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Run. Take this from someone who knows- just because you can adapt to and deal with an abusive situation doesn't mean it's remotely healthy for you to be there. You've recognized that this chef is abusive- not just cranky or eccentric- so you need to find a healthier situation. The fact that everyone in the kitchen is new tells me that anyone with experience had the sense to walk.
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Jul 1, 2014 04:09
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| # ? May 10, 2024 01:03 |
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Yeah seriously, gently caress that place. There is no room for that bullshit in this day and age. You throw a loving pan at me and watch how fast that poo poo hits you in return.
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Jul 1, 2014 05:00
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Hospitality has had a kind of pirate/military mentality for generations; that doesn't mean you should work for someone who demeans and yells at you as a rite of passage. We live to serve, and there is no reason you should not work for people who got into this line of work to make peoples lives better; the best start with their staff.
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Jul 1, 2014 05:37
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Thank you for your responses! I mentioned my concern to him today as tactfully as possible and the conversation was pretty reasonable. He never threw a pan AT someone, just throwing in general disgust. It is too early to tell whether he is eccentric or not I suppose I will go day to day! I will definitely be more wary though and I thank you all for sharing your experiences!
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Jul 2, 2014 05:57
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My manager: Holy crap those pitchers look amazing! Me: I washed them. With soap. Friends, do I just have a really bad string of luck with work places that I keep ending up the cleanest cleaning employee working there or is it just that food service workers don't actually clean all of the places in their kitchens? Is it really hard to move things and pick up things and to clean up under and around them? It certainly doesn't help when I see people "washing dishes" by taking dishes from the wash sink and placing them into the sanitzer sink without scrubbing them or rinsing them. I'm at a point now where I don't want to look places that I know people don't clean because I know if I see that it's dirty I'll have to clean it and I just can't... 
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Jul 2, 2014 09:22
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I know cleaning and *keeping* the kitchen clean where I work is a struggle. We store so much crap on the shelves under our prep tables, and it seems like no one can work neatly, so they get trashed. The cooks on each shift have to maintain the buffet and action station during service, and we're rushed out the door (or off the clock, at least) as soon as service is done, 'cause we can't have 0.01 hr overtime. So the bare minimum gets done, and all the little things pile up and I hate it. so. much. Then our health inspection rolls around (I still don't get why we're told when they're coming up), and it's a scramble to get things clean enough that we don't get too many dings. Some days, I feel like calling the health department on us for a random inspection. I need a new job.
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Jul 2, 2014 16:55
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Dimloep posted:Some days, I feel like calling the health department on us for a random inspection. Dimloep posted:I need a new job. You know what to do.
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Jul 2, 2014 19:31
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turdbucket fucked around with this message at 11:52 on Jul 23, 2016 |
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Jul 3, 2014 01:33
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I've been in the industry almost 20 years. I have seen a change in that time to a calmer more respectful atmosphere. On the flip side I have to work with weaker, less competent, and inept people in trade. Getting treated like poo poo, getting paid like poo poo, working with poo poo people during lovely hours is the recipe for this guy getting out of this industry before I have to renew my health card. When I started in 1995 a person could support a family in this industry making $13 an hour. Now I get paid the same after graduating from culinary school. One job wanted me to work 55 hours a week for $1600 a month salary. Close, double, double, double, open with different split days off every week. I'm done. I could mow a lawn for more money and I think I might.
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Jul 3, 2014 07:05
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Uncle Lizard posted:I've been in the industry almost 20 years. I have seen a change in that time to a calmer more respectful atmosphere. On the flip side I have to work with weaker, less competent, and inept people in trade. Getting treated like poo poo, getting paid like poo poo, working with poo poo people during lovely hours is the recipe for this guy getting out of this industry before I have to renew my health card. When I started in 1995 a person could support a family in this industry making $13 an hour. Now I get paid the same after graduating from culinary school. One job wanted me to work 55 hours a week for $1600 a month salary. Close, double, double, double, open with different split days off every week. I'm done. I could mow a lawn for more money and I think I might. lol, 7.27 dollars an hour? is it somehow legal to pay below minimum wage if you salary someone? I am going to make a horrible restaurant owner. some neighborhood kid came to weed our garden (because I'm so loving busy lately I can't even think), and floated $10/hr as his asking rate. he worked just 2.5 hours in the blazing sun and got our entire garden/yard done. I felt really bad, so I rounded up to $40.  go mow a lawn dude
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Jul 4, 2014 07:59
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mindphlux posted:lol, 7.27 dollars an hour? is it somehow legal to pay below minimum wage if you salary someone? It's really common for corporate restaurants to use salaried positions to skirt around overtime laws. $1600 a month is super low for that type of position though, even if that number is after taxes.
