a new position

I have started working a new station at the restaurant. I still work dinner service, but now I am mostly the "dominant" dinner service person. My position is responsible for assembling and baking off most of the desserts we serve. I have approximately 4 hours to construct and bake: individual bread puddings, pineapple upside down cakes, apple clafoutis, chocolate tarts and bacon chocolate tarts. I also have to make various batters for those items every other day or so. All in all, it is a lot to do. Oh, and I also have to get all that crap up to the station as well as all the ice creams we will use throughout the night. All in 4 hours. If I had to just assemble and bake things it would be fine, but the moment I have to add to my list everything falls to shit because I don't have enough time. Actually, I am supposed to make candied peanuts and apple brandy sauce as well, but have yet to do either because I never have time to. Someone else has always had to help me out with those items.

I don't find it a stressful position, but I have a lot to get done and don't see how I can go any faster. I don't really stop and chat with people, and I eat my meal bites at a time while doing my work. I may start timing my different tasks to see which are eating up most of my time.

uh..............

After work today a number of us (pastry and culinary united!) went out for drinks. As we were leaving the bar, one guy declared, "I love you! I am so glad you work with us. You're almost as obnoxious as me." Now, I can totally understand how anyone may consider this guy obnoxious. He is loud, boitserous and references his penis (in positives and negatives) a lot. I, on the other hand, do not do those things (as far as I recall) so I am not sure if I should be complimented by the "almost as obnoxious as me" comment or not.

Douchey McDouche-a-lot

Last night I had a minor run in with someone in management at the restaurant. I was working dinner service alone because my partner was setting up for a party. I had a few tickets up and I was a little behind on some because of an error on one of the tickets. I had to wait until I got the correction. While trying to take care of the late ticket, another ticket for a cookie plate printed up. Cookie plates are no effort at all, but I decided to finish what I was doing and send the cookies out right after. While still trying to finish the late ticket, the general manager came up asking about the ticket. Perhaps he does not intend his tone, but I really do not find it respectful. I do a lot of work for very little money. It shouldn't be hard to approach me respectfully. I didn't say anything to him, instead I grabbed the ticket and the cookies and handed them to him. I assume my body language revealed my feelings because he then asked, "Is there a problem?" He didn't ask in a way to reflect real concern. Instead, he asked in the manner a teacher would use to cut down an ill-mannered student. I will not accept anyone talking to me in this manner, especially in a work environment. I do not care what position you hold in the workplace hierarchy. So I replied "no" and gave a brief rundown of the importance of the ticket he interrupted. Please keep in mind that I do not mind the interruption. I mind how I was interrupted. If the stupid cookies were to be rushed, he should have added that to the ticket OR have said he needed them now in a more polite tone.

In the end, he did not say anything further to me, instead he talked to Chef. What exactly he said, I do not know. She came up and asked how things were going. I knew why she was there so I basically asked if she was visiting because someone called her. I then explained the brief exchange. She then told that this guy is the general manager and warned me to watch how I speak to him. She then said something about having heard other people claiming to have issues with his tone at times, but she has never witnessed it. I somewhat doubt that, but Chef is far better at not rocking the boat than I (oh, and she is the Pastry Chef afterall, so I doubt he would ever be patronizing to her.)