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My old bakery was that 'another local baker' for half the coffee shops in town, and even then it wasn't exactly a gold mine of profitability.
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Aug 7, 2014 16:04
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Republicans posted:If they're anything like my boss the specials, if they sell at all, quickly become part of the regular menu while the old stuff stays on no matter how poorly it sells. After a few months the menu starts looking like something from The Cheesecake Factory only you don't do nearly their volume so inventory and waste becomes harder to manage. Liquid Communism posted:Honestly, though, with those sales numbers I don't know why they've got an in-house baker at all. I was doing 200-300 pieces a night to justify having me in, and that was barely covering costs for scratch baking everything. I mean, a dozen muffins is a joke, and not a very funny one. That's half an hour of work, maybe an hour if you count cooling to depan and doing the dishes after.
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Aug 7, 2014 20:14
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Filboid Studge posted:How the hell can you sell 12 muffins a day and still be in business? Because it's mainly coffee sales, they have two local shops and sell their coffee online, at local markets and other businesses (like salons and church coffee shops but their beans and serve that as their coffee). The idea in hiring me was to expand baking operations so they're also known for their baked goods, but the impression I get is that they could sell nothing but coffee and be totally fine.
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Aug 10, 2014 05:59
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Also, this is one of my arguments -- at this point baked goods there are an afterthought so why not change things up and see if it helps?
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Aug 10, 2014 06:01
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Look Under The Rock posted:Because it's mainly coffee sales, they have two local shops and sell their coffee online, at local markets and other businesses (like salons and church coffee shops but their beans and serve that as their coffee). Oh I've worked for this type of owner. One second it's "I want you to do what you do best and totally change our menu!" and the next second it's "I know we're called The Bistro but you can't take the chimmichanga off the menu!"
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Aug 10, 2014 08:33
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Wroughtirony posted:Oh I've worked for this type of owner. One second it's "I want you to do what you do best and totally change our menu!" and the next second it's "I know we're called The Bistro but you can't take the chimmichanga off the menu!" Yeah it's funny how quickly it went from "you'll have creative control within a month" to "you can't take anything off they menu and anything added needs to go through a rigorous vetting process."
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Aug 10, 2014 23:11
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Look Under The Rock posted:Yeah it's funny how quickly it went from "you'll have creative control within a month" to "you can't take anything off they menu and anything added needs to go through a rigorous vetting process." But enough about dating Mayor Wilkins heyoooo! Sorry - it was an open goal
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Aug 10, 2014 23:25
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Fine dining is really stressful. I really miss smoking joints before and during shifts. When the hell does this get easier.
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Aug 11, 2014 19:33
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We're getting a lot of new people in from another store in the chain. All of them are disgusted and disquieted by how awful this location is. As per usual, nothing is getting done by management that NEEDS to be done, merely placebo and ego-masturbation. I'll be glad to be out of this shithole and in a better chain before the year ends and they decide to just assassinate everyone in favor of a rice team.
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Aug 11, 2014 21:04
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Simoom posted:Fine dining is really stressful. I really miss smoking joints before and during shifts. When the hell does this get easier. When you quit and get a job that pays money and has some sense of work/life balance. 
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Aug 12, 2014 02:01
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Simoom posted:Fine dining is really stressful. I really miss smoking joints before and during shifts. When the hell does this get easier. Working at a place that did 12-16 course tasting menus (and nothing else) was the most awesome, laid back cooking job I ever had. That place owned.
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Aug 12, 2014 02:06
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Simoom posted:Fine dining is really stressful. I really miss smoking joints before and during shifts. When the hell does this get easier. When you start getting baked again and stop giving a gently caress.
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Aug 12, 2014 03:54
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franco posted:But enough about dating Mayor Wilkins heyoooo! I didn't realize this was the "have your deepest regrets thrown in your face" thread, I just wanted to talk about scones and business models. My bad I guess.
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Aug 12, 2014 04:08
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EDIT: Nevermind
Valleyant fucked around with this message at 06:34 on Aug 12, 2014 |
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Aug 12, 2014 04:15
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Look Under The Rock posted:I didn't realize this was the "have your deepest regrets thrown in your face" thread, I just wanted to talk about scones and business models. My bad I guess. I think you were looking for a different forum 
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Aug 12, 2014 04:30
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Ugh, my boss. I get the back house schedule under control for a good month and then he gets the bright idea to hire two more people we don't need and bloats the schedule an extra 35+ hours. He excuses it by calling them "fake hours" because he puts them on the schedule but doesn't let them sign in unless we actually need them. Which we almost never do. Instead they just lounge in a seldom-used corner of the dining room, doing nothing and earning nothing. It's the same crap he puts into full effect in the front of the house and is the reason we can't hold onto a server longer than a couple months.
