Around 3 days back, there was a Annual dinner that took place in Edinburgh international conference centre, it was for “Scottish Energy forums” Now when I tell you this is one of the poshest dinners, I mean it. It was MASSIVE, the place was filled with millionaires, I even heard from a friend that there was a billionaire who was attending the dinner there.
The dinner was for 750 PEOPLE, I really want to emphasise on the number of people attending the dinner because for 750 people you’d assume there would be maybe 30-40 people helping with the set up of the place and dinner, But No. literally they had 4 workers setting up the entire place. There were 74 tables, and around 750 chairs, for each person there had to be a napkin, 3 forks, 3 knives, 2 spoons, plates, snacks, loads of wine, and Prosecco bottles on each table, The four of us worked for 8 hours to get this whole set up done. I did the math, and each of us put around 2400 stuff on the tables in total. And you know what they provided for us in the break? I got a cheese and onion roll, that’s all I was provided with for that 8 hours of work. But it doesn’t end there.
Just before the guests starts arriving, around 70 other workers walked in. This was to put a front that they had loads of people working when in reality it was the 4 of us that literally pulled the entire stadium together, we were 4 students in our early 20s and it’s safe to say we were all underweight. They over worked us, and when the set up was done and the customers started walking in, each person was assigned to a table, just waiting beside each table to assist the customers with anything.
Almost 10 hours into the shift, it was time for dinner, and dinner had to be carried form the kitchen, to the table, for this we were made into teams of 5, so 5 of us would be serving 5 tables. We 5 have to go in a group, carry the food in our hands together, and then keep it on the table all at once, this was done for starters, then the main course, then for deserts. That’s 15 rounds to the kitchen, with 2 kg heavy HOT plates on our hands.
It was finally 10:30, I thought this hell of a time would have been over as it was the end of my shift, I went to talk to my managers, who knows I’ve worked for 12.5 hours at that point, asking to sign off, and you know what she says? “Stay a little longer till the guest leaves” because the dinner was delayed since there was a protest prior to the start of it.
I could not take anymore of it, I told her I couldn’t even stand, I just worked for 12.5 hours and had one break where I was allowed to sit and you want me to work more because there was a protest against your stupid organisation? No fck you!
Atleast I wish I told her all of these things, but I couldn’t, my fcked up introvert self couldn’t get myself to talk, and I stayed another 30 mins and left without informing her.
The only reason I wanted to post this here was, I need your help to blow this up, and for more people to recognise how shitty their shifts are. How they under-booked the staffs where there was a lot of stuff to be done, but had tons of workers infront of the customers. The place is called “EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTRE” 80% of TED Talks in Scotland takes place here, this place is visited by tons and tons of journalists and other popular celebrities. I really hope someone can get a message of how bad the workers are treated.
FUCK YOU EICC