LeftyBassist.com

Hey guys,
This is not bass related but rather work related. A couple of days ago a Co worker asked me to cover a shift for him today, which I agreed to but since our scheduling is all done online I had to email the manager for permission...he denied it. This morning I get a phone call at 8:30 telling me to come in for said shift (at 9) when I had gotten of work last night at 2:30 the shift started at nine... needless to say the phone call to come in is the only reason I was awake, anyway they had me working with a guy who has only been there for 2 weeks and it is his first cooking job, he was making some quality control issues having to remake dishes and knowing my kitchen manager is very very very hard on new people and the corporate dude was in town, who is also not very friendly towards new people (1 week into the restaurant being open he paid a visit and prep person made a salad dressing wrong to which his answer to the problem was "you have another job?" to which the prep person answered "yes" the corporate guy in the most casual way possible said "good then getting fired from this one won't be to bad, you're done here") and I took the heat for him after the third time it happned, I again took the heat and got sent home at 1, now I am to go back at 4 to my scheduled shift I am wondering should I could come clean to my manager or should I take the hit, the new guy is cool and I can tell once he learns he'll be awsome but I am afraid that he won't get the chance if I say something

It's cool that you don't want to rat out your coworker, but it's also not your job to cover for him and make yourself look bad. In your shoes I'd talk to your manager, point out that after working with this new guy you get a good sense that he'll become a value to the workplace but in the meantime, you covered for a few minor mistakes that happened. No big deal, mistakes happen, they're part of learning.

I have lived my life in the restaurant business now I'm food rep selling to restaurants but I have been in that movie countless times. I just have one question for you..

If you co-worker is so cool why is he letting you take the rap? Restaurant buisness is full of "cool dudes" the problem is when there is any problem or it's them or you guess what....you get the snausage.

skightly off topic, but what state are you in? many states have laws that enforce x amount of hours off between shifts, in some it's 6, in others 8 etc etc. The point being, were you really required to come in in the AM after only having 6.5 hours off?

Also, i don't think you should be covering for that dude unless he is showing some process improvement. And yes, I have had decades in the F&B world too.

hey guys,

Thanks for all the helpful advice, turns out the new guy is an awsome person, I never got a chance to reply what with my crazy work schedule but when I got back to work the head chef apologized to me and told me the new guy flat out told him I was taking the heat for his mistakes so all is well on that front. Again thank you all for your great advice.

I am in Management for a large corporation and I'd make the following observations:
- AzWhoFan is correct. In addition to labor regulations, it is also a matter of safety on the work place. All studies will tell you that a lot of work injuries are the result of exhaustion/lack of rest. Especially when using knives!

- The conversation between this seemingly un-performing employee and his Manager threatening him to fire him is typical.
It frequently happens when a corporation has un-trained, un-qualified lower/middle Management team. Way too often it will lead to litigations. In a similar situation, I have often seen such an employee eventually claiming "hostile work environment" often in addition to some kind "discrimination" claim. When the case comes to the corporate lawer desks they almost always recommend to back out of the termination because they know all too well that their Manager "screwed up". I spend a lot of time training my Management team to avoid those mistakes.

All this to say that, If your work environment does not feel right (it sounds like it) you have two options. If possible, you would want to talk to someone with a higher position in the food chain and hope the guy would do what I would i.e: take it seriously, investigate and take action if necessary. If you don't think it is possible, look for another job (It's easier to say than to do, I know)
As Thumbslam said the F&B business is full of "nice" guys...ready to take advantage.

you are 100% right frenchy-lefty. I am at the end of my rope at that place, I only claim to know two things in life, cooking and music, and this place is killing my passion for cooking. I am currently in the process of looking for a new job but after my experiences there I am wondering if I should go into another kitchen.

I've cooked and worked in restaurants, and I've played and worked in a variety of bands over the years. There are a lot of similarities between the two - They both require skills learned over years, there's a lot of hard work involved, pressures and deadlines to meet, and you must have an artistic sense about you to excel at both. And the last, and most important facet; you must be in a working environment with people you get along with and trust for the knowledge and skills they bring to "The Group".

It doesn't matter if you're selling insurance, working in a gas station, store, factory, digging ditches, whatever.... you've got to find the right people to work with. I've been in both environments, (like the Post Office years back) where the pay was good, work wasn't too hard, but management instilled fear in the workers, who had a bitter attitude, all of which made it a miserable place to work (lasted seven years there - far too long). After that experience, I worked - hard! - in a small gourmet Greek restaurant. The owner became like an older Brother to me, all of the employees were good, and we got along well together, because the owner's positive attitude permeated the work place, and made it fun and rewarding to work there.

I carried that sense of work ethic, and environment with me through all of the companies I worked for after that. But more importantly, it taught me how to look for the right job and people to work for. A couple of times I left a company after a year or less, because the work attitude changed. I don't mind giving my all to a company, but it has to be rewarding, and make me feel as if I'm accomplishing something. Just to let you know, I've taken all of the people skills and job skills I've learned over the years, and now work for myself... oftentimes it's more hard than working for someone else , but it's also very rewarding. Never stop learning!

