Dish Pit Update: Check Point Reached!

I am pretty happy with some of my progress, but I feel that I am in a jam. The rest of my post tells you all.

This is hardly a video game, but there are many aspects in common: I'm trying to finish each shift in a decent amount of time; it's very repetitive; there are antagonists; there are rewards. The last 2 Tuesdays turned out well [by my standards]: I did each shift entirely by myself, and I got out before the suggested time. In the last Tuesday shift, I managed to get out before the last cook, which is highly unusual for me. That Tuesday was a bit weird, though, because it was so slow.

The greatest news is that I am getting faster in general.

Unfortunately, I am still struggling to get through an entire shift on the other days. For most of my time with the company, I have been beating myself up over it, since it feels like I am cheating my employer. However, I decided to turn a new page. I'm not going to look at it that way anymore. The bottom line is that the employer should fire me, if it is such a big deal. However, they show no signs of wanting to fire me, so I probably don't have anything to worry about.

I'm embarrassed to say this, but maybe I am the dishwasher that they deserve, rather than the dishwasher they need and want. For so long, they have denied workers second coffee breaks, even though the law requires it. It's not a big deal for cooks, because cooks can stand around and chat through some of their shift. However, that is really hard to achieve for even the best dishwashers, if I understand correctly.

They have been mildly discriminatory in many respects, too. It's not bad enough to warrant a date in court, but it is something that they need to work on.

On a slightly unrelated note, I found another fellow dishwasher, who puts 2 cutting boards through the machine in the same dishwashing tray. This means that 2 cutting boards could be completely unwashed on 1 surface of each board, after touching raw chicken, and then they could be used for your salad. Afterwards, I asked him how long he had been working there, and he had been there for a few months, and this is how he was trained, so this practise could have been going on since the beginning of the establishment, which is about 15 years, I think. When I tried to correct him, he did not seem opposed or agreeable to the idea. I'll have to follow up on it.

Lately, I have been handing out my resume for other restaurant dishwasher jobs. I found a place that is willing to try me out for temp work. During the interview, the owner seemed very hesitant about hiring me, but I talked with him, reassured him, and overcame his objections. I offered to do temp work and let him try me. He is willing to offer the same wage, and he is willing to offer more hours. His restaurant [i.e.: sushi restaurant] is closer to better transit, which makes it easier to get home at night. Right now, I have to rely on somebody for a ride home. Also, they close earlier in the evening, which makes it easier to get home at a decent time. So, more hours, better hours, and better transit, seem like a legitimate reason to change jobs.

I get a bad vibe about this new-job owner, though. He requires all employees to show up 10 minutes early. He also is Japanese, I assume. Therefore, I expect him to have a Japanese work ethic, which means loyalty to the company at all costs.

That type of an attitude seems so absurd to many westerners like us. However, I thought about this, and I began to wonder if I have that in a milder form. I think that I do. A friend of mine encouraged me to feel free to look for other work, and he reminded me that I wasn't married to the company. Of course, I agreed with him, but it dawned on me that if he bothered to say it, then it implies that he probably saw the wrong attitude in me.

I think that he saw correctly. As it is, I do believe that we should be loyal to companies, and to some degree, that we should try to fix the companies. I believe that a good company is like a lifeboat, which can change lives for the best, and be a place where people wan hone their skills. It's hard for me to imagine people going there for only money and using the work place as a place to exercise their control over others, even though we all know that this is what is normal. Yet, I even find myself bossing a coworker [i.e.: the antagonist] around.

I guess that what I'm trying to say is that perhaps I need to think of the companies out there as adversaries to be used for my own purpose; at least in a mild way. This company has been rumoured to send home an employee after only an hour of work, which is illegal. Therefore, I shouldn't be sweating bullets, when I take longer than they want. Instead of me focusing on being loyal and good to the company, I should focus on serving the customer well, by turning reasonably clean dishes or better, and seek to improve, but after that, my conscience should be clear, regardless of my performance. Just typing that makes me feel a lot better. I'd love to read your thoughts on this.

The end. Thank you for reading!