A Number of General Observations of the Working World

A Number of General Observations of the Working World
or
​A List of Things You Must Know Before Entering the Workforce as a Young Kid/Adult or Something Else
​Part 7
61-70

61. Arm thyself
Knowledge is power. Guard it well. – Space Marine Librarian, Dawn of War
Rules are made to be followed and to abide to.
However people break rules and people break laws. That has always happened and always will happen.
Who controls the past now controls the future, who controls the present now controls the past. – Testify, Rage Against the Machine
So why in knowledge of the rules power?
Because if you follow them by the letter, you can see how to bend the rules or test the flexibility at least.
Being a chef I have to wear a clean uniform everyday. This comprises of a chef jacket, check pants, steel toe waterproof work boots, chef hat, apron and an optional neckerchief. These have to be cleaned after every use and it is always handy to have several sets on hand. This is because, as I went to college, it is a part of the curriculum of safe food handling practices and occupation, health and safety. At one point in time I had a chef who had medical conditions that meant he couldn’t wear safety boots. As we worked in a tiny kitchen that had barely any air extraction capability, he allowed us (kitchen hands and me) to wear shorts as long as they were clean and black. This was then also used as in the Christmas holidays and the summer; a new kitchen was being built on premises. We worked in the hot Australian summer outdoors by a barbeque with nothing but a pedestal fan and lots of water to keep us cool for just over a month. When back in the new kitchen everyone was allowed to wear shorts if they choose to. The rules were bent to enable us to have a new uniform but not broken. The chef that took his position agreed that we could continue wearing what we did as it is a hot kitchen and even hotter wash up area. The happier the worker, the better work they will do.
However knowledge is a two edged sword that can be used against you so be careful.
In a retail job, the uniform was a company shirt and a pair of personal work pants, shorts or jeans. I had a pair of work shorts that had a cool pattern stitched on. This was allowed in the general sense of the uniform requirement but to a new manager he deemed them offensive so I was told not to wear them after that day. I never wore the shorts while working but on days off buying stuff from that store, I tended to wear them. They were great shorts.
 
62.  Live by the sword die by the sword
Now the world is a large place with everyone trying to get by.
Some people will help you and others won’t.
Some people will help you but only for their benefit.
Some people will use you for themselves.
And some people are just dicks.
Some of them want to use you, some of them want to be used by you, some of them want to abuse you, some of want to be abused by you – Sweet Dreams are Made of These, Eurythmics
So be careful.
Look out for yourself but please be careful in what you say. Sometimes people will have your back but most times they won’t.
I sometimes run my mouth, a bad habit I picked up from friends and family. My words usually can be turned against me. I learned that the hard way. Still forget to shut the hell up.
Cause you know sometimes words have to meanings – Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin
If you work in a kitchen you speak two or three languages: Standard and kitchen and even bad standard. In this case standard is English; So English, kitchen English and bad English. Now kitchen speak is a mixture of international language, gibberish and English. Kitchen terms to the uninitiated: Dragging = food it taking longer to cook, oui chef = yes chief, drop = start cooking in deep fryer, behind = I’m behind you/get out of my way/excuse me. This will be added to every single language those who work in or with kitchen speaks. In a hidden – away kitchen curse words will be used liberally, non – hidden kitchen swear words will be swapped for international ones. Either way you learn words from all over the world. You got to be careful on how and when you use them.
Just be careful with what you say and how you say it.
All swords are two edged can be used against you by anyone who can get them away from you. – Revolutionary Letters, Diane Di Prima
 
63 Crisis
So much trouble in the world. – Bob Marley
Crisis can be anything. Can happen at anytime. Can happen to anyone.
The older you get, the more grateful you’ll be for your close friends and networks that seem to shrink as time goes on. However the older you get, the harder it is to maintain these relationship. This will be a crisis. Mild, but a crisis.
It will first start in school when your friends will start dating. As your friends peel off with significant others it will hurt that they’ll be around their partners and less a part of your life in that time. Its not a big thing. Still a crisis.
Having to work on weekends is a drag but it means you miss out on social lives and socialising with friends. Still a crisis.
Later in life it will be friends getting married and having kids. Also the friends and networks will be advancing in their lives and careers. This is a crisis.
In the time I have delved in and out of career paths many of my friends and networks are now management and higher ups in big corporations or working for themselves. This is a crisis.
Usually once a month I will have an existential crisis seeing how well in life the people I grew up with are doing so well while I am doing what I can to survive in this big wide world. Though it pains me a little. A thirty second break in the cool room does me good and I’m back on task. As most of the staff is younger than me by a few years, I have some life experience and lay down some philosophy and life lessons. Many times on quick breaks, breaks, after work, during work and work parties I lay down some words of wisdom. They all know that these are general observations and actual prompted me to Publish (hats off to you J and M). They know about my crisis time and do understand why I break down from time to time but they too are feeling the pinch of the crisis of life.
I have high anxiety and had a history with depression so I know how low I can get.
When COVID-19 came around putting the whole world in crisis, things went bad. Where I worked shut down. All staff were suspended until the government stimulus packages were finalised. The day before those packages came into effect, my entire section was made redundant. This is a crisis.
Finding a new job. A crisis.
Trying to find out if you received a qualification you spent years working on until you were made redundant. Crisis.
Not being able to hang out with friends to have a pity party with a couple of beers at the pub. CRISIS!
 
