about a square peg in a round hole

The following is a self-reflection of an awkward incident at work.

The Players:
Me and my second chef. Let’s call him R.

The Setting:
Cafe I’m working at, as Head Chef. Today, I’m working as a front-of-house staff, leaving R to run the kitchen. R is slated to take over from me in 2 weeks when I officially stop working at the cafe. It’s a typical Thursday: quiet, but prep still has to be done.

Act I, Scene I:
I get to work at 9.30am (ahh the luxury!) The cafe’s empty, so I make myself a herb and cheese omelette with hash browns on the side and plenty of HP sauce. Yum. I ask R to pop some frozen croissants into the oven for the front cabinet in replacement of gourmet sandwiches. It is 9.45am.

Sedgway:
I ask R to make a green salad for the cabinet. It is 10.30am.

Act I, Scene II:
I’ve been working the front, clearing tables, washing dishes, serving customers, sending coffees, heating pies etc. The salads have sold out (egads! and wow! at the same time). I enter the kitchen and ask (perhaps not in the most polite of manner – but hey, we’re in hospitality, where the ‘hospitability’ is so limited it’s strictly reserved for customers) R to top up the salads. Half of the croissants are still on a tray, in the kitchen. The green salad is still halfway done. It is almost 12.

Aside:
Now call me crazy, but 2-3 hours for 12 sorry croissants and a green salad platter is in my books, a little slow.

Act I, Scene III:
It is still noon and R is visibly getting irritated. He is doing service, there are two checks on order. He turns and says to me that he is busy with service and gets a little offended when I say that the salads and croissants need to go out ASAP. Well, maybe more than a little offended.

An argument ensues, R’s getting more aggressive, citing a headache, busy service and accusing me of asking to do this and that and pushing him.

Now it’s my turn to get offended. I feel that I have been disrespected. Words fly. I do something VERY uncharacteristic. I play the “I’m still your head chef for the next two weeks” trump card, with a little smattering of “you don’t talk to me like that” and “why can’t you just shut up and do what I ask you to do”.

Cliffhanger ending:
R tells me to get the hell out of the kitchen and leave him alone. It’s his shift, I’m working out front, and I shouldn’t be telling him what to do.

I’ll be the first to admit that I was crass, and did not seek a diplomatic resolution. I played cards that should never be dealt in any professional environment. For that alone, I confess I do not deserve the Head Chef designation, nor the respect thereof hereinafter, I suppose.

But what right, moral or professional does he have to tell his Head Chef to get out of his own kitchen? That is to me logically defying. Though I do not personally approve of authoritarian, egotistical, military-styled, disciplinarian methods of work, I have always practiced it to many a successful extent. You do it or get done. Simple. And yes. A chain of command IS neccessary. Want to stay friends? Don’t work together.

Now I understand that most people are intolerant of my work style, but I just don’t have faith in humankind to work efficiently and professionally otherwise. All those who actually do are demi-gods.

Sure, many will get burnt along the way, more will drop out and even greater numbers will despise, slander and disrepute you. But hey. At the end of it, if I have a task that needs to be done, it must be done. And the ones who do it, I keep. The rest can go fuck themselves with a spike-ended broomstick for all I care.

Simply put, I know and anticipate that conflicts will arise at work. However, I expect those I work with, especially those working under me, to accept the conflict, work together to disclose it’s source and execute resolutionary or restitutionary measures. After that we’ll go for drinks and understand that it did happen but we got on top of it.

Me, my manager and R had a sit down after the incident, to make things better. We talked. No one listened. I apologised. He shrugged it off. We disbanded. No resolution was consciously or evidently found.

I’m leaving in 2 weeks. R’s supposed to be working with me so that I can train, instruct and mentor him in whatever capacity I can, with what little experience I have. In a way, he is my responsibility, even more so that now I’m leaving. There are many things I don’t know that he may. But there are also many things I do know that he does not and with all due respect to him, I think the scale is tipping on my side quite a bit more. While I’m not saying he’s incompetant, I am stating point blanc that he will not and be able to cope with the work unless he is prepared to listen more and learn. Sure he’ll get by. But at what cost?

My manager tells me that I still need to supervise him and tell him what to and not to do. But I doubt R will listen to me. Evidently he does not take orders well.

Maybe I’m just trying to save my own ass. I don’t want my tutee to be a numbnut after I go. I’m only human. That will look bad on me, a’ight?

This is such a difficult topic for me to moot on my own, simply because I am fighting for and against values that I professionally embody, more out of neccessity than need, but which I morally reject and renounce.

Epilogue to Play:
Me: (At cafe closing) How many orders did R have today?
Manager: 22.

Busy service. My fucking ass. And oh yeah. Before I forget. R was in the military.