# two for one



## coolj (Dec 12, 2000)

I was reading through the thread started by admirallsdoll in regards to chef clay's waitstaff post, and I got to thinking, and was just wondering how most people feel about cooks running double duty, cooking and washing dishes during the same shift ?.


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## culinarian247 (Jan 21, 2002)

Either the kitchen is understaffed or there's some abuse goin' on.  

It's fine in a pinch, but unless you're gonna pay extra don't abuse the personnel like that.


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

Happens a lot in small kitchens. It's not good when you have to make the cooks do dishes, but OK when the executive chef does it. Actually I used to like hanging with the dishdogs. I liked working the front side of the push through. It was a way for me to get away for awhile without leaving the building.

Kuan


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## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

I don't believe in hiring practices that constantly leave a kitchen short-handed, but if I am in a pinch (dishwasher quits, no-shows, calls sick, etc.) I expect my cooks to pitch in and help (I will always be the first to volunteer for dish patrol). One of the quickest ways to work your way out of my kitchen is to tell me "that's not my job" or "I don't do that". At my last job, one night we were short on dishdogs, and very busy. At the end of the night all the cooks pitched in and helped, though I noticed one cook seemed to be absent. I asked the cooks to finish helping the dishdogs by mopping. At about that time this absent cook walked through the kitchen with his street clothes on. I told him that we weren't finished yet and he needed to help mop. He told me that mopping was beneath him, as he was a cook and not a dishdog. Needless to say, I asked him not to come back to work, if he felt being a team player was beneath him.


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## snakelady1 (Mar 7, 2001)

At one of my jobs I would claim to be the highest paid dishwasher on property......really I was paid the same so it didn't matter what the job was, Pete is right it is about being a team player


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## coolj (Dec 12, 2000)

Thanks for the replies, but I guess what I was asking was how people feel about when a cook is purposely scheduled to do both jobs, for those times that the manager actually takes the dishwashers off the schedule.
cheers,
Jeff.


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