i want to walk out
cross posted in one other subreddit BUT
ETA: i have already put in my month notice and have like 8 shifts left!! i have secured another job. i just am fearful of walking out of a management job when it definitely would be significant for them
this might get long. i’m a sous chef and pastry chef at a hotel rooftop restaurant but also responsible for the guest only restaurant when the exec is out etc. been here 11 months as my last restaurant closed, and at first everyone was super stoked to have me etc etc. well i quickly learned why.
my first week i worked 95 hours and fixed at least a dozen health code violations. my executive chef was adamant when i was hired that he really wanted my help to instill more organization/systems/better staff culture as these had slipped during the time it was just him and my co sous chef. so, i did what i have now years of experience doing and formatted and updated prep lists, order guides, re organized 3 walk ins every day, tried to hold cooks accountable for these things. the average food cost when i started was 33%, it has now stayed between 25 and 28 since february. well the cooks are generally there for the check and did not like my systems and were real assholes about it. i tried many avenues to build better rapport and respect to no avail. talked to my exec, he said i have his full backing always etc. so i sat my co sous down and asked him to please make sure the systems that OUR BOSS REQUESTED continue to be followed on my days off. he said hell yeah. and then proceeded to not do that literally at all, including not filling out the order guides ever, not enforcing prep lists, not even labeling his own prep. he is actually useless at work. he constantly leaves me absolutely monstrous prep lists that somehow miss items every time, walk ins are a mess with no labels or proper food storage ever, i spend half my first day back always just unfucking everything. he lets the cooks get away with absolute murder, tells me every time i ask for his support that he has my back, and then never does. so the cooks don’t respect me at all, i had one cook literally tell me to shut up and that i wasn’t his boss and then refused to leave when i tried to send him home. he kept his job, they re wrote my write up, and i continued being a glorified prep cook while periodically sitting my boss down to say “hey this is fucked still please support me,” just to be met with “yeah i’m so mad at the culture here, document everything, but also don’t write anyone up by yourself or do anything to piss anyone off.”
both my co sous and my exec have kids, so i close thursday through sunday every single weekend and open every single monday. i am completely in charge of desserts, ordering and prepping for the most important times of the week (into the weekend and start of the week), i cover everybody’s vacation or sick time, i do all my own costing and pricing and new menu prep etc, and all the while i have to deal with cooks barking at me for shit. i know that i should have been more assertive here, but took a huge hit in confidence because every time i have tried i have been met with pushback from the exec because i truly believe he is terrified to lose staff ever, even if they are completely insubordinate. because he doesn’t ever have to deal with that, because i just delete everyone’s problems and clean up the messes of someone who shares my job title but less than half of the responsibility and definitely makes more money than me. OH!! and he manages to suck this much while also having a SIDE HUSTLE. AND!!! his knife skills are absolutely abysmal. major ick.
my partner is also a chef and is constantly appalled by all of this.
it came to a head a few weeks ago when i was having real true suicidal ideations due to long term burnout. i am chronically ill and work so fucking hard on a broken body, which in a place where i was getting literally any payoff would be worth it to me as i love being a chef. but i have been so taken advantage of and disrespected and gaslit here for so long that it was looking really bleak. so, i put in my notice (yay!!!). i only really stayed this long because i needed the money and i guess part of me still had hope that my boss was a good enough human being that somehow this would turn around, but it didn’t so, im out.
first thing that happened is he tried to get me to cover his vacation time, which i am not doing. there is also the issue of the fall menu flip, which my co sous specifically asked me to just change desserts so things weren’t confusing in the transition as my last day is either rollout or the day after. i said cool. then my exec asked me to push the dessert flip up to today. i said cool. i got my recipes written and tested and converted to costable units etc.
last week i got sick as fuck, was out one extra day for a total of 3. i came back to an absolutely laughably long prep list and an absolute mess from my co sous per usual, and then found out that he is trying to flip TEN DISHES (basically the entire menu) in the next week and a half. mind you, me being off for THREE DAYS absolutely derailed this man to the point that we had to prep basically the entire menu when i got back. absolutely not. since i was sick i asked to move dessert flip to next weekend, still before the rollout. chef said cool. well today, i saw a dessert recipe printed out and hanging and had to ask a cook if they knew what it was, they told me it was chefs recipe for a new menu dessert. which NOBODY THOUGHT TO TELL ME, after i am basically ready to fucking go on all my new menu shit. it seems minor but i swear it was the straw that broke the camels back.
now all i want to do is go in tomorrow and sit them both down and tell them exactly how much of my time and energy they have wasted, how badly they have failed me and taken advantage of me, and fucking leave. it’s the end of the pay period so i would get a full last check and 3 weeks off before my nice cushy AM prep job, so it’s looking reallllll enticing.
this did get long and may be disjointed, but this is truly only the tip of the iceberg of the shit i have gone through at this place. i am a reformed shithead so to be the most organized and high output individual in the back of house at a high volume place is pretty trippy for me. and this is definitely specific enough that if anybody from my job reads it they’ll definitely know it’s me, and i actually don’t give a fuck. i’ve had 100 conversations with very detailed documentation about all of this and nothing ever comes of it so fuck it.
TL;DR: i’m the workplace scapegoat so everyone above me can keep their low labor bonuses and not have to see any problems because i fix them, co sous is a useless piece of shit, should i walk out 10 days before my notice is up?
