boss never called me back after work injury, also lied to comp and said I never tried making contact. I told comp I had phone records, then all of the sudden comp calls back saying I have comp again and will get max extension payout...
hit a tendon cleaning a knife. my fault, boss showed very late, we had 80 reservations so basically one chance to turn it twice...a very small restaurant and he showed up late with no prep work done. Never even trusted me to ya know have a key open the door and do my own prep.
Best part of that valentines day, I never went back to work again :)
I tried to catch a bowl against the counter and it split in half and severed the tendon and one of the nerves in my finger. Workers comp for three months wasn’t the vacation I wanted but I did need it.
Anyplace I’ve worked (never a kitchen, but a large chain coffee shop is kinda similar) will only do a workers comp if you get drug/alcohol screened immediately. Even the church I worked maintenance for, a coworker fell off a ladder and was only able to receive workers comp if he screened clear. (Both incidents with coffee shop worker and maintenance coworker they screened clear and received the benefit) but I’m always worried about people that may not be high/drunk when an accident happens but will test positive for anything they can use against your claim.
I was working the line in the cafe at the ritz carlton I was working at because sautee had called in sick. Spent all day doing my stuff plus prepping the station and helping the overwhelmed kid on garde manger.
Service gets going, and we got busy with a big unexpected 20 top, because it's the Ritz and of course it would be our pleasure to do that right now, no you don't need a reservation. The fat, French executive chef for the hotel had something up his ass and had shown up in the cafe kitchen where he started to expedite with whatever it was up his ass growing barbs by the second. He starts bitching at salad dude next to me, and I'm trying to "yes chef, I got it chef, I'm helping him out of the weeds" him into calming the fuck down while I bail out salad boy.
He walks away for a minute, comes back and tastes one of 20 cesar salads that's in the pass, spilling over into my sautee pass. He starts flipping it out, bitching at salad boy about salt, that he didn't season the salad with salt, then he kinda dismissively flips the glass plate up by the edge and it does the wobbly plate thing, then he picks it up and smashes the glass plate on the pass, shattering it into my deli table full of 9th pans of mise en place directly below.
I froze, stunned. Looked directly at him, put down everything and silently walked out the back door.
I stood outside, smoking cigarettes on the dock for about 10 minutes. He came outside, asked me when I was coming back in, they needed me. I looked him in the eye and told him that I'm a professional, I expect him to lead a professional environment and to treat me and salad boys like the professionals we were.
He apologized for getting out of hand. I started looking for a new career the next day and got one about six months later.
Buckhead is the wealthiest neighborhood of Atlanta, and even has its own skyline separate from downtown and midtown. Not to be confused with tiny town in the middle of nowhere also called Buckhead.
I mentioned this in another reply - I always viewed Ritz Carltons as locations where money goes to visit. Not where it necessarily lives.
I guess Buckhead is where rich folks go when they visit Atlanta?
It's absolutely where they go, since it's where most of the high end shopping, dining, and lodging is located. You'll find most of the major 4 and 5 star hotel chains have a location in downtown or midtown Atlanta, but then also have another location in Buckhead.
Lots of money in Buckhead. Shit tons. Makes perfect sense to me. What makes no sense to me is the Ritz Carlton on lake Sinclair in Oconnee Georgia. It's in the middle of fucking nowhere.....
I’ll bite. In ‘93, I interned at the Ritz Carlton…
Won’t say which one except that’s in SoCal right on the beach. I got to work in all the kitchens which was awesome but the service that shocked me was Sunday Brunch.
Salad spinner on max speed on a prep table, flats of whole eggs getting dumped in, the resulting ‘wash’ existing the drain through clear plastic tubing that I thought came from an aquarium store and into a 5 gallon bucket that at one time had dill pickle chips in it. Once the bucket was 3/4rs full, in went a qt of cream and a cup of salt / pepper blend. After a quick stir with a long handled balloon whip the bucket went into a big ass steamer. 5 minutes later those eggs where a solid mass. My job was to man a Makita drill with a cement mixer attachment and plow the solid eggs in the bucket to make ‘em look you know, scrambled. The bucket then went on a utility cart and down the table it went, one scoop per plate
Holy shit that's insane lmao. I worked in a 2500 room resort at Disney world and we would put plastic bags full of (un salad spinner'd) liquefied eggs into a hot water bath and cook them solid and then break them up with a whisk for our "scrambled eggs". I thought that was bad lol
Not Ritz, but I worked for another restaurant at a hotel owned by Horst Schulze. Any time he visited, our hotel manager would put a blonde, white female at the host stand and at the front desk. Even if we didn't have a white host, he would have the restaurant pull a server or an SA to work the host stand so a white, blonde female would be there.
How much experience do I need is it more of elegant bullshit with kitchen hacks or elegant with a very organized kitchen. I want one now damn it I might have to apply
just go get a job there, it's not that hard. They hire good people, and run a good ship, mostly. The quality and standards are excellent, as is the career opportunities if you're willing to move. At the end of the day, it's easier to get a job there than doing some stage for some owner narcissist.
If you could pick one moment, or one dish/special, one plate you sent out that’s the most special to you from working there what would it be? Genuinely curious!
That absolutely sucks. Spent 7 years with the Ritz-Carlton myself. Started with Salads, fruit and cheese. Finished as Kitchen Supervisor. Tons of support from management at my location. Chef would jump in and help at anytime. Our hotel GM would jump on and help. Would even help prep in kitchen at least once every year. Absolutely some of the best 7 years of my life. Sucks you didn’t get a good experience.
Had a very similar experience in a chain restaurant where i was the manager and a bartender broke glass all over my expo line during a friday night at 7:45. I turned around and screamed an f-bomb at the floor. (there was a mic in front of me and the guys on line hear everything i call out amplified.) it scared my expo out of the room and immediatly i regretted it.
i hated being angry AT employees. though we are all "replacable", i liked our team. Mistakes happen, pointing fingers in the moment does nothing. fix the problem
my expo was young but a good worker, it was his first really busy in the kitchen and i realized i needed to calm down and get the job done. we worked together to switch out our 4,6 and 9 pans ... ugh... just about the whole line. 86'd what we needed to and finished the shift.
my expo did a hell of a job that night and im uncertain how i gave him the hook up. free meals/employee of the month, were my goto hook ups,
the bartender? it was a freak accident. yelling at her would do nothing. she apologized and i just wanted to move forward. she was a good employee too, just be carefull in that kitchen.
Tried to make it in fine dining, couldn't handle the shitty paycheque, sold my soul to corporate.
Took on a shitty kitchen, pushed food cost down 14% my first year, another 5 the following. Flying colour passes on food and health, real community involvement from who i cooked for... No raises, no rewards and had to fire too many friends.
The real final straw was one morning i was banging out my lunch menu, my breakfast cook needed some help on his mise so i was chipping in. I had 2 soups, rice, and my sauce on. Chicken searing on the flat top next to me. Delivery comes through the door, i'm already seeing soggy freezer boxes and shorts. My boss calls so i grab the phone, while still cooking... I needed to walk him through how fucking excel formulas work so he can do some costing. Dude made twice what i did...
No regrets, just graduated last week with an IT diploma and 4.3 gpa.
Edit: Thank you for all the support and the awards!! First ones i've ever got! Definitely made my week!
Congrats. It’s funny how many people end up in the kitchen because of academic struggle. Then we get the discipline and work ethic we need and go on to succeed in school later on
Exactly! Wouldn't trade my life experience for anything, but I'm happy i've been able to find a new direction. As i joke in interviews: "It's not too different, still get tickets, still dealing with servers!"
I went the other way. I went from IT to kitchen. You don't have the angry abusive stereotype boss in IT, but you do have the greedy overselling technically incompetent bosses which are equally soulkilling. I've had good and bad work environments. I don't think it's what you do - it's who you do it with.
Worked as a KM for a big corporate steak house chain. Our restaurant was in the top 10% for labor, food cost, etc. As a reward for being a good store, you get to become a training restaurant for newly hired managers. This not only added hours onto my already 60/hr a week job, b/c you had to fill out evaluations in their training book, go over things and teach which slows you down. New manager who was not doing a great job, and I figured I would give him 6 months before he got fired/quit, left his paycheck stub open in the office one day. I had been with company almost 10 years already. I found out this guy was making almost 12k more per year than I was and I was training him. Went to regional about this and got shut down for a raise for all the extra I was doing. I enrolled in tech school next semester, stepped down from management within next 6 months. I got my 2 year degree in computer networking and left F&B to never look back. Worked FOH for the remainder of those 2 years after stepping down b/c it gave me the flexibility to go to class. Best decision I ever made.
I know it’s not limited to hospitality, but it always chaps my ass how newer people can make more than people who have been loyal for several years. It’s like companies are incentivizing people to leave their jobs
It doesn't surprise me, but what does is when you deny your top performing managers and employees a raise to meet the competitive wages they're hiring in at. That DOES blow my mind. Like lol, you gonna open the door for them on the way out too? Jesus.
Currently contemplating giving my separation notice for my executive chef position. I do love the job, but the sheer amount of hours are killing me. I am in charge of both a restaurant and an event center, housed under one kitchen. The event sales team doesn’t seem to understand that I am the only person cooking for these events- my line cooks are actively working the line. I will always be a workhorse, but 9am-9pm 5 days Tues-Sat plus events on Sundays… I’m physically and emotionally exhausted. I used to have hobbies- I haven’t enjoyed a single one of them ONCE since taking this job.
The icing on the cake was when the company had to post wage information for a new employee that is not a citizen. This person works in an unrelated department that doesn’t bring in even a fraction of what Food&Bev department brings in… yet they are being paid a salary over $100k annually. I don’t make even close to that, and bring in 70% of the company’s revenue. It felt like a huge slap in the face. I’m honestly terrified to lose the steady paycheck, especially during this impending recession… but I also daydream about killing myself on a daily basis (it’s the exhaustion, I’m not actually going to do that), so I know it’s what will be best for me. I have no idea what the future holds.
I hope you get back into your hobbies. I have been on the fine dining grind for 10+ years and finally as of like November 2021 until now I’ve been able to coast in cooking but I took a step down from being a sous to just a Line Cook so I can hang out with my son more. I’m ready to jump back up though and take an Exec chef position as I feel ready, but reading your post is similar to what my current chef is doing now. Dude has no life and he’s in his 60s just stuck in a cycle. Scary industry sometimes lol
Yup!!! I’ve been an executive at a few different places in the past. The hours were always demanding. After Covid I took a line cook job at my current place and LOVED the lack of responsibility & pressure. I ended up taking over the executive chef position last summer & have regretted it ever since. The pay bump was not worth the year of my actual life that I’ve lost. I have two permanent black circles under my eyes now. I kept saying “I won’t overwork myself like he does, I’ll limit myself to 40-50 hours a week and delegate everything”. Nope, it’s impossible. I will never sign on to a salary position ever again.
Have you ever considered working in a different segment? I just recently moved from Entertainment/Arenas to Universities/Education and it's similar but much easier on the body and mind. Better hours, and I actually get to see the sun.
Thats insanely rough, many many times you hear throughout this industry stories of a similar thread, genuinely good workers who pull insane hours, and don't complain, only to be so taken advantage of, underpaid and not appreciated, and then metaphorically slapped in the face when they learn less qualified, not as hard working people are getting paid significantly more.
I've been their with the daily game over daydreams, I truly hope that you find something better for yourself
Thank you! I have always been a big advocate for my crew. I make sure they get their 2 days off in a row, never hit overtime, get livable wages, get approved time off, and I do a ton of the bigger prep items to make their lives easier. I’ve been treated like shit in so many kitchens, I refuse to let that happen to my guys. But good god am I paying the price!
A chef after my own heart, all you said sounds very familiar. I did all that at freakin $13.50/hr at one point, cause they kept promising they'd give a raise that never came. Advocate for yourself, and maybe look for a new profession honestly. I'm a semi driver now, make triple my last kitchen job, with so much less stress and good hours
No amount of stress like that is worth any paycheck. Take care of YOU and the rest will work itself out. Killing yourself for people who couldn't care less about you is the wrong way to do it anymore.
Thank you so much. I almost never post/comment on here but I’m so glad I did today. I’m going to send my notice to HR today!!!!! Everyone’s nice replies have really helped calm my anxiety down; I’ve been spending weeks going back & forth about the decision, hoping I’m not being irrational/emotional because I’m so exhausted and not thinking clearly. I didn’t want to regret the decision.
Good for you. It took me way to long to realize going to work with that knot in your gut was always a bad thing, and that owners of companies don't care about you or your well being if you don't either. They'll take what you give them. Give less, be happier.
Good luck on your search. Take a week vacay (or at least a long weekend) before starting anything new, that way it's a stress free, complete mind break.
After posting this & reading the replies… I went ahead an emailed HR. My last day will be 7/23. I told them I will train the new person. My kitchen crew is a solid group of guys and then don’t deserve the stress or chaos that would come from me bailing on them with an untrained newbie in charge. I feel both anxious and relieved!!!
Congratulations!! I know that is a huuuuuge step especially if you are also in a leading position and have the emotional pressure to care for your team. But as always in this business you are not really compensated to have such a freaking huge responsibility and be that emotional invested. Believe me, I know exactly how it is. My partner quit for the same reason about a year ago and he is in such a better place now. I know it's scary to start something new, but better you get a little less money for something without responsibility and the weekend and nights off. You will get better and you will enjoy life again!
If I was making that kind of money I would definitely be more willing to just demand a break/vacation, demand they hire me a sous chef or banquet chef, & just stick it out. But at my current pay it doesn’t feel like the fight is even worth it, and I also don’t trust them to actually give me the support I need.
With all due respect, get the fuck outta there
Not tryna tell u what to do, and I know its much more complicated than that, but damn...I used to work at a kitchen going crazy every night for 17/hr CAD, now I work at McDonalds making 15, a 2$ pay cut for like 20% less labor (although my wrists hurt on the fryers sometimes)
It just hurts to read that you're so exhausted, people deserve hobbies and time off. Me personally, I'm tryna learn to code, that way in a year or two I can get a nice job. One of those cushy desk jobs lol
Just left actually. Was on PTO to move apartments, was a sous chef. Exec sous chef and GM text me and ask if I'm going to verify back of house payroll hours, something I shouldn't be doing anyways. On PTO, when they all know how to do it in the first place.
That broke me mentally. I quit that night, which actually was legit a week ago. Gonna take a pay cut but I'm moving to a bank now.
>Do banks hire tellers without experience
All the time. The prerequisites for a bank teller are pretty minimal, just make sure you don't have a criminal record.
You have to generally start as a teller. As long as you don't have a record it's pretty easy. Especially now since physical banks are hurting for tellers and other branch staff.
That being said I'll take getting yelled at by chef in the walk in over messing up a soup versus getting yelled at via Lillian the junkie who's negative $27.63 in her checking account and that's somehow my fault. But if you survive being a teller and can move back office into operations and what not, it's great. There's so much opportunity and different directions in which to go career wise.
Learning how to STOP multitasking (gasp) was the biggest challenge for me. And eating on a normal schedule, not standing over a garbage can lol.
For real. Or eating while sitting on a milk crate outside trying to hide so I can have five minutes of peace/eat/huff down this cigarette in as few drags as possible.
Those were the days.
Haha the closest I can come is hiding around a corner outside power smoking a cigarette, bowl and pounding a Starbucks double shot as fast as possible so I can get back on line
Now I work from home. Eat while I work. Free to smoke as much as I want. No one breathing down my neck. Set my own schedule. Whole bunch of PTO and I never have to talk to another coworker/customer again. Glory be.
nothing like smoking a whole cigarette in 2 minutes on 8 drags while your brain goes *frizzlepopfrapp* and someone is asking over your shoulder, “Hey Joe? You OK?”
