I had trouble parsing this and got a vision of you meeting yourself coming out of the loading area.
"Time to make the donuts"
"I already made the donuts"
She told me I could be an assistant baker and get a raise if I learned everything the two bakers could teach. When they day came they said "there's nothing more to teach you" (there was a lot more, but not for an "assistant"). I told my boss and she literally ran out of her office, me running after her, ran into the bakery shouting "he thinks he knows everything!".
No assistant baker job for me. I moved on the next day.
God, this is crazy. If she relies on proficient people, she must trust them. I cannot understand her motivation—just for fun or cruel?
Obviously I wasn't there, but that would be my suspicion. GP responded to being shamed appropriately. There are times in my life when I have been the sucker who feels compelled to double down. Perhaps it's a form of sunk cost falacy.
"I ask Aguilar: How does this compare to the construction work you did back home? 'It’s easy,' he says."
Perhaps for certain types of employees. I know that if the cost of my mistake is much higher then the level of preparation and study I'm going to do before committing to action is going to be greater. I guess some people just can't be made to work that way.
> the worst that they can do is fire you
If I lose a job in a kitchen, I can find work tomorrow, if I lose a job in construction, it's going to be harder to replace that salary. The zero sum analysis doesn't really work here.
My worst safety screwups in foodservice were 2 things: cutting through my fingernail and about 2/3 of my entire fingertip with a brand new chefs knife (looked away at somebody barking something in my ear while rapidly chiffonading basil) and plunging my entire hand into a deep fryer (slipped while wiping down the edge of the oil vat–again, rushing).
I’ve heard way worse stories coming out of construction. People breaking backs, having hands pulled into machinery… my mistakes have healed, theirs are permanently disfiguring.
I also worked for a week one summer with an uncle who laid brick. We built a chimney on a two story house. Mixing concrete and mortar in mixers and wheelbarrows and getting it to the work spots, carrying bricks around, carrying 100 lb sections of flue up half finished stairs and ladders.
No comparison. I never slept better in my life than that week. Hardest work I’ve ever experienced.
I’m sure construction, like foodservice, has easier and harder jobs. But I’d be willing to bet the hardest construction job is way harder than the hardest foodservice job. Not to mention more dangerous.
I also worked as a dishpig and kitchen hand in my early 20s before I got a job programming. The feeling of the kitchen humming during service is something I’ve never come close to in office jobs. The flip side of course when everything collapses, getting screamed at, shit pay and horrible hours.