64 Your pride and ego… we go
Pride is a sin.
Pride is a feeling of accomplishment.
Pride leads to doom.
To have pride in the work you do is good.
To have someone else’s pride of your work is good.
When someone puts their pride before a business, then you are screwed.
I worked in a kitchen where the owner first let the head chef have full reign, then wanted more of a say, then had more say, then dictated the menu without consulting the head chef and then made staffing decisions behind the chef’s back. That chef quit and a new one was promoted. The cycle repeated but with more power to the owner. When a cost effective menu was sent to the owner, it would be returned with additions more expensive items added and more items than originally planned. For the first week, in a vicious cycle, we would sell out of the new menu items then sell one or two in subsequent weeks. The most expensive items in both prep time, cool room space, in ordering and wastage would fall in the category. After a few months, kitchen wanted to cut these items from the menu, as they weren’t selling as predicted by kitchen. With all the reasoning we had, this was dismissed and would only be removed once the seasonal menu changed. Several months later they would still be on the menu barely selling just enough to keep, not enough to get rid of. The same time this was going on, food costs were fluctuating from a high percentage to lower and then bouncing around. Nutshell: wastage bad, high food cost bad, stock on hand and not used bad. Kitchen copped it from all sides and was on the outs. A month with lowered food cost, a pat on the back kitchen pride at a high. A month of higher food cost, then a chew out and everything now has to be approved by higher up before ordering, kitchen pride diminishes and the job-hunting resumes.
Why’d kitchen cop it? The plans from management, that didn’t have practical experience in an area that they hired over 30 years of experience with gourmet restaurant to catering to cafés, was run it as cheaply as possible and get a high return. Cut to many corners and the whole thing would collapse. And that happened to us. Upper management came down on management that came down to the kitchen. In a panic, they cut loose the least profitable section of the establishment. Can’t say I blame them, but when you put individual pride and profit in front of people hired that knew what to do and if left alone could of turned everything around?...
 
65 Stay opened not closed
Keep an open mind. Take everything with a grain of salt.
My mother, to her credit, is very wise. She has taught me many things in my life wether an actual lesson or a mistake or both. Though we verbally spare everyday, she has brought so many lessons from her life and from her parents and grandparents. My father was the same as is my sister.
The lessons learned from family will shape you in your future self. Common sense, right or wrong, good and bad all come from your parents.
Now keeping an opened mind is the key to success. There are millions of examples of open-minded people creating great things, as there are millions who didn’t.
A certain Austrian born German is the greatest example. A veteran of a defeated enemy, political spy, political party leader, national leader, regenerator of a national economy and a vegetarian created a great nation from the ashes of a war that had severe punishment. This was a great for the nation until the need for raw material trumped the rise of the economy. In the rise of power, the mind closed off to focus on the big picture but not the whole. That is the good and the bad.
An example of a good idea is that of Sir Richard Branson, an entrepreneur of the highest standing. From selling Christmas trees and budgies to international airlines, health care, hotels and many more in between. Personal favourite of mine was that of Virgin Bride. A cabin crew of Virgin Atlantic thought of a way to revolutionise and streamline the wedding process for the new age bride. The company under the Virgin banner was born and successful until multiple factors slowed it down a decade later.
Is it bad that it failed? Yes. Did it shake up the industry? HELL YES! For a short period of time it was a Star.
In marketing terms utilising the BCG Matrix: a star is what you want, a cow is what you need, a question mark or problem child is what you get before ending with a dog that makes low profit is any at all. This is based on market growth rate (expenditure) in comparison to market share (profit). The higher marketing expenditure and high profit will result in a star. Low marketing spend with high profit is a cash cow. High spend low profit is a problem child. Low spend and low profit is a dog.
Look at Toyota: Hilux star, Camry cow, Yaris question mark and Echo dog.
All the profit was because someone had an idea and an open mind to keep these brands alive and introduced new brands, which didn’t really do much.
 
66. Hypocrisy be thy shield
Nothing is truer than this.
Everyone finds comfort in it.
Everyone finds discomfort in it.
A kitchen job I had once thrived on hypocrisy. Not in the actual kitchen but the place in whole. Senior management had everything look great for customers while behind closed doors they were preparing a restructure due to nothing but incompetence. Management came from hotel history while what was needed was bistro and club history. No two work places are the same but they all share common ancestry and can be very similar. This is where a lot of people get caught out. I know I did.
A white lie on why something is taking a little bit too long is fine, but putting it off till the last second is not. I know deadlines from nearly everything I have done. Log x amount of calls in a call centre, briefs out in five minutes, designs out in x days, 3 months out need to update recurring entertainment… the list goes on. An entire entertainment suite can take as little as 5 minutes to 5 days, rehash old format to new format printed and digital to slice up as best you can online videos with music animations and the promoter’s material together and send it everywhere in print and digital.
 