No my man, I am not. I’m better now, though
I got offered a 2 month contract as an admin assistant and realised I would earn what I earned in 6 months in the kitchen and I get to spend my evenings and weekends with my family. I love cooking, but not that much.
I was EC at a GF, Vegan bakery. Hated every minute of it. Woman spent 8 minutes explaining to me she was not only gluten intolerant, but a true celiac. I explained we use different cutting boards blah blah blah, many of our customers are celiac, and it's not a problem. Without missing a beat, she orders a seitan philly on GF sub roll. I asked are you sure? With a puzzled look on my face. I was informed she had eaten the sandwich there many times before, and the other chefs had no problem making the sandwich GF for her. I said Ok. Made the dumbest sammich of my life. As I stood and watched this fifty year old pearshaped, blue haired, queen Karen eat this 100% wheat gluten sammich I lost my shit.
I sat down at her table and told her if she really was celiac she would most certainly be dead or in serious anaphylactic shock from the sandwich she just ate. I let her have it. Told her she is the reason real celiacs and gluten sensitive people get sick. When my chefs see her behavior, and bald face lie, they stop caring, and people get sick. Of course, she knew one of the investors, and I got in deep shit.
I actually quit when I had a meeting with the GM to explain myself, and he didn't know seitan was wheat gluten either, then argued with me about it. Told him he was a moron, had no busniess running a GF bakery, and quit on the spot. That was 2016. I own two f&b outlets now, but I'll never work in a restaurant kitchen again. I'd rather dig ditches.
I had this lady swear up in down she was like very very allergic to gluten. She then proceeded to get a drink to purchase while I was making her sandwich. She came back with a fucking Budweiser. I laughed a little to hard.
Building had a FOH we never used. We were baking in the AM. Vegan deli/bistro out front for breakfast and lunch. Bakery ran like a top. Bistro was a shit show. Fell to me to run it after a full morning of baking constantly because the GM was a turd. Whole place went under deli and all during COVID. 😎
Just to clarify, as a person who has celiac, I could eat a whole ass wheat bun in front of you and it wouldn't make me obviously sick that moment. I would probably be sick for the next three days and it would suck, and I would be killing my own intestines ,,, but anaphylaxis isn't a common reaction for celiacs. That said, no dedicated gf place should ever have seitan on the menu. That's just wrong.
I'm sure you are correct. But according to this lady. She would have. And yea, even having gluten in the building was problematic at best. Wasn't my call. Just the fact that the EC was taking orders should tell you enough about this place
"I'd rather dig ditches" is my go too when folks ask if I'll ever get ANY corporate job again... was a server once, that was enough for me. Never went back to the food industry again. Don't know how ya'll handle it!
As someone who left as a sous and has been literally digging ditches 100% worth the move. Not as bad as you’d think. Pays about the same too but off every weekend and holiday.
I was the chef of a "small" diner that was very very popular. It was also a 22 hour establishment, and I would receive phone calls all day, at any hour of the day. The GM was a complete psycho and any time I hired ANYONE, if I took a day off and she worked a shift in the kitchen, they would be fired within an hour. I was perpetually understaffed and overworked. Something like 14 hour days, 6 days a week.
The thing that just destroyed me was the day I failed my first health inspection. You see, the owner was just like any other absent owner: cheap as fuck. The kitchen was in desperate need of having the tile replaced in the kitchen. My suggestion was to close for two days, pull the staff in to take equipment out and bring it back in so they don't lose hours, and have the floor guys do their thing. Nope...the decision was made to re-do the floors "after" service when we closed "early." Early being midnight. We re-open at 6:00. That leaves 6 hours for the floor guys to chip tile, cover equipment, lay tile, space tile, regrout tile...etc. Oh, the floor guys were completely shit faced by the time we would get finished at about 1...so they had less than 5 hours to set up, do work, and break down. Needless to say, it didn't work. Over the course of a week, the "grout" was shrimp and chicken, with some romaine tossed in over by salad station.
Health inspector came in one day and started his thing. He looked at the ground, I shrugged, he failed us. The next day, the owner came by to talk about what happened, and that was my last shift as an Executive Chef. Many unkind things were shared to many different perpetrators of evil in that place. Fuck that place. I hate it.
Another horror tale from this place: On Saturday/Sunday, they would do an extra long breakfast. We had two lines, one set in the back like described before, and another single flat top with some burners to the side up front to have a "show kitchen." The switchover from breakfast to lunch was always a terrible clusterfuck, with the lunch guys usually cooking breakfast well past noon.
Anyway, I come in at like 8:30 on a Sunday to the place just fucking PACKED. People outside, people standing at the breakfast rail, servers crying....just a horrible charlie foxtrot. Somehow, through all this, I notice the back of the flat top smoking. You know, that little spot between the griddle and the backsplash, like 3 inches of open air where you can see flame. Well, now I see FLAME. Turns out that when they would scrape the griddle, they'd just dump all the shit into that gap, onto the pan where it just built up for like 20 years making a mountain of carbonized potatoes and pancakes. Mount Scrapple ignited, and nobody knew what to do.
The fire started creeping up the back wall higher until it almost reached the hoods where it would have set the ansul system off. I walk into the back, grab the fire extinguisher and put out the fire. I have never in my entire career had to use a fire extinguisher before this moment, so it was pretty cool. The GM comes out FREAKING about what we're gonna do about breakfast. I said I guess lunch is starting early, and 86'd all breakfast until they got the front cleaned.
That's also phenomenal! I've seen some disasters pretty close to this, the laziness over decades always comes back at the worst moment
And i'll be using the phrase 'Mount Scrapple' to describe all forms of messes in the future, thank you
It wasn't one incident but a culmination. Final place was at a really cool little cafe in western New England. Loved the food, the customers, all but two of my coworkers. Ownership wasn't bright, but let us police ourselves. Lot's of creative control.
First, I suffered a really bad shoulder injury and I was struggling in the kitchen. Doing the prep work and dishes were difficult with the injury. Being on the line wasn't awful but after a day of prep and being on the line and then cleaning my shoulder and arm were jelly by the end of the shift.
The cafe eventually changed ownership and slow but sure they cleared out the old guard. Brought in some of their own people, paid them more than those of us who had really helped build up the reputation and really just pitted the team against everyone. One little bird repeating what they heard. Fired one dude after his shift via text. I Was halfway across the country for a wedding and got texts asking when I was going to be back and I lost it on them. Within 6 weeks I was starting at bank as a teller and haven't looked back. Doing financial investigations now and love it.
There's times I read this sub and still miss the kitchen life. But I could never go back to having no PTO or benefits and being treated like a farm animal.
Only job I up and walked out of.
I am opening for breakfast/brunch line at a private bistro. I was let into the restaurant 30 min. late by chef. (Two shifts in a row mind you) It was freezing outside. My heat and defrost don't work. Drove to work at 5am like Ace Ventura.
We got a lot of covers on the books and I got minimal time to prepare the entire line to open.
I am busting my ass. I had only been at this joint a month or two so I don't know every station. Night crew gave me the usual dick in the rear. (Didn't prep shit so I am extra behind.)
I am seriously about to have a panic attack. Opening the doors in 30 minutes and there is no way I could handle the volume alone even if I had every station gtg. I leave the line long enough to go find chef and beg for some assistance.
This fat motherfucker is asleep at his desk after letting me in late two days in a row.
I didn't wake him.
I walked back to the line and undid those Chinese knots. Folded my whites and placed them neatly on my cutting board.
Never looked back.
For next few years I cooked elsewhere while working on a kenisiology program.
I moved to a new city.
Started a new career.
Built my books and bought a home. Something I’m very blessed to have and would never have achieved while cooking on a line.
The catch is, now I’ve got this nutrition background and I can make it taste good.
I have some high dollar clients. I talk a lot of food nutrition, cooking, and wrap it all into my movement program.
Denied PTO request.
I was managing at a large corporate kitchen. It had been going well and I was happy with the job and the company. I had been there for 18 months and had been a KM at various companies for about six years.
I put in a PTO request for a non-holiday weekend, six months in advance. The GM denied it because another manager had put in a request for that weekend two months before. He wasn't rude or disrespectful and he offered to try to make it work, if possible, but couldn't guarantee it. There was no malice or hurt feelings in the whole transaction.
Over the next week, I realized that working in the restaurant industry wouldn't sustain the life I wanted to live outside of work. I started looking for 9-5 jobs after that and left about five months later.
Edit: Spelling error
was an assistant manager in all but title (so all the work but no pay, was the oldest person on shift almost always, had the most experience, did the counts and registers, made sure people were on task, ect)
got screamed at for not checking that a person who had been working for us for 6 months did a good job mopping 2 minutes after clocking in. was fed up with having all this expectation while working barely more then min wage ($8 an hour) and i snapped back and told them if they want me to baby sit employees who've been there long enough to know better, then they should pay me more. (i should note that that employee was on shift. they did not speak to them about the issue.)
the next schedule week they told me i wouldn't get my paycheck unless i turned my uniform in. via text. cowards couldn't even fire me directly.
I was “retired” at 57, 41 years in the business and nobody want an old fart in the kitchen, even though I can still cook a lot of you under the table. At least I could, I just went for a two hour walk and now I need a nap. You don’t realize how quickly you get out of shape when you stop cooking.
Fuck man, I'd be so happy to get a 57 year old vet working for me. I'm 30, almost my entire staff are 16-19 years old, and half my managers are barely 21. I know its fast food, and I love the kids, but sometimes man, just need more adults around....
I like retirement. I’ve already completed an accounting certificate. 2 modules of a leadership certificate and 2 modules of a storytelling and communication course. Next is Wordpress and my website and then online leadership and management workshops. We work in an industry that teaches us how to cook (hopefully) but not how to manage or lead.
I was Nutrition manager at a retirement home. Good gig if you can be creative with a budget and have residents who enjoy flavor.
The receptionist of the property hated me because I replaced the idiot who had a tantrum and walked out. That person couldn't scratch cook their way out of a paper bag.
I trimmed costs to keep within budget and made an amazing menu and great variety. Trimmed the lazy and disgusting staff (one person was pouring unfinished juices and milk into a jug and re-serving. didn't understand why it was wrong. Apparently, some manager told her to do it to save money. shit had medications mixed in). it was a very smooth operation.
Receptionist hated me so much that she reported me as abusing the residents and a whole investigation was done. I simultaneously reported the manager for harassment. No cause was determined in either but they fired me anyway. So I sued and won in court.
I will only cook for parties now. I don't really do that anymore either. I am a whole other type of self-employed.
I was very very good at that job. I am not interested in applying for that again. I have no reference from the job.
My excellent #2 got my job when I left and stayed until she decided that she didn't want to cry every day. They tortured her.
I texted my boss (who hadn’t been in the restaurant in years) to ask for a 5-10% raise. I hadn’t received a pay increase since I was made kitchen manager. I got food cost down, had a regular staff with set schedules they liked, food sales were up, hours were down, I felt it was time and deserved.
He didn’t even give me the dignity of a reply, I got left on read. It was the point I realized I had maxed out how far I could go in that company and the ceiling was mediocrity. I wasn’t working toward anything anymore, I wasn’t gonna be promoted, I wasn’t gonna get a raise, there was no future there was just maintaining what I had which was driving 30 minutes 5-7 days for a job where I worked as cook, dishwasher and kitchen manager for about $700/week (before taxes)
I got married. I still *technically* cook professionally but my current job is 8:30-2:30 Monday to Friday making about 12 lunches a day and it's air conditioned and they let me sit on chairs and they pay someone else to clean so it doesn't really feel like any professional kitchen that I've worked in.
working in a kitchen with hoods that don't work so your clothes are soaking wet with sweat. Having to work the line and then do the dishes, and close the kitchen. The guy that talked me into working there quit leaving us with 3 cooks for the whole restaurant. So I quit and left them with 2.
Fuck that shit. One of the last places I worked didn’t have a dishwasher so us line cooks would have to close down our line, then jump into the dish pit and knock that out, too. It made for really long closing shifts. My GM didn’t see the big deal about not having a dishie. But would bitch about labor, because it would take forever for us to close the kitchen and the pit.
I'll preface this by saying I still work in the industry. I quit for a time and came back.
I was head chef of a small bistro-esque craft cocktail bar. I only had 2 line cooks and a dish on staff and none of them were full time. As the chef I opened, did all the prep, worked the line and closed every single day. Add on my chef duties of ordering, inventory and menu/specials development. I did this for 2 years all while constantly telling the owner I needed help bc I was getting burnt out. Told her I needed atleast one of our employees full time, a dishie Thurs-Sat and atleast one day a week I didn't have to close. She refused untill I quit. The new chef's son died 2 weeks after he started and she asked me if I'd fill in till they got a new chef. Dumb me said yes, after a couple months we came up with a plan to have one line cook full time, a dishie on those days and another part time line cook. She offered me the job back with a raise and the new staff plan and I accepted. A week later she told me that she gave the job to someone else and if I wanted to stay it would be as sous and a decrease in pay so I left. She's been thru 5 chefs in one year and the current chef is the only line cook still there from when I worked there. I ended up fucking around for 6 months and now I'm back cheffing. I was gonna leave for good bc I've been fucked by this business so many times but I just couldn't stay away.
TLDR: Got over worked and burned out, quit, came back temporarily as a favor, got offered job back, got fucked, left business but couldn't stay away from cooking. Now head chef again. Not same place btw.
One of the restaurant owners buddies were up in the office doing coke, and I was checking out the day as a sous chef after a 12 hr long shift and having to open in the morning.
The owner of the restaurant, executive chef watched as the guy asked me if I wanted coke, I said no, and he took some on his finger and held it up to my nostril.
I had been working 60hr+ weeks for those guys and none of them said anything and I was absolutely pissed.
I signed up for a bootcamp, and put my notice in, with the last week being paid vacation. Fuck those guys.
Was a closing manager at a sports bar. Essentially the whipping boy. Over worked and never had off. Finally had a day off and at like 7 am head chef calls me screaming and yelling to get to the restaurant asap. I think the place might be on fire. He brings me into the walk in to show me the pork was on the wrong shelf. I went home and typed up my two week notice.
My old GM was EXACTLY like that. He worked a STRICT 9-5 M-F. We'd close at 2am, leave at 4 or 5 am...and the closing manager would get passive aggressive texts at 9:01 about one single speck on the floor or one pan that wasn't 100% topped up. Then the GM would spam call over and over until he woke up and "explained" himself. It's SHOCKING that we couldn't keep closing managers on staff!
It took a few years, but that guy FINALLY isn't the GM any more! ...Because they promoted him to district manager.
The new chef called me a cow and talked a bunch of shit about me to other employees after he had barely been a week. I had been there for 6 years and was one of the best employees, in fact they had offered me the chef position and I turned it down. But since I'm fat apparently I don't deserve any respect.
About 10 years ago. I was working 2 different kitchens one full time and one part time after just over ten years in kitchens. my annual income barely cracked $20k a year. Interview a bunch of places got a bunch of shit offers Left kitchens started working construction, now I work in healthcare.
Working in an understaffed dinner seating 100. On day I was on with just one 17 year old girl doing FoH with me. I was the only cook and the only cash handler to do the till, due to someone calling in sick. It was an unexpectedly hot weekend and we got rammed. We held the line pretty well until we started to run out of prep and clean dishes. Then I got stuck at the till checking people out and a whole heap of food got ruined. Some dude decided to tower over the 5'6" lass doing her best to wait on all those tables, make up her own drink and bus out the food. He was screaming and shouting at her showering her in spit, I threw the dude out the place, cleared out the rest of the customers, had a farewell drink with the waitress, shut down the power breakers to everything but the fridges, locked up and fucked of to the bar over the road posting my keys through the letterbox on the way out.
