# Drunk Staff



## leeniek (Aug 21, 2009)

I missed this one but got the story from the KM... apparently one of our line cooks arrived drunker than a skunk on one of my days off and while I did giggle at the stupidity of it, well it does present a problem. We are an open kitchen in a family breakfast and lunch place... not good for business if one of the line cooks is under the influence for sure. I am glad I was not working that day because I would have sent the drunk home...

What is your worst/best drunk staff story?


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## ed buchanan (May 29, 2006)

Had he been hurt or hurt someone while under. The place is liable, because they permitted him to work.


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## ras1187 (Oct 3, 2006)

I went into my walk-in freezer the other day and it reeked of weed. Was only one other guy there, so no serious problem solving required to figure out who smoked in the freezer.


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## leeniek (Aug 21, 2009)

I know he didn't allow him to be on the line in that state for sure..


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## chefbillyb (Feb 8, 2009)

You people in Canada are way to nice. If I called him into work and he said he had a few beers, I may let it slide. If he comes in DRUNK he is showing no respect for his job or management, I would fire him on the spot. The restaurant doesn't run on the ability of any one person. The KM should have sent him home and called in the Asst kitchen manager. All people in management need to step up when needed or the employees will be calling the shots.................ChefBill


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## chef_wade (Nov 23, 2009)

Sent home?? That's an automatic fire for my staff. What they do on their own time is one thing but once your on my time, you better be clean and sober.


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## ed buchanan (May 29, 2006)

No problem just make him disappear like we did in Brooklyn.


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## chef_wade (Nov 23, 2009)

WOW!!! Where I come from that is automatic termination.


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## leeniek (Aug 21, 2009)

I found myself functioning like him today but for a very different reason.. my arm has healed (and better than thought at first) so I was chopping onions when the knife guy came in with our new razor sharp knives and after the exchange I went back to my onions when the knife slipped on a membrane that I missed and I fileted my middle index finger on my left hand. It is the worst cut I have ever had... I was bleeding all over the place and I said **** I just really cut bad and ran to the ladies bathroom.. mostly becasuse I thought I was going to be sick.. and when I got there I ran my finger under water and then I went to the first aid kit and needed help as I was still really bleeding and the owners taped me up. I must have looked really bad as they all asked me if I was ok to stay and hero me said yeah it is just a cut.. but it was a bad one.
I made it throught the day.. we also got hit for a Monday so having me off my game was not a good thing but it worked out
I really don't want to look at my finger but at some stage I need to take a peek......


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

I dunno what's worse, dealing with "Worksafe( Worker's comp board) or dealing with the labour board. If any employee came in drunk I'd refuse them the shift, can't say I'd fire them, but I'd refuse them the shift. Then it's document, document, document, and if there's a pattern of showing up drunk I'd terminate. Of course, my butt would be bare and open for the Labour Board to walz all over on, documentation or not, but I'd rather get dinged with a 2 or 3 thousand buck fine, than get dinged for a 10 or 15 thousand fine for letting a drunk employee work......


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## bryanj (Jun 20, 2008)

I was Assistant KM at a bar a couple years ago. Went into the walk in at the end of the night to get some inventory done and the KM was in the cooler with a (mostly empty) bottle of Jameson in one hand, while the other hand was resting on a bone-in honey ham that he had taken the bone out of, while facing the ham. To put it delicately, he had a stain on his pants and the ham was now garbage. I didn't really know what to do so I closed the door and grabbed the owner of the restaurant. He was not very happy.


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## chef_wade (Nov 23, 2009)

Now that's just funny:roll:


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## bryanj (Jun 20, 2008)

In retrospect, it's completely hilarious. At the time though, not so much. I needed that ham, man!


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Still working through the first cup of coffee this morning, skimming a along the threads when.....HUH?! good morning!!! 

I've had to deal with a "pro" past EC who was 45minutes late to an offsite lunch.....after affects of a hard night.....timing is everything when offsite, these guys were on shift and had a certain time to get through with lunch.

How can I recommend this talented guy now?


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Mmmm.. Sounds like you got yourself a "closet necrophiliac" (Sp?)... Brrrr! Cold ham!......


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## leeniek (Aug 21, 2009)

OMG that is funny! (what's funnier was it took me reading this a few times before I "got" it. :lol:


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## greyeaglem (Apr 17, 2006)

I can only hope any hams you used before your "discovery" still had the bones in.  :lol:


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## bryanj (Jun 20, 2008)

Yeah, I purposely wrote it in a manner that if, for some reason, a kid was reading this, he/she would be less likely to "get it". I try to leave the kitchen and bar language in the kitchen and the bar, you know?

To my knowledge, the ham all had bones in, but, I wasn't there every day so...


