Have you been good this year?

So today I came in a bad mood, knowing I had to work with my boss, who had put me in a bad mood the day before, got on my last nerve. My bad mood faded a bit after the cook gave me some oatmeal and we laughed and joked around a bit, the seating part of the diner being cooler now that my boss had put in an A/C unit at one end, it seemed a little bit more bearable , at least in the dining area and on the line. Still hot as hell in the kitchen , though, where I spend the greater part of my day. My boss wasn't there when I got there, he came later. Just as I was walking back from filling the washing machine with water & soap, and on my way to get the towels for washing... he pulls up with his bass boat loaded with restaurant supplies. Never mind that it's kind of gross to have food products laying around on the same areas where someone had had dead fish flopping around hours previously. At any rate, I had to help him unload then and there because he had a LOT of ice (the ice machine barely works) and it was of course melting. I forgot I had started the washing machine and had to get more quarters for that... oh well.
So, I'm going about my business and working very hard as usual; my boss is making a giant mess as usual, and he's being a jerk, trying to get a rise out of any of us. I'm not biting today.
Let me preface what happens next by saying that yesterday, he had been trying to be chatty and friendly and asked me how my other job was going. I said "Well, it's OK, you know? It has kick ass air conditioning, and thats the only reason I'm there, is the A/C. And on that, I can say they excel!"
He didn't say anything to that.
But today, after sitting in his office smoking and surfting e-bay for about an hour, he calls me back to the office. I'm in the middle of something but I go back there, dreading what will come next because he rarely calls me back there.
He says to me "So, have you been good this year?"
I cock my head and say "Define good? "
He gives me this look. The kind of look you give a kid when they say they did not have their hand in the cookie jar when you know they did. It's an accusatory look. I say, "Well, all I know is I got a 4.0 grade point average, so I guess I did something right".
And then he says "Well, ok, then, you can bring that A/C unit back into the kitchen then. Just plug it into that wall there."
And I say thanks and tell him I'll get to it as soon as I can.
I then overheard the server who has the end of the diner where the portable A/C unit is located. She was worried that if the unit was taken into the kitchen, she'd lose business. (Patrons would migrate to the end with the permanent A/C wall unit).
So I, being on this 'do the right thing' kick, decided I didn't want to upset her, despite our differences in the past, she and I have always managed to pull together and get things done so I was reluctant to make her worry about people going to the other end. So I said "Well, I'm not going to take the unit in the back then.That wouldn't be right."
She seemed relieved and said thanks and I gave it no more thought.
Until my boss comes back from wherever he goes off to for an hour at a time and said "You didn't bring the A/C unit back here? How come?"
I said "___________ thinks her customers will go to the other end if we take that back into the back."
He says "Does _________ sign your check?"
I said "What?"
He said "So I told you to do something and you're not going to do it?"
I was taken aback. He's done this before. I'm sort of used to it.
He says " I told you to bring it back here and plug it in."
I said "No, you said I COULD bring it back here. I thought it was a choice I had. If you are ordering me to do it, I'll bring it back immediately."
Which I did. I told the server that I had no choice, and I was sorry, because I didn't want the thing back in the back, because it is NOT VENTED !
So I bring it back and turn it on and suddenly it seems cooler for a minute but soon the temperature in the kitchen has climbed one degree. I know it is from the vent of the A/C unit. It is only cooler directly in front of the unit. Now it is HOTTER in the kitchen that it WAS.
My boss walks back into the kitchen which is demonstrably hotter (there's a thermometer on the A/C unit for pete's sake!) than it was and says "See? It's much cooler in here, huh?"
And I ignore him.
And he comes back a little bit later and says "See? It's cooler, huh?"
And I pretend I didn't hear him.
The moment he leaves I turn the thing off, and within a half hour the temp drops three degrees. And the dining room is cooler without the unit too.
I want the unit gone. I know that tomorrow when he comes in and I have the thing turned off he's going to say "Don't bitch about it being hot in here, I gave you an A/C unit."
But he KNOWS it makes it hotter in there. He's waiting for me to say "It makes it hotter" so he can say I don't know what I'm talking about, that I'm never satisfied, that I'm ungrateful.
Eff that, I'm not going to engage with him ANYMORE. If he wants to fire me for not engaging with him, fine.
Earlier today when he was sitting in his office surfing e-bay and smoking cigarettes, the cook had walked back into the store room to get something, leaving a pot of bacon on the grill cooking. it caught fire. And the fire lept to the grease trap chute, which has not ever been scraped out. It was a pretty good fire, and the whole place was smoked out, most patrons left in a hurry. They had the front door open, and tried to position the fans just so, but I remembered we had one of those giant wavy green guys and the fan that goes with it. I put the fan in the back door and had that place cleared out in no time. I do that sort of thing in stride while everyone else is freaking out. And I got not one word of thanks.
At any rate, I believe that is one of the things OSHA looked at but found to be OK...the grease traps. Guess what, they are NOT ok. That fire could have been way worse, I'm just glad my boss was there to see it. He made a giant mess trying to do something with ice and flour. I ended up scraping the chute out with my elbow length black military chemical gloves. And getting burned in the process of course. NOt badly, just a little bit but still. I got the mess cleaned up, and threw my gloves away... and then my boss tells the cook, M, that M has to take the grill to the car wash to clean it after work.
1) M has worked nine hours on the grill already with only a 15 minute break. M is 18. He was tired as hell.
2) I think it's despicable to take a greasy grill to a car wash to wash it, leaving greasy puddles all over, and gobs of grease for people to track over with their clean cars.
3) M was supposed to have help doing so from the other line cook, who never showed. M had a 5 pm appointment and sat there waiting for the other cook for an hour and a half.
4) My boss wanted M to use M's truck. My boss has a Dodge RAM HEMI with a tonneau cover and all his fishing stuff in the back, he wouldn't want to use HIS truck, no. He also has that big behemoth Chevy something (Blazer?) he just bought for 3,000 bucks that won't run and he's parked it in the front of the diner trying to sell it for parts. Get that fixed and use IT to haul greasy grills around in stead of making your employees ruin thier truck beds and their clothes.
So M just called me to say that the other cook never showed up, and he sounded like he might not be back to work next week. He said "Well, I'll see you around. I don't know if I'll see you next week."
The kid starts university next Monday. He doesn't need that kind of hassle on top of full time college.