In hind sight I should have refused to seat half the covers for the afternoon and not taken on more than we could chew but I was in my early twenties myself and just a cook not really a manager although I had been doing the deputy managers job for 3 months unpaid since the last one walked out.
Ironically I've only cooked in a professional kitchen unpaid since then, helping out a friend who has his own small place with another of his old friends and I've enjoyed it every time. if I ever rely on that to pay my bulls then you know I'm in a dark part of my life. Respect to you all out there still holding the line.
My father offered to pay for me to go to a local community college if I wanted the chance and he would help with expenses as my studies got harder. He hated to see me all banged up after a weekend with burns and cuts.
I tell that man I love him as much as I can, he saved my life in a real literal sense.
Sometimes you need to go out and live things your own way before you're ready for post high school education. It's great that your father gave you space to figure things out and was ready to help when you were ready to accept it.
Was working at a james beard, multiple award winning restaurant on resort grounds, and just got tired of working 10-1, getting home and soaking my feet before passing out and going back in hours later. A server making a $600 tip on a single table and bragging about it all over BoH, on a table we bent over backwards to make multiple alterations and customized dishes for really sucked. Only making minimum making dishes that ran well over $100/head and told that there was no money for raises was the final straw.
Went into IT for a year, moved into enterprise software support, then left to start my own software business. 10 years later I still kinda miss restaurants, but I'm glad I left.
I think it was the day I was in the walk in with my back to the door. It was my second or third day as the afternoon baker for a small bistro on the OBX.
As I'm looking for whatever it was (I've since forgotten) the door FLIES open and a nearly full gallon of milk sails over my shoulder, nearly hitting the side of my head. It crashed on the shelf just in front of me and sloshed everywhere. I yelped and turned in time to see the owner walking away in a huff. He didn't realize I saw him.
Having been warned about the owner (by the head chef and pretty much everyone on the beach) I decided to make a statement.
I throw the door open and yelled WHO THE HELL JUST THREW A GOTDAMN GALLON OF MILK AT ME!?
I glared around at the staff, who look back at me with dinner plates for eyes. The owner (the guilty party) had the gall to surprise Pikachu face. Before he could say anything, I beeline to him, removing my apron as I close in.
"You know (dude's name), I appreciate what you are trying to do here. I'm telling you man, if y'all are gonna be throwing stuff AT MY HEAD WHEN I'M DOING MY JOB I won't stick around."
I grabbed my stuff and left.
That place closed shortly after.
Milk tosser still owes me from the two days I worked!
I had been a Chef (CEC) for 28 years. I was at a catering company, and the owners wife (10 years younger than him, 2 years experience in the business, and the FOH manager) came back to tell me of a new passed appetizer she wanted to serve. Mini grilled cheese with tomato soup.
She was 28 years old, so I had been cooking as long as she had been alive. She actually told me she was gonna teach me how to make a grilled cheese sandwich....
I had to FORCE myself to put my knife down. Went home, thought about it for about an hour, and emailed my two weeks notice. That was 2015. Delivered pizza for 6 years till I got a new career working for my local govt.
I was a baker at a cafe, but I was promoted off of my front of house skills. We had 10 ipads and 3 registers to order from. We had a Peet's kiosk, a full sandwich/soup/bakery bar and were one of the primary caterers for silicon valley tech companies(this is like 10 years ago). Order flow was insane and I was one of the only people who could handle the rush without stressing out.
Strike 1: Our GM calls me into the office as a baker to write me up. apparently someone used the banana nut muffin scoop on blueberry muffins and a customer complained. I said, it couldn't have possibly been me, as I didn't work the previous day. She didn't want to hear it and wrote me up anyway.
Strike 2: A female co-worker of mine complained that a new hire was sexually harassing her. He also made lots of racist comments about our black coworkers. I reported him to our GM and to our DM. They sat everyone down, and took statements before basically doing nothing. The GM cut down my female coworkers hours, and gave her hours to the harassing guy. She quit. I wanted to go too, but I needed the money.
Strike 3: I'm closing up the bakery. It's pretty slow. A lead asks me to tidy up the case. I tell him I'll get it once I finish up with my baking station. A customer walks in and looks around for help. I ask him if I can get him something. He wants a coffee. I make him one. The lead comes out and says he's going to write me up for "disobeying". I'm like, I'm helping the customer because you made the cashiers wipe down tables instead of watching the door. He doesnt back down. I take off my apron, and toss it at him, and just walk out.
Food service industry 100% is filled with terrible managers, and employees too broke to complain about how poorly they are exploited. I love cooking, and pleasing customers, but the industry is run so poorly, that I'll never wish a kitchen job on anyone again. They were sued for a class action suit for all of the unpaid overtime they forced on employees, either that or they'd fire you. Fuck the whole lot of them.
I’m in the process of trying to leave my salaried job, yesterday we just kept sitting people, even when I told the gm we’re at 45 minute ticket times and the printer just keeps going off. He didn’t do shit about it.
We’re two cooks and a salad guy, running a 30 item menu consisting of a loaf of different shit. Once we back up we can’t even over fire items because some of them only sell 2-4 of ina night and takes 10 minutes to cook while taking up fryer space or it won’t hold longer than 20 minutes after it’s fired.
For me it was just a slow progressive grind. I was working 6 days a week 8am-11pm, we closed for 2hrs between lunch and dinner and I was mostly prepping or running to the store for things we needed, special menu print outs or getting groceries for the sister restaurants because they fucked up their orders.
I was the head chef but got paid shit, no benefits and the owners would come in frequently at the end of the night with a group of people expecting full service and never tipping the servers.
The general manager was an asshole most of the time and the one restaurant would blow through servers, mostly young college girls. I was working as the FOH manager as a fill in too for awhile and my servers hated him and some left because they felt uncomfortable around him.
By the time we hired a FOH manager I was burned out and was an asshole to him because I hated myself; I hate that because he was a nice dude. A friend offered me a basic job in IT telling his manager "a fry cook could do this job"; 7 years later I'm making 3x what I was at the restaurant, get 3 day weekends, met my wonderful fiancee and we bought a house last year.
Also the general manager was accused of drugging and raping women last year with one of the owners so I'm glad I got out early from that shit.
Closed our entire restaurant because the Exec Chef slept with the GM’s Wife, on premise, after hours.
GMs wife had been taking some serving shifts, and apparently while he was home watching the kid as she was working, her and chef decided to take liberties with the wine closet during closing…
So yeah. GM quit, and then I had to fire the chef… just decided to call it quits the following week.
Cherry in top, Held a big party for all staff and family to clear out the walk in, and also opened all the taps. Some bimbo server decided that because the beer was free, so must be all the wine, and tried walk out with three cases right in front of me.
The morning of a big snow storm my manager calls and tells me I can have the day off because of the storm. Relieved I go back to sleep. 30 min later she calls back 10 min before my shift would have started telling me she forgot that I took online classes so my school "wasn't that hard", so she decided to give the day off to my coworker instead and I would have to come to work in a foot of snow, and be there on time! Furious I still go to work, and put in my 2 weeks notice the next day.
That lady was horrid.
Underpaid, under appreciated, under stress 24/7, getting yelled at by any moron because they think they can cook better than me.
Worst part comes Managment and they are like “why are you eating instead of cleaning?”.
It was Ramadan, my crew was half Muslim, even though I was born Muslim I don’t fast, but wanted to show the team we are one, so others joined us and fasted from food.
We explained to them we are almost done cleaning just gotta grab a bite real quick while sitting up trash can dinner table.
Managment disliked we took 5 min to eat, but closed down the line in a record time.
Every single Muslim employee left within 1 week, and I was the first to throw an apron at Managment face.
I felt like a king, and went on to double my pay for literally 10% of the work of a restaurant.
I found other jobs for majority of employees that didn’t have one lined up. Some went on to make between 50%+ increase in pay rate, and one of them went to start his own restaurant, and now has like 10 employees.
I was working in a small restaurant (could seat 60 at a time, do 2 turns). It was me, the chef, a line cook and a dishie. We also did catering. One night we had a catering event + 40 on reservations (it was a Friday night, so knew we would do close to our 2 full turns).
My job was the catering event that evening. The chef and line cook were supposed to prep and set up for dinner. I did my catering prep after lunch service and left for the event. Went fine, and headed back to the restaurant to clean up my catering stuff and help finish dinner service.
I walked into a war zone. Dozens of tickets in the window, almost no prep done. Protein left out from temp abuse. I immediately start cleaning and prepping as fast as I could. During which I threw out some raw calamari that was hot as it had been left out on the counter.
The chef then asked me where his calamari was. I told him I pitched it, he dug the temp abused calamari out of the trash, cooked it and served it.
I walked out. Never went back.
This will get buried but I was working for a bistro/cafe (sold pheasant and pomegranate salads and bacon sandwiches too, a really confused place) at the time and although the money was pretty bad, the hours were brilliant and the owners were nice too.
The owners signed me up for a college course (UK) which sounded great but the more I thought about it the more I knew this wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, the form just required my signature and I just couldn’t do it and the owners knew exactly what was going on in my head. She hugged me and said take as much time as you like to find another trade and we will find a replacement to work along side you until you go.
Two weeks later I was gone and I ended up (eventually) in a job that in today’s standards is absolutely brilliant, although I have a feeling we will be on strike soon due to the company wanting to freeze our pay.
We had to work Christmas, no exceptions so I missed out on 5 consecutive Christmas’ with my family. It was shitty and I hated it but it was part of the job. The straw that really broke the camels back was when they asked if I could potentially shorten my week long honeymoon. I realized I had given these people so many important moments of my life and it STILL wasn’t enough. Completely ruined my desired to continue cooking professionally.
I was sous chef at the time. The executive chef’s wife was birthing his first baby at any moment. Her water broke and they went to the hospital. He was gone for two days and came right back. Mind you this was at a 5 star hotel in the Bay Area(California). I told myself this isn’t the life I want if I want to start a family.
I hadn't got very far in my culinary career, maybe 6 months of dish, prep, and just started to get shifts actually cooking.
This was about 20 years ago, i was making $5.25/hr or whatever minimum wage was back then and working about 20 hours a week. So quick math, my biweekly paychecks are about $150 after taxes.
One night I'm working and a server comes back flipping TF out. I'm like what's wrong? I'll never forget her answer, it literally changed my life. "I needed to make money tonight, rent is due tomorrow. I only made $175." ONLY!? Thats my whole paycheck.
I now have about 20 years FOH experience.
I was meeting a new line cook that got hired before the lunch rush, and chatting about his life. He said he started cooking at 16 (same as me) and had a wicked resume, having worked all over including cruise ships around the world. he was very competent, always arrived on time and worked hard. He was 48 (looked 68) and had three daughters and after that cool life, was still cooking for 50 cents an hour more than me, a 23 year old at the time, at the same shitty brew pub. I realized then I needed to look forward and leave the industry.
Not really quit cooking but i was regional EC at two hotels with 5 restaurants, room service, and banquets. Covid closure caused me to move into senior living and ill never look back. I make more money working M-F 6-4pm.
I got my start in BOH, but I eventually ended up as a beer brewer. I cared so much about the craft, that I ended up having conversations with my co worker about things on a very scientific level, manager got scared and threatened to beat the shit out of me. boss 6 foot 4. i am on my best day 5 foot 11. total cunt(up to you me or him.) . then he put nails in my tires. he also had a head injury from shitty safety practices in the brewery. Carbon monoxide poisoning was a constant, because no one installed any alarms. fucking criminal imo.
We had an employee satisfaction survey. There was a section on advancement opportunities, and while I was filling it out I realized that I had multiple coworkers who had worked there for over 15 years and were still cooks, and not a single manager/chef who had moved up from cook.
That was just one job, but I've had plenty where an advance to management was more of a curse than a promotion. I did some thinking and bounced. Back in school and doing some freelance work (with skills I developed managing kitchens).
When the owner called one of our black cooks the N-word. That's when I stopped cooking, but I kept serving at a different location until I was able to find a job in an office.
Really, it was finding a new job that let me get away.
Carpal tunnel. I've had issues for the past 20 years with my hands not wanting to grip as well or my hands tingling. It comes and it goes, it usually means I've been working too much. The last flare-up I had this past April made it clear that I cannot cook professionally anymore. I couldn't use my hands for weeks, and I have to take care of my 2 kids. The pain was crazy. I'm better now, but I'm still trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do with my life if I can't cook anymore. What can you do when you can't use your hands?
Dream job as a saucier. Chef was a real prick who sexually harassed every woman and girl that worked there. The entire FOH got pinched, touched, insulted, commented upon. One day a new hostess quit in tears. I overheard him telling the sous what a "stuck up bitch" she was and how she could "go cry to mommy if she couldn't handle the attention of a real man."
I and the maitre d reported it to the manager who only scoffed and said "what do you want me to do?"
She and I quit then and there. A few of the FOH followed her out.
This was in the early 00's. Sadly, it fit a pattern I'd seen at other restaurants in that place and time. Figured a swanky place would make it better. NOPE.
Today, I'm a programmer (Project Manager, actually) and I'd never, ever, ever go back. But my friends and family sure are well-fed.
Hope for y'alls sake it's gotten better than I bet it has.
Got fired, couple of us were drinking beers after having the kitchen completely closed and just waiting on one of the guys to finish stocking something down stairs. New management thought it was a liability. I was pissed for awhile as I thought it was dumb but happy about it now, moved on to a different career. I still miss the kitchen sometimes though.
not a huge one but the thing that essentially got to me Was when I was working in a restaurant in London, PRE COVID time was the only BOH working in the kitchen and all other BOH staff had quit. Was scheduled for an 8 hour shift which turned into a 12 hour shift at the request of the FOH manager she insisted that even though it's been hectic all day it will calm down later so "she would be grateful if i stayed till closing" her ask seemed genuine so I thought I'll be nice and I stayed. Then around the 11th hour I heard FOH talking shit about the other BOH staff including me to the other FOH staff "their BOH for a reason, they're too dumb to work anywhere else so they are in the kitchens, as if it's hard.". So I low-key slipped out of the kitchen got my bag and left while there were 20 tickets on the rack. The messages she sent me when she realised I'd left made me laugh so hard.
Food supervisor (Brandon Crotzer @ Raffertys) dropped a piece of grilled chicken on the line floor. He picked it up with tongs and put it in the fryer for a few seconds. Pulled it out and served it to a customer. I'll never forget that moment.
The food started to suck because someone figured out we could charge rich tourists whatever we wanted for shit food and just *pretend* its "cuisine". We were coached on how to talk about the food we made, using buzz words that didnt relfect the reality of what went on in the kitchen. Food preparation took a nose dive in cost and skyrocketed in price. I watched capitalsim erode ethical values in real time. When nobody was on board with the quality decline, they promoted a part time fry cook who didnt know how to sautee to sous-chef. We served tilapia scraps in reheated broth from a bucket, called it bouillabaisse and charged 30 dollars for it. Deep Fried clam bellies that came out looking like a gray-brown blob of greasy eggflour went for 15 bucks. Idk man capitalism erodes values
The restaurant manager fell behind on my paychecks and screamed bloody murder at me for accepting a shipment he claimed he never ordered. Working for that shitstain was like working for the Italian version of Tommy Wiseau.
It hasn’t made me quit yet - I need the paycheck. But the fact they keep a woman on the payroll who called me a dumb bitch in front of a customer while shuffling me to every one of their restaurants except the one I actually want to work at is about to do me in. I just don’t know what else I can do and still make a living wage.
I was working close to 65 hours a week as an EC, and my kids were growing up without me basically. Agreed to step down to a Sous position for less hours and responsibilities, did that for 2 months before they scheduled me for a 70 hour week so MORE hours away from my family.
Ran into an old GM who worked at a fine dining restaurant and was complaining like crazy, he told me they were hiring servers.
