Inspired by the “i was lied to on the interview”, this happened to me in 2010; i've since moved on from the industry and have a decent job today. There's actually not one, but two anti-work complaints in this post, so be patient.
After moving to the UK and having bad luck with work, i found myself working in the food industry.
I'm Italian, and i used to joke that food work is mandatory for all italians who move abroad.
Around the first months of 2010 i had been unemployed for nearly a year and a half, sending out 100+ job applications per week, desperately trying to get off of benefits.
I got a job offer to work at a pizza restaurant. This is a place in central london that seats a huge number of people; the historical building it is based in has multiple ambients in it, each of which does something different; ground floor pub grub (fish & chips, etc), top floor steak grill for the more “well to do”, a separate area for wedding receptions, and a middle floor with pizza, where i was to work.
The company that recruited me don't normally supply pizza chefs, but rather they handle staffing for companies like Burger King (IIRC), Millies Cookies, some cornish pasty retail chain, etc. basically uniformed fast-food staff. The training itself was very corporate-heavy, “you didnt remember the CEO name we mentioned in passing, you dont get hired”.
When i went to discuss the role, i approached it as an experienced pizza chef. Not that it takes enormous skill to be a pizza chef, but i can pretty much do the whole prep from bag of flour to finished product. We discussed the wage (i was on a completely different pay scheme than the normal fast food staff), working hours, etc and i asked them these three questions;
- how is the relationship between the staff, internally
- will we be working to a high standard of gourmet pizza, and would the prep be included (a paid amount of hours working BEFORE the shift, to prepare the kitchen, ingredients, and tools)
- can they meet my demand for a minimum of 2x clean cloths per shift, always, plus uniforms each day.
Not madness, as you can see. I was told that absolutely, we would be working with homemade dough and top tier ingredients; there was, temporarily, an old roller-style oven, that was due to be replaced. (a “roller oven” is a conveyor belt that runs under an oven, stick the pizza in one end, it comes out cooked the other end – you have no control over the cooking time)
Also the staff they all love each other, hugs and kisses all around. And the internal laundry service would cover the uniforms.
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First big issue, the laundry failed almost immediately. Up to the point where i was told “the clean cloths are in that cabinet” which was a locked. cabinet. No keys.
Second, staff antagonism was through the goddamn roof. People hated each other and actively tried to put other staff in trouble out of pure spite.
And obviously, the “gourmet” thing was a complete lie, we put out unedible, Domino's Pizza Is Better frozen garbage and the roller oven couldn't even manage the temperature to make the pizza .. well, edible.
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My biggest problem was that i got paired in a team of, well, people who were there only for the wage. And BY GOD they were determined to keep a hold on that wage, no matter what.
I know my job, i know what level of productivity i can keep day-in and day-out. When the managers started understaffing the place, and we could in no way keep up with the volume of work, i would keep working at my pace, while the other 3 guys in my team would trip over each other to try to work 2x what was expected. And obviously, the complained to me that i should be working more.
I pointed out to them that they should be working less. Any self-respecting chef knows what level of staffing is necessary, when you know the seatings for the night at least a full day ahead, and it was obviously not being met.
I pointed out that we were originally scheduled with 2 hours of paid prep, which were then taken out of the rota – there is no way to recoup those 2 hours of prep through the first 4-5 hours of a dinner shift either.
By overworking themselves they were putting out a worst product, they were working towards being completely burned out in a couple of months, and worst of all, they were complicit in the understaffing of the store.
Bear in mind, that this place had a history and was making a huge amount of money; the new manager was obviously cutting costs that have a long-term effect (but no short-term visible effect) and pocketing a bonus for “excellent performance”, while actually selling out the reputation of the place, and killing future revenue.
The correct thing to do would be to only work as fast as it is professionally acceptable, and let management deal with the necessity for more staff.
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Finally, one day i snapped. A waiter took orders to each the wrong table; the one that got a £15 mixed salami platter would only pay for the £3 bruschetta they ordered, and the guy who ordered the £15 mixed salami ate the bruschetta and wouldn't pay the £15 because they didnt get the platter.
I just said “ok, ill make another mix salami. It costs us £2 to make, at least we can charge £15 to the correct table, and get the £3 from the guy who already ate the salami; it's a loss, but much less than not doing anything about it”.
The waiter went mental, and started yelling on the open kitchen floor that it was my mistake because i gave him the wrong tickets.
Now .. you have to know that i am pretty good at my job .. but also very, very lazy.
I never gave him the tickets. I expect a waiter to remember who the fuck ordered the £15 mix special. I pulled the tickets from the tickets-spike-thing and put them in front of his face, saying “are THESE the tickets i gave you?”
Of course the guy saw himself being humiliated and proceeded to yell like a parrot being devoured alive, at which point i hanged my apron, told him to find another chef, and walked out at the beginning of a thursday dinner shift. I had text messages come in for hours throughout the weekend.
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sadly, from me, the lesson is that often other workers make things worse for you. People accepting unprofessional behaviour, justifies the same behaviour from the business. “It's just the way we do things around here” is a terrible place to exist in.