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My Food Service Experience

Deep breath I started working in food in 2016 to pay my way through community college. I got a job at a prestigious university dining department washing dishes. After a few months, I was promoted to line cook, and at the same time I worked as a barista in another campus location. For two years, I remained part time, watching every incompetent, mean-spirited yes-man get promoted to full-time ahead of me until, out of the blue, I got promoted. Things weren't ideal, as the hours were long and the pay wasn't great ($13.65), but I enjoyed the university community and the benefits were top notch, so I stayed, and tried to become a supervisor ($15,000 more per year). I was passed up, and had to train an external hire, because while I “wasn't ready to be a supervisor”, apparently I was ready to train one. The supervisor didn't last long,…


Deep breath

I started working in food in 2016 to pay my way through community college. I got a job at a prestigious university dining department washing dishes. After a few months, I was promoted to line cook, and at the same time I worked as a barista in another campus location. For two years, I remained part time, watching every incompetent, mean-spirited yes-man get promoted to full-time ahead of me until, out of the blue, I got promoted.

Things weren't ideal, as the hours were long and the pay wasn't great ($13.65), but I enjoyed the university community and the benefits were top notch, so I stayed, and tried to become a supervisor ($15,000 more per year). I was passed up, and had to train an external hire, because while I “wasn't ready to be a supervisor”, apparently I was ready to train one.

The supervisor didn't last long, and left after two months, so I was able to apply again. Again, however, they hired externally, and I trained the supervisor. Only this time, they were egregiously incompetent. We're talking weapons-grade stupid. They didn't do temps, they didn't know how to safely cook anything. They refused to learn, and never actually led a shift (they just sat on the register talking to customers). Then, a sandwich unit broke down, but because this stupidvisor couldn't be bothered to actually do temps, we served food that wasn't stored properly until I checked the temps before closing that night (food was at 67F).

I report this to upper management, who dismiss my claims as me trying to get them fired to take the supervisor position, and, as I'm having a breakdown outside the office, I overheard that they're going to fire me. I'd been there four years, had zero write ups, and had aced every evaluation I'd been given (to my knowledge, I had the highest marks in a department of 150+ people).

So I put in my two weeks, grind it out, and leave, only for the first case of COVID to hit my state. I go into the pandemic without a job and I able to get unemployment, which, with the subsidies would've been $997 per week, so I go back to work at a private restaurant.

There, I become friends with the owner's daughter, who I quickly realize is emotionally abusive to her “friends” and the other employees. After six months of dealing with her bullshit, I tell her that I don't want to be friends or have anything to do with her. The next day, I'm fired for “harassment”. I later learned that that same month, three other workers were fired for the same reason.

I get another job in what was the most abusive kitchen I've ever worked in. Wages sucked ($10-12) and our volume was insane. The restaurant would do $15,000 on a good night, and the servers would make 3-6x as much as the kitchen crew, so I asked to be transferred to front of house, since I had experience. Management says there isn't an opening, then hires three new servers. Half the kitchen quits, and instead of the 15 people we need to run it, there's 5 of us. I worked 60+ hour weeks in a 100+ degree kitchen, and quit after management pulled me off the line to rip me a new asshole because I helped our dishwasher through a panic attack during a rush (I had finished my orders).

Next job is another restaurant, and after 8 months there as a bartender, the owner, giving all the staff three days notice, shuts it down because his other restaurant failed and he wanted to transfer the staff to our location. I go out and get drunk, and get a job at the bar I went out to drink at.

That job turned out to be nice, but I was so jaded with food that I couldn't take it, and so I left after seven months for a job in an academic department at a nearby university. I'm working part time now, and while I love my job, it doesn't pay the bills. I know I'll have to get a second job soon to work weekends, and the only places I can find that are hiring are all restaurants. So, here we go again.

Tl;dr Got fired for reporting supervisor after four years, got fired for standing up to an abusive coworker, left due to toxic management, furloughed on three days notice, now unable to make a living in a different field.

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