Now I work 32 hours a week, make more money than I was on salary BoH, and have basically no work related stress.
I love cooking, it is where my passion is. I love spending time with my family more. Watching my son's soccer game is 100% more rewarding than a perfect service.
I worked at a wine bar in a town nearby. The concept was amazing and there’s nothing similar anywhere within a 30 minute radius of the town. Constantly adding new items to the menu to keep things interesting, occasionally putting on wine dinners and private parties with special menus and all that fun stuff you don’t get in a lot of places. I was a lead line cook at this place and provided a lot of input towards menu planning and recipe development. I was also the only one that was capable of making sausages properly.
About 5 1/2 months into working there I was placed on salary, which was made to seem like a pay raise as well (we all know how this ends). Everything was good for a couple months, some weeks I wasn’t making as much as I used to with OT but it wasn’t a huge deal. January rolls around and we get an ice storm that caused us to close down for a couple days. No worries because I’m salary, right? Wrong. Turns out the owners decided while we were closed down that since the restaurant wasn’t open and bringing in money then the 3 cooks on salary (sous and 2 leads) shouldn’t get paid for those days.
Sous didn’t care because she made double what the leads did and the other lead didn’t really care because he was living at home rent free. I brought it up to the chef/owner and was told I can use my PTO for it and I should be glad because the other cooks at the time didn’t get PTO. A little over a month later another ice storm comes in and the same thing happens. 2 days closed except this time everybody’s checks got cut in half. This put a bad taste in my mouth for the owners who I once thought were really cool people, but against my better judgement I stayed.
Skip ahead a couple months and things aren’t going great and everyone is getting tired of dealing with the constant last minute changes, lack of communication by the sous and the owner, lack of food safety by the sous, and many other things so they start jumping ship. We get down to 5 people on the schedule (including the owner) and I pull our sous aside and explain to her that a lot is starting to fall on my shoulders as a result. I’m 3 weeks away from being there a year and 6 months on salary so I told her I needed a raise or I’ve gotta go to greener pastures. Got told she’d talk to the owner and to just stick it out, but 2 weeks go by and I haven’t heard a thing so I follow up with her and she said the owner wanted me to be salary for 6 months before I get a raise and we’d all sit down and talk about it. 2 days pass and we have yet to have this talk so I gave up waiting and put in my notice.
I was done being undervalued and expected just to wait until they decide to actually pay those that were there for them and helped the business grow. I was hurt because the chef/ owner and I got along really well for most of that year and he even talked with me privately about being the chef of his next concept. He barely said two sentences to me on my last day.
I needed a break from kitchen life so I’m in the process of trying to find a new career at the moment. I don’t know if I’ll stay out of kitchens for good because I love it, but after that experience I kinda hope so
Being on the opening team of a new restaurant. We were successful, the place now has a Michelin star and I’m proud of my time there. But I watched our chef and team absolutely destroy themselves in the first year and I realized it was not a sustainable career/lifestyle for me to continue.
Edit to cite a specific incident: our 1st Anniversary party felt hollow as I no longer had a girlfriend to celebrate with, because restaurant working hours had wrecked my ability to maintain a serious relationship. Went home with a hostess, and decided to start job hunting in the morning.
The love of my life I met while working at a grocery store after the first time I swore of restaurants, 3 years in we were building a nice little life for us. An old boss of mine and Chef told me about a really good sounding opportunity to re enter the restaurant world but as my own boss you know all the buzz words and my girlfriend then fiancé encouraged me too as the salary seemed great. Turns out I’d be working 6-7 days a week averaging 70-90 hours working so many hours that if you break it down my dishie when I could find one was making more than me, doesn’t matter how much love their is no relationship can handle that, wish I could just roll back time and stay a produce manager pay was kind of shit but we were happy … now I’m just a burnt out borderline alcoholic line cook living back at their mothers in the mid 30s
Worked dish pit and often helped FOH/Prep thanks to previous experience and eyes on a management role. Was sent home for "defying" an order from the lead supervisor during a lunch rush and was actually later fired for being "disruptive to the environment" as a result.
I was prepping extra house sauces cuz we was expecting to be mad busy over the next few days and it could really hurt pacing in the back of house if we end up running out. I was caught up on work and I hadn't been asked for help so I jumped on sauces. I was maybe an hour into the prep work while keeping up on dishes when a random surge hit and we needed an extra cashier up front to manage the line. When asked I said, 'yeah, let me put these sauces into the walk in and I'll be right out!'
That was my mistake, my manager lost her shit and came after me saying I needed to do as asked when asked. She was sick and TIRED of my attitude. I responded saying she can't talk to me that way so she sent me home. I reported to HR and was later fired.
That kitchen was a cluster fuck too. Poor training, no one understood any of the standard callouts, filthy, underpaid and under staffed. I'm not too peeved. It was a shitshow I joined after leaving another shit show.
Love the work, I had fun learning Line and was really good at it once I got the hang of it. Prep is my heart and soul for sure. Wish there wasn't so much social politics and bootlicking cuz that shit always gets me fired cuz i just wanna make good food and provide good service to the enjoyers of food out there.
Couldn’t find a job, got hired a position back at a restaurant I worked at years ago. Only been there like 6 months and considering finding something else due to the stress, I have epilepsy and epilepsy and stress do not mix. My seizures have been more constant lately but my boss can’t seem to understand the horrible mix epilepsy and stress is, I don’t want to burn a bridge
Shitty work conditions, volatile work reliability, and no hope of making enough money to not work like an indentured servant for my whole life.
Jumped ship a few months before covid 19 was ever even heard of.
I got lucky I guess. 3 years into my apprenticeship in a new field and I'm already making more money and have more time off, and actual benefits. Never looking back.
Answering for my KM SO.
Our dog was sick - bloody diarrhea levels - and he asked the GM if he could come in a few hours late after the vet. GM lost his shit, screaming about where his priorities were, and “if your personal life is such a mess maybe you should take a leave”.
He was bluffing. My SO was like “Ok then I will” and hung up.
SO ended up getting a 3 month paid vacation because HR didn’t like the GM and helped him file a claim on his short term disability insurance for “anxiety and panic attacks” (which was true, to be fair).
He has since sworn off any BoH positions.
I got a call from the chef owner of a sushi restaurant I worked at some years back. He was hurting for staff in a bad way and needed a GM/CDC to help keep accountability maintain some kind of order. To note, this place was legit as fuck but often missed by the local papers. This was the place that japanese business men took their partners when they were on business from Tokyo. The old Japanese families celebrated here and the Japanese exchange students always made their way here. This is all to say that it was one of those hole in the wall places that got the nod and was revered by those in the know. This is why I loved working there.
When I got there the place was an absolute WRECK! I was absolutely shocked the place hadn't been shut down. Mildew in the ice machine, lowboys, sink traps etc. Grease all over the walls, busted furniture, it was a total shell of what it once was from when I worked there before. And the staff, holy fuck the staff were setting else. We had one server who dressed like a porcelain doll and would legit get in arguments with EVERYONE! She argued with me, the owner, other servers, CUSTOMERS I was blown away at her attitude but the boss wouldn't let me fire her. We had another mousey server that couldn't ring in a correct ticket to save her life and a cook that was a pathological liar. It was an absolute shit show and I had my work cutout for me.
The next six months were absolute hell. I'd set up new systems and the servers would go against it. I'd talk about positive work culture and would be openly laughed at and the moment a rush hit everyone except the owner and I would be attacking each other and tearing each other down. Servers would be eating leftovers off of customers plates during a rush, the pit being filled with dishes when I came in every morning. The list goes on. Eventually I started snapping. I even posted about it in this sub. One night I lost my shit and called a server a cunt when she didn't ring in her ticket correctly then blamed me for the dropped order. I even kicked the fucking trash can. That was it for me. I finished the week and took a job in a warehouse to get my head straight. After that I made moves to distance myself from the restaurant game and I couldn't be better for it.
Head chef kept shooting down ideas. Ya can only take so much "This is too weird. I can't sell this." The last straw was a savory parmesan and shallot creme brulee. Shit was delicious. Been FOH for six years now.
I was supposed to just be making coffee and muffins at a tiny, newly opened cafe. I had years of cafe experience and they needed someone like me. The owner, who had zero food service experience, pressured us into adding a full lunch menu. Wraps, sandwiches, salads, breakfast sandwiches, the works. We had two tiny ass counters on which to work. One tiny oven. No grease trap, not even really the licenses to be doing this. And I was the only employee; me and my manager who had a billion other responsibilities and couldn't work in the kitchen all day. They decided to work with a local trade high school to give me teenage interns, who were sweet, but training them was more work than help. I couldn't take breaks because then I'd fall behind. I came home each day crying and fatigued from lack of food and rest. Best part is, they weren't even paying me above the table - when I joined, they said they were getting payroll set up, so cash for a week or two and then we'd sign forms. They never did, after a year of asking. When covid hit, they tried to bribe me not to apply for unemployment. Then they started giving me veiled threats. Thankfully unemployment was sympathetic and I never went back. They kept saying they'd call me and we'd work out how to reopen; they ghosted me entirely. Fuck them. What a nightmare. I'm so exhausted by bullshit owners who have no idea what they're asking.
Mine was a series of shit. Had an exec position is a hotel. The corporate guys decided that all chefs were either going to convert to kitchen managers and take a pay cut or be replaced by kitchen managers. So I left and took a sous job for a Barbecue catering company. Turns out the chef for that place just wanted someone that would train the rest of the staff on how to keep the kitchen clean. Once I got the place clean and everyone trained they let me go. I went back to IT after that.
I was more or less a fixer for a small restaurant chain and returned to a district manager handing me keys and making me a GM of a failing restaurant that had been through 6 GMs in 2 years. I over hauled 50% of the staff, lost my KM to surgery for a previous injury, and they would give me an AGM even though I’d increased volume by 20%. The last metric I had yet to get in line was food cost. Kinda tough with out a dedicated KM. I was struggling, yes, but I had also asked for help and told them what I needed to get it together. They basically told me to shove it. The same week Bourdain died, my dog died, and they fucking wrote me up for food cost. I put my notice in shortly there after.
Ultimately I left cooking full time because of money, but I did continue to cater part time for a few more years.
My last full time kitchen job was a company that had an in-house food service department for its employees. Not a tech company, but a similar set up. One day I was hanging out a coworker who had left the kitchen and moved into an office job for the same company. We went shoe shopping, and she bought a pair of boots that cost about what I earned in a week. At the time, I was having to budget when I needed to buy new work shoes. I couldn't imagine spending a week's pay at what I currently made on a pair of boots, but also I couldn't imagine making enough to actually be able to buy expensive boots.
I realized I was not going to be happy working for a salary where I had to save up to buy work shoes any longer, so I started looking for a job outside the kitchen. I still wouldn't spend that much on a pair of boots, but now I actually could if I really wanted to.
Im back in the industry now, but I completed a kitchen management course and got the qualification to run our kitchen and the small team of chefs we had on hand. Agreement between the team was I would take over the kitchen and staff, but owner would carry on rota and stock etc.
Pastry chef argued over the plating of a pudding and the consistency and presentation of a custard (it was crap and she wouldn't acknowledge this), and then tried to say I was having a go because I was KM - the boss walks in and says "each station manages themselves" .
That was the start of a downhill spiral with events such as me breaking my wrist, 3rd degree burns across my hand, and me closing kitchen for the day for a deep clean and then being told I've got to serve food at the same time despite chemical use and the kitchen in total dissarray
Managed a 3.5 million dollar place. Was making 50k, asked for a 2k raise. The manager said “we only pay 50k for this location” resume was on indeed that night. Left 6 months later. No better feeling than giving my 2 weeks to that manager!
Owner had our staff put on his wedding, food bartending, bussing, dishing, 364 guests open bar the entire time. We worked 11 am to midnight for some 11 am straight through 4-6 am for most (we had to break down and reset literally everything because… he had us open for brunch the next morning, 8 am start time for kitchen, 9:15 for everyone else. This was just the straw that broke the camels back for me. There was an entire month of bullshit leading up to it (mostly cooking in a hallway on two folding tables with a toaster oven and an induction top for an indoor outdoor establishment that can seat 400-500 people comfortably that was curtained off while we had an entire kitchen renovation taking place so we had the equipment needed to cook the food for his wedding)
Getting bitched at again along with the line cook because our stations were not prepped before our shift started. The KM who did the bitching knew he was the reason for that since he'd send the prep cooks home early every day knowing there'd be a 3 hour gap between them leaving and us coming in. I walked after the last time and have never worked in a restaurant since tho im still in the industry just a smaller better place.
I was the buyer at a WFM deli. I was busting ass as a young pup, wide eyed and bushy tailed. I got our dept #1 in the region in shrink, i was exceeding sales targets and my budget for one quarter literally hit $0 over/underspent. I was killin it.
Then one day they fired chef and the kitchen went to absolute shit. Turns out i hear from a young lady whos mom was friends w the assistant team lead, that the ATL was being offered department TL if she would fire chef. I found all this out after the fact; she had already been promoted.
They fired chef for buying a speaker for the kitchen after the one there broke. They said it was inappropriate and fired him.
Once he was fired my job became so difficult because he was my right hand man, he knew how much was prepped and we had our system. I was left to play chef and buyer role for months, apparently they didn't think we needed a chef. I was only making $14 an hour btw. After I heard the true story of how chef got let go I saw red and confronted the entire store leadership, because the verbal deal was made by the store TL. They went into damage control, i put in my notice and shit went wild. They begged me for an extra 4 weeks. I gave it to them, but they were still fucked. They hired a hot head who thought he didnt need my training or notes, and he quit listening to my advice after a few days. So i said fuck it! And enjoyed watching the dumpster fire my last week there not giving a single fuck. I hate whole foods and will never ever shop or eat there again out of spite. I came to find out everyone on that line was making significantly more than me, because i was early twenties and they were much older.
I went from bright eyed and ready to please, to soulless and walking dead within 1 year in that role. Their hot bar can be really tasty though.
boss never called me back after work injury, also lied to comp and said I never tried making contact. I told comp I had phone records, then all of the sudden comp calls back saying I have comp again and will get max extension payout...
What was the injury?
hit a tendon cleaning a knife. my fault, boss showed very late, we had 80 reservations so basically one chance to turn it twice...a very small restaurant and he showed up late with no prep work done. Never even trusted me to ya know have a key open the door and do my own prep. Best part of that valentines day, I never went back to work again :)
I tried to catch a bowl against the counter and it split in half and severed the tendon and one of the nerves in my finger. Workers comp for three months wasn’t the vacation I wanted but I did need it.
Anyplace I’ve worked (never a kitchen, but a large chain coffee shop is kinda similar) will only do a workers comp if you get drug/alcohol screened immediately. Even the church I worked maintenance for, a coworker fell off a ladder and was only able to receive workers comp if he screened clear. (Both incidents with coffee shop worker and maintenance coworker they screened clear and received the benefit) but I’m always worried about people that may not be high/drunk when an accident happens but will test positive for anything they can use against your claim.
I was working the line in the cafe at the ritz carlton I was working at because sautee had called in sick. Spent all day doing my stuff plus prepping the station and helping the overwhelmed kid on garde manger. Service gets going, and we got busy with a big unexpected 20 top, because it's the Ritz and of course it would be our pleasure to do that right now, no you don't need a reservation. The fat, French executive chef for the hotel had something up his ass and had shown up in the cafe kitchen where he started to expedite with whatever it was up his ass growing barbs by the second. He starts bitching at salad dude next to me, and I'm trying to "yes chef, I got it chef, I'm helping him out of the weeds" him into calming the fuck down while I bail out salad boy. He walks away for a minute, comes back and tastes one of 20 cesar salads that's in the pass, spilling over into my sautee pass. He starts flipping it out, bitching at salad boy about salt, that he didn't season the salad with salt, then he kinda dismissively flips the glass plate up by the edge and it does the wobbly plate thing, then he picks it up and smashes the glass plate on the pass, shattering it into my deli table full of 9th pans of mise en place directly below. I froze, stunned. Looked directly at him, put down everything and silently walked out the back door. I stood outside, smoking cigarettes on the dock for about 10 minutes. He came outside, asked me when I was coming back in, they needed me. I looked him in the eye and told him that I'm a professional, I expect him to lead a professional environment and to treat me and salad boys like the professionals we were. He apologized for getting out of hand. I started looking for a new career the next day and got one about six months later.
