She Kept Getting Pulled From The Kitchen To Cover Serving Shifts — So She Refused A Last-Minute Double When Her Boss Called
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Too many hands in a kitchen is a problem, but too few hands and a manager who won’t pick up a tray is an even bigger one.
One cook at a senior living facility spent her days opening the kitchen at five in the morning, only to get pulled out to cover serving shifts that her department manager had left understaffed.
Every trip to the dining floor ate into the prep time she needed for the next meal, and the overtime rules left no room to catch up. The manager handled menus, schedules, and orders, but he never jumped in himself.
So when he called near the end of her shift just to ask her to work dinner on top of it, she finally said no and put her personal life first.
Keep reading for the full story.
AITAH for not working extra hours because my boss rarely helps out?
I (53F) work in a culinary department as a cook in a Senior Independent Living Facility, and our Culinary Department Manager (35M) doesn’t help staff out very often.
He does work some, but never with the tasks that actually matter.
Sure, he makes menus, sets schedules, orders, etc., but when the serving staff is short-handed, he expects me, the sous chef, and the other cook to jump out of the kitchen and help, despite the fact that we are needing to prepare the next meal (we serve 3 meals per day, 7 days a week) or prep for the next several days’ meals.
This is seriously starting to impact her performance.
Because we’re always being pulled out of the kitchen, we don’t have time to prepare what needs to be done. We also have to watch our time closely so as to not get any overtime.
Then there’s the matter of staffing.
The dilemma is that our CDM will occasionally understaff us “accidentally” and expect the kitchen to fill in the holes. Today was one of those days.
I spent most of my prep time out on the serving floor instead of in the kitchen.
This puts even more unfair expectations on her.
So when the CDM called me near the end of my shift (I open, so I work from 5am to 1pm) to ask me to pull a double shift and help out at dinner service, I said I couldn’t. He asked me why, and I told him I had something personal.
Her boss gave her the third degree about it, which only made matters between them even worse.
He actually gave me an attitude over it, to which I responded, “I have a family outside of work that needs my attention as well.”
You see, he has yet to jump in and help his own staff. I’m over it. I’m not the only one who thinks he needs to help us out more often.
So, AITAH for not volunteering to work extra hours?
This workplace definitely has a boundaries problem.
What did Reddit have to say?
Her job security shouldn’t be threatened by someone else’s incompetence.
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Documentation is her friend in a situation like this.
This user isn’t a fan of this leadership — if you could call it that.
Some managers treat goodwill like a bank account with no balance limit.
Months of prep time lost to the serving floor, months of overtime, and not one afternoon of him jumping in to carry a tray. The cook forced into this position can decline a double shift and still be the most reliable name on the schedule over her no-good boss.
This boss learned a very valuable lesson from all of this: Cover your own shifts or lose the people who cover them for you.
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