“Shortly after my release from jail, I had to shift from my dream
career to a food service job at a small town in northern Wisconsin.
The work was fun; I enjoyed being in the kitchen, learning different
processes, keeping busy washing dishes, flipping the deli case every
morning, and packaging brats for the storefront. I even enjoyed the
catering aspects. But, the job was still a nightmare.
“I am not one to badmouth prior management. It’s unprofessional, rude,
and makes me feel like I am talking behind someone’s back. I need to
be blunt, though. I left that job with a broken spirit. The owner
constantly screamed at their staff so loud that the customers
complained. I was called names that were illegal on an almost daily
basis for things like moving slowly, talking too quietly, and
developing a nervous stutter. On my lunch breaks, I’d sit in the
dining area, and the customers would ask me, “Did she yell at you
today?” I’d shrug and nod. “Don’t let her get you down,” they’d say.
My therapist even said my involvement was like an abusive relationship
where I was too afraid to leave, thinking I’d never find anywhere else
to go.
“It’s been just shy of two years since I left, and joined JustBakery.
This week, we were given a kitchen assignment learning the ‘quick
bread’ method of baking. Each group was given a different recipe to
make, and with an uneven number of participants, I volunteered to go
solo. Of course, I picked the most technically involved bread: a
double-chocolate zucchini loaf… I am a glutton for food and
punishment, right?
I moved slowly getting my ingredients together. Overwhelmed, I started
to hear that boss in my head, screaming obscenities and illegal slurs,
and went into a state of “freeze” panic. Our kitchen instructor
approached me with these words: ‘You are SO patient!’ I thanked her
profusely and told her a bit about my foodservice trauma. She smiled
and said, ‘Hopefully this makes the kitchen a lot more pleasant for
you.’
“In the end, I made the best chocolate zucchini bread I’d ever had,
even from a bake sale. This is good. Two weeks in, and my life is already changing.
Thank you!”
In learning more about effective management at JustBakery, the job that our student endured showed how detrimental a poor manager can be. The organizational culture represented by the negative discipline exhorted by that autocratic manager is what we are endeavoring to avoid with the classroom instruction here. The life skills that we are learning has shown us different perspectives of approaching situations. Negativity need not apply here at JustBakery!
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