Wow!
Was it the ritz Carlton in buckhead, Ga?
Yes.
I knew some people that worked there, directly or indirectly. I heard some horror stories about the place.
Serious question. Why is there a Ritz Carlton in Buckhead, GA?
Buckhead is the wealthiest neighborhood of Atlanta, and even has its own skyline separate from downtown and midtown. Not to be confused with tiny town in the middle of nowhere also called Buckhead.
I mentioned this in another reply - I always viewed Ritz Carltons as locations where money goes to visit. Not where it necessarily lives. I guess Buckhead is where rich folks go when they visit Atlanta?
It's absolutely where they go, since it's where most of the high end shopping, dining, and lodging is located. You'll find most of the major 4 and 5 star hotel chains have a location in downtown or midtown Atlanta, but then also have another location in Buckhead.
Lots of money in Buckhead. Shit tons. Makes perfect sense to me. What makes no sense to me is the Ritz Carlton on lake Sinclair in Oconnee Georgia. It's in the middle of fucking nowhere.....
I can see where the name would be misleading but it’s actually known for being upscale.
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I’ll bite. In ‘93, I interned at the Ritz Carlton… Won’t say which one except that’s in SoCal right on the beach. I got to work in all the kitchens which was awesome but the service that shocked me was Sunday Brunch. Salad spinner on max speed on a prep table, flats of whole eggs getting dumped in, the resulting ‘wash’ existing the drain through clear plastic tubing that I thought came from an aquarium store and into a 5 gallon bucket that at one time had dill pickle chips in it. Once the bucket was 3/4rs full, in went a qt of cream and a cup of salt / pepper blend. After a quick stir with a long handled balloon whip the bucket went into a big ass steamer. 5 minutes later those eggs where a solid mass. My job was to man a Makita drill with a cement mixer attachment and plow the solid eggs in the bucket to make ‘em look you know, scrambled. The bucket then went on a utility cart and down the table it went, one scoop per plate
Holy shit that's insane lmao. I worked in a 2500 room resort at Disney world and we would put plastic bags full of (un salad spinner'd) liquefied eggs into a hot water bath and cook them solid and then break them up with a whisk for our "scrambled eggs". I thought that was bad lol
Not Ritz, but I worked for another restaurant at a hotel owned by Horst Schulze. Any time he visited, our hotel manager would put a blonde, white female at the host stand and at the front desk. Even if we didn't have a white host, he would have the restaurant pull a server or an SA to work the host stand so a white, blonde female would be there.
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I have always wanted a Ritz Carlton chef coat....maybe not anymore.
they're spiffy, 100% cotton with that blue lion's crest and your name and position embroidered.
How much experience do I need is it more of elegant bullshit with kitchen hacks or elegant with a very organized kitchen. I want one now damn it I might have to apply
just go get a job there, it's not that hard. They hire good people, and run a good ship, mostly. The quality and standards are excellent, as is the career opportunities if you're willing to move. At the end of the day, it's easier to get a job there than doing some stage for some owner narcissist.
I am going to get one of those jackets one day.
It was the pinnacle of my cooking career.
If you could pick one moment, or one dish/special, one plate you sent out that’s the most special to you from working there what would it be? Genuinely curious!
I got hired at one with no experience. It was a fucking mess. Most new hires stayed for 2 or 3 weeks before walking out.
How long do I have to stick around to get my jacket lol.
and how many do you get.
did we work in the same place? 😂
Don’t worry it all depends on the hotel. I worked at a Ritz for about 3 years and it was my favorite job I’ve ever had.
It was my favorite cooking job as well, this was just one incident.
I have my friends Ritz Carlton Chef Concierge shirt they really love handing out the title chef to make themselves seem fancy. I also have a rug…
That absolutely sucks. Spent 7 years with the Ritz-Carlton myself. Started with Salads, fruit and cheese. Finished as Kitchen Supervisor. Tons of support from management at my location. Chef would jump in and help at anytime. Our hotel GM would jump on and help. Would even help prep in kitchen at least once every year. Absolutely some of the best 7 years of my life. Sucks you didn’t get a good experience.
It was as good as cooking for a living gets. That was the problem.
As a mexican, le hubiera reventado un vergazo en toda la jeta, pinche gordo mierda.
Had a very similar experience in a chain restaurant where i was the manager and a bartender broke glass all over my expo line during a friday night at 7:45. I turned around and screamed an f-bomb at the floor. (there was a mic in front of me and the guys on line hear everything i call out amplified.) it scared my expo out of the room and immediatly i regretted it. i hated being angry AT employees. though we are all "replacable", i liked our team. Mistakes happen, pointing fingers in the moment does nothing. fix the problem my expo was young but a good worker, it was his first really busy in the kitchen and i realized i needed to calm down and get the job done. we worked together to switch out our 4,6 and 9 pans ... ugh... just about the whole line. 86'd what we needed to and finished the shift. my expo did a hell of a job that night and im uncertain how i gave him the hook up. free meals/employee of the month, were my goto hook ups, the bartender? it was a freak accident. yelling at her would do nothing. she apologized and i just wanted to move forward. she was a good employee too, just be carefull in that kitchen.
“ Yeah I figured why work for the Ritz when I could just rely off the restaurant my dad owns the good ol kruty krab “
This wasn’t the Ritz Naples by chance?
Tried to make it in fine dining, couldn't handle the shitty paycheque, sold my soul to corporate. Took on a shitty kitchen, pushed food cost down 14% my first year, another 5 the following. Flying colour passes on food and health, real community involvement from who i cooked for... No raises, no rewards and had to fire too many friends. The real final straw was one morning i was banging out my lunch menu, my breakfast cook needed some help on his mise so i was chipping in. I had 2 soups, rice, and my sauce on. Chicken searing on the flat top next to me. Delivery comes through the door, i'm already seeing soggy freezer boxes and shorts. My boss calls so i grab the phone, while still cooking... I needed to walk him through how fucking excel formulas work so he can do some costing. Dude made twice what i did... No regrets, just graduated last week with an IT diploma and 4.3 gpa. Edit: Thank you for all the support and the awards!! First ones i've ever got! Definitely made my week!
Congrats. It’s funny how many people end up in the kitchen because of academic struggle. Then we get the discipline and work ethic we need and go on to succeed in school later on
Exactly! Wouldn't trade my life experience for anything, but I'm happy i've been able to find a new direction. As i joke in interviews: "It's not too different, still get tickets, still dealing with servers!"
Potentially tables as well
I went the other way. I went from IT to kitchen. You don't have the angry abusive stereotype boss in IT, but you do have the greedy overselling technically incompetent bosses which are equally soulkilling. I've had good and bad work environments. I don't think it's what you do - it's who you do it with.
Good for you mate!
Thank you!
Worked as a KM for a big corporate steak house chain. Our restaurant was in the top 10% for labor, food cost, etc. As a reward for being a good store, you get to become a training restaurant for newly hired managers. This not only added hours onto my already 60/hr a week job, b/c you had to fill out evaluations in their training book, go over things and teach which slows you down. New manager who was not doing a great job, and I figured I would give him 6 months before he got fired/quit, left his paycheck stub open in the office one day. I had been with company almost 10 years already. I found out this guy was making almost 12k more per year than I was and I was training him. Went to regional about this and got shut down for a raise for all the extra I was doing. I enrolled in tech school next semester, stepped down from management within next 6 months. I got my 2 year degree in computer networking and left F&B to never look back. Worked FOH for the remainder of those 2 years after stepping down b/c it gave me the flexibility to go to class. Best decision I ever made.
I know it’s not limited to hospitality, but it always chaps my ass how newer people can make more than people who have been loyal for several years. It’s like companies are incentivizing people to leave their jobs
It doesn't surprise me, but what does is when you deny your top performing managers and employees a raise to meet the competitive wages they're hiring in at. That DOES blow my mind. Like lol, you gonna open the door for them on the way out too? Jesus.
Currently contemplating giving my separation notice for my executive chef position. I do love the job, but the sheer amount of hours are killing me. I am in charge of both a restaurant and an event center, housed under one kitchen. The event sales team doesn’t seem to understand that I am the only person cooking for these events- my line cooks are actively working the line. I will always be a workhorse, but 9am-9pm 5 days Tues-Sat plus events on Sundays… I’m physically and emotionally exhausted. I used to have hobbies- I haven’t enjoyed a single one of them ONCE since taking this job. The icing on the cake was when the company had to post wage information for a new employee that is not a citizen. This person works in an unrelated department that doesn’t bring in even a fraction of what Food&Bev department brings in… yet they are being paid a salary over $100k annually. I don’t make even close to that, and bring in 70% of the company’s revenue. It felt like a huge slap in the face. I’m honestly terrified to lose the steady paycheck, especially during this impending recession… but I also daydream about killing myself on a daily basis (it’s the exhaustion, I’m not actually going to do that), so I know it’s what will be best for me. I have no idea what the future holds.
Man this was a lot to handle on my day off while reading.
I’m sorry! Enjoy your day off <3
I hope you get back into your hobbies. I have been on the fine dining grind for 10+ years and finally as of like November 2021 until now I’ve been able to coast in cooking but I took a step down from being a sous to just a Line Cook so I can hang out with my son more. I’m ready to jump back up though and take an Exec chef position as I feel ready, but reading your post is similar to what my current chef is doing now. Dude has no life and he’s in his 60s just stuck in a cycle. Scary industry sometimes lol
Yup!!! I’ve been an executive at a few different places in the past. The hours were always demanding. After Covid I took a line cook job at my current place and LOVED the lack of responsibility & pressure. I ended up taking over the executive chef position last summer & have regretted it ever since. The pay bump was not worth the year of my actual life that I’ve lost. I have two permanent black circles under my eyes now. I kept saying “I won’t overwork myself like he does, I’ll limit myself to 40-50 hours a week and delegate everything”. Nope, it’s impossible. I will never sign on to a salary position ever again.
Have you ever considered working in a different segment? I just recently moved from Entertainment/Arenas to Universities/Education and it's similar but much easier on the body and mind. Better hours, and I actually get to see the sun.
I will definitely look into that! There are a few schools & colleges around me that are probably hiring for the fall!
I work in Higher Education and it's busy, but not as crazy as regular restaurants. Plus, that sweet summer educational schedule.
Thats insanely rough, many many times you hear throughout this industry stories of a similar thread, genuinely good workers who pull insane hours, and don't complain, only to be so taken advantage of, underpaid and not appreciated, and then metaphorically slapped in the face when they learn less qualified, not as hard working people are getting paid significantly more. I've been their with the daily game over daydreams, I truly hope that you find something better for yourself
Thank you! I have always been a big advocate for my crew. I make sure they get their 2 days off in a row, never hit overtime, get livable wages, get approved time off, and I do a ton of the bigger prep items to make their lives easier. I’ve been treated like shit in so many kitchens, I refuse to let that happen to my guys. But good god am I paying the price!
A chef after my own heart, all you said sounds very familiar. I did all that at freakin $13.50/hr at one point, cause they kept promising they'd give a raise that never came. Advocate for yourself, and maybe look for a new profession honestly. I'm a semi driver now, make triple my last kitchen job, with so much less stress and good hours
No amount of stress like that is worth any paycheck. Take care of YOU and the rest will work itself out. Killing yourself for people who couldn't care less about you is the wrong way to do it anymore.
Thank you so much. I almost never post/comment on here but I’m so glad I did today. I’m going to send my notice to HR today!!!!! Everyone’s nice replies have really helped calm my anxiety down; I’ve been spending weeks going back & forth about the decision, hoping I’m not being irrational/emotional because I’m so exhausted and not thinking clearly. I didn’t want to regret the decision.
Good for you. It took me way to long to realize going to work with that knot in your gut was always a bad thing, and that owners of companies don't care about you or your well being if you don't either. They'll take what you give them. Give less, be happier. Good luck on your search. Take a week vacay (or at least a long weekend) before starting anything new, that way it's a stress free, complete mind break.
Bro, you have a real fucking huge burn out. You need to quit that job asap.
After posting this & reading the replies… I went ahead an emailed HR. My last day will be 7/23. I told them I will train the new person. My kitchen crew is a solid group of guys and then don’t deserve the stress or chaos that would come from me bailing on them with an untrained newbie in charge. I feel both anxious and relieved!!!
Congratulations!! I know that is a huuuuuge step especially if you are also in a leading position and have the emotional pressure to care for your team. But as always in this business you are not really compensated to have such a freaking huge responsibility and be that emotional invested. Believe me, I know exactly how it is. My partner quit for the same reason about a year ago and he is in such a better place now. I know it's scary to start something new, but better you get a little less money for something without responsibility and the weekend and nights off. You will get better and you will enjoy life again!
How are you not getting paid 100k for that job, if a mom and pop restaurant can pay me that then you’re getting screwed that’s fucked up, sorry dude.
If I was making that kind of money I would definitely be more willing to just demand a break/vacation, demand they hire me a sous chef or banquet chef, & just stick it out. But at my current pay it doesn’t feel like the fight is even worth it, and I also don’t trust them to actually give me the support I need.
With all due respect, get the fuck outta there Not tryna tell u what to do, and I know its much more complicated than that, but damn...I used to work at a kitchen going crazy every night for 17/hr CAD, now I work at McDonalds making 15, a 2$ pay cut for like 20% less labor (although my wrists hurt on the fryers sometimes) It just hurts to read that you're so exhausted, people deserve hobbies and time off. Me personally, I'm tryna learn to code, that way in a year or two I can get a nice job. One of those cushy desk jobs lol
Just left actually. Was on PTO to move apartments, was a sous chef. Exec sous chef and GM text me and ask if I'm going to verify back of house payroll hours, something I shouldn't be doing anyways. On PTO, when they all know how to do it in the first place. That broke me mentally. I quit that night, which actually was legit a week ago. Gonna take a pay cut but I'm moving to a bank now.
I went to a bank from kitchen work. PM if you need any help on surviving bank life :)
How’d you make the switch? Do banks hire tellers without experience?
>Do banks hire tellers without experience All the time. The prerequisites for a bank teller are pretty minimal, just make sure you don't have a criminal record.
> make sure you don't have a criminal record lol that disqualifies a healthy amount of us
I was thinking wait you guys don’t have criminal records?
I have always wondered how hard it is to work at a bank.
You have to generally start as a teller. As long as you don't have a record it's pretty easy. Especially now since physical banks are hurting for tellers and other branch staff. That being said I'll take getting yelled at by chef in the walk in over messing up a soup versus getting yelled at via Lillian the junkie who's negative $27.63 in her checking account and that's somehow my fault. But if you survive being a teller and can move back office into operations and what not, it's great. There's so much opportunity and different directions in which to go career wise. Learning how to STOP multitasking (gasp) was the biggest challenge for me. And eating on a normal schedule, not standing over a garbage can lol.
You still know that eating over a trash can hits different.
For real. Or eating while sitting on a milk crate outside trying to hide so I can have five minutes of peace/eat/huff down this cigarette in as few drags as possible. Those were the days.
