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Category: Food and Restaurants
 I'm a Sous Chef presently. For those of you that don't know, that means the second chef (an assistant manager type position, if you will). I would have to say that managing people is my least favorite part of my job. It's not that I have a problem delegating or correcting people, it's just that some people are just such pains in the ass.
Right now I am in a corporate setting, and that basically means: handbooks, policies, harassment courses, sensitivity training, more-or-less as a manager your hands are tied. If an employee is a complete screw up, your only means of correcting him/her are "verbal warnings" and "written warnings", and after enough of those you are within your right to terminate said "fuck up" without them collecting unemployment or worse...lawsuit. Even still, sometimes this doesn't detour these shady bastards, who more than likely's goal from the moment they were hired was 'free money'.
The culinary world has changed dramatically in just the ten years I have professionaly been a part of it. I remember as a prep cook starting out, watching a Chef completly lose it on a 'fuck up', Gordon Ramsay style. You can't do that now, no way, no how. In some ways, that is definitely a good thing. Some Chefs are assholes plain and simple. They'll lose their temper over anything just because, well, they're assholes...like Gordon Ramsay. Employee's should be protected. However, some employees could not be more deserving of a level-4-meltdown from a Chef. When you've exhausted every other means of correcting someone, and stlll they don't 'get it', what other recourse is there I ask you?
With all that being said I would like to briefly talk about three distinct personaltiy types I encounter(ed) as a manager.
Each one, a pain in the ass in their own unique way.
1. Chuck Full O'Excuses- This is the guy that has an excuse for everything. He never does anything wrong. You tell him his station looks like a shit hole, and he'll tell you that someone else has been dirtying it. You tell him that he forgot to label and date something in the walk-in, and he'll tell you that he did and someone else unwrapped it and didn't wrap it back up properly. Often times it's difficult to get a word in edge wise with these people because the second you try to correct them they immediately put up a defense, in the form of a verbal wall of bullshit excuses.
2.Bitchy Longstocking- This is the guy that really needs to grow the fuck up. SERIOUSLY! The second you correct or reprimand this person they take to poutin' for the rest of their shift...sometimes longer. You tell this person that they need to get their prep done faster because they have not been ready in time for service, they won't say a word to you or anyone else until they've worked their inner-bitch out. They'll glare at you, slam a couple things here and there, answer you in succint one word answers. I don't know if they think this is suppose to make you as a manger feel bad, because you've obviously hurt their feelings. In my case it doesn't. I could care less. I don't know if they realize how completely ridiculous they look.
3.A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Douchebag)- Plain and simple, this is the person that just doesn't listen, and more than likely, just doesn't care. You tell this person that they need to taste everything they make, so they know what they're serving, and that it's seasoned properly, and you can see their eyes glazing over as you correct them; all the while they're nodding their head like a bobble toy and grunting, "yeah, un-huh, yeah, un-huh." An hour late a dinner comes back to the kitchen because a custome said it was, "so salty, that it's inedible".
There are two words every Chef wants to hear when he has to correct a fellow cook.
That's it.
Two words.
"YES, CHEF"
Say them, mean them, and everyones life gets a whole lot easier.
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1:38 PM
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