Strawdogs
I'm thinking I'm quitting my job this week. My guess is that it'll be on Wednesday. I'm not even giving a two-weeks, I'm just going to get the rest of my crew to the weekend and then I'm getting out of here and heading down to Denver. This is how I remember it; this is what happened:
I noticed my last paycheck was without any overtime pay, when in fact I'd worked 89.some-odd hours for the pay period. I asked Sheila at the front desk to print out the payroll hours for July, and I asked my boss tonight why she hadn't paid me for my extra hours. She said she had. In fact, she remembered writing my check out and personally saw it punched into the computer. She was sure she'd paid me overtime. I put my check in front of her, having highlighted the numbers where she was deficient. She said the numbers proving the proficiency had printed, in fact, on the black border of that box on the check. I said that it hadn't, I'd already checked that. She said it had to have, so I gave it to her to take a better look and she admitted that it had not printed and I had in fact not been paid my overtime. And she would take care of it.
Then I told her that as a condition to my having accepted the job, I was to be professionally evaluated 30 days into my employment. She thought for a second if that had actually been something we'd gone over when she hired me, realized it was, and then said: "Sheila never evaluated you?"
"No."
"Well, she should have evaluated you."
"She didn't. I haven't been evaluated, which means that I haven't been considered for a raise, even though you told me in April that I would have been by now."
"Well, I'm sorry you haven't been evaluated."
"Where does that leave me concerning my wages? I've been expecting to be evaluated because I know I deserve one."
"She'll get to it soon, I'm sure."
"Why don't you evaluate me now?"
"Now?"
"Yeah. Would you evaluate me now? Is that something you do, as the owner of this restaurant? You've worked with me. You know I'm a hard worker in the kitchen."
"You are a hard worker. But you've been a disappointment. Honestly, you have."
"Really? How's that?"
"Because you simply do not care at all about presentation. And you have a terrible attitude."
Obviously, I was stunned to hear her go after what I consider to be two of my unyielding strengths: my work persona and my attention to detail. I decided right then I would quit.
"I have to say I take exception to that. And offense. Number one: I know for a fact that the rest of my co-workers love working with me because I am always willing to help, to do whatever I can for them, and because I make them laugh throughout the shift. I know that each day I work with Terrance means to him that there is someone in the kitchen with whom he can bond over music and movies, and whom he can depend on to back him up on the line when we're getting slammed between 6:00 and 7:30. I know that Terry loves working with me because I'm the only one here who can get over his or her personal dislike for the guy enough to compliment him for the excellent work he does for you as your catering chef. Pesci loves it when I work because I'll make him a senior split special an hour after that offer's over with, but it keeps repeat customers. Cass loves it when I work because I will always look out for her when she's swamped with tables in the bar. My attitude is one of the greatest tools your business has right now."
"But you're the only employee I have who talks back to me."
"That's because I'm the only employee who isn't afraid of you."
Her eyes got big and white and her head perked back like I'd swung at her face.
"I understand it. I get it," I said to her. "That's your MO. That's how you get bye, and that's fine. You've got to do whatever you've got to do, absolutely. But it is the way you are with people, and when someone pushes me, I push back. That's just the way I am. If you're going to be snide, smart, and aggressive with me, I will be snide, smart, and aggressive back. You get what you give.
"And secondly," I continued, "there is no way I'm going to let you accuse me of not appreciating presentation. I do--very much so--but my philosophy is that the food should be beautiful. It should be able to speak for itself, without the help of deep fried spinach and cucumber shavings and leek lotuses and huge flowering plants on every dish. There's an aesthetic way to present food that doesn't necessitate an extra hour of prep every afternoon while we're trying to keep up with your three page menu."
"Well, when I've worked with you, I haven't seen anything from you that's suggested you care."
"That's because I get frustrated when it takes you ten minutes to plate a dish that should have been on the floor 20 minutes ago. Presentation if important, but it certainly isn't more important than a dish getting out in a timely fashion, at the same time that the other dishes on the ticket are coming together. There's an important balance that should be struck there."
"Just tonight you didn't put the onions on that steak, and you lied to me. You lied to me." She called me a liar.
"I told you we didn't have them. We ran out last night and I didn't have time to make them because I was prepping things by the nature of their priority and everything trumped deep fried peppers."
"But you lied to me." She said I was a liar because "I could have made them in the beginning, when we were just opening, because we were slow to open."
"We were slow for two chefs on the line, but you were a half hour late to the line so I had to control both sides. I was by myself on the line for the first hour and a half. We were slow, but we weren't so slow that I wasn't always putting something on the grill or in the oven."
"How dare you call me late. I am never late to work. This is my life."