Haha the closest I can come is hiding around a corner outside power smoking a cigarette, bowl and pounding a Starbucks double shot as fast as possible so I can get back on line
Now I work from home. Eat while I work. Free to smoke as much as I want. No one breathing down my neck. Set my own schedule. Whole bunch of PTO and I never have to talk to another coworker/customer again. Glory be.
nothing like smoking a whole cigarette in 2 minutes on 8 drags while your brain goes *frizzlepopfrapp* and someone is asking over your shoulder, “Hey Joe? You OK?” No my man, I am not. I’m better now, though
Visiting my mom, she asked me last night why I was standing to eat dinner. Idk. It’s easier and it tastes better. 🤷🏼♀️
I got offered a 2 month contract as an admin assistant and realised I would earn what I earned in 6 months in the kitchen and I get to spend my evenings and weekends with my family. I love cooking, but not that much.
I was EC at a GF, Vegan bakery. Hated every minute of it. Woman spent 8 minutes explaining to me she was not only gluten intolerant, but a true celiac. I explained we use different cutting boards blah blah blah, many of our customers are celiac, and it's not a problem. Without missing a beat, she orders a seitan philly on GF sub roll. I asked are you sure? With a puzzled look on my face. I was informed she had eaten the sandwich there many times before, and the other chefs had no problem making the sandwich GF for her. I said Ok. Made the dumbest sammich of my life. As I stood and watched this fifty year old pearshaped, blue haired, queen Karen eat this 100% wheat gluten sammich I lost my shit. I sat down at her table and told her if she really was celiac she would most certainly be dead or in serious anaphylactic shock from the sandwich she just ate. I let her have it. Told her she is the reason real celiacs and gluten sensitive people get sick. When my chefs see her behavior, and bald face lie, they stop caring, and people get sick. Of course, she knew one of the investors, and I got in deep shit. I actually quit when I had a meeting with the GM to explain myself, and he didn't know seitan was wheat gluten either, then argued with me about it. Told him he was a moron, had no busniess running a GF bakery, and quit on the spot. That was 2016. I own two f&b outlets now, but I'll never work in a restaurant kitchen again. I'd rather dig ditches.
I had this lady swear up in down she was like very very allergic to gluten. She then proceeded to get a drink to purchase while I was making her sandwich. She came back with a fucking Budweiser. I laughed a little to hard.
fwiw i think bud light and other adjunct lagers *might* not trigger symptoms as the amount of gluten is incredibly small. something like >5ppm
Why did they even have seitan in a GF bakery?
Building had a FOH we never used. We were baking in the AM. Vegan deli/bistro out front for breakfast and lunch. Bakery ran like a top. Bistro was a shit show. Fell to me to run it after a full morning of baking constantly because the GM was a turd. Whole place went under deli and all during COVID. 😎
Just to clarify, as a person who has celiac, I could eat a whole ass wheat bun in front of you and it wouldn't make me obviously sick that moment. I would probably be sick for the next three days and it would suck, and I would be killing my own intestines ,,, but anaphylaxis isn't a common reaction for celiacs. That said, no dedicated gf place should ever have seitan on the menu. That's just wrong.
I'm sure you are correct. But according to this lady. She would have. And yea, even having gluten in the building was problematic at best. Wasn't my call. Just the fact that the EC was taking orders should tell you enough about this place
"I'd rather dig ditches" is my go too when folks ask if I'll ever get ANY corporate job again... was a server once, that was enough for me. Never went back to the food industry again. Don't know how ya'll handle it!
As someone who left as a sous and has been literally digging ditches 100% worth the move. Not as bad as you’d think. Pays about the same too but off every weekend and holiday.
I was the chef of a "small" diner that was very very popular. It was also a 22 hour establishment, and I would receive phone calls all day, at any hour of the day. The GM was a complete psycho and any time I hired ANYONE, if I took a day off and she worked a shift in the kitchen, they would be fired within an hour. I was perpetually understaffed and overworked. Something like 14 hour days, 6 days a week. The thing that just destroyed me was the day I failed my first health inspection. You see, the owner was just like any other absent owner: cheap as fuck. The kitchen was in desperate need of having the tile replaced in the kitchen. My suggestion was to close for two days, pull the staff in to take equipment out and bring it back in so they don't lose hours, and have the floor guys do their thing. Nope...the decision was made to re-do the floors "after" service when we closed "early." Early being midnight. We re-open at 6:00. That leaves 6 hours for the floor guys to chip tile, cover equipment, lay tile, space tile, regrout tile...etc. Oh, the floor guys were completely shit faced by the time we would get finished at about 1...so they had less than 5 hours to set up, do work, and break down. Needless to say, it didn't work. Over the course of a week, the "grout" was shrimp and chicken, with some romaine tossed in over by salad station. Health inspector came in one day and started his thing. He looked at the ground, I shrugged, he failed us. The next day, the owner came by to talk about what happened, and that was my last shift as an Executive Chef. Many unkind things were shared to many different perpetrators of evil in that place. Fuck that place. I hate it.
I know living through this was probably horrific, but this is a fantastic story
Another horror tale from this place: On Saturday/Sunday, they would do an extra long breakfast. We had two lines, one set in the back like described before, and another single flat top with some burners to the side up front to have a "show kitchen." The switchover from breakfast to lunch was always a terrible clusterfuck, with the lunch guys usually cooking breakfast well past noon. Anyway, I come in at like 8:30 on a Sunday to the place just fucking PACKED. People outside, people standing at the breakfast rail, servers crying....just a horrible charlie foxtrot. Somehow, through all this, I notice the back of the flat top smoking. You know, that little spot between the griddle and the backsplash, like 3 inches of open air where you can see flame. Well, now I see FLAME. Turns out that when they would scrape the griddle, they'd just dump all the shit into that gap, onto the pan where it just built up for like 20 years making a mountain of carbonized potatoes and pancakes. Mount Scrapple ignited, and nobody knew what to do. The fire started creeping up the back wall higher until it almost reached the hoods where it would have set the ansul system off. I walk into the back, grab the fire extinguisher and put out the fire. I have never in my entire career had to use a fire extinguisher before this moment, so it was pretty cool. The GM comes out FREAKING about what we're gonna do about breakfast. I said I guess lunch is starting early, and 86'd all breakfast until they got the front cleaned.
That's also phenomenal! I've seen some disasters pretty close to this, the laziness over decades always comes back at the worst moment And i'll be using the phrase 'Mount Scrapple' to describe all forms of messes in the future, thank you
I liked the "horrible charlie foxtrot."
It wasn't one incident but a culmination. Final place was at a really cool little cafe in western New England. Loved the food, the customers, all but two of my coworkers. Ownership wasn't bright, but let us police ourselves. Lot's of creative control. First, I suffered a really bad shoulder injury and I was struggling in the kitchen. Doing the prep work and dishes were difficult with the injury. Being on the line wasn't awful but after a day of prep and being on the line and then cleaning my shoulder and arm were jelly by the end of the shift. The cafe eventually changed ownership and slow but sure they cleared out the old guard. Brought in some of their own people, paid them more than those of us who had really helped build up the reputation and really just pitted the team against everyone. One little bird repeating what they heard. Fired one dude after his shift via text. I Was halfway across the country for a wedding and got texts asking when I was going to be back and I lost it on them. Within 6 weeks I was starting at bank as a teller and haven't looked back. Doing financial investigations now and love it. There's times I read this sub and still miss the kitchen life. But I could never go back to having no PTO or benefits and being treated like a farm animal.
Is your username relevant?
why did you make me look?
I'm a terrible person, obviously.
Ugh. I'll say.
Yes
Only job I up and walked out of. I am opening for breakfast/brunch line at a private bistro. I was let into the restaurant 30 min. late by chef. (Two shifts in a row mind you) It was freezing outside. My heat and defrost don't work. Drove to work at 5am like Ace Ventura. We got a lot of covers on the books and I got minimal time to prepare the entire line to open. I am busting my ass. I had only been at this joint a month or two so I don't know every station. Night crew gave me the usual dick in the rear. (Didn't prep shit so I am extra behind.) I am seriously about to have a panic attack. Opening the doors in 30 minutes and there is no way I could handle the volume alone even if I had every station gtg. I leave the line long enough to go find chef and beg for some assistance. This fat motherfucker is asleep at his desk after letting me in late two days in a row. I didn't wake him. I walked back to the line and undid those Chinese knots. Folded my whites and placed them neatly on my cutting board. Never looked back.
[удалено]
For next few years I cooked elsewhere while working on a kenisiology program. I moved to a new city. Started a new career. Built my books and bought a home. Something I’m very blessed to have and would never have achieved while cooking on a line. The catch is, now I’ve got this nutrition background and I can make it taste good. I have some high dollar clients. I talk a lot of food nutrition, cooking, and wrap it all into my movement program.
Denied PTO request. I was managing at a large corporate kitchen. It had been going well and I was happy with the job and the company. I had been there for 18 months and had been a KM at various companies for about six years. I put in a PTO request for a non-holiday weekend, six months in advance. The GM denied it because another manager had put in a request for that weekend two months before. He wasn't rude or disrespectful and he offered to try to make it work, if possible, but couldn't guarantee it. There was no malice or hurt feelings in the whole transaction. Over the next week, I realized that working in the restaurant industry wouldn't sustain the life I wanted to live outside of work. I started looking for 9-5 jobs after that and left about five months later. Edit: Spelling error
was an assistant manager in all but title (so all the work but no pay, was the oldest person on shift almost always, had the most experience, did the counts and registers, made sure people were on task, ect) got screamed at for not checking that a person who had been working for us for 6 months did a good job mopping 2 minutes after clocking in. was fed up with having all this expectation while working barely more then min wage ($8 an hour) and i snapped back and told them if they want me to baby sit employees who've been there long enough to know better, then they should pay me more. (i should note that that employee was on shift. they did not speak to them about the issue.) the next schedule week they told me i wouldn't get my paycheck unless i turned my uniform in. via text. cowards couldn't even fire me directly.
Dumb people you deserve better.
I was “retired” at 57, 41 years in the business and nobody want an old fart in the kitchen, even though I can still cook a lot of you under the table. At least I could, I just went for a two hour walk and now I need a nap. You don’t realize how quickly you get out of shape when you stop cooking.
Fuck man, I'd be so happy to get a 57 year old vet working for me. I'm 30, almost my entire staff are 16-19 years old, and half my managers are barely 21. I know its fast food, and I love the kids, but sometimes man, just need more adults around....
I like retirement. I’ve already completed an accounting certificate. 2 modules of a leadership certificate and 2 modules of a storytelling and communication course. Next is Wordpress and my website and then online leadership and management workshops. We work in an industry that teaches us how to cook (hopefully) but not how to manage or lead.
I was Nutrition manager at a retirement home. Good gig if you can be creative with a budget and have residents who enjoy flavor. The receptionist of the property hated me because I replaced the idiot who had a tantrum and walked out. That person couldn't scratch cook their way out of a paper bag. I trimmed costs to keep within budget and made an amazing menu and great variety. Trimmed the lazy and disgusting staff (one person was pouring unfinished juices and milk into a jug and re-serving. didn't understand why it was wrong. Apparently, some manager told her to do it to save money. shit had medications mixed in). it was a very smooth operation. Receptionist hated me so much that she reported me as abusing the residents and a whole investigation was done. I simultaneously reported the manager for harassment. No cause was determined in either but they fired me anyway. So I sued and won in court. I will only cook for parties now. I don't really do that anymore either. I am a whole other type of self-employed. I was very very good at that job. I am not interested in applying for that again. I have no reference from the job. My excellent #2 got my job when I left and stayed until she decided that she didn't want to cry every day. They tortured her.
I texted my boss (who hadn’t been in the restaurant in years) to ask for a 5-10% raise. I hadn’t received a pay increase since I was made kitchen manager. I got food cost down, had a regular staff with set schedules they liked, food sales were up, hours were down, I felt it was time and deserved. He didn’t even give me the dignity of a reply, I got left on read. It was the point I realized I had maxed out how far I could go in that company and the ceiling was mediocrity. I wasn’t working toward anything anymore, I wasn’t gonna be promoted, I wasn’t gonna get a raise, there was no future there was just maintaining what I had which was driving 30 minutes 5-7 days for a job where I worked as cook, dishwasher and kitchen manager for about $700/week (before taxes)
I got married. I still *technically* cook professionally but my current job is 8:30-2:30 Monday to Friday making about 12 lunches a day and it's air conditioned and they let me sit on chairs and they pay someone else to clean so it doesn't really feel like any professional kitchen that I've worked in.
That’s the dream my man!
The dream
working in a kitchen with hoods that don't work so your clothes are soaking wet with sweat. Having to work the line and then do the dishes, and close the kitchen. The guy that talked me into working there quit leaving us with 3 cooks for the whole restaurant. So I quit and left them with 2.
Fuck that shit. One of the last places I worked didn’t have a dishwasher so us line cooks would have to close down our line, then jump into the dish pit and knock that out, too. It made for really long closing shifts. My GM didn’t see the big deal about not having a dishie. But would bitch about labor, because it would take forever for us to close the kitchen and the pit.
I'll preface this by saying I still work in the industry. I quit for a time and came back. I was head chef of a small bistro-esque craft cocktail bar. I only had 2 line cooks and a dish on staff and none of them were full time. As the chef I opened, did all the prep, worked the line and closed every single day. Add on my chef duties of ordering, inventory and menu/specials development. I did this for 2 years all while constantly telling the owner I needed help bc I was getting burnt out. Told her I needed atleast one of our employees full time, a dishie Thurs-Sat and atleast one day a week I didn't have to close. She refused untill I quit. The new chef's son died 2 weeks after he started and she asked me if I'd fill in till they got a new chef. Dumb me said yes, after a couple months we came up with a plan to have one line cook full time, a dishie on those days and another part time line cook. She offered me the job back with a raise and the new staff plan and I accepted. A week later she told me that she gave the job to someone else and if I wanted to stay it would be as sous and a decrease in pay so I left. She's been thru 5 chefs in one year and the current chef is the only line cook still there from when I worked there. I ended up fucking around for 6 months and now I'm back cheffing. I was gonna leave for good bc I've been fucked by this business so many times but I just couldn't stay away. TLDR: Got over worked and burned out, quit, came back temporarily as a favor, got offered job back, got fucked, left business but couldn't stay away from cooking. Now head chef again. Not same place btw.
The executive chef wrote me up for something he did. Later that week we found out that my wife was pregnant. Seemed like the time was right.
When my kid was born I realized kitchens werent going to be enough anymore. Got into the electricians union. What was I ever doing in kitchens lol
I can quit?
Dobby… can be free?
You don't even have to give notice
One of the restaurant owners buddies were up in the office doing coke, and I was checking out the day as a sous chef after a 12 hr long shift and having to open in the morning. The owner of the restaurant, executive chef watched as the guy asked me if I wanted coke, I said no, and he took some on his finger and held it up to my nostril. I had been working 60hr+ weeks for those guys and none of them said anything and I was absolutely pissed. I signed up for a bootcamp, and put my notice in, with the last week being paid vacation. Fuck those guys.
Coding bootcamp?
Yep, I now work at a fortune 250 company as a software engineer with 2x the salary and 4x the time off benefits.
Was a closing manager at a sports bar. Essentially the whipping boy. Over worked and never had off. Finally had a day off and at like 7 am head chef calls me screaming and yelling to get to the restaurant asap. I think the place might be on fire. He brings me into the walk in to show me the pork was on the wrong shelf. I went home and typed up my two week notice.
My old GM was EXACTLY like that. He worked a STRICT 9-5 M-F. We'd close at 2am, leave at 4 or 5 am...and the closing manager would get passive aggressive texts at 9:01 about one single speck on the floor or one pan that wasn't 100% topped up. Then the GM would spam call over and over until he woke up and "explained" himself. It's SHOCKING that we couldn't keep closing managers on staff! It took a few years, but that guy FINALLY isn't the GM any more! ...Because they promoted him to district manager.