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Aug 12, 2014 08:00
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Republicans posted:Ugh, my boss. I get the back house schedule under control for a good month and then he gets the bright idea to hire two more people we don't need and bloats the schedule an extra 35+ hours. He excuses it by calling them "fake hours" because he puts them on the schedule but doesn't let them sign in unless we actually need them. Which we almost never do. Instead they just lounge in a seldom-used corner of the dining room, doing nothing and earning nothing. It's the same crap he puts into full effect in the front of the house and is the reason we can't hold onto a server longer than a couple months. How in the hell does he get away with this? More than a few days left not working after coming IN, and I'd be walking out for good with a passing call to the labor board, or at least local friends in the system to let them know to never bother working there.
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Aug 12, 2014 08:35
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Black August posted:How in the hell does he get away with this? More than a few days left not working after coming IN, and I'd be walking out for good with a passing call to the labor board, or at least local friends in the system to let them know to never bother working there. He'll usually find something for them to do for at least one or two hours or "make it up to them next time" if he can't. But if he schedules them for 18 hours in a week they'll be lucky to get 12 of them actually on the clock. The most common attribute he looks for when hiring is that they're desperate enough for any kind of employment that they'll put up with almost anything if it means a chance at more hours at some unspecified future date. There's no shortage of such people, unfortunately.
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Aug 12, 2014 09:05
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Look Under The Rock posted:I didn't realize this was the "have your deepest regrets thrown in your face" thread, I just wanted to talk about scones and business models. My bad I guess. Yeah I deserved that. It seemed like a cheeky joke in my head but was in very poor taste with hindsight. I apologise, it was my bad. Carry on scone makers et al - you do the lord's work, and though I love reading about the industry here, it would eat me alive.
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Aug 12, 2014 13:28
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So my boss' son has an in with the line at what passes for fine dining in this town, and someone remind me why i got out of kitchens. period. My paycheck has just bounced twice, and this is the first of five paychecks my current boss owes me, i came back from a smoke to find out that in the amount of time it took me to walk around the building the power company had turned off the lights, and my coworkers are always high...and at least in a kitchen I'd be back to the same bullshit only with being able to look out at a room full of 4 tops and go "I helped all those people have a good evening." ...right now the only two things that have stopped me from jumping on the position is A) I really don't want to work with my current boss' son. two different fields entirely, but it just seems like a drama bomb. and B) My current job is at least a desk job. I blew my knee out real bad about a year ago and am unsure if I can still hack 9 hour days as a prep cook on my feet. \/\/ It's pending with the DOL. I attempted to file with unemployment, but apparently that requires your boss to have paid your unemployment taxes and not be months behind on that too. I do somewhere between "jack" and "poo poo" at work, and the more time in on my resume the better chances of getting another TV job. Right now I pretty much sit and play AntiIdle at in my office and half-rear end everything else and am about thisclose to going full tyler durden and running hardcore porn. Plus my boss is a really likable guy, if a lovely buisnessman, so I'm putting in a token amount of effort, he's giving me a token amount of cash as "IOUs" to be paid back when I get my checks (And since we both pretty much know that it's never going to happen, he's pretty much paying me under the table, albeit at far less than I should be making.) and really, I'm hoping his high stress lifestyle catches up to his rear end and I can go for the full UHF experience and hire a janitor who can star in his own show.... Dr Jankenstein fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Aug 13, 2014 05:03
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Wait, your boss is behind 5 checks to you, has bounced 2, and you haven't just filed for unemployment and set the state on his deadbeat rear end?
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Aug 13, 2014 08:27
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Republicans posted:Ugh, my boss. I get the back house schedule under control for a good month and then he gets the bright idea to hire two more people we don't need and bloats the schedule an extra 35+ hours. He excuses it by calling them "fake hours" because he puts them on the schedule but doesn't let them sign in unless we actually need them. Which we almost never do. Instead they just lounge in a seldom-used corner of the dining room, doing nothing and earning nothing. It's the same crap he puts into full effect in the front of the house and is the reason we can't hold onto a server longer than a couple months. This is a real bad policy in general but also, may be illegal in your state or county! Some require a business, if they require someone to come in (ie they are on the schedule) and they show up to be paid for a minimum of X hours whether they work them or not. If that's not the case in your state, you should point out to your boss that that's super, super hosed up and the antithesis of treating employees in a reasonable, respectful way. They should be ashamed of themselves.
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Aug 14, 2014 06:53
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MAKE NO BABBYS posted:This is a real bad policy in general but also, may be illegal in your state or county! Some require a business, if they require someone to come in (ie they are on the schedule) and they show up to be paid for a minimum of X hours whether they work them or not. If that's not the case in your state, you should point out to your boss that that's super, super hosed up and the antithesis of treating employees in a reasonable, respectful way. They should be ashamed of themselves. Depending on how the "fake hours" are handled, they might be hours worked under the FLSA under the "engaged to wait" part of the law. IANAL, of course, but I've seen a couple successful "engaged to wait" suits at prior employers in other fields for more or less the same thing.
