Work Update

[ryanreacts]

Last week was the last time I will ever tolerate FOH treating any dishwasher like Cinderella.

On My Thursday, I vented to Colleen about how frustrated I am that I keep begging for kindergarten-level respect and not getting it. She said that of course she can talk to her staff, but she strongly recommended that I talk to Diana, a new higher-up. Not sure of her exact title, but she is technically the boss of almost everyone who works in F & B here. 

Of course that made me very nervous, but Colleen mentioned that she is a queer woman and that helped put me at ease. So she sent an email on my behalf requesting a meeting the next day when my shift started at 6:00.

On My Friday, a few minutes after I clocked in Colleen introduced me to Diana.

Yeah, it was a great meeting. She assured me that it was a safe space, and I did my best to explain exactly why I am struggling so much. I mentioned a bit of everything: dead dad, history of abuse, depression, anxiety, can't get diagnosed but likely autistic, can't get diagnosed but definitely have ADHD, every fucking day is an epic struggle, my schedule is brutal, can't talk to Chef because he's a grown-up man.

But the thing is, even without all of those contributing factors that I personally have to handle, she ALSO 100% agreed with me that we do have a weird disconnect between FOH and the dishwashers. 

And that even though it isn't technically a "rule" that they enforce, good servers obviously SHOULD scrape and sort their dirty dishes. The end.

She really liked the idea of stressing how important this is every time they have a pre-shift huddle. I said that made sense.

Another thing I said was, "No matter how annoyed I am, I cannot confront anyone directly. The grown-ups will have to make sure everyone understands that this is a rule now."

She said it might take a few days, but she would definitely talk to the right people and make them start being considerate. She also said that we have two new dishwashers who just arrived and for some reason they were both going to The Ranch, but she can send one of them to us!

So I left this meeting feeling great, feeling like change is actually going to happen.

A few hours later, after everyone else had left, I was taking a break from my one-man war against floor dirt when Alex walked in and vented to me about this exact same issue.

Because it isn't just me: FOH is inconsiderate of The Dishwasher, full stop. 
And we could obviously get the fuck out of there faster if they would be more considerate, so even though he is usually very friendly and chatty with them individually, Alex and I both resent FOH in general right now. 

He's really pissed at one specific server because he tried to respectfully ask why they dropped off a dish in such an obviously inconsiderate way --- and they slammed it down and yelled, "Why does it fucking matter?!"

Remember how I told Diana that no matter how annoyed I am, I cannot confront anyone directly?
NOT 
ANY
MORE

Alex is (obviously) my favorite person in that entire fucking kitchen.

This particular server is On Notice, and I spent pretty much all of My Sunday waiting to wake up on My Monday so I could walk in, grab Kristen and Michelle (one grown-up from BOH and one from FOH so I can make sure that everyone actually communicates and understands this), and calmly explain, "Last week was the last time FOH will treat the human dishwasher like an appliance. You have to scrape off your dirty dishes and sort them for us because the seconds it takes us to do them for you very quickly turn into minutes, which turn into hours, which turn into the human dishwasher being here until 3:00 AM. This is unacceptable, and I no longer accept it. You used to treat us like trash, and now you don't. It's over."

And, more or less, I did exactly that.

Even though I have individually complained to every single FOH grown-up about this exact problem several times since Christmas Eve, it just keeps happening. Something about asking politely over and over and over never got through to them, but after talking to Diana I was empowered enough to TELL THEM TO DO IT, and it fucking worked!

I don't know what Michelle said to her people, but I did not need to confront a single one of them! 

All of a fucking sudden, like a miracle, they CAN take a few seconds to be good coworkers, and WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT, all of a fucking sudden, I don't have to spend my entire shift wondering how the fuck I'm possibly going to keep up with all of the work that I have to do! Cause and effect!

I don't have his number, so I might go say hello to Alex after dinner, just to check in and make sure they are also scraping & sorting for him.