A Very Fundamental Problem

After listening to my rantings against G.S all this while, you must be wondering, so what is WRONG with G.S, or what is WRONG with you?

I'll try to tackle the second question some time down the road, one day, I promise... but for tonite, let me try to settle the first.

It's 1.40 a.m. it's another late night's service at G.S., partly due to accepting a customer at 11.20p.m., and partly due to a 'stand by' drill by the cuisine chef. For those not initiated to SG's national service, a 'stand by' drill is when you are given an order to thoroughly clean up your quarters, and arrange everything neatly and uniformly, report to your superior, who will come give an inspection. And you can be sure he will pull out all your possessions to look for the tiniest speck of dust, and met out punishment. It's called 'looking for trouble', except that he has given himself the god-entrusted authority to do so.

Well, tonight, the chef conjured up a storm in the kitchen, banged pots on the stove, spilled contents, .... just to show he's boss, I guess. There had been one or two mistakes by the team these 2 days, they were reprimanded on the spot, so case closed, right? Wrong. Today, he chose to revisit every single detail, and exploded right on the spot. (Good luck if you're his girlfriend/wife trying to break up with him!)

But the fundamental problem is not about his pettiness or his demeaning way of reprimanding his subordinates. The fundamental problem is that: just an e.g. for tonight, these subordinates were given instructions by one of the expat sous chef, which they carried out dutifully. When shit hits the fan, this sous chef just kept quiet, and let his subordinates take the blame. The juniors didn't denounced the sous chef, but took it in as men.

And being of the same race, the cuisine chef never suspects or doubted his sous chef. Afterall, they think they are god's gift to mankind, and they're here to teach something to these Asians. They could never be wrong, because they are the best. It's unbelievable why we let these people with neo-colonialism ideas into our society. I should start a post on all the racist and chauvinist comments I've come across in the kitchen.

And this type of incident didn't happen just once. It's been repeating again and again. One by one, people have been leaving, giving rise to the high turnover rate that we see now. Once bright eyed and eager, these junior chefs got just totally fed up, jaded and disappointed. While I'm not directly affected by this sous chef, we have brushed feathers twice, and I've been wary of him since. It's not as simple as: if we know these were wrong instructions we shouldn't do it. Because, they are many ways to do something, for e.g., and they might do it a different way in their restaurant and they insist on doing it this way, and being your superior you can hardly say no. And when something goes wrong, all the fingers point downwards to the juniors, but they never stop to question each other.

So my message to these managers, you think you know the best answers, you look everywhere else for the cause and the solution to problems, it's always others, others, others, but never stop to look at yourselves. It's like looking for your reading glasses when you've one perched on your head the whole time. Stop taking a top-down approach all the time.

So why don't I feedback, why don't we feedback. Good idea, will they listen? Yes, and what will they do about it? If management starts to show self-doubt, then they will start to lose that leadership. Chances are they will stick to each other tighter and we are still the ones to suffer. Once, I noticed a problem at my station, and when I brought it up to my chef, he shouted back at me, "Why don't you do something about it!! You very well know the problem, and you don't fix it!!!!" From that day on, my lips have been more than golden at work. I've been taught to just shut up and say 'Yes, chef' all the time. It seems to be what they like.

And when I have my exit interview and they want to have my feedback, what will I say?

I believe we have some very good people working in the kitchen right now. You are killing them one by one. Ask why you have such blind faith and trust in who you trust in your team of managers, just because they talk nicely to you, and can always find faults at us juniors? Are we always to blame? Have these managers ever admitted to something they have done wrong? Why do you think they are capable? Have you ever received a peer appraisal from the juniors of these managers you put in place? Sad to say, I don't think we have a good core. It's their pure good luck that they created a little G.S heaven where they can rule their 'world' and us in it, because if they were to step out into other kitchens in SG by themselves, I do not think many will give them the credibility.