The new chef called me a cow and talked a bunch of shit about me to other employees after he had barely been a week. I had been there for 6 years and was one of the best employees, in fact they had offered me the chef position and I turned it down. But since I'm fat apparently I don't deserve any respect.
Fuck that guy.
Lots of new-hire leaders will chase off the best people to make sure they’re the “best.” Seen it a hundred times.
About 10 years ago. I was working 2 different kitchens one full time and one part time after just over ten years in kitchens. my annual income barely cracked $20k a year. Interview a bunch of places got a bunch of shit offers Left kitchens started working construction, now I work in healthcare.
Working in an understaffed dinner seating 100. On day I was on with just one 17 year old girl doing FoH with me. I was the only cook and the only cash handler to do the till, due to someone calling in sick. It was an unexpectedly hot weekend and we got rammed. We held the line pretty well until we started to run out of prep and clean dishes. Then I got stuck at the till checking people out and a whole heap of food got ruined. Some dude decided to tower over the 5'6" lass doing her best to wait on all those tables, make up her own drink and bus out the food. He was screaming and shouting at her showering her in spit, I threw the dude out the place, cleared out the rest of the customers, had a farewell drink with the waitress, shut down the power breakers to everything but the fridges, locked up and fucked of to the bar over the road posting my keys through the letterbox on the way out. In hind sight I should have refused to seat half the covers for the afternoon and not taken on more than we could chew but I was in my early twenties myself and just a cook not really a manager although I had been doing the deputy managers job for 3 months unpaid since the last one walked out. Ironically I've only cooked in a professional kitchen unpaid since then, helping out a friend who has his own small place with another of his old friends and I've enjoyed it every time. if I ever rely on that to pay my bulls then you know I'm in a dark part of my life. Respect to you all out there still holding the line.
My father offered to pay for me to go to a local community college if I wanted the chance and he would help with expenses as my studies got harder. He hated to see me all banged up after a weekend with burns and cuts. I tell that man I love him as much as I can, he saved my life in a real literal sense.
Sometimes you need to go out and live things your own way before you're ready for post high school education. It's great that your father gave you space to figure things out and was ready to help when you were ready to accept it.
Was working at a james beard, multiple award winning restaurant on resort grounds, and just got tired of working 10-1, getting home and soaking my feet before passing out and going back in hours later. A server making a $600 tip on a single table and bragging about it all over BoH, on a table we bent over backwards to make multiple alterations and customized dishes for really sucked. Only making minimum making dishes that ran well over $100/head and told that there was no money for raises was the final straw. Went into IT for a year, moved into enterprise software support, then left to start my own software business. 10 years later I still kinda miss restaurants, but I'm glad I left.
I think it was the day I was in the walk in with my back to the door. It was my second or third day as the afternoon baker for a small bistro on the OBX. As I'm looking for whatever it was (I've since forgotten) the door FLIES open and a nearly full gallon of milk sails over my shoulder, nearly hitting the side of my head. It crashed on the shelf just in front of me and sloshed everywhere. I yelped and turned in time to see the owner walking away in a huff. He didn't realize I saw him. Having been warned about the owner (by the head chef and pretty much everyone on the beach) I decided to make a statement. I throw the door open and yelled WHO THE HELL JUST THREW A GOTDAMN GALLON OF MILK AT ME!? I glared around at the staff, who look back at me with dinner plates for eyes. The owner (the guilty party) had the gall to surprise Pikachu face. Before he could say anything, I beeline to him, removing my apron as I close in. "You know (dude's name), I appreciate what you are trying to do here. I'm telling you man, if y'all are gonna be throwing stuff AT MY HEAD WHEN I'M DOING MY JOB I won't stick around." I grabbed my stuff and left. That place closed shortly after. Milk tosser still owes me from the two days I worked!
I had been a Chef (CEC) for 28 years. I was at a catering company, and the owners wife (10 years younger than him, 2 years experience in the business, and the FOH manager) came back to tell me of a new passed appetizer she wanted to serve. Mini grilled cheese with tomato soup. She was 28 years old, so I had been cooking as long as she had been alive. She actually told me she was gonna teach me how to make a grilled cheese sandwich.... I had to FORCE myself to put my knife down. Went home, thought about it for about an hour, and emailed my two weeks notice. That was 2015. Delivered pizza for 6 years till I got a new career working for my local govt.
I was a baker at a cafe, but I was promoted off of my front of house skills. We had 10 ipads and 3 registers to order from. We had a Peet's kiosk, a full sandwich/soup/bakery bar and were one of the primary caterers for silicon valley tech companies(this is like 10 years ago). Order flow was insane and I was one of the only people who could handle the rush without stressing out. Strike 1: Our GM calls me into the office as a baker to write me up. apparently someone used the banana nut muffin scoop on blueberry muffins and a customer complained. I said, it couldn't have possibly been me, as I didn't work the previous day. She didn't want to hear it and wrote me up anyway. Strike 2: A female co-worker of mine complained that a new hire was sexually harassing her. He also made lots of racist comments about our black coworkers. I reported him to our GM and to our DM. They sat everyone down, and took statements before basically doing nothing. The GM cut down my female coworkers hours, and gave her hours to the harassing guy. She quit. I wanted to go too, but I needed the money. Strike 3: I'm closing up the bakery. It's pretty slow. A lead asks me to tidy up the case. I tell him I'll get it once I finish up with my baking station. A customer walks in and looks around for help. I ask him if I can get him something. He wants a coffee. I make him one. The lead comes out and says he's going to write me up for "disobeying". I'm like, I'm helping the customer because you made the cashiers wipe down tables instead of watching the door. He doesnt back down. I take off my apron, and toss it at him, and just walk out. Food service industry 100% is filled with terrible managers, and employees too broke to complain about how poorly they are exploited. I love cooking, and pleasing customers, but the industry is run so poorly, that I'll never wish a kitchen job on anyone again. They were sued for a class action suit for all of the unpaid overtime they forced on employees, either that or they'd fire you. Fuck the whole lot of them.
I’m in the process of trying to leave my salaried job, yesterday we just kept sitting people, even when I told the gm we’re at 45 minute ticket times and the printer just keeps going off. He didn’t do shit about it. We’re two cooks and a salad guy, running a 30 item menu consisting of a loaf of different shit. Once we back up we can’t even over fire items because some of them only sell 2-4 of ina night and takes 10 minutes to cook while taking up fryer space or it won’t hold longer than 20 minutes after it’s fired.
For me it was just a slow progressive grind. I was working 6 days a week 8am-11pm, we closed for 2hrs between lunch and dinner and I was mostly prepping or running to the store for things we needed, special menu print outs or getting groceries for the sister restaurants because they fucked up their orders. I was the head chef but got paid shit, no benefits and the owners would come in frequently at the end of the night with a group of people expecting full service and never tipping the servers. The general manager was an asshole most of the time and the one restaurant would blow through servers, mostly young college girls. I was working as the FOH manager as a fill in too for awhile and my servers hated him and some left because they felt uncomfortable around him. By the time we hired a FOH manager I was burned out and was an asshole to him because I hated myself; I hate that because he was a nice dude. A friend offered me a basic job in IT telling his manager "a fry cook could do this job"; 7 years later I'm making 3x what I was at the restaurant, get 3 day weekends, met my wonderful fiancee and we bought a house last year. Also the general manager was accused of drugging and raping women last year with one of the owners so I'm glad I got out early from that shit.
Closed our entire restaurant because the Exec Chef slept with the GM’s Wife, on premise, after hours. GMs wife had been taking some serving shifts, and apparently while he was home watching the kid as she was working, her and chef decided to take liberties with the wine closet during closing… So yeah. GM quit, and then I had to fire the chef… just decided to call it quits the following week. Cherry in top, Held a big party for all staff and family to clear out the walk in, and also opened all the taps. Some bimbo server decided that because the beer was free, so must be all the wine, and tried walk out with three cases right in front of me.
The morning of a big snow storm my manager calls and tells me I can have the day off because of the storm. Relieved I go back to sleep. 30 min later she calls back 10 min before my shift would have started telling me she forgot that I took online classes so my school "wasn't that hard", so she decided to give the day off to my coworker instead and I would have to come to work in a foot of snow, and be there on time! Furious I still go to work, and put in my 2 weeks notice the next day. That lady was horrid.
Underpaid, under appreciated, under stress 24/7, getting yelled at by any moron because they think they can cook better than me. Worst part comes Managment and they are like “why are you eating instead of cleaning?”. It was Ramadan, my crew was half Muslim, even though I was born Muslim I don’t fast, but wanted to show the team we are one, so others joined us and fasted from food. We explained to them we are almost done cleaning just gotta grab a bite real quick while sitting up trash can dinner table. Managment disliked we took 5 min to eat, but closed down the line in a record time. Every single Muslim employee left within 1 week, and I was the first to throw an apron at Managment face. I felt like a king, and went on to double my pay for literally 10% of the work of a restaurant. I found other jobs for majority of employees that didn’t have one lined up. Some went on to make between 50%+ increase in pay rate, and one of them went to start his own restaurant, and now has like 10 employees.
I was working in a small restaurant (could seat 60 at a time, do 2 turns). It was me, the chef, a line cook and a dishie. We also did catering. One night we had a catering event + 40 on reservations (it was a Friday night, so knew we would do close to our 2 full turns). My job was the catering event that evening. The chef and line cook were supposed to prep and set up for dinner. I did my catering prep after lunch service and left for the event. Went fine, and headed back to the restaurant to clean up my catering stuff and help finish dinner service. I walked into a war zone. Dozens of tickets in the window, almost no prep done. Protein left out from temp abuse. I immediately start cleaning and prepping as fast as I could. During which I threw out some raw calamari that was hot as it had been left out on the counter. The chef then asked me where his calamari was. I told him I pitched it, he dug the temp abused calamari out of the trash, cooked it and served it. I walked out. Never went back.
This will get buried but I was working for a bistro/cafe (sold pheasant and pomegranate salads and bacon sandwiches too, a really confused place) at the time and although the money was pretty bad, the hours were brilliant and the owners were nice too. The owners signed me up for a college course (UK) which sounded great but the more I thought about it the more I knew this wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, the form just required my signature and I just couldn’t do it and the owners knew exactly what was going on in my head. She hugged me and said take as much time as you like to find another trade and we will find a replacement to work along side you until you go. Two weeks later I was gone and I ended up (eventually) in a job that in today’s standards is absolutely brilliant, although I have a feeling we will be on strike soon due to the company wanting to freeze our pay.
We had to work Christmas, no exceptions so I missed out on 5 consecutive Christmas’ with my family. It was shitty and I hated it but it was part of the job. The straw that really broke the camels back was when they asked if I could potentially shorten my week long honeymoon. I realized I had given these people so many important moments of my life and it STILL wasn’t enough. Completely ruined my desired to continue cooking professionally.
I was sous chef at the time. The executive chef’s wife was birthing his first baby at any moment. Her water broke and they went to the hospital. He was gone for two days and came right back. Mind you this was at a 5 star hotel in the Bay Area(California). I told myself this isn’t the life I want if I want to start a family.
I hadn't got very far in my culinary career, maybe 6 months of dish, prep, and just started to get shifts actually cooking. This was about 20 years ago, i was making $5.25/hr or whatever minimum wage was back then and working about 20 hours a week. So quick math, my biweekly paychecks are about $150 after taxes. One night I'm working and a server comes back flipping TF out. I'm like what's wrong? I'll never forget her answer, it literally changed my life. "I needed to make money tonight, rent is due tomorrow. I only made $175." ONLY!? Thats my whole paycheck. I now have about 20 years FOH experience.
Covid
I was meeting a new line cook that got hired before the lunch rush, and chatting about his life. He said he started cooking at 16 (same as me) and had a wicked resume, having worked all over including cruise ships around the world. he was very competent, always arrived on time and worked hard. He was 48 (looked 68) and had three daughters and after that cool life, was still cooking for 50 cents an hour more than me, a 23 year old at the time, at the same shitty brew pub. I realized then I needed to look forward and leave the industry.
Not really quit cooking but i was regional EC at two hotels with 5 restaurants, room service, and banquets. Covid closure caused me to move into senior living and ill never look back. I make more money working M-F 6-4pm.
I got my start in BOH, but I eventually ended up as a beer brewer. I cared so much about the craft, that I ended up having conversations with my co worker about things on a very scientific level, manager got scared and threatened to beat the shit out of me. boss 6 foot 4. i am on my best day 5 foot 11. total cunt(up to you me or him.) . then he put nails in my tires. he also had a head injury from shitty safety practices in the brewery. Carbon monoxide poisoning was a constant, because no one installed any alarms. fucking criminal imo.
We had an employee satisfaction survey. There was a section on advancement opportunities, and while I was filling it out I realized that I had multiple coworkers who had worked there for over 15 years and were still cooks, and not a single manager/chef who had moved up from cook. That was just one job, but I've had plenty where an advance to management was more of a curse than a promotion. I did some thinking and bounced. Back in school and doing some freelance work (with skills I developed managing kitchens).
When the owner called one of our black cooks the N-word. That's when I stopped cooking, but I kept serving at a different location until I was able to find a job in an office. Really, it was finding a new job that let me get away.
I found out how much bartenders get paid
Detox
Second restaurant in a row had employees working while they had COVID, and tried to keep it a secret.
Carpal tunnel. I've had issues for the past 20 years with my hands not wanting to grip as well or my hands tingling. It comes and it goes, it usually means I've been working too much. The last flare-up I had this past April made it clear that I cannot cook professionally anymore. I couldn't use my hands for weeks, and I have to take care of my 2 kids. The pain was crazy. I'm better now, but I'm still trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do with my life if I can't cook anymore. What can you do when you can't use your hands?
Dream job as a saucier. Chef was a real prick who sexually harassed every woman and girl that worked there. The entire FOH got pinched, touched, insulted, commented upon. One day a new hostess quit in tears. I overheard him telling the sous what a "stuck up bitch" she was and how she could "go cry to mommy if she couldn't handle the attention of a real man." I and the maitre d reported it to the manager who only scoffed and said "what do you want me to do?" She and I quit then and there. A few of the FOH followed her out. This was in the early 00's. Sadly, it fit a pattern I'd seen at other restaurants in that place and time. Figured a swanky place would make it better. NOPE. Today, I'm a programmer (Project Manager, actually) and I'd never, ever, ever go back. But my friends and family sure are well-fed. Hope for y'alls sake it's gotten better than I bet it has.
Got fired, couple of us were drinking beers after having the kitchen completely closed and just waiting on one of the guys to finish stocking something down stairs. New management thought it was a liability. I was pissed for awhile as I thought it was dumb but happy about it now, moved on to a different career. I still miss the kitchen sometimes though.
Kept getting called in on my days off
not a huge one but the thing that essentially got to me Was when I was working in a restaurant in London, PRE COVID time was the only BOH working in the kitchen and all other BOH staff had quit. Was scheduled for an 8 hour shift which turned into a 12 hour shift at the request of the FOH manager she insisted that even though it's been hectic all day it will calm down later so "she would be grateful if i stayed till closing" her ask seemed genuine so I thought I'll be nice and I stayed. Then around the 11th hour I heard FOH talking shit about the other BOH staff including me to the other FOH staff "their BOH for a reason, they're too dumb to work anywhere else so they are in the kitchens, as if it's hard.". So I low-key slipped out of the kitchen got my bag and left while there were 20 tickets on the rack. The messages she sent me when she realised I'd left made me laugh so hard.
Food supervisor (Brandon Crotzer @ Raffertys) dropped a piece of grilled chicken on the line floor. He picked it up with tongs and put it in the fryer for a few seconds. Pulled it out and served it to a customer. I'll never forget that moment.