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Jul 4, 2014 08:28
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mindphlux posted:lol, 7.27 dollars an hour? is it somehow legal to pay below minimum wage if you salary someone? That's above minimum wage where I live 
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Jul 4, 2014 16:19
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Crazy Larry posted:It's really common for corporate restaurants to use salaried positions to skirt around overtime laws. $1600 a month is super low for that type of position though, even if that number is after taxes. Before taxes, no benefits, and the owner is a douche bag. At least I got half off my employee meals. I don't work there anymore, but this is very common. I had another job proposition where the owner wanted to pay me $1600 a month for 7 days a week split shifts and sleep on a cot in the back. I didn't take that job. Now I make $12.50 an hour under the table, but no overtime. The owner is a good dude and my friend, so that makes it better. Hours are decent and when it's not summer I get weekends off. This industry doesn't pay enough unless I lived in my parents basement with no responsibilities. Next rainy day I have a job interview for a maintenance position at an equipment sales location that has full benefits.
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Jul 4, 2014 18:59
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While I don't miss the good old days of old school psycho chefs, there's a proper time, place and way to tell someone in no uncertain terms to get their poo poo together. I won't dress someone down in front of the rest of the brigade, all you're going to accomplish is humiliate them and make everyone else feel awkward. Do it in private, in the fridge, the office or outside on a smoke break or something. Same thing about tantrums during service. If you lose your cool on the line, so does everyone else and if you're not in control of your emotions, how can you be in control of your station? If things go to poo poo during dinner, shut the gently caress up and fix it, there'll be time afterwards to talk about what went wrong and why. Throwing pans around isn't helping anyone. As far as pay goes, I know I'll be in serious renegotiations with my boss in a month or so. With all of the new staff that need to be trained up and events going on, I'm in for 13 of the next 14 days. Totally not what I signed up for on my entry level sous chef pay. Being able to walk into a performance review and say that I locked poo poo down while rebuilding the kitchen from a smouldering pile of garbage has to be worth a few more grand a year right?
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Jul 4, 2014 19:49
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In theory yes. In practice 'there's just not money in the budget for it, but next year, I promise'.
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Jul 4, 2014 20:55
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Boring day, no business, clocked out, asked to grill a smash patty since I was starving to death, did it up. The banquet sous comes in as I'm finishing my grub and ropes me into a chore or two off the clock. gently caress it, we talk we joke I pitch in with five minutes of cleaning. gently caress it, five minutes. gently caress it. Then he says "get sunday brunch cold items squared away on saturday so you can do hot items sunday morning, also if it gets busy you should be running too. I'm manager-on-duty that day but I won't be there much" HOOOOKAY theres a lot going on there but: I don't know what you think the combination of words manager-on-duty means, friend, but it does connotate physical loving presence. I mean, we're gonna be dead that day fine whatever but on the other hand we're gonna be dead that day. Braising a butt and slicing some skirt and chicken for fajitas is your one loving guaranteed culinary act that day and you just delegated it to the garde manger so you can gently caress off and watch the world cup at the bar while flirting with the barely legal teens we get to staff it. I want to watch the world cup at the bar. gently caress you, kid! You're salaried at almost double what I make and do nothing! gently caress you!  I have never been more glad there's a 100% full court press to get this dude fired for cause ASAP. BOY I SURE AM GLAD there's some kind of celebration of something or other going on outside. Time to join it. e; no world cup on sunday. maybe he'll just watch tv for a bit. Willie Tomg fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Jul 5, 2014 |
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Jul 5, 2014 00:00
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Sounds familiar. The exec is on vacation all week, as is our receiver; our PM lead had to do inventory Sunday night. Which is totally not his job to do.
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Jul 5, 2014 04:29
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Dimloep posted:Sounds familiar. The exec is on vacation all week, as is our receiver; our PM lead had to do inventory Sunday night. Which is totally not his job to do. I really like it when they make you do inventory, but they act like it's a treat for you. Like its some sort of promotion, without a pay increase or title. "We're going to LET you do inventory today".
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Jul 5, 2014 08:12
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Uncle Lizard posted:I really like it when they make you do inventory, but they act like it's a treat for you. Like its some sort of promotion, without a pay increase or title. "We're going to LET you do inventory today". My favorite so far (that's happened to me) was "We're going to "Let" you lock up the restaurant tonight." At first it made me happy with the show of trust, then I realized it was because the owners didn't want to be there anymore and they didn't think I'd steal anything.