67 How to deal with the depths of depression and despair
This one is hard for me.
 Every time I find something good to cling on to I seem to drown in the frustrations of not being able to be the person and worker I want to be. I have the problems that many new to the workforce people have: over enthusiasm. It makes me eager and jumpy while pushing over my limit and make mistakes.
Mistakes can be deadly. I’ve seen comrades in culinary arms nearly loose digits while I’ve got battle scars from my years in kitchen. If untreated these could be deadly due to infection.
So why do these slumps occur? Who really knows?
From the highest highs to the lowest lows. From the king of the moment to the prisoner of their own mind.
It’s the scariest feeling to have when you have achieved a great feeling only to then feel like a failure and a fraud.
During the back end of 2020, I went from having a great job with a great team to having no job and a great life to a great job with everything listed above either broken or ignored to leaving that job and being wanted by four companies to getting a job with an old team but winding back to square one. Fear of failure is my biggest demotivator and makes the feeling of success slip through my fingers.
A cry for help? Maybe.
A wake up call? Definitely.
It’s terrible that mental health is not considered a priority in life during a faster than light changing world with technology.
Everything humans do today is documented in various forms (like this idiot writing this here). For validation? Probably.
Where does one go with this burden? To seek help with psychologist or psychiatrist take money. This reveals the root of the problem: In order to live the life you want, you need to earn the money to live it.
These are just the ramblings of a madman or the smartest man in the room.
It’s hard to be what you want to be without experience.
It’s hard to do what you want to do without money.
It’s hard to live the life you want without hard work.
Please seek help before you do anything stupid. If you don’t want to bring down your friends or family with your burden, if available, call one of the many charities or free service helplines. They help.
 
68. Release the negative
This is the hardest thing to do.
It can drive you or it can destroy you.
It’s a fine line that will always be crossed.
Your negativity will be felt by those around you.
If you mask it it will eat away at you.
I spent a month in a place that on day one looked like an oasis, by day 7 a labour camp and by day 20 hell. I quit. I thought I could leave. No. I had to complete a weekend working their while I had on my contract and availability I could not do weekends.
Why? I’m to nice and hide my true emotions behind a mask that is not just a smile on my face but my voice and mannerisms.
I’ve worked with people who have quit in dramatic fashion after a day of work.
I have seen braver souls than me who’ve been in the same place because they need the money to live. I’ve wished, prayed and asked to follow that path but with the education I had and the mannerisms I have, I am unable to go down that path.
I know what I want and know how to get it but getting it is hard. No matter on how skilled I become or accolades I earn I feel like a failure and a fraud. I can’t fake it till I make it because I am not that type of person. Yes I can manipulate my voice to feign illness or act like I am the hero but it gnaws away at me until I break. I’ve written novels worth of fiction with the main protagonist based on myself and at the same time what I thought was the best attributes. Will they be published? No. Why? Because they are part of a universe that I love that is copyrighted and is only added to by the best authors with years of experience and passion that I lack.
Keep trying to get back on the horse. Don’t break the spirit of that horse, let it create its herd with you for the best results. Be an army of two, hand in hand with your positivity. Slay the monsters that are at the gates. Be the hero.
 
69. Find it
What ever it is, quest for it. Hunt it. Capture it. Struggle with it. Be it. Free it.
Many times I thought I found it, but it failed. Those were some of the happiest and most productive days of my life. I have always wanted to return to those days but I cannot. Right now at this point of time, plans have been made but they will most definitely change. The path is long and difficult and I’m a sucker for a pity party, usually my own.
Now what is it? It can be anything: your dream job, a partner, relationships, making bank, climbing a mountain, learning to swim etc. whatever you see it is a goal. A goal that has to be accomplished in your life.
 
70. One more day…
My mantra for 2020.
“Just one more day…”
Wether it was for relaxation, starting an online course, job hunting or working, three words kept me going.
Started at lockdown. 8 months of nothing to do that just online courses, take the dog for a walk, buy food and repeat. Just one more day taking a break after a hectic 18 months of working with four very different bosses. Just one more day till I start that course…
One more day… when I finally found a job and my holiday was over I had to chant this in the place that flooded back all the negative places I’ve ever worked in one foul swoop. Usually it was for the weekend. Just one more day till I could relax and take a breath, return to the old me for a minute. Just one more day to get away from the place.
One more day break till I get a new job.
One more day break till I do the courses I payed for.
One more day till I get a weekend.
One more day till I stop working there.
One more day till I start working here.
One more day to get through to make the funds to get the items I need to do the job I want.
One more day till I see my close friends.
One more day to learn the skills I need for the future.
One more day to reflect on my life.
One more day till the end of the year…