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Aug 14, 2014 07:02
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So cats stand around not being paid waiting to work on something to be paid for? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You get paid for your time. If your "boss" can't "find" work for you while you're there, you shouldn't be scheduled in the first place. If you're there and hanging around not being paid while you're at work that's called "illegal as gently caress". gently caress. People wonder why America's so hosed and then they don't stick it to the man (i.e. your boss) as they should. I'm walking out real soon and it's gonna be cute to see them scramble (I won't see that poo poo thought because I'll be the gently caress outta there). 9 an hour. 9 an hour my fat cock. it's pretty big to be quite honest P.S. "fake hours"?...gently caress..... P.P.S. I'm only at my current job because they pay me on time. Never a bounced check. That's how I know they're sitting comfy. I'm paying into their kids' college funds more than I'm paying into my own--and that is a verifiable fact. Fact. gently caress. I'm seething with hatred. P.P.P.S. After what I've done and what I know what people in the food industry have gone through, I feel we should organize a mass strike. Literally everyone walk the gently caress out of their foodservice job. People who have never gone hungry will go hungry but we won't because, gently caress, we know how to cook beans and rice. Can we pick a date and get this poo poo rolling? After all of the complaining, all of the hard work, all of the literal bleeding, all of the hurt egos, can we just all get together and stick it to the proverbial man? I'll do it even if we don't get enough people on board. I'll be the god drat stoner from half baked going "who's coming with me, man? who's coming with me?" Alobar fucked around with this message at 08:01 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Aug 14, 2014 07:47
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Never happen, man. We've all got people, habits, and people with habits to suport.
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Aug 14, 2014 08:49
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Alobar posted:So cats stand around not being paid waiting to work on something to be paid for? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You get paid for your time. If your "boss" can't "find" work for you while you're there, you shouldn't be scheduled in the first place. If you're there and hanging around not being paid while you're at work that's called "illegal as gently caress". gently caress. People wonder why America's so hosed and then they don't stick it to the man (i.e. your boss) as they should. I'm walking out real soon and it's gonna be cute to see them scramble (I won't see that poo poo thought because I'll be the gently caress outta there). 9 an hour. 9 an hour my fat cock. if you aren't happy where you are, start looking for another job. don't hate on the employer, don't hate on other people in the industry - change in your life starts and ends with you. if you're worth more, convince folks you are worth more. don't settle for $9/hr if it doesn't make you happy. it's the only way things will change. until then, don't expect anyone else to have the motivation to pay you more than you're comfortable settling with. edit : people ask me to do work for them all the time for a 'discounted' (1/2) my normal hourly rate. I politely decline. and then explain why I'm declining - because they can pay some other idiot to do a lovely job, or they can pay me more per hour, I'll get the job done properly, and in less time, and they'll end up saving money in the long run. everyone wins. If they don't see the value in that, I don't want to work with or for them. I know kitchen work is a little different from IT work, but in the end, it's a business proposition. any business person worth their weight in salt will recognize that doing something properly is worth a few extra bucks an hour. if they don't, they're probably not very good at business, and you probably don't want to be working for them anyways. again, unless you're comfortable settling for the poo poo wage they're offering you. which is understandable, if finding work is difficult. mindphlux fucked around with this message at 10:00 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Aug 14, 2014 09:53
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Republicans posted:... The most common attribute he looks for when hiring is that they're desperate enough for any kind of employment that they'll put up with almost anything if it means a chance at more hours at some unspecified future date. There's no shortage of such people, unfortunately. oh man that's really bad. mindphlux posted:if you aren't happy where you are, start looking for another job. don't hate on the employer, don't hate on other people in the industry - change in your life starts and ends with you. if you're worth more, convince folks you are worth more. don't settle for $9/hr if it doesn't make you happy. it's the only way things will change. until then, don't expect anyone else to have the motivation to pay you more than you're comfortable settling with. totally on with this - make it happen... for you. take care of your work, work on the resume, look for a better work environment - better treatment from other employees, better pay, better prestige, etc. - whatever your priorities are.
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Aug 14, 2014 09:59
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mindphlux posted:I know kitchen work is a little different from IT work, but in the end, it's a business proposition. any business person worth their weight in salt will recognize that doing something properly is worth a few extra bucks an hour. if they don't, they're probably not very good at business, and you probably don't want to be working for them anyways. again, unless you're comfortable settling for the poo poo wage they're offering you. which is understandable, if finding work is difficult. IT and food are very different propositions. Holding out for more money is not a thing. Because you can and will be replaced by someone who will work cheaper for the six months or so until their addictions ruin their relationship with the business and they hop to the next. Holding out for better wages only works if there isn't a cheaper 'good enough' alternative and an industry-wide interest in silent collusion to keep wages down.
