The Unhospitality Industry: My Latest Article for ecoRI.org and a Preview of Farm Fresh RI's Local Food Forum

02 February 2010

My Latest Article for ecoRI.org and a Preview of Farm Fresh RI's Local Food Forum

Hello everyone,

Here's a link to my latest piece for eco.RI.org. You'll be shocked and amazed.

Also, tomorrow I'm covering Farm Fresh RI's Local Food forum at Brown University. The keynote speaker is Massachusetts native Gus Shumacher, Former Undersecretary of Agriculture for the Clinton Administration, and current chairman of the Wholesome Wave Foundation. Other speakers include Ken Ayers, Chief of RI DEM Division of Agriculture, and Noah Fulmer, Executive Director of Farm Fresh Rhode Island. Expect a blog post on Thursday on that, and much more.

Love, Peace, and Bacon grease!

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Welcome to "The Unhospitality Industry"

On October sixth of 2009, during an extremely frustrating job search, I posted the following ad on my local craigslist:

Some guidelines for hiring on craigslist:

1. Get back to people. The anonymity of craigslist is not an excuse to act unprofessionally. Set up a separate email account to handle incoming applications/ resumes. Reply to emails/ resumes with a "Thank you for your interest. Interviews will be held on xx- xx. I f you do not hear from us before then, assume you are not being considered for the position." I have nearly 20 years experience, am food safety certified, and have worked for/ managed award winning restaurants. I have sent out over 75 resumes in the last 2 months, and haven't had one response. I haven't even been offered an interview.

2. Tell us what kind of restaurant you are. Casual means a lot of things. Use examples from your menu. If anything in your restaurant comes from a box or bag, you are NOT fine dining.

3. Tell us the general location of your establishment. We don't need a street address, but "Downtown, East side, Cumberland/ Lincoln border, etc." is extremely helpful.

4. Use spell check. These ads are the first impression that potential employees have of your business. Make it a good one. Nothing says apathy quite like spelling errors that can be fixed by hitting a button.

5. Do not expect people you hire for 10 dollars an hour to cook, clean, and do the dishes. 10 an hour is not a wage anyone can live on, and is an insult to any self respecting cook with any experience. A lot of us became cooks, because doing the dishes STINKS.

6. DO NOT HIRE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AND PAY THEM UNDER THE TABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Paying under the table decreases state and federal tax revenue, and in a lot of cases, illegal immigrants send their money out of the country to their families. THIS COMPLETELY AND FOREVER REMOVES MONEY FROM THE U.S. ECONOMY!

Finally, I see a lot of ads for the same places over and over. I know this business has a high turnover rate, but it should be because of kids paying their way through college, then leaving to start a new life of their choosing.
How much help needs to up and quit before you realize that the help is not the problem? Stop mistreating people. In the last 2 years I have had 2 employers bounce my paycheck, 1 employer who stole from his employees via charging them for plates that they didn't break and silverware that they didn't lose, and my last employer had a tendency to berate and belittle his employees in front of customers. I know this is a hard business, but it's no reason to be a jerk. I think RI could use a hospitality union.

If anyone out there is having similar experiences, feel free to respond to this ad with your horror stories.

Here's just one of the many responses I had:

"I think I'll just say thank you for saying what needed to be said. The disintegration of simple protocols and common courtesy is, unfortunately, symptomatic of society's proclivity towards, or rather devolution into incivility; and civility is the one attribute that should be at the core of the hospitality industry."

As such, I created this blog as a forum for myself and others to air our grievances about irrational, cruel, childish, dangerous, tyrannical, and downright subhuman behavior by managers and owner/ operators of restaurants and the like.

I urge any cook, chef, waiter, waitress, maitre' d, busboy, dishwasher, and coat check girl who has a tale of ill treatment "in the business", to BE SILENT NO LONGER!

Leave your horror story on the comment board here. I will post the best/ funniest/ most tragic ones.

The Unhospitality Industry

02 February 2010

My Latest Article for ecoRI.org and a Preview of Farm Fresh RI's Local Food Forum

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