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## leeniek (Aug 21, 2009)

Well apparently I am on the naieve side...lol! Thinking about that a little too much... eeewww... what if he put the ham back on the shelf after he had his time with it and you guys unknowingly served it.... eeewww


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## lodge-chef (Dec 20, 2009)

I worked for this place in Vancouver for 2 years and the head chef/owner had a propensity for emptying 375ml bottles of evian and filling them to the brim with straight vodka. This was at 2 in the afternoon. He would then proceed to hop in his suv and drive around the west end, swilling his beverage of choice and picking up specialty groceries for his restaurant. Suffice to say, he needed lines and lines of coke to get him through the rest of the night. A very interesting and bizarre man to say the least! Of course, he could do as he pleased because he owned the joint and was therefore the king of his very miniscule castle .


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## leeniek (Aug 21, 2009)

Definitely very bizarre. I bet he was quite interesting to work under to say the least...


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

boned ham takes on new meaning.


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## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

Leeniek, wish I could that that is bizarre, but in this industry, such behaviors are quite common. This business seems to attract and foster more of this behavior than many professions. I would say that probably over half the chefs and cooks I have worked with and have known have had or still do have issues with substance abuse. Some had quite severe issues. Lots of them were rather "light" consumers of substances by our standards but by normal standards would have been boarding on abusive. This in no means is meant to say that everyone in the business is a booze hound or druggie, but we do have more than our fair share of substance abuse problems.


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## leeniek (Aug 21, 2009)

You have a point, Pete. I've also noticed a fair amount of people who have legal issues as well. I wonder what it is about this business that attracts them...


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## ringtonebeat (Jul 27, 2010)

Had a banquet server working and apparently drinking all the partially drank drinks from the party. He was pushing two stacks of wine glasses and smashed them into a cart of other dishes. Later was found outside passed out in a bush. lol! Lets just say that was his last day working there.


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Banquet Cocktail. Many years ago in the hotels when servers brought back glassware from bar or parties, the diswashers poured all of the  contents of the liquor looking glasses in a water pitcher. At the end of the evening they each would have a glass of this cocktail in a tall Delmonico glass over ice. Some of them would drink"""" Squeeze""" which was simply sqeezed out sterno passed thru cheesecloth ( wood alcohol). This was  usually served mixed with coke or pepsi.  YUM YUM


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## leeniek (Aug 21, 2009)

Ed, that sounds disgusting... but I guess to some, it is being thrown away anway so why not drink it.  You wouldn't find me helping myself to a partially consumed drink... who knows what diseases the person whose drink it was has?  Thanks but no thanks... 

The sterno "squeeze"... EWWW!  

I think I'll stick to my fruit water.. I made that myself so at least I know it contains blackberries, mint, oranges and h2o...


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## petemccracken (Sep 18, 2008)

Hm, reminds me of "Old Overshoes", the gallon jug behind the bar in "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

PeteMcCracken said:


> Hm, reminds me of "Old Overshoes", the gallon jug behind the bar in "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck.


Nah, in that book, it was custom to squueze a bit of angustura bitters into the jug and bury it for a bit.....

The squeezed out sterno tastes gross---at first...

uhh... just kidding folks.


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## durangojo (Jul 30, 2007)

BryanJ said:


> I was Assistant KM at a bar a couple years ago. Went into the walk in at the end of the night to get some inventory done and the KM was in the cooler with a (mostly empty) bottle of Jameson in one hand, while the other hand was resting on a bone-in honey ham that he had taken the bone out of, while facing the ham. To put it delicately, he had a stain on his pants and the ham was now garbage. I didn't really know what to do so I closed the door and grabbed the owner of the restaurant. He was not very happy.


i can hear the 'deliverance' banjos a twangin now! seriously though, i sure hope this guy is out of the food business..he is a foodaphile, a violator, a 'twisted sister'. i could never work in a kitchen alongside him, watching his hands touch food, wondering where they have been...down his pants?, up his nose?, wondering what else he 'used' in the walk in..sorry for the graphics here, but perhaps a little unsalted butter to slather up before going to 'hog heaven'....do you think he's got only one twisted habit? not a chance...it is so sickening to think about what people might/can do to your food...i would have marched my ass down to wherever i had to march it down to and got that guy gone, that day...gosh, we work so damn hard to exalt food with our talents...there is absolutely no room for 'sick and twisted'...people like him, give chefs and the whole industry a really bad name...i hope he got some real help

joey


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## cheesenbacon (Jul 19, 2010)

I've worked for chefs that get absolutely wasted before and during service and expect me to do everything. On more than one occasion.

Never really bothered me though.

If someone wants to have *A* cold beer or glass of wine with their lunch before work, that's one thing. Getting totally forked up is another. I guess I just got used to it.

I, however, drink like a fish AFTER work sometimes. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/drinkbeer.gif


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## sabbah (Jun 2, 2009)

I've toned down a lot. But, I do remember working under a born-again Sous-Chef back in the day, who NEVER drank and then one day out the blue got trashed and passed out during dinner service in a dining hall that was not (thankfully) in use at the time. I thought it was extra funny because everyone else there drank all of the time, or was high and the only one to get fired for it, was the one who never ever drank.


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