oh brother.. another one down!

[leeniek]

Yep.. I had a cook quit today.. in all honesty I saw it coming.. this person was NOT cut out for the work and if she hadn't resigned she would have been let go in the very near future.  She left a blabbering message on the voicemail that lead me to believe that she was quitting but I needed to verify it with her as I did not want to see her lose her job because I misunderstood a message.  Finally she answered my call and said "I quit" and hung up on me....  I have documented the exchange and well she is no longer on our schedule.  This person is very self absorbed.. hell I know more about her menstrual cycle than I do my own and she knows no boundaries with the info she shares.  Her work was getting better but still she could not multitask and would become overwhelemed when many people were addressing her at one time. Sadly for her she blew $6K on culinary school and she cannot do it on the line.   I feel bad but I have a responisbility to the owners and KM to make sure the kitchen is properly staffed and sadly she is not one I want back..

 

[foodpump]

Ahhhh. you got the old rambling voicemail message at 4:32am.  Your first?  I'll send you a cherry pie.

I guess by now you've figured out the best way is to hire p/t, watch them like a hawk, and only then incrementally bring up their working hours.

It sucks, I know, and I had a very hard time with it when I first came back to Canada.  But it's the only way. 

 

[leeniek]

It was the rambling message at 9:45pm... we close at 3pm so when she called we were long out of the building and yep first time for someone quitting that way but I have had rambling conversations when the former KS had called in on his shifts. 

Hiring pt seems to be the way to go and if they prove themselves there is room for more hours for them for sure. 

 

[joshua47]

Bummer! Well, ultimately it'll be her loss and your gain when you find someone better to replace her. And it does suck that she wasted the money on school, but unfortunately that's a lesson that the individual has to learn.

One time, we had an employee quit via email an hour before his shift! Laaaaame. Good luck using anyone there as a reference! /img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif

 

[leeniek]

We had one host quit via facebook.. she sent a message to the FOH supervisor on facebook that she was not going to be back and that was that.  Quitting via email, voicemal, facebook or instant messager to me is cowardly and doesn't look good on the person at all.  I hated everything about working at the hospital cafeteria from the work I was doing right down to my bosses and despite how miserable I was there I still did the proper thing and gave them 70 hours written notice... our shifts were on a two week rotating schedule with two one week and five the next and we did ten hour shifts so I gave them a pay period's notice.  I would have loved to have just not bothered to come in but I can't screw anyone over like that. 

 

[cstanford]

You've got freak magnet-itis or you're doing a lousy job (or somebody is) when making hiring decisions.

 

[leeniek]

I'd say a bit of both... I don't have final say when it comes to hiring and the latest one to quit would not have been hired if I had been given the chance to sit down with her.  The KM is getting better with hiring.. the last person he hired has worked out really well, and hopefully the next one will too. 

 

[mykeb2010]

Why feel bad? No One forced her to go to school. That's what kills me about some of the people in this industry. Owners blow their nest eggs on a B&B  or cafe with no hospitality/ food service experience at all because why? They think its all handshakes and hello`s! WRONG! And then they wonder why their are broke and 250,000 dollars in debt in 8 months. This industry kills ( all be it slowly, but it still kills) So back to lil miss sunshine. ---Mod edit for content--- or some other mind numbing job crafted for people of that intelligence level. Don't ever feel bad in this business. It will cloud your  good judgment. All ways go with what your gut is telling you, 95% of the time its right.

 

[leeniek]

Myke it's funny you should mention prostitution... I just found out that she was a stripper up until she came to work for us... maybe she'll go back to that. 

 

[kyheirloomer]

Good grief. I can't imagine a stripper who was any good at her job trading that in to become a line cook. Not when you consider the pay differential.

I'm not being facitious. If you think of stripping as a business, and are willing to work hard, the benefits are incredible:

1. Self-employed with very low capitalization.

2. High pay commensurate with the services provided.

3. Diverse and often interesting customer base.

The strippers I know (met several who sometimes stayed at the motel where I was working) average 300 bucks a night take-home. And that's not even a big-city environment.

They can work every night, if they want. But let's assume a five night workweek. That's $78,000 gross. At the club they work it cost them a hundred bucks to perform, which brings it down to $52,000 net. The only other expenses are costumes.

How many line cooks, anywhere, are making that kind of dough? And line cooks work a lot harder, and put in more hours, than any stripper I know.  

 

[leeniek]

I agree, KYH.. no line cook I know is bringing in that kind of cash!  

This one went to cooking school I think in a last ditch effort to deter her daughter from making the teenage decisions she did.  She became a mother at the age of 14 and had no support from her mother at all, so as a child herself she was raising a child.  Unfortunately her 14 year old child is making the same decisions she did so she changed professions to set a better example.   I don't want to be judgmental but I think that her former career combined with her lack of care for anyone but herself is not going to be erased by a simple career change.

Now that I know she was a stripper so much of her behaviour makes sense to me.  She was so concerned about how the actions she had to perform when working on the line or doing prep would affect her chest (and she is a chesty girl) and that did strike me as odd.   I'm a girl too and I have never ever thought about how my version of "thelma and louise" are affected by what I do and I guess I haven't considered it as I have never depended on them to make my living.  The all about me attitude and her neediness when it came to the men in the kitchen and on the line.. it all makes sense to me.

I think that before she seeks employment elsewhere she needs to get herself and her daughter some help.  It isn't too late for her daughter.. it is going to be hard but if she cares about her as much as she claims to she needs to do it.

 

[gunnar]

ah...ummm....but ....nevermind I can't .... I just can't  comment and not sound worse then mikeb2010 up there.. better luck next time.

 

[mykeb2010]

they might be terrible things to say but unfortunately its  the truth.. A very small percentage of the populace can do what we do, and then from that number even less can manage us as chefs.

 

[chefross]

Having been on the receiving end of management decisions concerning employees, I have found by and large, that BECAUSE they are "suits" they have no comprehension of just what it is WE do on the line or on prep each day.

I worked for a food service company at a college where I was the am. Sous. I had 30 something employees and we had to get a food court ready for service each day by 11:00 am. We started at 6:00. Some of my people were highly motivated but most were there for the paycheck.

I found out later that these people had been Marriott employees for many years and when the college changed food services, the employees were scooped up into the new company.

Unfortunately the bad habits, apathy, low motivation and extreme calling in, came along with them.

I used the employee handbook as my guide, documented everything, even taking my work home with me to finish. I would call people on their habits, give them verbal warnings, then written warnings, then 3-day suspension, all by the book. Their book. That they wrote.

I'll never forget that day when the salad lady was finally canned and she looked at me with tears in her eyes and said...."Why are you doing this to me???"  I recall telling her that it was she that was doing it herself and that up until now her boss was allowing her to get away with it. She was the problem.

I sympathize with what you are going through. It sucks. I would rather get rid of the dirt and work a little harder to get things done, then to have to carry that ball and chain around every day. Hope things work out for you.

 

[prairiechef]

One bad cook will poison a kitchen.

Unfortunately, labour standards and policy make it harder and harder to get rid of people now.

Be happy she called in and left a pathetic message. Good riddance.

 

[leeniek]

One cook slacking off while the rest are busting their a**es can do the same thing too!  I'm just happy the KM is finally seeing things that I see with some of them and is letting me do something about it.

 

[butt3r_chick3n]

So friggin true, you basically end up covering for both your work and his/hers