…But this one has taken it to extremes; I actually felt like hitting the catering manager and her chief brownnose today, stress levels has gone through the roof! Let’s start with Tuesday, I arrive at work at 11am and I am informed that I am working upstairs. Upon arrival I find that nothing has been cleaned up there, so I have to catch up with everything from the morning before I could even think about cleaning the pots and pans that was coming in from the breakfast session. I eventually get through everything by 1pm, so decided to go to lunch, shortly after I leave, the catering manager comes up to the main kitchen and moans that I didn’t cover lunches downstairs. How can I cover lunches for fuck sake, I had enough to do myself, and I told the guys in the restaurant potwash that I wont be covering their lunches, which was fine by them. But because the lazy Chinese lad couldn’t cope on his own for 30 minutes I get it in the neck again. I get back from lunch at a little past 1:30pm, and start to clean the soup, custard and gravy pots before getting the lunchtime dishes from the canteen and restaurant, I finished all of that by about 3:45pm, and gave my work area a quick clean up before going back downstairs because both the KP’s down there went home at 4pm, great organisation eh? On Wednesday I arrive at 9:30am, and start working in the restaurant, and just before 11am, they realise that they have no-one to work upstairs, so I get sent up there again, then about an hour later I get bollocked for not cleaning thoroughly enough the night before, because the store manager’s head henchman decided to do an inspection on that night. And what pissed me off more than anything is that is wasn’t my mess, it was years of neglect by the other KP’s that have worked up there. This obviously put me in a bad mood, but I carried on cleaning the pots and pans, but then I was asked to stay on for an hour to clean up the potwash area, which I did, and everything was clean, well as clean as I could get it, some of it was ground in dirt, which wasn’t coming off even with steel wool. Thursday I was rostered to work in the main kitchen, but after two days up there my back was in a poor state, so it wasn’t a very enjoyable day, I just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Then the catering manager decided to make another visit upstairs to piss off myself and the chefs, dumping more cleaning work on us, they really don’t have a grasp of how long things take, they always think everything takes five minutes, and usually saying something like “it would only take me 5 minutes” – I just kept quiet, anything for an quiet life! Friday was OK because the wicked witch of the west was day off, so I had a pretty good day! Finally we come to today, and I got bollocked again, this time for not keeping the restaurant potwash clean enough. At this point I could feel the blood pressure rising but somehow managed to keep my cool, then a whole new raft of things to do which we don’t have time for came along. Cleaning the machine inside and out thoroughly, wiping down all the walls, benches, shelves, metalwork, doors and floor, as well as cleaning all the dishes, and distributing them back to the restaurant, and nothing was allowed to stay in the potwash overnight, so that meant the machine was on until nearly 5:40pm. Oh and I was on my own from 4pm as well, I am not a fucking miracle worker! I am seriously thinking of handing in my resignation on Monday, because I feel that they are taking the piss big time, and this really isn’t good for my health and most of all, I don’t need all this hassle for £625 (gross) per month. If I did hand in my notice I would need to find another job ASAP, but not having one would give me a great incentive to find one. I may feel differently come Monday morning, but I can’t see it this time, they have pushed me too far, it’s probably for the best if I do resign for my health and the health of the people I work with as sooner or later I will just snap and do something I may regret later! I am a very easy going person generally, everyone thinks I am laid back as hell, but I have a breaking point the same as everyone else, and I know I have nasty temper to go with it!
Nothing to be happy about in football either, Plymouth Argyle lost at Home Park to Paul Sturrock’s Sheffield Wednesday by two goals to one. Wednesday came from behind to stop Plymouth’s unbeaten run. Plymouth went ahead courtesy of a Paul Wotton penalty, but Sean McAllister equalised just after the start of the second half, and clinched all three points in the 83rd minute courtesy of Burton O’Brien. Plymouth didn’t defend well enough and got punished for it, even Plymouth manager Ian Holloway conceded that. At least Stoke City didn’t do much either, only managing a 2 – 2 draw, leaving them in 13th and Plymouth in 9th. Liverpool didn’t have a very successful afternoon against the other Sheffield based team United, only managing a 1 – 1 draw, and were lucky to get a point, being fortunate to get a rather dubious penalty, but Robbie Fowler made no mistake in converting the chance. So hardly a great start to Liverpool’s premiership campaign this year, currently sitting in 9th in the league with half the league still to play their games tomorrow.