Osha

Osha has fined my boss 6,000 dollars for his infractions. I never did see anything posted on the wall. I hear that originally they were going to fine him upwards of 10,000 dollars. I'm guessing that means that my workplace WAS unsafe. And OSHA backed me up by fining him. BUT: he hasn't fixed anything.
I wonder how long he can get away with not fixing it. I'm going to e-mail the gal that came to inspect and tell her that things didn't change one iota. At any rate, my boss is putting in new air conditioning units IN THE DINING ROOM. Nothing in the back. So it will get busier in there, people will flock back once we get a/c. BUT I'll be hotter, and have no where to cool off because the dining room will be full. *sigh*
The pizza place I'm working at on the weekends is so much cooler. It's not cool that they won't let us have anything to eat. And we can't really wear shorts. But it's air conditioned. They made some noises about putting me at 32 hours a week but that's not enough. They want me to quit my diner job, so I can do 32 hours at the pizza joint, but they won't put me full time due to then I'd get benefits. The only way to go full time is to go to another location. I told the manager, "I'm just trying to survive here : I can't think that far ahead. " She seemed to understand. I told her I'd go to one day a week at the diner. If that's what they want. 32 hours at the pizza joint, one or two days at the diner. I hate that my boss put me in this position due to not taking care of the A/C two summers ago. He has no idea what turmoil my life is in just because I can't physically stand to work at his job the five days I week I was doing because it is too hot.

New truck.

