Organizational Chaos

What is important in running a pastry production kitchen effectively?

a) working tirelessly day and night to make sure everything is not only in good quantity but also of excellent quality.
b) managing manpower effectively so as not to tire out existing staff members
c) making above mentioned staff feel appreciated at the enormous load of work they need to deal with it daily.
d) giving support to your staff in the form of encouragement and backing them up when shit hits the fan because you KNOW they've poured all their energy to making beautiful desserts.

What creates respect for staff for their pastry chef?
1) Refined pastry skills in chocolate or sugar work
2) The ability to make staff feel appreciated, feel like family
3) Time management and people management skills

Now what happens if the above mentioned pastry chef fails in all three endeavors?


Pastry Kitchen Weekly Briefing

Scene 1

Chef : So, are you happy working here?
Commis 2 : Not really
Chef : Why?
Commis 2 : Because we have so much work to do and not one chef is helping us out, and when something goes wrong, we get all the shit.
Chef : Well if you can't take the work load, just quit, when can i get your letter?


Scene 2

Chef: I have never seen so many people taking medical leave in one year.
Commis 2 : We are all tired chef, some of us work 20 hours a day. so we get sick lo..
Chef: You'll NEVER see me taking a medical leave.

And lo and behold, two days later, our chef was down with food poisoning.... had to take MC..

We call it KETULAHAN...


Scene 3

Staff on MC and called in sick because of high fever

Chef (in an SMS): MC? What sick? and for how long? Or do you just want to spend time with your boyfriend?

****************************************

And so, people quit en masse... our pastry kitchen was once 22 people strong, and within a span of 6 months we've dwindled down to 9 fulltime staff and 4 part timers..

So we pull together, work hard, cover our own assess because goodness knows they won't come through for us.

We've got great cooperation, great teamwork, too bad it's all done against them, if only they knew how much easier it could've been to win us over instead of being all Nazi on us.

We're not cows to be traded like livestock...

We're skilled professionals

We're not uneducated impressionable children...

We're smart cookies

We're not robots, even robots need to get recharged when batteries are low...

We're people with emotions and feelings

***********************************