I know I got a bit wordy here, but keep this in mind... restaurants are a Great place to work. Just fine the right one, where the owner and chef expect you to know your skills and station, but have compassion and understanding, and are willing to point out your errors and help you get better at what you do. As I said before; this is what you should look for in the people you work under and with, and and job you go to work in. Bands are like restaurants too, sometimes you have to go through a bunch to find a good "bunch" of characters you can last and grow with. If you like cooking, don't give up on it. Just find a better, more positive place to cook in! Good Luck.....

Thanks fivebass,

I have always made the same parallels between cooking and music, the only reason I am thinking about getting out of the kitchen for a while is because my girlfriend thinks that place is putting me on the verge of a nervous breakdown for reasons I won't talk about here. Greek food would be awesome to get back into that is the bedrock of my culinary education (my grandfather was a influential chef in Israel in the 60s and 70s and he had me making suvlaki and musaka before I knew my shapes and colors). For the past two days I have been sitting around my apartment wondering where this restaurant can take me and I came to the conclusion that I won't get any where there. I have submitted recipes to the corporate test kitchen that they rave about but when I make it known that I want to be compensated in some way(flat out sale of the recipe, a raise or promotion) they immediately lose interest citing that if I am trying to profit off the recipe then I don't have the company's best interests at heart. Anyways thank you all for the kind words, I have to say I am always surprised when you guys show how tight knit of a group we have here, you are all amazing people.

Frankenjazz, sounds like it's time to find another restaurant that welcomes your input/recipes, or.... it's time to open your own restaurant!

+1000 to what Frenchy said. I work in labor and workplace issues, amongst other things, and this is typically what happens, especially the part of when it gets to the lawyer's desk.

Just some more off topic restaurant jabber. I have worked in the foodservice industry since I was 13 and now I’m 43. So I got a couple of years under my belt. I went to school and college for art and tried other career choices but they say the restaurant business once in you it is always in you. If anyone is wondering what it’s like you must Anthony Bourdain’s kitchen confidential. My life all through high school and all through college and up until I went into selling for one of the two main players of foodservice food sales was my life almost to a tee. The drugs the girls the wondering from state to state working in hotels independent restaurants chains the whole thing. I don’t know how I made it out alive.

I do have many great friends that are still in the kitchen I’m one of the few that got out but I had to stay away from all my vises and actually to play music. My wife said to me one day “I got your money either way whether we are married or not. When I get up your gone and I go to sleep before you get home. Your days off all you do is sleep and stare at the wall. You never go to any family functions and you smell like grease and smoke” So find another way to make a living or we are going to find a dad husband that will be available. I’m not telling you what to do as far as stay or go but it’s a hard life. Working every holiday and working evenings all weekends leaves no time to play in a band and have weekend gigs.

If you must stay in the kitchen you must make lateral moves to make more money and to learn and broaden your knowledge of food and management styles. I stayed here and there for a few years at a time. I lived in center city Philadelphia, San Francisco, and many of the burbs and the Main Line of Philly. I have worked for peanuts just to work under a certain chef or to work in a certain restaurant so my resume would kick ass. It paid off but killed my social life and made me crazy. You got to be thankful to your family or girlfriend for putting up with it. Almost every chef I know has been divorced and is either an active alcoholic or in recovery like me. I’ll never tell my wife this but in a scary way it’s true. The ultimate thing that made me make a change to more normal hours was to start playing bass again and to get in a band and to start gigging again. Thank god I kept my family and I got a band life is great man good luck.

Wow, Thumb I must say I have never been in the F&B business but now I feel like I have. That that was one hell of a read, my friend. And a lot there to relate to back to the days when I worked in retail (no home life, weekends and holidays screwed up, traveling all the time, not there for loved ones, etc.). Looking back it definitely helped me figure out what I didn't wanna spend the rest of my life doing.

you're right thumb, it's a crazy life that takes its toll on you physically and mentally. Kitchen Confidential in a way kind of glorifies it, Anthony Bordain has said recently that it's a very romanticized view of everything that happens in a kitchen. Honestly it is so hard to think of my self not cooking, but in 3 months I am going back to school for buisness so I can do just like you said, make time for my family and my music, whenever I have a day off I have no energy to play and as crazy as it sounds I can almost hear my bass telling me "you don't have time for me anymore, how do you still consider yourself a bass player?".

I just got done watching an episode of a cook's tour (for those of you who watch no reservations it originally aired on the food network as a cook's tour) and Bourdain is talking to a business type and I think he just summed up being a cook perfectly ".....In this small world of the restaurant the cooks are the rock stars, anything you want is there for the taking, girls drugs, you name it. The egos are huge and that fuse that used to be a mile long is non existent, and chances are the one person you hate more then anyone you have ever hated in your life, this person that sums up everything that is wrong with humanity, is the person you share a station with.So by all means get into the restaurant business, it's just that I never took you for a sadomasochist"