Spend pretty much the last week staying at home doing absolutely nothing productive, it's like reliving the days before I enlisted into the army, except now I'm no longer playing any MMOs so my time now passes by even more slowly.
Been playing a bit of Minecraft lately in my time of idleness, attempted to built a roller coaster that wasn't as roller coaster as I had hoped it would be.
The reason why I have such a long break is because I told my Head Chef that I will be unavailable for the Christmas period, mainly because I want to avoid the Christmas crowd, which I am not sure if there are many or not, a legitimate question, since I pretty much spend my Christmas at home doing exactly what I am doing now... and I assume most people would spend their Christmas at home having dinner with their families like mine during Christmas Eve.
Plus I am about to quit soon in about a week or two and I would rather have them not call me back for anymore shift even though I told them I was available for 3 more shift slots, which I am not really excited to be slotted for. Just let me go sooner, it will happen eventually, whether it's amicable or not I still don't know... the last one who quit did not go amicably and the reason the Chef Trainer gave me was because she had "girl problems", which I initially thought was menstrual problem because in my head, I just made that connection. But it obviously wasn't, the only time that reason worked was in Secondary School during Swimming... a reason I was almost going to give to the teachers to be excused from Swimming myself until I realized I lacked the necessary body parts required for that to happen.
I actually managed to find work in a Pastry Central Kitchen for a pastry shop a few days ago where the pay is higher and the stress level is hopefully lower, they are paying me a dollar more per hour than my current restaurant, which when I calculated and converted to a per month salary, is still below minimum wage, I love baking but I also like having cash in my bank account every now and then for spending. I couldn't spend my money this month and last without feeling guilty after hitting the "Accept" button for my credit card credentials confirmation... Minecraft was not cheap and I don't like getting games from Piratebay, it would really suck if I were to have built an empire in Minecraft only to have the game crash and lose all it's data because of some bug. I probably won't have the patience to "built an empire", I can't even built a proper house without restarting the game but I like to be safe in the miraculous event I do built an empire.
And so I have decided to give my career as a Pastry Cook a 3 - 6 months probation period before deciding if it's worth it ,monetary wise, because right now, it's not. My last pay check was only $200, granted I didn't work much because the Chef Trainer only gave me like a few days worth of work, half of which I worked my ass off in the kitchen. I did not feel good receiving that salary at all. 3 to 6 months in the new Pastry Central Kitchen to see if it's because the current restaurant I am working in is just shit or I am the one who is a shit asset to the F&B industry.
Good thing I have my Diploma in Interior Design. In the beginning, I had this constant nagging feeling because I did not give the F&B industry a chance and instead just gave up on it entirely, that's partly why I hated my Interior Design job so much, but now that I have and so far it's not looking very good, if I were to actually go back to Interior Design, I will definitely be more open to learning the ropes... except maybe not in the same company anymore because I seriously can't stand the people there.
Passion or Pay. I would go with the latter and do the former at home, during my free time and actually be able to enjoy doing it instead of getting a panic attack because "the customers have already been waiting for an hour... no pressure but hurry up with the other seven million orders as well"
Tuesday 24 December 2013
Wednesday 18 December 2013
Not dedicated to just ranting...
It's pretty obvious from the last few post that I've written (which I have reconverted back into a draft because I sound like a super annoying whiner).... I'm not having the grandest time working in a restaurant.
Which is why I have decided to leave the restaurant and look for work in a Pastry Shop rather than in a Pastry Kitchen in a restaurant that happens to serve desserts on the side. Was asked by my manager why I wanted to quit and I told her because of the level of stress I was going through, to which she replied...
"It's only because of the promotion period, that's why it's so rush, after that everything won't be so busy anymore."
... to which I couldn't use the stress as an excuse and had to quickly think of another answer, which is because their pastry kitchen isn't really a kitchen I want to work in. It's just a small section in a restaurant and the truth is, (I didn't tell her this part but said something similar) choosing to work there was my last option when I was sending out my resume after completing my certificate program. None of the other bakeries I applied to got back to me and only the restaurant did.
And what happens when you have to settle for something less than what you wanted... a repeat of my interior design work life... granted the people in my restaurant are much friendlier than those in my interior design firm... well the waiters, managers and the part-timers are anyways, the full time cooks on the other hand are a different story, probably because they are on the verge of losing their sanity from working 10 to 12 hours everyday non-stop in the kitchen. Which is why now I feel for cooks working in a busy restaurant on the weekends, I have been there and it's not fun to be stuck in that situation of having just completed an order, only to have 3 new ones pop up.... the most being 6 popping up at once because the table of friends all ordered different types of desserts.
The good thing is that the kitchen has finally found more part time pastry cooks, all 3 happen to be friends with each other... and my Chef Trainer showed up today to over look how they work, all I can say is if I were to be spoken to like that on my first day, I would probably quit the following week. They are just students who are working to make some extra money on the side while waiting for their A Level results, not doing it to support their family or whatever super important reason.
It's only their second day of work and she was really strict with their attire, from their Chef Uniform to their hair, to the shoes they were wearing and her tone was really fierce as well... completely different from when she was teaching me and the first pastry cook I was working with. The manager told her to be firm with the employees and she is now really showing her authoritative figure, but I would tone it down a little considering the fact that you are speaking to a dying breed of cooks in your restaurant that you are severely lacking... the last thing you want to do is scare them off.
