this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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Asklemmy

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[–] [email protected] 64 points 10 months ago (15 children)

Cook.

Kitchen staff, for the most part, work long hours in chronically understaffed kitchens for very little pay. You get a break when things slow down and chances are you're going to be eating, hitting the bathroom, and trying to get a little sit time in a milk crate out back in that short little window (hint, pick two of those, the third might not happen).

You get burned, cut, over heated, covered in filth, and breathe in noxious crap all day from stoves, fryers, industrial cleaning chemicals, and other things.

You, probably, and a lot of your coworkers are short tempered, sore, tired, and possibly on drugs or alcohol. You are surrounded by ideal weapons for hurting others and you will be in or see a fight every so often.

Wait staff pretend to like you but really they work shorter shifts, go home relatively unscathed, and make a fortune in tips. So you also dislike and resent them. You don't want to but see above.

You work when everyone else is off so you end up hanging out with people in similar situations who aren't always the best people for things like networking into a better job. They really like partying though, and who needs a future.

Then you get a little older. Maybe you are running a kitchen and finally don't need to have roommates to afford the horrible apartment but you're only there about seven hours in a row at any given time. You met someone through friends but they don't see a future because you are always working.

Eventually, health issues force you to find other work and you claw your way to normalcy 15 years behind everyone else in retirement saving, salary growth, and so on.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (10 children)

Oh shit. My daughter just started culinary school. Is there a fulfilling path forward for her?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If she has good qualifications, she could cook in China in a city like Shanghai if she doesn't want to get burnt out. They would give good working terms and conditions, they just want a foreign cook on the team. Moreover foreign cooks are very common in big hotels and can usually run the kitchen as the Chinese staff can still be pretty mediocre at Western dishes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Extremely interesting. She’s really into Asian food (Vietnamese and Filipino) but has a natural talent for Tex Mex and soul-ish food. Thanks for the response!

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