over worked and under paid

Like they say in camp, when it rains it pours. After the last entry I went in on the 2nd with a couple books to lend the new 2nd cook to help him learn a few salads to ease into the whole 2nd cook setting. When I showed him the books he seemed slightly disinterested and then about 30 minutes later I hear the news that he quit and is going to be heading out on the next available plane. It seems that he got lectured on June 2nd about his salads (pieces being too large and the quality being rather ugly) and then the next day got a lecture from the 1st cook about hygiene and health safety. He was wrapping up left over hot dogs from lunch to put in the cooler for the guys to take to work. However, what he was doing was putting the buns on a counter which the medic deemed to be unclean and unsanitary and then grabbing the wieners with his bare hands and putting them in the bun and wrapping them up and putting them back on the counter. So it was brought to the 1st cooks attention which was then mentioned to the 2nd cook to be careful about what the public sees you do as they complain about everything and anything. Seems the new guy didn’t like being told what to do so he went to Radio and said that it was a double standard how the 1st cook speed thaws chicken in the back sink and he can’t put a hot dog bun on a counter. Of course Radio handled it in his own personal style of management skill. Basically told him “if you are a whiner now, you will be whiner in a week or two...you quitting and want to go home?” to which the answer was “yes” and thus ended the new guys glorious career in the camp with us. Think after orientation and all he basically worked with us for three whole days and then he was gone.

So what does that mean to us? Well that means that now baker and 2nd cook have a whole load of extra duties thrown upon us. The baker is now baking during the nights and cooking breakfast in the morning while I am doing all his prep work for breakfast. These duties are making 250-300 sandwiches (plus all the prep work for that of slicing meats, washing lettuce, slicing vegetables for the veggie sandwiches, making tuna and egg salad), omelette prep (cracking 150 eggs into two measuring cups, cutting up green and red peppers, onions, ham, tomato, grate cheese), tray up 10 sheets of bacon as well as sausages, cut up the fruit (2 watermelons, 4 honey dews, 4 cantelopes, 6 pineapples..plus the cottage cheese and two canned fruits) and preparing 45 breakfast sandwiches (45 hard fried eggs, cooked bacon/sausage or ham, cheese on English muffins...think like a McMuffin). All these duties plus my regular 2nd cook duties (lunch and supper salads, hot sandwich for lunch, potato/rice/two vegetables for supper as well as prep work for the 1st cook when required).
Wednesday was a complete and total messed up day with all of us trying to get the things done and run with the idea of what we had to do. Today was not much better since it is all still a mess and I really have not got my head into the whole 2nd cook duties and all. Luckily there are two dishwashers so I scooped one from the dishpit to help out with the sandwich making. Took him all morning to slice the meats and then all afternoon to make the sandwiches. Not going to complain since I didn’t have any time to spare to do that job and I would have had to stay an extra 2 and a half hours after shift to get it all done if he hadn’t of done it. So, on the whole you could guess what my state of mind and attitude toward this whole affair is. Pretty much the same as the baker who said this evening “I have stopped going faster. The faster I go, the more work I get, the slower people go, the less work they get. If it didn’t get done then screw them it aint getting done.”
So today at supper when I am just finishing up the breakfast prep to relieve the 1st cook from the supper line. Radio comes in and puts his arm around my shoulder and acting like the saviour sent from above to give me good news, or acting like some big time CEO, and the conversation went something like this

(R)adio - since I know you are driven my monetary power, I am going to give you one hour over time a day for all the work that you have done

(M)e - *Not in the best of moods, stressed and tired so with mirth and mocking* wow...a whole one hour. Running around like a whirl wind to get the jobs of two people done in a 12 hour shift and I get a whole hour. Wow

R - *slightly defensive* you will be going to nights on Wednesday so don’t worry about that.

M – Oh I know that I won’t be going to nights.

R – sure you will. We have a new 1st cook coming in that has worked with us before and he can take 1st or 2nd duties without even blinking.

M – really? A new guy. You mean you are not going to make Tony 2nd cook? That plan sort of went down hill? Cause I was really hoping to see that plan come to action.

(SIDE NOTE – Tony is like the actual camp manager and Radio is like the cover one. If Tony has an idea what happens in camp, it happens; if Ken has an idea what happens in camp, it happens only if Tony gives the stamp of approval to keep it happening. The idea of Tony being 2nd cook at any point in time is laughable. Kind of like Bill Gates going to the assembly production line of Microsoft cause the acting CEO said he should)

R – nope, he won’t be going to 2nd but you will have the time and freedom to go to nights and you can ‘fornicate the poodle’ (not really his words but you get the idea *G*) all you want for a week. You should be thankful I am giving you the one hour extra a day for this work since you ‘fornicated the poodle’ for the last two weeks on dishwasher. I saw you taking your hour breaks.

M – sort of made up for the no breaks for the last 4 weeks while on 2nd cook but hey, a whole hour...thanks for that whole extra hour.

At this point he walked away to let me finish the work. He did come back about 20 minutes later and whispered on the sly ‘ok you get two hours a day. Just told tell any of these clowns or Tony cause it is against the mines regulations’.

Though on the bright side we don’t have to worry about running out of food. We got our groceries on Wednesday and we ordered more than we really need. For instance we had 2 cases of green peppers and we got 2 more cases, we had 2 cases of romaine and we got two more, we had 32 cases of eggs and we got 24 more cases. I call the cooler Jurassic Cooler because if you don’t follow your guide closely when you walk in it you might get lost and never come out again it is so cluttered.