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Aug 14, 2014 10:49
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You can totally hold out for more money in a corporate kitchen. Not everyone works in a free standing restaurant.
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Aug 14, 2014 15:18
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Of course holding out for more money is a thing. If your work is valuable someone will pay you for it. There are plenty of back of house positions available with good benefits and good wages where you're not chained to a stove for 13 hours a day making minimum wage, you just have to find them and be talented enough to obtain them.
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Aug 14, 2014 15:25
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Psychobabble posted:Of course holding out for more money is a thing. If your work is valuable someone will pay you for it. There are plenty of back of house positions available with good benefits and good wages where you're not chained to a stove for 13 hours a day making minimum wage, you just have to find them and be talented enough to obtain them. I want to live in whatever strange, amazing alternate universe you live in.
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Aug 14, 2014 15:42
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Liquid Communism posted:I want to live in whatever strange, amazing alternate universe you live in. Private and Country Clubs are where good cooks go to die. They die generally well fed, healthy, and not too over worked. Decent money and bennies and easy hours though. They usually die from being creatively starved. We've had a couple really talented people come through that just take sabbatical from working at better places at our private club. 2 years until they need to get out and cook real food again.
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Aug 14, 2014 16:03
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Shabadu posted:Private and Country Clubs are where good cooks go to die. They die generally well fed, healthy, and not too over worked. Decent money and bennies and easy hours though. They usually die from being creatively starved. We've had a couple really talented people come through that just take sabbatical from working at better places at our private club. 2 years until they need to get out and cook real food again. This is the truth. I work at a retirement home and every time I have to roast the everloving poo poo out of a duck breast because "it's still raw inside" I die a little inside. There's a lot of upside though, I have a lot of creative control over menus that change daily, and there's enough labour that the job is usually pretty laid back. Sometimes I miss restaurants, then I go home at 8pm, look at my paycheque that arrived on time and didn't have any hours shaved off of it and spend my free time cooking the food that I want to cook at home.
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Aug 14, 2014 22:37
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Rockzilla posted:Sometimes I miss restaurants, then I go home at 8pm, look at my paycheque that arrived on time and didn't have any hours shaved off of it and spend my free time cooking the food that I want to cook at home. Why in the hell would I do that when I can not get paid for the overtime I work, have too little free time to want to bother cooking anything for myself and just drink away what time I do have because... well, just 'cuz. I actually love my job and outside of the overtime bullshit (we bank hours rather than getting paid overtime when we work it, yes it's massively illegal, but..) I'm treated supremely well, but it's really loving sad that we have to make concessions like that in this industry, or any concessions at all. I was disconnected from most of my family for a few years and trying to talk to anyone a generation older than I am about work is a massive exercise in frustration. "Yeah, my salary is for a 50 hour week but I usually end up working 65-70... no, no overtime... what? No, there is no union... if I say no they'll just immediately replace me with one of an infinite number of people that will say yes, and even if they are slightly less skilled it doesn't matter... no, I can't just 'go somewhere else' because that's how every place works." Why oh why couldn't I have been happy with my bullshit government engineering job.
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Aug 14, 2014 23:38
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Man, and I thought the lazy douchebag I work for was bad.
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Aug 14, 2014 23:44
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Sometimes I miss the restaurant biz, but then I look at the 5 cases of wine under my desk. And since I substituted that work life for developing social skills, it's alll for meeeeeee
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Aug 16, 2014 16:47
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Turkeybone posted:Sometimes I miss the restaurant biz, but then I look at the 5 cases of wine under my desk. And since I substituted that work life for developing social skills, it's alll for meeeeeee There used to be this guy who worked for a wine distributor who came to my apartment on an almost daily basis. The girls I lived with hated him and made fun of him whenever he was gone but he brought them cases of wine and then cuddled with them on the couch so they continued to invite him over.
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Aug 16, 2014 17:11
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Yeah -- It's all for me.
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Aug 16, 2014 18:17
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Oh God. I have 2 more weeks before the kitchen reopens under my new business. Menus are being finalized, Sysco sccounts are open and orders priced out. I am starting with a smaller menu then normal to remember how to work a kitchen. My wedding in Puerto Rico went really well but my nose is about to hit the grindstone. Hopefully I don't crash and burn.
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Aug 16, 2014 18:21
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Errant Gin Monks posted:Oh God. Hope you got a good local place for your produce. Some things Sysco does well but produce is not one of them. $20 for a case of 90ct bakers? No thanks.
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Aug 17, 2014 06:58
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