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Jul 5, 2014 09:20
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Rockzilla posted:While I don't miss the good old days of old school psycho chefs, there's a proper time, place and way to tell someone in no uncertain terms to get their poo poo together. I won't dress someone down in front of the rest of the brigade, all you're going to accomplish is humiliate them and make everyone else feel awkward. Do it in private, in the fridge, the office or outside on a smoke break or something. Same thing about tantrums during service. If you lose your cool on the line, so does everyone else and if you're not in control of your emotions, how can you be in control of your station? If things go to poo poo during dinner, shut the gently caress up and fix it, there'll be time afterwards to talk about what went wrong and why. Throwing pans around isn't helping anyone. I am also on 13 of 14 days! I feel as if I have joined a cool club of Real Men and Women who are really Tough Customers who also all happen to have back problems for some reason.
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Jul 5, 2014 16:58
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Uncle Lizard posted:I really like it when they make you do inventory, but they act like it's a treat for you. Like its some sort of promotion, without a pay increase or title. "We're going to LET you do inventory today". ohmygod yes, that's how he says it exactly! Hey Willie, I'm gonna do you a favor, you get to do my job for a day! Isn't that cool?!  and my choices are either be rankly lovely and insuboordinate, or act like a five year old stoked that we're gonna play The Pioneer Game where we clear the sticks and brush off the yard into a pile. And I can do the job just fine! It's not like its a ton of work or anything, but man, the attitude behind it from a guy who makes so much more money just agitates the gently caress out of my brain snakes. If I had any tolerance whatsoever for that flavor of poo poo I wouldn't be in culinary. It won't last forever but getting over this dude is like passing a goddamned kidney stone.
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Jul 5, 2014 21:26
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Simoom posted:I am also on 13 of 14 days! I feel as if I have joined a cool club of Real Men and Women who are really Tough Customers who also all happen to have back problems for some reason. Alcohol obviously causes back problems.
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Jul 5, 2014 21:37
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Anyone got any tips on helping a restaurant die with dignity? I got a call from my boss telling me to only buy what supplies we absolutely need for the next couple days. He also told me one of the recent front-house hires broke a ton of dishes and the two cooks in the back were bugging him for a dishwasher despite poor sales. Earlier today I asked him about how the restaurant was doing financially and he said "crap." Me, him, and a couple other cooks are getting together tomorrow to talk about everything and he said unless he felt confident that they would work to help him turn the place around he'd just close. Frankly I hope he does, not only for selfish reasons but it's obvious to me that he just doesn't have the heart or energy to run a restaurant anymore. He's an old guy who's had a good run of it and I don't want to see him waste his savings.
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Jul 7, 2014 05:57
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Put in your two week notice.
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Jul 7, 2014 06:15
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Man, did any of the rest of you read "Too much tax money getting wasted. It's real simple. We need ramps[...]" on the front page article and assume they meant the plant? I think I've been working too much.
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Jul 7, 2014 17:50
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I always assume the plant when I hear ramps.
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Jul 7, 2014 19:45
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Republicans posted:Anyone got any tips on helping a restaurant die with dignity? No, because there are none. Update your resume and get at least two references in order for your upcoming job hunt. Condolences.
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Jul 7, 2014 22:49
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Looks like we'll be plugging along for a little while yet. We're not nearly as bad off financially as I was lead to believe and my boss is feeling much more optimistic after having slept on the matter. I helped him make up a new schedule cutting down hours significantly (easy this week since someone's on vacation, next week will be tricky) and I identified some menu items we can safely eliminate to save some time on prep, which has bloated a bit in recent months since I started doing more desserts in-house. I may just be pissing in the wind but as long as the paychecks are still clearing I can't bring myself to quit for greener pastures. Got my resume and references ready in case, though.
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Jul 8, 2014 03:07
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I know it's from a couple of pages ago but I found the new grad chat interesting. In the state I live in in Australia there's three ways of getting qualified as a chef. The most common is being an apprentice and doing your technical learning while working in a kitchen at the same time. The second option is full- time in the same program or at a private college which will get you the qualification without ever having to work in a kitchen. The last is to work in a kitchen for years and then get most of the program written off as prior knowledge. I got my qualifications using the third option and my class included a heap of people doing their qualifications full-time who'd either worked in a kitchen in the past or hadn't worked in a kitchen ever. Our area of study was al a carte so prepping menus created by the chef who was our teacher. In the first few weeks it became very obvious who would survive in the industry and who wouldn't. The people who'd take 4 hours to prep one dish was pretty special and 90% of the time they'd be the people who'd cry. I never really tried all that hard cause I'd spent a lot of time in the industry and could look after a section by myself. TL:DR The people I qualified with where for the most part poo poo and they'd be lost at sea in the real world
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Jul 8, 2014 10:20
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That's pretty common coming out of culinary schools in the US, especially the more predatory for-profit ones. I've seen a ton of people come out with culinary degrees and great enthusiasm only to leave the industry permanently six months later because they can't handle the stress and being constantly broke of body and pocketbook. Not that I didn't leave the industry myself for just those reasons.