"Look, I know you live here and you work your ass off for this business that you own. I'm not accusing you of anything like that, and you know that. But you scheduled yourself to be on the line at 5:00PM--a whole hour after we've opened for happy hour--and then you don't even bother to show on the line until 30 minutes later. I couldn't fry onions for garnish because I was covering for you."
"Well, you could have taken the moment to fry them up when I asked why you didn't have them, but instead you had to talk back to me."
"I was cooking and plating five dinners at the moment. You were telling the Moldovan girls that you didn't like the way they were dressing the house salads. I'm sorry I didn't fry the onions. Where does this leave me? Am I not eligible for a raise because you disagree with my garnishing philosophy?"
"Sheila will be evaluating you, and I will be talking to your co-workers to hear their opinion."
"When will this happen?"
"I don't know. I'm very busy."
"I expected to be evaluated within 30 days of working here. I would like this to happen immediately."
"Then it will."
"By the beginning of this coming week?"
"Sure."
"And if I am to receive a raise after being evaluated, will it be appearing in this coming paycheck?"
"You would probably receive it as a bonus at the end of the season."
"And can you produce an estimate as to how much a bonus might be worth?"
"That would depend on the evaluation."
"Then I'd like to say once more that I would prefer to be evaluated immediately so that I can know where I stand."
"Sure."
"So there's that, and I need to see about my overtime by tomorrow."
"Well, that has to do with my payroll lady, who lives in Fraser, so I don't know if I'll be able to get in touch with her by tomorrow."
"As soon as possible, Carey."
We continued to talk about adjusting my hours for catering offsite over this current pay period, and about the schedule for tomorrow. As we were closing tonight, she asked me to come in from noon to close instead of from 9:00 to noon. My people in Denver are coming up to hang out. I told her I could come in to help open but couldn't stay to close, and then she decided she'd rather have her crew suffer than pay me the overtime I might slip into. Then she asked me if there was anything else I needed her to address.
"No, that's it."
"Ok then."
"Ok. Good work tonight."
"Thanks. You too."
So these are the conditions going into this coming week: I need to be paid, in hand, for the hours of overtime she owes me. I need to be evaluated by Sheila, and by my co-workers. I need to be proposed either an hourly wage increase or an end-of-season bonus sum. The proposal needs to be worth it to put up with this woman. And it has to happen by Monday. Or else I will be living permanently in Denver, and she will be out a line cook for the weekend and the last month of peak season.
Anyway. How are you?
I noticed my last paycheck was without any overtime pay, when in fact I'd worked 89.some-odd hours for the pay period. I asked Sheila at the front desk to print out the payroll hours for July, and I asked my boss tonight why she hadn't paid me for my extra hours. She said she had. In fact, she remembered writing my check out and personally saw it punched into the computer. She was sure she'd paid me overtime. I put my check in front of her, having highlighted the numbers where she was deficient. She said the numbers proving the proficiency had printed, in fact, on the black border of that box on the check. I said that it hadn't, I'd already checked that. She said it had to have, so I gave it to her to take a better look and she admitted that it had not printed and I had in fact not been paid my overtime. And she would take care of it.
Then I told her that as a condition to my having accepted the job, I was to be professionally evaluated 30 days into my employment. She thought for a second if that had actually been something we'd gone over when she hired me, realized it was, and then said: "Sheila never evaluated you?"
"No."
"Well, she should have evaluated you."
"She didn't. I haven't been evaluated, which means that I haven't been considered for a raise, even though you told me in April that I would have been by now."
"Well, I'm sorry you haven't been evaluated."
"Where does that leave me concerning my wages? I've been expecting to be evaluated because I know I deserve one."
"She'll get to it soon, I'm sure."
"Why don't you evaluate me now?"
"Now?"
"Yeah. Would you evaluate me now? Is that something you do, as the owner of this restaurant? You've worked with me. You know I'm a hard worker in the kitchen."
"You are a hard worker. But you've been a disappointment. Honestly, you have."
"Really? How's that?"
"Because you simply do not care at all about presentation. And you have a terrible attitude."
Obviously, I was stunned to hear her go after what I consider to be two of my unyielding strengths: my work persona and my attention to detail. I decided right then I would quit.
"I have to say I take exception to that. And offense. Number one: I know for a fact that the rest of my co-workers love working with me because I am always willing to help, to do whatever I can for them, and because I make them laugh throughout the shift. I know that each day I work with Terrance means to him that there is someone in the kitchen with whom he can bond over music and movies, and whom he can depend on to back him up on the line when we're getting slammed between 6:00 and 7:30. I know that Terry loves working with me because I'm the only one here who can get over his or her personal dislike for the guy enough to compliment him for the excellent work he does for you as your catering chef. Pesci loves it when I work because I'll make him a senior split special an hour after that offer's over with, but it keeps repeat customers. Cass loves it when I work because I will always look out for her when she's swamped with tables in the bar. My attitude is one of the greatest tools your business has right now."