It's still hot as HADES at work, and my boss has bought a new truck to pull his new boat with. Granted they are not NEW NEW, just used vehicles, but they are not cheap vehicles either. He now has yet another truck JUST for pulling his boat.
And I can't get a raise from 7.50 an hour, and something is very wrong with this picture. He was looking at CAMAROS on e-bay earlier today.

suspicious activity

So.Monday my boss gave me some 'extra' money on my paycheck. I'd only worked one day the previous week. He gave me enough to cover for half the time I missed. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I was flabbergasted. And started believing in human kindness again, but it wore off pretty quick once the sweat drenched my shirt and began pooling in my socks.
Tuesday the cook didn't show up: so when I walked in my boss was behind the line cooking. I was sure I was in for HELL DAY: but no! He was pleasant to me all day and even cooked me something to eat. Well, I say he cooked me something to eat, but what he did was give me a plate with some toast on it and a dollop of oatmeal...but still, it was something other than a hard time, which again, made me suspicious. He's been such a complete and utter douchebag for so long now that the least act of kindness makes me so wary. How sad is that?
I saw a letter on his printer that was addressed to the owner of the building, basically outlining the money my boss is losing every week due to customers walking out. ($2000.00, according to the letter: but I don't know of many customers that walk out. We have the same people in there every day and they don't walk out even if it's 100 degrees and there are four flies on their table). Anyhow, the whole letter was my boss pleading to the owner to pay to have the air conditioning fixed. Not once does my boss mention his employees suffering in the sweltering heat for eight and sometimes nine or more hours a day. Anyhow my main thought on that was , "This is the first time my boss has asked the owner to fix the Air Conditioning? " This is the third summer there. And my boss is just now getting around to pleading with the guy. Why didn't he think of that the first summer when it was obvious the a/c was jacked?
I mean, all this time I thought he was just looking for a decent or cheap or whatever contractor, but that it was in the works to get it done. I've been strung along as far as I can be strung. I hear the lease is up soon and that my boss may take his restaurant elsewhere, but I don't want to live like this anymore, dreading going to work so much that I want to drive my car off a cliff on the way there. Crying to myself alone in the storeroom because I just want to walk out into the sunshine and fresh air, hot as it may be outside, a person can breathe.
So I have a job interview today, in an hour in fact. In a place that has air conditioning and is five minutes's walk from my front door.

PHOTOMOGRAPHS!

I used to be playful at work and take photographs!













AWWW LOOK! I'd forgotten about the tomato plant we grew outside, right beside the rat trap. Back when we had pest control come by every month ... those were the days.



Aww, and my boss got me a cake for my b-day. Even though I'd told him I Hated cake, esp. white cake. But it's the thought!



I came in on Thanksgiving to cook Brisket for the Friday special! I actually cared!



The dish machine on its first day ! And look, I still have some energy.



The boss's trash can.



Look ma, we're cooking outside! When I first started working there we did some cooking out in the back by the dumpster.



I'm starting to run out of energy about this time.



For a short time there is art-student gay dude who makes my life at the diner fun and bearable! HE makes ham sculptures!



My boss bought turkeys to give to the homeless but he never cooked them nor did he take them to the shelters so he said I could have one. And it was goooooood.



I cut my hand on a particularly stressful day. Boss did pay for sutures & tetnus shot, yay!



On Thursdays I have to cut all these grapes in half, one by one.



On Thursdays I also have to shred all this chicken (after it cools down a bit)


And I cut up a LOT of fruit.