The fact that they are all friends makes it even more dangerous because if you were to offend one, it's equivalent to offending all 3, and if all 3 of them left, the pastry kitchen will be royally screwed over. They are in the process of opening a second branch... I don't know how they are going to be able to operate it when their first branch is already running low on manpower.
I actually felt a bit bad for the new cooks, it's the same feeling I get when I just finished my Basic Military Training and I see new recruits lining up outside the Ferry Terminal waiting to board the Ferry to get stuck in Tekong for their confinement period for the next few weeks before being able to come back to Mainland Singapore again. You feel bad for them, but you are glad you are not them, but in the case of the pastry cook, I feel bad for them and myself because we are all stuck in the same situation, except I actually understand the consequences of working there in the long run.
In the past it was always the restaurant who was managing my schedule, now they are planning my schedule around my free time... and that was before I told them I was going to quit, after telling them, they are begging me to stay a little longer, which I agreed to because I am a bloody idiot. It's not going to happen though, the moment I get my pay check for the month, I am out of that place and will start cooking up some excuse as to why I can't go back there.
I am leaving the job because of the stressful environment caused by both the work pace, with their "freshly baked as you order" motto which I can seriously do without, there is a difference between freshly baked everyday with things like cakes and tarts and freshly baked as you order which are items like souffles, and I would much rather be doing the former than the latter anytime....and the people, mainly the full timer, more mainly the hot kitchen cook, who are on the verge of having a mental breakdown, there's no way I am going to go back there. I thought working in a new restaurant that just set up was a good idea, I was wrong.
Which is why I have decided to leave the restaurant and look for work in a Pastry Shop rather than in a Pastry Kitchen in a restaurant that happens to serve desserts on the side. Was asked by my manager why I wanted to quit and I told her because of the level of stress I was going through, to which she replied...
"It's only because of the promotion period, that's why it's so rush, after that everything won't be so busy anymore."
... to which I couldn't use the stress as an excuse and had to quickly think of another answer, which is because their pastry kitchen isn't really a kitchen I want to work in. It's just a small section in a restaurant and the truth is, (I didn't tell her this part but said something similar) choosing to work there was my last option when I was sending out my resume after completing my certificate program. None of the other bakeries I applied to got back to me and only the restaurant did.
And what happens when you have to settle for something less than what you wanted... a repeat of my interior design work life... granted the people in my restaurant are much friendlier than those in my interior design firm... well the waiters, managers and the part-timers are anyways, the full time cooks on the other hand are a different story, probably because they are on the verge of losing their sanity from working 10 to 12 hours everyday non-stop in the kitchen. Which is why now I feel for cooks working in a busy restaurant on the weekends, I have been there and it's not fun to be stuck in that situation of having just completed an order, only to have 3 new ones pop up.... the most being 6 popping up at once because the table of friends all ordered different types of desserts.
The good thing is that the kitchen has finally found more part time pastry cooks, all 3 happen to be friends with each other... and my Chef Trainer showed up today to over look how they work, all I can say is if I were to be spoken to like that on my first day, I would probably quit the following week. They are just students who are working to make some extra money on the side while waiting for their A Level results, not doing it to support their family or whatever super important reason.
It's only their second day of work and she was really strict with their attire, from their Chef Uniform to their hair, to the shoes they were wearing and her tone was really fierce as well... completely different from when she was teaching me and the first pastry cook I was working with. The manager told her to be firm with the employees and she is now really showing her authoritative figure, but I would tone it down a little considering the fact that you are speaking to a dying breed of cooks in your restaurant that you are severely lacking... the last thing you want to do is scare them off.
The fact that they are all friends makes it even more dangerous because if you were to offend one, it's equivalent to offending all 3, and if all 3 of them left, the pastry kitchen will be royally screwed over. They are in the process of opening a second branch... I don't know how they are going to be able to operate it when their first branch is already running low on manpower.
I actually felt a bit bad for the new cooks, it's the same feeling I get when I just finished my Basic Military Training and I see new recruits lining up outside the Ferry Terminal waiting to board the Ferry to get stuck in Tekong for their confinement period for the next few weeks before being able to come back to Mainland Singapore again. You feel bad for them, but you are glad you are not them, but in the case of the pastry cook, I feel bad for them and myself because we are all stuck in the same situation, except I actually understand the consequences of working there in the long run.
In the past it was always the restaurant who was managing my schedule, now they are planning my schedule around my free time... and that was before I told them I was going to quit, after telling them, they are begging me to stay a little longer, which I agreed to because I am a bloody idiot. It's not going to happen though, the moment I get my pay check for the month, I am out of that place and will start cooking up some excuse as to why I can't go back there.
I am leaving the job because of the stressful environment caused by both the work pace, with their "freshly baked as you order" motto which I can seriously do without, there is a difference between freshly baked everyday with things like cakes and tarts and freshly baked as you order which are items like souffles, and I would much rather be doing the former than the latter anytime....and the people, mainly the full timer, more mainly the hot kitchen cook, who are on the verge of having a mental breakdown, there's no way I am going to go back there. I thought working in a new restaurant that just set up was a good idea, I was wrong.
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