Externship week twenty two

Cioppino from the menu this week

Final week of the externship...

That was the final week of my externship and it was quite unremarkable. I worked this week at the Big Table. The choice was mine where to work and I chose this cafe because the chef is a cool guy and also I had a hope to sneak in the closed cafe and work there. My hope did not come true, I believe because of security (my badge was not approved for that zone). The chef was too busy with other projects and seminars, he was almost always away. The manager of that cafe gained too much power and now she is playing bossy lady.

The whole week for me was full of jumping from one station to another throughout a day. Help this station, then help that station. Literally having nothing to do after
lunch... The manager has no clear ideas about work load, how many people you need to do something.

On Monday the day started with vegetable station (because they needed the help very badly!) preparing cauliflower. This cafe has a new prep-cook and he is unbelievable. He is there for six weeks already and he is extremely slow and inconsistent. But he is very talkative and annoying. After that I found out that the veg station has nothing else to do. I moved to proteins to do small job the that station. Then I sneaked to pastry for a short time, but was moved to pizza. Pizza guy first said he does not need me, then he found out that he needs me. After the lunch I help him to break down the station and was sent to wipe tables in the dining area. That was definitely not a my choice and indeed I was pissed with the bossy lady. The tables were cleaned very slowly, I have no intention to do this or any other stupid job.  On Monday the cafe was short staffed, however that was not my fault and the manager has to handle this.

The rest of the week was a little bit better. Probably the cafe was not so short on staff, or may be the chef told something to the manager (he saw my unhappy face on Monday and I was clear about wiping tables). There were still no single station to work on for the whole day. I jumped from one station to another, trying to find something interesting to work on. It was really difficult to work like this, when you do not know your station and do not know how long you will be on a station. This is very demotivating. May be it was me, simply too tired after all these rotations, new places, new people...

On Friday I asked for an extra hour off with my lunch to go through campus and say bye to the people I worked with. I got only 30 minutes extra (the bossy lady was not generous). Anyway I visited five cafes where I had good experience and said bye to the people. That was nice. Two chefs told me to keep in touch as they would hire me without doubt. The chef at the Big Table also asked to keep in touch as he would like me regardless which cafe he is going to work. Even the chef from Cloud (the closed place I was not able to go) said that he would hire me. That is good, at least I will not be unemployed after school:-)