Wednesday, June 16, 2010

It's not broken? Let's fix it!

Again, corporate groupthink overwhelms common sense in my restaurant. Apparently all the other divisions in the company have "in" and "out" doors in the kitchen. Which, on the face of it, makes sense--less risk of collision. We've always just yelled "in" and "out" as we came and went from the kitchen, and it really hasn't been a problem.

But, somebody a step above us on the corporate ladder decided that every restaurant needs to designate in and out doors, regardless of sense. Here's a (very clumsy) diagram of our kitchen:
Anyone with an ounce of common sense will immediately spot the problems. Like, oh, I don't know, having to traverse the entire length of the kitchen with dirty plates. Especially on a Friday night--dodging the panicking carside person, people digging in the cooler for things, waiting for computers, rolling silverware, pouring drinks, washing hands, stocking ice ... then there's the expo running up and down that area too, and the people with hot food leaving the kitchen, before you finally get to the dish area. It's fucking idiotic. At least they did insert a modicum of common sense: originally the doors were flipped, so we'd be dodging all that while carrying food! I was just waiting for somebody to get a fajita skillet to the face with that shit going on.

4 comments:

yellowcat413 said...

We don't have IN and OUT doors, just corners which no one can pay attention to and doorways where the new help and the Mexicans like to stand. I swear, I'm going to punch one of those Mexicans if they don't get out of the doorway and if they don't start watching where they are going when they round a corner.

The Bartender said...

I used to work at an Applebees and someone came in through the out door and got a searing hot Fajita plate in his chest. Third degree burns. Most places (like mine, thank Jebus) just have two doors right next to each other and one is for in and one is for out. Sorry your place sucks. :(

AZWaitress said...

Of course, they must feel bored or something to do this. When I was at the restaurant, you just yelled "Corner!" and if people weren't paying attention, they got run over and knew it was their bad for not paying attention!

purplegirl said...

We've been doing it for a few days, and it's .. well, it's a massive pain in the ass. Even Lapdog is irritated by it, and he's Mr. Corporate!