Day after Oh-sha

I felt trepidation about going to work this morning, more than usual; but things were pretty normal. My favorite server was there and it broke my heart to lie to her when she asked me if I had called OSHA. I had to though, to protect myself, because she would not be able to keep that info to herself. At any rate, the day was alright, although I had a tough time of it due to being so sick the night before. And the cook... the cook was... I'm pretty sure he was hung over. Or high. Or hung over from a really good high. I know him. And I know he did something last night. He's supposed to be in A.A. and he was doing really well. But he is one of those people ...
So he was OK but not up to his usual self. Why do I think he was high? He came into the back, spooned up some UNCOOKED macaroni and cheese (the noodles were cooked, but the cheese was not melted and there was raw egg ummixed sitting in a pool in the middle of the pan) into a bowl and ate it. I watched this in slow-mo and said "Hey, dude, that's not cooked." He continued to eat it. I told him it had raw eggs in it and that did not stop him. So we are back to having a main cook that is high at work. I thought we were past that. Oh well.
The other cook came in and took up the slack because the lead cook was...not quite right, obviously. Second cook was in a pretty good mood: Probably because his mom, who owns a restaurant, had asked him to come work for her and now he's getting into that groove, and will probably abandon the diner soon, and you can tell it makes him happy to think of leaving. Lead cook was talking about how badly he wants out of the diner too. Favorite waitress was talking about how so and so had offered her a job and she ought to go take her up on it.
One of the customers told me they heard from a friend of a friend that the manager/lead waitress is selling drugs from her apartment. She's been in prison, that one, don't know what for, but I wouldn't be selling drugs out of my home if I had been to prison, I don't think. The fact that she is able to buy all kinds of nice stuff for her apartment (she was telling me she has a very nice TV and Wii and such ... and I wondered how she could pay for it all. Now I think I might know). But that could just be a rumor. I dunno.
My boss didn't show up until the last of the day. I'd texted him twice asking him questions about stuff I needed to know but he never answered. I found out later he said "He'd had a rough day yesterday and had gone to the lake to fish." When he came in he did not speak to me but spoke through the manager. (His lackey). Then he informed us all that the diner would be shut down for four days next week, "Because everyone needs a break."
Well, then someone else came in and said it was because they were fixing the air conditioner. I'll believe THAT when I feel it. So we speculate that he has to get the wiring fixed due to the OSHA citations, that and/or fix the A/C. But such little notice is pissing everyone off including me, because people could have planned to take a vacation if he had given notice. If it is the OSHA stuff, I feel responsible, but I was ready for that to some degree. I didn't think of people losing out on the money from being closed down for repairs. But I don't think that is the reason because OSHA just told him to get a junction box correctly capped off and a cover put on the fuse box. I don't think that would take four days so maybe he is really fixing the A/c which would be a freakin' miracle. I don't know why he chose to do that without giving us all any kind of notice. But I get four days to go job-shopping. And rest, and hang out with sister and friend. And rest.And do yardwork.

OHSA (oh shit)

I wrote OSHA a couple of weeks ago. I didn't expect them to reply much less show up unannounced but boy howdy when she walked in with a clipboard I was secretly rejoicing right up until she told me there was nothing they could do about the heat. Or the fly bites because I'm the only one that will talk to her about the flies. The other employee that had complaints about the fly bites .. .would not talk about them to OSHA.
When the inspector walked in my boss was sitting at a table with some USFOODS salesmen. The moment she showed her ID badge, my boss had two employees go in the back and staple the OSHA/Employee Rights posters up on the wall. That sucked. I wanted OSHA to see that he was hiding that information from us. Funny thing is the moment the posters went up on the wall, everyone was standing around staring at them and reading them as if they had never seen them before. (Well, they hadn't).
Well OSHA lady said she needed to talk to a couple of employees. The eighteen year old went first. Then I pretended to not want to talk to her because I have a class at five. My boss told me I had to talk to her then he changed his mind and said "WHy don't you go on, if you have class?" I think the light bulb went on in his head but I said "No, no, I have time."
I identified myself to the woman as the one who wrote OSHA and she gave me her card and told me if I was fired or my hours cut, due to the inspection, to call her and they would open up an investigation. I'm protected under the whistleblower's act.
I got to class about four fifty and the teacher didn't show up until five thirty: by which time I was feeling VERY ILL. I realized at that time that I had eaten some salad at work today. And I should not have eaten that because it made me very sick, which I am right now. My temperature is 97.2 , I have chills, and diarrhea; same as the last time I ate at Taco Bell in Anchorage *SIGH*.
Well, I'm not looking forward to going in tomorrow, my boss ... is going to have some choice words to say about all of this. He's going to assume it was me and give me holy hell, probably make my life shittier than it is. I don't care. He got cited for bad wiring in the building, I think that is about all they could cite him for. Well at least the posters are up on the wall now, and if he takes them down I'm calling my OSHA friend, who said they got here as soon as they could, what with the Gulf Oil Spill.
My knees are weak from today and from being sick and I'm really worried about how I will be treated by people at work but you know, someone has got to protect the lives and well being of others and if I didn't do it, someone was going to end up being hurt at some point.
When I drove off my boss was outside the back door standing by his fishing boat talking on the cell phone. I guess I ruined his fishing trip for the night. Damn, I suck.
I had to leave class early, due to needing to not be there. First of all I was FREEZING and secondly I needed some real private time in the bathroom... remind me not to eat at work. Unless it's oatmeal.