Restaurant Days: Restaurant Culture

Taking a job as a dishwasher is not what alot of people would have expected me do after graduating college. At the university I distinguished myself academically. I was my department's 2005 Dean's Scholar--which is the highest academic award an undergraduate can achieve--and I belonged to three honor societies. Most people would have expected me to take a much coveted job. I remember when I told a friend I was washing dishes he gawked in surprise. But another reason why I took the job was because of my hero George Orwell. When Orwell lived in poverty in Paris he too took a job in a restaurant, and he described his experiences in detail in "Down and Out in Paris and London." I was curious to find out if what he wrote was correct about the culture of restaurants, and I found out that Orwell was right.

Orwell once wrote if you knew what went on in the back of a restaurant you would pause before eating there, and I couldn't agree with him more. Humans have a rich psychology; just thinking about something is enough to affect our behavior, and all restaurants know this. When you go to eat at a restaurant you expect to get good service and to have a good meal. You don't think about dirty dishes in the back because if you did you'd think twice about eating there, and most restaurants go to great lengths to conceal the back. The back stands in stark contrast to the front. The front of a restaurant is filled with sleek delicious looking meals and clean waiters. But the back is filled with slop filled plates and bits and pieces of food that weren't eaten. It is a disgusting site--like a pile of squashed insects that have had their organs and bodily fluids spewed all over the place. This is not what you want to think about when you are eating.

Orwell also accurately conveyed the hustle and bustle of a restaurant. All restaurants want to be punctual; they don't want to keep their customers waiting for a meal. As a result there is a culture of scowling in restaurants. What I mean by "scowling" is getting on someones case to get something done, and to get it done properly. For example, if a waiter thinks a cook is being too slow the waiter will complain to the cook to speed up. This is because the waiter knows if the cook is too slow the person who ordered the meal will likely complain about it to the waiter, who isn't responsible for the cooking. In a restaurant so much scowling takes place its almost as if everybody is on edge; the slightest thing can be enough to set someone off. When I worked at Wendy's a woman lost her temper because a co-worker was let off a few minutes early. Also, alot of scowling takes place at restaurants because of the fear of being robbed, and restaurants tend to be targets of robbery, especially after hours.

But Orwell did not describe everything I experienced in restaurants. One thing I've noticed about restaurants that he didn't describe is that the people working there often need the jobs. This is never mentioned in a restaurant, but many of my co-workers were content with their jobs. For them it wasn't something temporary, as was my situation. It was a job that would last for an indefinite period of time. Also, it is easy for co-workers who have different responsibilities in a restaurant to have conflict. This is largely because if something isn't being done by somebody it will affect someone else. There were many nights during closing when a particular cook would get on me about doing something that had to be done before the restaurant closed. Basically, he was telling me in so many words if you don't do what your supposed to do then I can't do what I'm supposed to do. And if I can't do what I'm supposed to do we'll never get out of here.