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Jul 8, 2014 17:35
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Liquid Communism posted:That's pretty common coming out of schools in the US, especially the more predatory for-profit ones. I've seen a ton of people come out with degrees and great enthusiasm only to leave the industry permanently six months later because they can't handle the stress and being constantly broke. Fixed for every degree that isn't CS, engineering, or nursing.
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Jul 8, 2014 23:37
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I've recently returned to the restaurant industry as Dessert Chef/Baker in what is essentially a bar with much nicer food than it looks like it'd have - I think people have started calling these "gastro-pubs" but I have a brief seizure every time someone says that word aloud so I can't be sure. I get to do most of my work in the back (prep) room, which is air conditioned and quiet, and I'm always making something for service the next day (besides Sunday mornings, people really get into fresh biscuits...) so I'm never in a rush. I smile and feed everyone samples of whatever cake (FOH and BOH, it brings everyone together!) and singing "The Candy Man Can" from Willy Wonka. Now, I did the line cook thing in college for many years and I remember the special kind of hate you have for anyone smiling or enjoying life in the middle of a serious rush. I can't help but feel a little bit guilty enjoying my job in front of chef and cooks while they're all yelling about how they quit and they can't do this anymore to no one in particular. So my question is: If I worked in your kitchen, would you rather I deliver delicious things occasionally, or leave you alone so you don't have to see my stupid smiling face?
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Jul 9, 2014 18:34
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black.lion posted:So my question is: If I worked in your kitchen, would you rather I deliver delicious things occasionally, or leave you alone so you don't have to see my stupid smiling face? As long as you're going at a decent pace and are a decent human being, anyone should be happy that you're bringing them food and (hopefully) lightening up the mood a bit. If you're just like jumping around waving your arms while you sing and not actually getting any work done for minutes at a time someone's probably going to murder you. Just make sure to stay the gently caress off the line unless it's necessary during busy services, and otherwise you seem to be in a position where you could potentially be everyone's best friend.
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Jul 9, 2014 18:58
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O no I always stay out of the way of the line. I pop in, feed people, check in the ovens (once there's space on the line) and pop out. The only standing doing nothing is waiting for a space where I can get to my ovens without fuckign someone up, and legit "Waiting for X to rise/my butter to melt/a thing to preheat" baking-type standing. The standing where I'm actually working. Right? Yes. My next goal is to figure out good vegan desserts, because my GM is vegan and if I'm going to make anyone love me it should be him. Also there are a lot of vegans around here and I think if we're "The seedy bar that serves good beer and good vegan dessert" I'll get some high-fives.
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Jul 9, 2014 19:10
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Good loving luck. Vegan baking is a pain in the rear end, and one which I never found remotely profitable.
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Jul 10, 2014 02:32
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I would just make stuff that's inherently vegan anyways and sell it as vegan-friendly, like a lot of candies/confections.
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Jul 10, 2014 03:49
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Really my plan was to master vegan pie crust so i can make seasonal fruit pies. Something about shreds of frozen coconut oil to replace bits of butter in the crumbs. I believe.
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Jul 10, 2014 04:32
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You could just use Crisco. Even the butter-flavored kind is vegan.
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Jul 10, 2014 04:36
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We use Crisco in all of our pie/butter tart shells. Works just fine, and those things are flaky as poo poo. Just gotta make sure the shortening is nice and cold as you're cutting it into the flour so that you get small chunks.
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Jul 10, 2014 05:51
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Just picked up a part-time job for extra money. Nothing 5-star, but a nice enough backwaiting spot to save some cash. It's always awkward starting at a new place and waiting to see just how closely actual operations follow the official policies. One of my bosses has a Mario toad head tattoo so it can't be that tightassed. Also we're getting a third-party health inspection soon and I just want it to be over. Come in, make sure we're following the dozens of little things the actual health department does not give a gently caress about, including the things that weren't an issue when you were here six months ago, and get the gently caress back out so I can do my job without going at half speed to make sure you don't mark us because I exhaled too sharply within ten feet of a food contact surface. I get it, it's a great line of defense if the company ever gets taken to court but there's covering your rear end and then there's just paranoia.
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Jul 10, 2014 07:28
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