Brief but thorough?

Yeah, I know it's been a bit since my last post. I've been so damn busy with what's been going on. The only thing keeping me going is excitement mostly. My final days at this restaurant have been the most trying as any in my time here.

Drama! Drama! Oh my God, I have no clue how I could even begin to describe the horror this place has been exposed to in the recent weeks. I'll throw out there that the GM has been working sixteen hour days and the assistant GM just finished up a TWENTY-SEVEN hour day this morning. Yeah, you both should make out okay here, at least until the psychosis sets in.

Some highlights; Since the GM has been working on the line for the last week, we've been getting along really well. When I want to smoke, I tell him to go take a five, get some air, clear your head, and then I'm going to do the same after. The first few times he's flat out said, "Nah, if I sit down I won't want to get back up." Well duh, I don't sit down though go outside to smoke and get away from this shithole of a kitchen for just a few minutes. It makes all the difference, believe me. So anyways, he declines my offers for the entire first day. Kudos to you.

Day two of the same working conditions. He's a cook now to cover for his shortage. I'm his co-worker and the normal tornado of customers come in. When there is a small hiccup in orders I tell him the same speech, "Go take five, get some air and relax for a few." He again declines saying he'll be fine. I take mine and get refocused. When I come back I tell him, "You're gonna break." He smiles and says nothing and I repeat, "You will break." and go back to work. It wasn't a taunt or anything on my part, I just knew it was inevitable and wanted him to know that it's okay to show some vulnerability, especially working in the worst part of this establishment.

A few hours later, I re-propose yet again. He takes the opportunity, finally. Straight out I say, "It's a five and I'll be timing you.", as I look up at the digital clock. He laughs and walks off. I was serious though. I don't even take five minutes to do what I do, he's had multiple opportunities to do the same, and now that he finally took one doesn't mean they are all added together. I'm not shitting you, he came back on the line, looked at the clock, and said, "It was less than five minutes." I was floored and smiled accordingly.

Okay, that was the end of that day, not really, but what was pertinent in my eyes.

The day after was the same for the most part. I could easily tell that his mood shifted and he didn't want anything to do with cooking anymore. I did the same as before and told him to go grab a five because I was going to right after. He took each offer and robustly abused it. I did the same in retaliation. Before I left for the day I asked him, "Can I get the address and phone number where you'll be staying so I can send a card, flowers and my condolences?" Confused, he replied, "What do you mean?" I went on to say, "I would like the state institution you'll be confined to so I can send my sympathies. You're gonna break eventually man." The thing is, I was serious though. It's only a matter of time considering he's still trying to do his management duties, plus a lot more than cooking hours. The day ends and I go home.

The next day I come in and he's doing the serving, host, cook, prep and bakery duties all concurrently. He's been there for hours and only left maybe eight hours earlier to get some kind of sleep. He tells me that the prep cook called in sick, sweet Jesus, who would have predicted that? Yeah, should be expected by now but the call-ins are a bit random still, especially with no consequence, so. I tell him, "I'll hold down the line and prep as much as I can.", and we both go our separate ways. I do my best to get as much done as possible. It works for the first hour.

His beautiful projections only called for a forty hour so of course there wasn't any help on the way any time soon, what meager help it would have been, though still another body. We got rocked so bad until the first waitress showed up as he scheduled. He threw on an apron and tried to help me recover. It was such a mess no matter how hard we tried. I'm not sure if anyone understands how hard it is for one cook to actually "cook" for one hundred people in one hour; it's tough with even two, even in this kitchen that is somewhat set up for it. It's impossible, flat out, impossible. When he actually had time to jump in and try to help, there was just no way. On top of that, everything we needed prepped had run dry...blah, just disgusting. He calls in a hostess and gets geared to spend another day exclusively in the kitchen.

So horrible. We get a small lull in tickets and I tell him to go take five as I'm going to after. He doesn't hesitate and bolts. When he comes back I do the same. When I come back there are six tickets hanging and he's scrambling so bad. As I walk by to my side I view the tickets. They are six tickets in total, all amounting to twelve people. The thing is that this menu is so God damn complex that what he has on those six tickets make it extremely tough to cook at the same time. Ten damn steps for each individual item. I took the opportunity as I passed to say, "When you chat with your corporate superiors, you should give them an idea I've been thinking about." I wait for his reply, "What do you mean?" I go on to say, "We really need to expand this menu. It's so limited." The GM knows I'm talking shit but he now understands why I'm talking shit; because he's trying to cook for twelve measly people but is having a very hard time doing it.

Here's the thing that stuck out to me. He agreed that the menu is tough to cook but doable. In his words, "What makes it even harder is all of these stupid substitutions. These customers are so unbelievable. How can they expect all of this?!" Whoa, he's finally breaking. He's becoming, oh my goodness, as bad a me?! Good, glad you got to walk a few days in my shoes here.

Fast forward to today. Horrible, oh my, so horrible. Same thing. Out of the blue we got rocked so hard and he had to help cook earlier than expected. By the end of the shift he actually said to me, "I have the address if you still want it." I didn't know what he was talking about and replied accordingly. He went on to say, "For the mental institution." , and he cracked a smile. I said back seriously, "Are you fried yet?" and he said, "I think so." I told him to go do his shit and I'll clean and restock as much as I could between tickets. Both sides were completely trashed. He asked me if I'd stay until five (three hours after my shift ended) and I just looked at him solemnly and said, "No." I went on to say, "Just go take your five and get some fresh air. It's beautiful outside." He did just that. It wasn't a five though, it was a forty-five. The tickets subsided and I managed to get both sides cleaned and back up to exceptional standards. He came back and apologized for taking so long and had some excuse I wasn't listening to, it didn't matter, this dude needed a mental break and I was happy to give it to him, even though he deserved every bit of what atmosphere he's created here.

I do pity this guy and his little lap dog, but it's his restaurant and he makes every little single decision accordingly to what he decides. He has his bosses too, but he's so concerned with making number one top sales and GM performance standards. Yes, he's bragged that he's the number one GM in the entire Midwest region in all of the corporate restaurants. So, it's his own doing. And his assistant decided to hitch his wagon to this horse, so, no one is to blame except them.

I have one day left until my time is done. The KM has five. We are easily their two strongest cooks/workers. The KM has been out on vacation for the last eight days, so they got to see how it was just missing one fantastic employee. After Sunday, it's neither of our problems anymore, and God help them, as smug as it sounds, they are so fucked, I can't even imagine how they will function in any form.

Okay, brief but thorough turned into long and no so thorough. I just touched on some points of interest. I actually proofread this post before I hit the publish button. It appears a bit lame to me but I'll leave it just the same. Wow, if I only had time to post what is in my brain.

I have and am going for a fantastic investment opportunity. I will elaborate on it when I find time as it has me running back and forth from cities most chances I get. When I'm officially done working, it will be way more intense as I'm throwing in a lot of money and all of my time. I will even give away the actual franchises' names of the two I have been writing about sooner or later. I'm going in with everything I have as when I was offered this unbelievable connection and actually had time to check it out substantially, I couldn't say no. I've been meeting with investors, city council members, city planners, and area banks who would like to offer me grants and 0% startup loans. It's just amazing all around. Until then, in another day in the life of a line cook.