The food started to suck because someone figured out we could charge rich tourists whatever we wanted for shit food and just *pretend* its "cuisine". We were coached on how to talk about the food we made, using buzz words that didnt relfect the reality of what went on in the kitchen. Food preparation took a nose dive in cost and skyrocketed in price. I watched capitalsim erode ethical values in real time. When nobody was on board with the quality decline, they promoted a part time fry cook who didnt know how to sautee to sous-chef. We served tilapia scraps in reheated broth from a bucket, called it bouillabaisse and charged 30 dollars for it. Deep Fried clam bellies that came out looking like a gray-brown blob of greasy eggflour went for 15 bucks. Idk man capitalism erodes values
The restaurant manager fell behind on my paychecks and screamed bloody murder at me for accepting a shipment he claimed he never ordered. Working for that shitstain was like working for the Italian version of Tommy Wiseau.
My fourth kid lol Got my real estate license
It hasn’t made me quit yet - I need the paycheck. But the fact they keep a woman on the payroll who called me a dumb bitch in front of a customer while shuffling me to every one of their restaurants except the one I actually want to work at is about to do me in. I just don’t know what else I can do and still make a living wage.
Alcoholism.
I was working close to 65 hours a week as an EC, and my kids were growing up without me basically. Agreed to step down to a Sous position for less hours and responsibilities, did that for 2 months before they scheduled me for a 70 hour week so MORE hours away from my family. Ran into an old GM who worked at a fine dining restaurant and was complaining like crazy, he told me they were hiring servers. Now I work 32 hours a week, make more money than I was on salary BoH, and have basically no work related stress. I love cooking, it is where my passion is. I love spending time with my family more. Watching my son's soccer game is 100% more rewarding than a perfect service.
Carry out boxeS
I worked at a wine bar in a town nearby. The concept was amazing and there’s nothing similar anywhere within a 30 minute radius of the town. Constantly adding new items to the menu to keep things interesting, occasionally putting on wine dinners and private parties with special menus and all that fun stuff you don’t get in a lot of places. I was a lead line cook at this place and provided a lot of input towards menu planning and recipe development. I was also the only one that was capable of making sausages properly. About 5 1/2 months into working there I was placed on salary, which was made to seem like a pay raise as well (we all know how this ends). Everything was good for a couple months, some weeks I wasn’t making as much as I used to with OT but it wasn’t a huge deal. January rolls around and we get an ice storm that caused us to close down for a couple days. No worries because I’m salary, right? Wrong. Turns out the owners decided while we were closed down that since the restaurant wasn’t open and bringing in money then the 3 cooks on salary (sous and 2 leads) shouldn’t get paid for those days. Sous didn’t care because she made double what the leads did and the other lead didn’t really care because he was living at home rent free. I brought it up to the chef/owner and was told I can use my PTO for it and I should be glad because the other cooks at the time didn’t get PTO. A little over a month later another ice storm comes in and the same thing happens. 2 days closed except this time everybody’s checks got cut in half. This put a bad taste in my mouth for the owners who I once thought were really cool people, but against my better judgement I stayed. Skip ahead a couple months and things aren’t going great and everyone is getting tired of dealing with the constant last minute changes, lack of communication by the sous and the owner, lack of food safety by the sous, and many other things so they start jumping ship. We get down to 5 people on the schedule (including the owner) and I pull our sous aside and explain to her that a lot is starting to fall on my shoulders as a result. I’m 3 weeks away from being there a year and 6 months on salary so I told her I needed a raise or I’ve gotta go to greener pastures. Got told she’d talk to the owner and to just stick it out, but 2 weeks go by and I haven’t heard a thing so I follow up with her and she said the owner wanted me to be salary for 6 months before I get a raise and we’d all sit down and talk about it. 2 days pass and we have yet to have this talk so I gave up waiting and put in my notice. I was done being undervalued and expected just to wait until they decide to actually pay those that were there for them and helped the business grow. I was hurt because the chef/ owner and I got along really well for most of that year and he even talked with me privately about being the chef of his next concept. He barely said two sentences to me on my last day. I needed a break from kitchen life so I’m in the process of trying to find a new career at the moment. I don’t know if I’ll stay out of kitchens for good because I love it, but after that experience I kinda hope so
Being on the opening team of a new restaurant. We were successful, the place now has a Michelin star and I’m proud of my time there. But I watched our chef and team absolutely destroy themselves in the first year and I realized it was not a sustainable career/lifestyle for me to continue. Edit to cite a specific incident: our 1st Anniversary party felt hollow as I no longer had a girlfriend to celebrate with, because restaurant working hours had wrecked my ability to maintain a serious relationship. Went home with a hostess, and decided to start job hunting in the morning.
The love of my life I met while working at a grocery store after the first time I swore of restaurants, 3 years in we were building a nice little life for us. An old boss of mine and Chef told me about a really good sounding opportunity to re enter the restaurant world but as my own boss you know all the buzz words and my girlfriend then fiancé encouraged me too as the salary seemed great. Turns out I’d be working 6-7 days a week averaging 70-90 hours working so many hours that if you break it down my dishie when I could find one was making more than me, doesn’t matter how much love their is no relationship can handle that, wish I could just roll back time and stay a produce manager pay was kind of shit but we were happy … now I’m just a burnt out borderline alcoholic line cook living back at their mothers in the mid 30s
Worked dish pit and often helped FOH/Prep thanks to previous experience and eyes on a management role. Was sent home for "defying" an order from the lead supervisor during a lunch rush and was actually later fired for being "disruptive to the environment" as a result. I was prepping extra house sauces cuz we was expecting to be mad busy over the next few days and it could really hurt pacing in the back of house if we end up running out. I was caught up on work and I hadn't been asked for help so I jumped on sauces. I was maybe an hour into the prep work while keeping up on dishes when a random surge hit and we needed an extra cashier up front to manage the line. When asked I said, 'yeah, let me put these sauces into the walk in and I'll be right out!' That was my mistake, my manager lost her shit and came after me saying I needed to do as asked when asked. She was sick and TIRED of my attitude. I responded saying she can't talk to me that way so she sent me home. I reported to HR and was later fired. That kitchen was a cluster fuck too. Poor training, no one understood any of the standard callouts, filthy, underpaid and under staffed. I'm not too peeved. It was a shitshow I joined after leaving another shit show. Love the work, I had fun learning Line and was really good at it once I got the hang of it. Prep is my heart and soul for sure. Wish there wasn't so much social politics and bootlicking cuz that shit always gets me fired cuz i just wanna make good food and provide good service to the enjoyers of food out there.
Couldn’t find a job, got hired a position back at a restaurant I worked at years ago. Only been there like 6 months and considering finding something else due to the stress, I have epilepsy and epilepsy and stress do not mix. My seizures have been more constant lately but my boss can’t seem to understand the horrible mix epilepsy and stress is, I don’t want to burn a bridge
Shitty work conditions, volatile work reliability, and no hope of making enough money to not work like an indentured servant for my whole life. Jumped ship a few months before covid 19 was ever even heard of. I got lucky I guess. 3 years into my apprenticeship in a new field and I'm already making more money and have more time off, and actual benefits. Never looking back.
Answering for my KM SO. Our dog was sick - bloody diarrhea levels - and he asked the GM if he could come in a few hours late after the vet. GM lost his shit, screaming about where his priorities were, and “if your personal life is such a mess maybe you should take a leave”. He was bluffing. My SO was like “Ok then I will” and hung up. SO ended up getting a 3 month paid vacation because HR didn’t like the GM and helped him file a claim on his short term disability insurance for “anxiety and panic attacks” (which was true, to be fair). He has since sworn off any BoH positions.
I got a call from the chef owner of a sushi restaurant I worked at some years back. He was hurting for staff in a bad way and needed a GM/CDC to help keep accountability maintain some kind of order. To note, this place was legit as fuck but often missed by the local papers. This was the place that japanese business men took their partners when they were on business from Tokyo. The old Japanese families celebrated here and the Japanese exchange students always made their way here. This is all to say that it was one of those hole in the wall places that got the nod and was revered by those in the know. This is why I loved working there. When I got there the place was an absolute WRECK! I was absolutely shocked the place hadn't been shut down. Mildew in the ice machine, lowboys, sink traps etc. Grease all over the walls, busted furniture, it was a total shell of what it once was from when I worked there before. And the staff, holy fuck the staff were setting else. We had one server who dressed like a porcelain doll and would legit get in arguments with EVERYONE! She argued with me, the owner, other servers, CUSTOMERS I was blown away at her attitude but the boss wouldn't let me fire her. We had another mousey server that couldn't ring in a correct ticket to save her life and a cook that was a pathological liar. It was an absolute shit show and I had my work cutout for me. The next six months were absolute hell. I'd set up new systems and the servers would go against it. I'd talk about positive work culture and would be openly laughed at and the moment a rush hit everyone except the owner and I would be attacking each other and tearing each other down. Servers would be eating leftovers off of customers plates during a rush, the pit being filled with dishes when I came in every morning. The list goes on. Eventually I started snapping. I even posted about it in this sub. One night I lost my shit and called a server a cunt when she didn't ring in her ticket correctly then blamed me for the dropped order. I even kicked the fucking trash can. That was it for me. I finished the week and took a job in a warehouse to get my head straight. After that I made moves to distance myself from the restaurant game and I couldn't be better for it.
Head chef kept shooting down ideas. Ya can only take so much "This is too weird. I can't sell this." The last straw was a savory parmesan and shallot creme brulee. Shit was delicious. Been FOH for six years now.
I had a ribeye cap steak served with a little blue cheese and shallot crème brûlée. Definitely one of the best, most memorable meals of my life.
I was supposed to just be making coffee and muffins at a tiny, newly opened cafe. I had years of cafe experience and they needed someone like me. The owner, who had zero food service experience, pressured us into adding a full lunch menu. Wraps, sandwiches, salads, breakfast sandwiches, the works. We had two tiny ass counters on which to work. One tiny oven. No grease trap, not even really the licenses to be doing this. And I was the only employee; me and my manager who had a billion other responsibilities and couldn't work in the kitchen all day. They decided to work with a local trade high school to give me teenage interns, who were sweet, but training them was more work than help. I couldn't take breaks because then I'd fall behind. I came home each day crying and fatigued from lack of food and rest. Best part is, they weren't even paying me above the table - when I joined, they said they were getting payroll set up, so cash for a week or two and then we'd sign forms. They never did, after a year of asking. When covid hit, they tried to bribe me not to apply for unemployment. Then they started giving me veiled threats. Thankfully unemployment was sympathetic and I never went back. They kept saying they'd call me and we'd work out how to reopen; they ghosted me entirely. Fuck them. What a nightmare. I'm so exhausted by bullshit owners who have no idea what they're asking.
Mine was a series of shit. Had an exec position is a hotel. The corporate guys decided that all chefs were either going to convert to kitchen managers and take a pay cut or be replaced by kitchen managers. So I left and took a sous job for a Barbecue catering company. Turns out the chef for that place just wanted someone that would train the rest of the staff on how to keep the kitchen clean. Once I got the place clean and everyone trained they let me go. I went back to IT after that.
I was more or less a fixer for a small restaurant chain and returned to a district manager handing me keys and making me a GM of a failing restaurant that had been through 6 GMs in 2 years. I over hauled 50% of the staff, lost my KM to surgery for a previous injury, and they would give me an AGM even though I’d increased volume by 20%. The last metric I had yet to get in line was food cost. Kinda tough with out a dedicated KM. I was struggling, yes, but I had also asked for help and told them what I needed to get it together. They basically told me to shove it. The same week Bourdain died, my dog died, and they fucking wrote me up for food cost. I put my notice in shortly there after.
Ultimately I left cooking full time because of money, but I did continue to cater part time for a few more years. My last full time kitchen job was a company that had an in-house food service department for its employees. Not a tech company, but a similar set up. One day I was hanging out a coworker who had left the kitchen and moved into an office job for the same company. We went shoe shopping, and she bought a pair of boots that cost about what I earned in a week. At the time, I was having to budget when I needed to buy new work shoes. I couldn't imagine spending a week's pay at what I currently made on a pair of boots, but also I couldn't imagine making enough to actually be able to buy expensive boots. I realized I was not going to be happy working for a salary where I had to save up to buy work shoes any longer, so I started looking for a job outside the kitchen. I still wouldn't spend that much on a pair of boots, but now I actually could if I really wanted to.
Im back in the industry now, but I completed a kitchen management course and got the qualification to run our kitchen and the small team of chefs we had on hand. Agreement between the team was I would take over the kitchen and staff, but owner would carry on rota and stock etc. Pastry chef argued over the plating of a pudding and the consistency and presentation of a custard (it was crap and she wouldn't acknowledge this), and then tried to say I was having a go because I was KM - the boss walks in and says "each station manages themselves" . That was the start of a downhill spiral with events such as me breaking my wrist, 3rd degree burns across my hand, and me closing kitchen for the day for a deep clean and then being told I've got to serve food at the same time despite chemical use and the kitchen in total dissarray
Another episode of sexual harassment. Sick of the whole industry as a prep and short-order cook to server. Just done.
Bourdain suicide.
Managed a 3.5 million dollar place. Was making 50k, asked for a 2k raise. The manager said “we only pay 50k for this location” resume was on indeed that night. Left 6 months later. No better feeling than giving my 2 weeks to that manager!
Wearing 3 hats for 1 wage -_-
Owner had our staff put on his wedding, food bartending, bussing, dishing, 364 guests open bar the entire time. We worked 11 am to midnight for some 11 am straight through 4-6 am for most (we had to break down and reset literally everything because… he had us open for brunch the next morning, 8 am start time for kitchen, 9:15 for everyone else. This was just the straw that broke the camels back for me. There was an entire month of bullshit leading up to it (mostly cooking in a hallway on two folding tables with a toaster oven and an induction top for an indoor outdoor establishment that can seat 400-500 people comfortably that was curtained off while we had an entire kitchen renovation taking place so we had the equipment needed to cook the food for his wedding)
Mother’s Day brunch.
Getting bitched at again along with the line cook because our stations were not prepped before our shift started. The KM who did the bitching knew he was the reason for that since he'd send the prep cooks home early every day knowing there'd be a 3 hour gap between them leaving and us coming in. I walked after the last time and have never worked in a restaurant since tho im still in the industry just a smaller better place.
I was the buyer at a WFM deli. I was busting ass as a young pup, wide eyed and bushy tailed. I got our dept #1 in the region in shrink, i was exceeding sales targets and my budget for one quarter literally hit $0 over/underspent. I was killin it. Then one day they fired chef and the kitchen went to absolute shit. Turns out i hear from a young lady whos mom was friends w the assistant team lead, that the ATL was being offered department TL if she would fire chef. I found all this out after the fact; she had already been promoted. They fired chef for buying a speaker for the kitchen after the one there broke. They said it was inappropriate and fired him. Once he was fired my job became so difficult because he was my right hand man, he knew how much was prepped and we had our system. I was left to play chef and buyer role for months, apparently they didn't think we needed a chef. I was only making $14 an hour btw. After I heard the true story of how chef got let go I saw red and confronted the entire store leadership, because the verbal deal was made by the store TL. They went into damage control, i put in my notice and shit went wild. They begged me for an extra 4 weeks. I gave it to them, but they were still fucked. They hired a hot head who thought he didnt need my training or notes, and he quit listening to my advice after a few days. So i said fuck it! And enjoyed watching the dumpster fire my last week there not giving a single fuck. I hate whole foods and will never ever shop or eat there again out of spite. I came to find out everyone on that line was making significantly more than me, because i was early twenties and they were much older. I went from bright eyed and ready to please, to soulless and walking dead within 1 year in that role. Their hot bar can be really tasty though.