"But you're the only employee I have who talks back to me."
"That's because I'm the only employee who isn't afraid of you."
Her eyes got big and white and her head perked back like I'd swung at her face.
"I understand it. I get it," I said to her. "That's your MO. That's how you get bye, and that's fine. You've got to do whatever you've got to do, absolutely. But it is the way you are with people, and when someone pushes me, I push back. That's just the way I am. If you're going to be snide, smart, and aggressive with me, I will be snide, smart, and aggressive back. You get what you give.
"And secondly," I continued, "there is no way I'm going to let you accuse me of not appreciating presentation. I do--very much so--but my philosophy is that the food should be beautiful. It should be able to speak for itself, without the help of deep fried spinach and cucumber shavings and leek lotuses and huge flowering plants on every dish. There's an aesthetic way to present food that doesn't necessitate an extra hour of prep every afternoon while we're trying to keep up with your three page menu."
"Well, when I've worked with you, I haven't seen anything from you that's suggested you care."
"That's because I get frustrated when it takes you ten minutes to plate a dish that should have been on the floor 20 minutes ago. Presentation if important, but it certainly isn't more important than a dish getting out in a timely fashion, at the same time that the other dishes on the ticket are coming together. There's an important balance that should be struck there."
"Just tonight you didn't put the onions on that steak, and you lied to me. You lied to me." She called me a liar.
"I told you we didn't have them. We ran out last night and I didn't have time to make them because I was prepping things by the nature of their priority and everything trumped deep fried peppers."
"But you lied to me." She said I was a liar because "I could have made them in the beginning, when we were just opening, because we were slow to open."
"We were slow for two chefs on the line, but you were a half hour late to the line so I had to control both sides. I was by myself on the line for the first hour and a half. We were slow, but we weren't so slow that I wasn't always putting something on the grill or in the oven."
"How dare you call me late. I am never late to work. This is my life."
"Look, I know you live here and you work your ass off for this business that you own. I'm not accusing you of anything like that, and you know that. But you scheduled yourself to be on the line at 5:00PM--a whole hour after we've opened for happy hour--and then you don't even bother to show on the line until 30 minutes later. I couldn't fry onions for garnish because I was covering for you."
"Well, you could have taken the moment to fry them up when I asked why you didn't have them, but instead you had to talk back to me."
"I was cooking and plating five dinners at the moment. You were telling the Moldovan girls that you didn't like the way they were dressing the house salads. I'm sorry I didn't fry the onions. Where does this leave me? Am I not eligible for a raise because you disagree with my garnishing philosophy?"
"Sheila will be evaluating you, and I will be talking to your co-workers to hear their opinion."
"When will this happen?"
"I don't know. I'm very busy."
"I expected to be evaluated within 30 days of working here. I would like this to happen immediately."
"Then it will."
"By the beginning of this coming week?"
"Sure."
"And if I am to receive a raise after being evaluated, will it be appearing in this coming paycheck?"
"You would probably receive it as a bonus at the end of the season."
"And can you produce an estimate as to how much a bonus might be worth?"
"That would depend on the evaluation."
"Then I'd like to say once more that I would prefer to be evaluated immediately so that I can know where I stand."
"Sure."
"So there's that, and I need to see about my overtime by tomorrow."
"Well, that has to do with my payroll lady, who lives in Fraser, so I don't know if I'll be able to get in touch with her by tomorrow."
"As soon as possible, Carey."
We continued to talk about adjusting my hours for catering offsite over this current pay period, and about the schedule for tomorrow. As we were closing tonight, she asked me to come in from noon to close instead of from 9:00 to noon. My people in Denver are coming up to hang out. I told her I could come in to help open but couldn't stay to close, and then she decided she'd rather have her crew suffer than pay me the overtime I might slip into. Then she asked me if there was anything else I needed her to address.
"No, that's it."
"Ok then."
"Ok. Good work tonight."
"Thanks. You too."
So these are the conditions going into this coming week: I need to be paid, in hand, for the hours of overtime she owes me. I need to be evaluated by Sheila, and by my co-workers. I need to be proposed either an hourly wage increase or an end-of-season bonus sum. The proposal needs to be worth it to put up with this woman. And it has to happen by Monday. Or else I will be living permanently in Denver, and she will be out a line cook for the weekend and the last month of peak season.
Anyway. How are you?