Monday, September 13, 2010

They come and they go....

Tonight was supposed to be an easy one. Three cooks were scheduled for a Monday night, and I was to be the first one cut. I figured I'd be out the door before nine.

So naturally, a cook vanished. He didn't show up, he didn't call, so they just took him off the schedule, forever. This meant I would have to close. Two cooks on a Monday isn't a problem though. I was just hoping we wouldn't get busy. So of course, it was busy. But everything went fine, I'm just tired now.

I'm am wondering what happened to the missing cook though. Unfortunately, I'll probably never find out. That's kind of the way it works in this industry.

At a normal job, people would attempt to find out where their fellow employee was, and what had happened to them. If I were an accountant, and the guy who sat at the desk next to mine just didn't appear one day, everyone would be worried. There would be repeated attempts to contact him, or his family, to make sure he was OK.

But in the kitchen, it's different. If a guy doesn't show up for his shift at 5pm, the boss generally calls one time, around 5:15 or 5:30. If there's no answer, and he hasn't been heard from by about 6pm, they just declare him fired and mail a paycheck to his last known address. And that's it. Over and done with. Shuffle the schedule around and look for some other live body to fill the space on the line.

Truthfully, the industry behaves this way because cooks are, by their very nature, somewhat erratic and odd people. Some are dependable and reasonable, yet a large percentage of them are fringe characters. And at any moment, they could be gone. They simply vanish, with little or no explanation as to why or where they are going. It happens frequently enough that no one is surprised.

He could be anywhere. Anything could have happened. Maybe he's locked up somewhere. Maybe he got the shit kicked out of him trying to sell stolen jewelry on the street. Maybe he just cracked up and decided he was finished. Perhaps he's hundreds of miles away, ripped out of his mind on a three day cocaine binge. Maybe he just forgot he worked today. Or perhaps he just decided to SAY that he forgot his schedule. Who knows. Really, it doesn't even matter. He's gone. I'm just left wondering, but soon I will forget about him all together.

At least there are some more hours available now.

So I'm just going to relax now, have a few drinks, and sleep late on my off day tomorrow. It's a little after midnight, which means it's now officially my birthday, which according to my rules indicates that I'm allowed to behave however I please for the next 24 hours.

When I do eventually decide to get out of bed, I'm considering eating a pound of bacon, and then sleeping for another hour. After that, who knows...

3 comments:

  1. Ahhh, the old no show...wonder if he will be back tomorrow....

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  2. I don't think so. He knew the rules. Wasn't a bad cook either. Didn't seem too unhappy. He'd been there a year. But who knows what the hell happened to him.

    I'd like to hear some of your stories about this type of thing, being as you spent decades running kitchens and restaurants. Perhaps you should blog? I'm sure you have some tales lol...

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  3. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

    We usually at least make contact with our missing cooks. Most of the time, they are in jail, but sometimes they just decide they are done.

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