Gettin' Busy with the Burgers, Among Other Things

Work today went really well. Here's a description of what I did:

I typically spend from 10 to 10:15 cleaning up around the grill and fried food area. At 10:15 I drop all the fried food for lunch. When I say drop, I mean place the food into the fryer vats and set the timers for the food to cook.

While the fried food cooks, I get trays to put the cooked food into so that they can be placed into staging cabinets. Also I get ready to disconnect the breakfast equipment and move it out of the way so that the crew can focus on the regular menu. This occurs at 10:30 within a few seconds.

After the condiment table, bun toaster, and other equipment was in place, one manager asked me to take care of the trash and cardboard. I went through the walk-in refrigerator and freezer, along with the stockroom (where the dry goods are stored), to collect empty cardboard boxes.

One of the crew members gave me her car keys so that I could put as many of the boxes I had into her car. She needs them for an upcoming move. After I did that, I took the rest of the cardboard to the cardboard dumpster.

When I opened the lid to the dumpster, I was grateful that my coworker had taken so many of the boxes. I could barely put any of the boxes I had into the dumpster because it was practically full.

I then returned to take all the trash bags to the dumpster. I guess it wouldn't be called trash if it didn't stink and make you think of vomiting on yourself. Nevertheless, I put all the trash bags into the compactor and turned it on.

One bag was particularly nasty. It wasn't closed that well, and someone had placed it in the trash container upside down. It was juicy. Yeah, I guess that's a good word to describe it. Heavy, too.

After I'd emptied the trash container, I needed to rinse it out because there were, um, juices left over. It was also a good time to rinse my hands and forearms off.

I had to do the same thing with the cardboard container because it had some trash in it.

When I'd returned from that task, they needed me to take over the grill. Working the grill is nonstop during the day. I'm always cooking meat. The challenge is to cook just enough so that the crew doesn't run out while not cooking too much. Management has prepared charts that indicate how much we should keep in the staging cabinet. The process involves timing, stamina, and endurance.

Today was a great day to work the grill. I worked with some really great crew members, too. I was happy as long as I had the meat to cook and I got cups of ice water every so often.

I didn't even notice that it was past the time for me to get off. The crew still needed someone to cook the meat, and management hadn't provided someone to replace me yet.

I also didn't get a break, which happens sometimes because of how my shift is laid out with respect to how busy the restaurant is.