-Go leaves lasting impact on student employees

Oxley’s-To-Go, the sister shop to the original Oxley’s By The Numbers cafe, closed Sept. 4. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Assistant Photo Editor

Oxley’s-To-Go, the sister shop to the original Oxley’s By The Numbers cafe, served its last subs Friday. 

Oxley’s-To-Go is closing so that other dining locations can use the facility’s resources, university spokesperson Dave Isaacs said, and students who worked at the shop are taking the skills they learned and the memories they shared with them. 

“Oxley’s-To-Go was not seeing much business, and so because of that, we are rerouting our resources to other locations,” Isaacs said. “One of these is the food trucks that are returning.”

Jacob Bell, a fourth-year in industrial engineering and an Oxley’s-To-Go employee, said he was sad after hearing news of the cafe’s closing. Bell worked at the shop for more than two years, starting as a student assistant, then being promoted to student lead. 

“Everyone who worked there enjoyed it, and there was a reason they were still working there,” Bell said. “But obviously with everything going on with the coronavirus, things are changing rapidly.”

For Bell, being able to interact with some of the regular customers was one of his favorite parts of being an employee. He recalled times when a customer would come so often, he would recognize their name and know their order.

“There were certain customers that would come in three times a week and you would see their name and know what they wanted,” Bell said. “I remember a specific professor would come in every Friday the one year. You got to see the same people which made it a cool experience.”

Before COVID-19, Bell said Oxley’s-To-Go was more of a Subway-style service, so employees had to quickly learn how to interact with customers. He said customer service is a valuable skill he will be taking with him from his time at Oxley’s.

Andy Fassbender, a third-year in marketing, is taking with him all of the leadership lessons and skills he learned from being a student manager. 

Fassbender applied to Oxley’s-To-Go as a first-year student since his brother had worked there and was confident there was room for growth at the job. This proved to be true when he was promoted to student manager at the beginning of his second year, later winning the 2019-20 Employee of the Year at the managerial position.

“The more I worked, the more I liked it,” Fassbender said. “So I just moved my way up, became manager, and the experience has been great.” 

Fassbender said he took the way he was trained and applied that to how he chose to train new employees as manager. He said he had to learn for himself what motivates people to have them perform at their best. 

“When you have all these people who come from these different walks of life, you have to teach them what it takes to be a part of a team. I enjoyed teaching others how to become good, self-sufficient workers,” Fassbender said. 

Fassbender said dining services did offer every employee continuation of employment at three different dining locations, but no other job compared to Oxley’s-To-Go when it came to enjoying his time at work. 

“The special thing about this operation is that I was friends with everyone I worked with outside of work, and that does not usually happen at other places,” Fassbender said.