Is this really happening?

So I’m scheduled to go in during the early afternoon. This is perfect for me because it gives me plenty of time to get the line set up to my liking and also gives me a chance to get a handle on the unfinished prep, which there is always a lot of. I’m in a good mood when I get there and go about my business.

Then the GM comes back and tells me there is another meeting, however this one is only for the kitchen staff. Well shit. There goes an hour of my time, wasted in my opinion. The meeting covers basic crap no one will ever follow. Certain things have been brought up before and disregarded just the same. Other cooks are interjecting with their dumb opinions about nothing really. I think they just like to feel heard and somewhat important, which they’re not. Damn it! Quit wasting my precious time with this mundane garbage and let me go back to work already.

Something sticks out to me during the course of the conversations. There is this one cook, who is normally fairly quiet, really commenting on most every topic and chatting a lot. Doesn’t really dawn on me as anything out of the normal I guess, until later, just a bit odd at the time. After we wrap up, he is asked to stay behind and talk to the GM and KM. I figured he was going to be given a raise or promotion or something of the like, as he is a good cook and excellent worker in general, plus an all around nice guy. There isn’t anyone who doesn’t like him, me included.

I head back to the kitchen, now almost an hour behind, and kick it into high gear. I manage to get everything situated and supper service is right around the corner. Another cook arrives, which was the one singled out, and I tell him I’m going to go out and grab a quick smoke before the tickets start pouring in.

I come back in and notice him just going to town with a brillo pad and cleaning whatever he can get his hands on. That’s not uncommon of him at all, but he's never done this at the beginning of service. He always comes in, checks the line to see if it’s stocked, and then grabs his position for the evening. That’s cool though, I can hold down the line solo for awhile. Maybe they were talking to him about cleaning, I don’t know.

I ask him if he received a promotion. He just chuckled and said, “Yeah right.” I replied that I only inquired because he was asked to stay behind, and I figured it was something like that. He said, “No, they wanted to talk to me because I was slow yesterday.” What does that even mean? So I push the conversation further. He re-affirms it was because he was sluggish on service the prior night. Still confused, I tell him that really doesn’t make any sense. He states it was because he didn’t get any sleep due to all the driving he did to and from a concert in a neighboring city. Oh yeah, that’s right, I remember. He did have to leave late after work and come back the next day, so he probably didn’t get much, if any, sleep. I know what that’s like, you are basically a zombie, so I can understand if he was “sluggish”.

He’s down by the deep fryers cleaning like a mad man and I’m cooking tickets here and there. On one particular ticket, I get an appetizer. He notices and says he’ll make it so I can get the other tickets plated. He prepares the appetizer and places it in the salamander to finish melting the cheese. I was thinking, “Damn, that was fast! Must be a new record for that item.” He walks off the line and I go to retrieve said item. I notice it wasn’t made correctly. It looked right, though he didn’t deep fry the product. Well I can’t use that so I start making a new one, plus, that’s why it was done so fast.

I am in the middle of redoing the appetizer and he comes back. He just looks at what I’m doing, a bit confused, and goes back to scrubbing. I jokingly say, “Did you happen to miss a step?” He looks at the messed up item and says, “Shit!” We both have a chuckle. After all, these things do happen. No big deal really. But something is off with him in general.

The closing cook comes in finally and he asks me, “So, how is he tonight?” I reply, “So weird you would ask that. He is acting a bit funny tonight.” He grimaces and begins to tell me how he was all wacked out the night before, which was my day off. It took him twenty-five minutes to prepare one pasta dish because he was getting confused. What!? That’s not even possible. He went on to say that is why the GM and KM wanted to talk to him. He was high out of his mind in the prior service, and they sent him home for two hours to try to sober up. I was shocked because he’s NEVER done anything like this the whole time I’ve been here. I guess some people get a little leniency on the zero tolerance policy, and understandably so as, like I said before, this guy is a good cook and great worker.

As the night goes on, the high dude is messing things up and basically making my night hell. He is trying to cook all the while ferociously cleaning random items. I just start watching what he’s preparing and try to supplement all of his missed crap, while doing the other stations. He’s really beginning to upset me because I have to fix all his fuck ups on the fly and it’s getting tiresome. He’s burning half of the food, missing drops, and screwing the simplest dishes up. Damn, he is really high again, now there is no doubt. I’ve been around many people that were high, though never seen anyone act like this before. So strange. I ask the other cook what he thinks he’s messed up on and he says, “Meth, no doubt in my mind. He used to be a huge tweaker and quit. Guess he’s back on it again.” Wow, now I’m starting to get worried.

He’s obviously a danger to himself, and probably us too. He shouldn’t even be here trying to prepare food. Now I’m starting to get really pissed and a bit freaked out. I don’t want to be anywhere near him. I tell my co-worker that I’m beginning my cut work and getting the hell out of this fuckin’ zoo. This is the last straw. He says that’s fine and shortly after, calls the KM at home to tell him what’s going on again. The KM says he’ll talk to him tomorrow. Fuck that, get your ass up here and deal with this situation now you idiot. Should I really be surprised though?

We tell the front manager. She basically says to just let him finish up his shift and go home. WTF? Are you kidding me? God, these people! This place needs to be shut down while they hire an entire new crew. These incompetent managers need to be fired. They are knowingly letting an employee who is off his rocker high on meth, work with dangerous equipment, knives that can cut appendages off, and handle FOOD. I mean seriously. I just can’t believe this garbage day after day after day…

I do my shift ending work and bounce as quickly as possible. It was really close to closing time anyways so the other cook didn’t have to deal with him by himself for very long. I have a meeting with the KM this morning anyways to discuss my future here and will find out what happened or will happen to this guy today. I’m really thinking of telling him I’m going to bail because it’s one retarded episode after another with this place. I honestly don’t think I can tolerate any more. It’s just so unbelievable.

If I go, they are really screwed. We are short a number of cooks as it is, with no applications, and now another has gone back to doing meth again, and I’m one foot out the door. I’m going to express my sincere disappointment with everything I don’t like about this place when we chat today. I’m not holding anything back. I’m too fed up. Either I will walk out with a substantial increase in wage or leave with a pending notice of resignation. I’m thinking there is no way he’ll let me just go; he literally can’t, especially if the other guy gets fired, which by all standards, he does deserve to.

I’ll probably post in a day or so what happens in our private meeting and what their solution to our new meth head is. I can’t wait. So, until then, in another miserable day in the life of a line cook.