I just started a new job about a month ago, I'm in my last year of school so I needed something simple to make money while I work towards a career (ew)- so I found a job at a popular gas station's new restaurant/kitchen venture.
Over the course of this month I've been reminded of how shitty it is to be squeezed for our labor, food services in particular I've been reminded- are hives of shitty middle management, ridiculous regulations that have nothing to do with food or employee safety and just grinding on the body and mind.
So I'm just gonna list some of the bad things I've noticed in only a month:
•Literally 15+ hours of video “training” including shit that only effects office workers in the parent company, the most important info for my job, stuff like food temps and storage was maybe 45 minutes
•Almost zero incentive to keep a clean workspace unless it's in fear of inspectors
•Rundown secondhand equipment that breaks more than it should
•No padded flooring for employees on their feet for 8/9 hours a day
•Limited access to “approved” uniforms necessitating frequent laundry at my own home and expense
•Middle and upper management disrupting high traffic work hours for new product “testing”(really they just come to eat), instead of fixing issues with current menu
•My direct manager (not the middle management I'm referring to) works well beyond their role so the rest of us don't have too much to handle- part due to lack of staffing and they have no one to delegate to besides the regular staff (no assistant manager)
•Nepotism- a child of a director of operations way up the ladder got the job and does not contribute at all, with little repercussions, and he calls his daddy if there are
•Unbelievable amount of food waste- directly attributed to policy not actual food safety
•Food policies made by someone who does not know how to make the food (certain oz. amount for an ingredient that is just wild and gross)
•No standardized breaks, break area or chair to be dreamed of in the entire store
•If an employee uses their discount on food they must eat it on the premises (where?? since we arent supposed to eat in the kitchen and certainly not in front of customers??) and can't use the discount if they want to take it home at the end of the shift
•Shit pay for too much work
•Can't accept tips for no other reason than the visuals
What makes me sad about this whole thing is knowing this will be temporary for me, there are people I work with that have made this kind of position their career and they will have to put up with it all much longer than I will. And when I put my feelers out for any anti-work sentiment with my coworkers they all seem to be under the impression that there's nothing they can do about it and cite corporate knowing what's best, etc etc. It's so sad to watch people go above and beyond what they're paid for for corporations who don't give a shit about them. End of rant, if you want to know what the company is you can pm me lol I'm not trying to find another crap job for the time being.