Celebrating one month of being hired into a pastry chef position at a cafe for $18 an hour + tips, with 36-42hr work weeks.
I’m a college student, still at home, and I don’t drive very often so for where I’m at, this job is incredibly comfortable.
I truly like it as well, even with some of its stressors. Time management, hectic environment, etc., but my coworkers and managers are lovely people and very transparent about certain issues.
My manager, G, sat me down on week 3 to explain that most people don’t work 40 hours due to the newness of the establishment and the fact they’re still trying to figure out an annual net & budget, so they have a firm allotment of pay for labour they can afford on top of expanding a new branch of their team (pastry chefs). I totally understand, as starting a new team as a smaller business in a funky section of town is hard to balance.
However, some issues that have arisen weepy me slightly about expectations vs reality.
The cafe is a sister location to a much larger, and much better established location in our ‘downtown’ city- industrial level equipment, huge personalised space, the whole 9 yards when it comes to baking and kitchenware.
G wants us to imitate this location’s menu, to bolster our own and possibly generate some more revenue with new items. The problem comes in is that we simply don’t have the space or equipment to do so.
Our store has two ovens- one is a modern convection that the baristas use to heat up pastries up front, the second is a mid-2000s convection that can’t stay within a 50°F temp range of the thermometer and will randomly turn off. That first oven is entirely off limits come 6:30am, and shifts for pastry chefs start at 12,2, and 4.
Earlier shifts do prep, mid & opening shifts bake off & manage inventory for the day.
We don’t have any space, either. The oven in the back is a dual use- flat top & oven, in the middle of a very busy kitchen with prep on either side & expo station directly in front of the oven door.
The kitchen can comfortably hold about 5, and we function on 7, plus me, who goes in and out of the fray to check and add pastries into the oven or remove them when they’re done.
We also do not have pastry tools, and are expected to bring our own in until G gets the approval to buy the team equipment even though we’ve been established for a month already. One of my coworkers is already very tight on her own budget, but she’s the only culinary student this place hired, so she’s bringing in her personal equipment to be used at a mass production level.
My questions end there though, about the seriousness of the establishment. It’s just a bit of a shit situation to not have the budget to pay for full 40hr employees or equipment when the expectation is an industrial level production of pastries.
TL;DR: Job was a little too good to be true, but the overall experience seems to outweigh the cons at the moment. Not sure where I stand but I can’t bring myself to find any hate towards the work.