Ah, I miss it. Just me, an offset serrated knife, a bag of onions the size of a child, a slippery floor, a nearby open flame, music that hurts my ears… And not an email in sight.
I loved cooking in a professional kitchen. The job itself was great. Some of the coworkers were all over the place, but I fucking loved the good ones.
And there’s something immensely satisfying about the teamwork behind turning a bunch of raw ingredients into multiple delicious meals, perfectly timed out with each dish hitting the table at the right moment. (The frustration of a kitchen that isn’t doing this is a separate story.)
But the industry itself has so much toxicity. Bad managers, bad owners. Substance abuse problems. And the real reason I left wasn’t actually the bad pay. It was the miserable hours. I was always a night owl but I couldn’t deal with the isolating separation from my family and non-industry friends from working nights, weekends, and holidays when everyone else was building memories and reinforcing bonds.
I don’t miss it at all. Physically I was busy enough, but it was excruciatingly boring.
That applied to my work, but I imagine that building, landscaping and other trades that require actual skill can be engaging, if one chooses to learn an improve.
This post was brought to you by people who have never worked a manual labor job in their life
Ah, I miss it. Just me, an offset serrated knife, a bag of onions the size of a child, a slippery floor, a nearby open flame, music that hurts my ears… And not an email in sight.
I loved cooking in a professional kitchen. The job itself was great. Some of the coworkers were all over the place, but I fucking loved the good ones.
And there’s something immensely satisfying about the teamwork behind turning a bunch of raw ingredients into multiple delicious meals, perfectly timed out with each dish hitting the table at the right moment. (The frustration of a kitchen that isn’t doing this is a separate story.)
But the industry itself has so much toxicity. Bad managers, bad owners. Substance abuse problems. And the real reason I left wasn’t actually the bad pay. It was the miserable hours. I was always a night owl but I couldn’t deal with the isolating separation from my family and non-industry friends from working nights, weekends, and holidays when everyone else was building memories and reinforcing bonds.
I don’t miss it at all. Physically I was busy enough, but it was excruciatingly boring.
That applied to my work, but I imagine that building, landscaping and other trades that require actual skill can be engaging, if one chooses to learn an improve.