I’m making more money and learning to work with my hands. I’m lucky enough to have found myself with a company who is willing to train me from the ground up. Knowledge is something that no one can take away from you, even if you quit.
Now I’m not working at a retail store stocking shelves and counting every liquor bottle that will make someone else rich. I now work for a decent honest family man who only wants to help other people and himself. The company I work for makes peoples quality of life better and prevents people from burning their house down. It’s a lot of work, but that’s in its own nature, as opposed to someone else working me to the bone, I’m working my ass off to get the job done, and it’s done when it’s done. McDonald’s never ended. You walked into a shit show, and walked away from a shit show.
The trades are very quickly catching up to what our labor is really worth. They know that if they underpay, they won’t have workers. They aren’t holdouts like some retail chains are. Our labor is worth more and they know this.
Subtracting myself from retail into the trades was an act of solidarity and rebellion against the system. I am able bodied and young, and I don’t expect everyone to do something like this, but if you can, and can find a company that will treat you decently and pay you well, you can do the same, and better yourself in the process.
Godspeed.
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Hey, never posted to this subreddit before, but figured I'd give it a shot! Apologies in advance for the sob story-- I promise it's actually relevant.
After HS, I was on the fast track to doing pre-med and was a good way through a STEM college education when my mother got cancer a second time and died--in a pretty bad way--in front of me some months later. I had never liked STEM (but was raised to be successful at the cost of everything else) and had been struggling in my major before this event, but I was pushed to go right back to school afterward and spent about a year or so in a fugue state at school while I failed my classes spectacularly. I dropped out of college a while later having made no progress on my degree and went into foodservice.
I did okay for a few years-- I had a lot of trouble focusing for a long time, but white-knuckled it to support myself-- but eventually when I started getting into my later twenties it started taking a toll on my body. I have a lot of chronic pain and stiffness in my hands now, and I can't really write much with my right hand (I'm right-handed) so I've taught myself how to be ambidextrous, which has helped a little.
I'm currently in a pretty unhealthy living situation and need to get a job to get out of it. That's fine, that's fair. I'll get a job, I'll get out. Here's the thing: I'm really struggling internally because I keep thinking: "is this it?" And it's sapping me of my drive to keep myself alive and taken care of. I've been working for years to regain that. I need to find ways to remind myself that there are still good things that I could look forward to in the future. So. I'm thinking I need to know I'm working toward something.
I've thought about getting into freelance illustration, but I'm scared the chronic pain thing that came out of years of work in foodservice will make it so that the breaks I take to manage that will make it so that I can't reach deadlines quickly enough. I love to write, and I know I'm pretty good at written communication, but same with the chronic pain thing-- typing is a lot less painful than writing by hand, but I can only type so much in a given time period. I can be really productive for a few days in a row, but there'll generally have to be a period of time for at least 24 hours or so afterward where I try to use my hands as little as possible. I've found resources here and there that help creative types with tendonitis/tendonosis from repetitive motion injuries and that'
... keep reading on reddit ➡Title pretty much says it all, I was just generally interested in what kind of foodservice operation the area was missing, and asking the good folks of r/Albany seemed like a good enough place to start.
Thank you for your input.
Hi -- I am currently a supply chain manager for a growing chain of quick service restaurants. This is my first position in procurement/supply chain, I've been doing it for over two years now, and while I really enjoy working in supply chain, my client has a menu that changes randomly throughout the year and they frankly don't care to understand the consequences of this on the supply chain nor make any changes to their menu cycle to simplify it. It's making me pretty miserable and I don't feel very hopeful about the future in my current position.
The company I work for has multiple clients, but since I'm the only person that seems to be able to handle this particular one I don't see them being willing to allow me to step away from my current role into a different one.
My dilemma is - I've been actively interviewing with other companies, and later today I have my final interview for an entry level buyer position with comparable pay, but it is not in foodservice, it is with a broadcasting/wireless company. I've done some research and it seems like a lot of the skills I have developed can easily transfer to a different industry (once you learn the nuances of course), but I'm worried I won't enjoy it as much. I love the food and restaurant industry general, menu ideation, product sourcing, etc.
So, long story short, what would you do in my situation? Be willing to move into an industry that is completely new to you that you may not enjoy as much, or stick it out until you can find a position in the industry you already know and love?
Hi! First hand report: Restaurant operator here outer edge of NY metro area. My main supplier, PFG, is failing to roll all their trucks for the past 3 weeks with their warehouse staffing below 50% of what they need. Not an organized labor effort, just no people to work. The worse yet to come is some of the larger suppliers have huge school contracts kicking in this week and no people to fill the trucks now. My son was working at a scout camp and their deliveries failed twice in the past few weeks too. This is industry wide and these anecdotes involve 3 different suppliers of regional size or greater.
This supply chain is different from the grocery supply chain but they do use the same labor pool.
Where do i even start.. This isnt a rant about the food service industry but just a rant about what i (and proably many others) went thru the past 2 years.
So it was 2019. Just graduated from highschool and wanted to take a break for a year or so just to kinda heal from my scuffed school experience. Then covid hit... Many people lost their jobs and the economy was slowing going down with people in lockdown. People were getting stimulus checks and filing for unemployment like no tomorrow.
Then theres me and others like me...i couldnt get ANY stimulus check because i couldnt file taxes in 2019, i was still in school and couldnt work(dont have the mental capacity to juggle work and school) . I couldnt file for unemployment because i, again, couldnt do my taxes. It was a matter of not knowing how to do them, but also not making enough (literally 0$) to be able to file anything.
Late 2019 to beginning of 2020, i applied to work at a local fast food place. Not gonna name names cuz theyre literially all the same at this point. I got paid 11$ an hour... i was making more than a couple people in there who were stuck at 10$ or$ 9 an hour..the only reason why i got paid that extra measly dollar was because i went to a trade school for culinary arts. Did a year there, never graduated cuz of school drama but i had some form of experience in the food industry.
Jump to middle of August of 2021. I was just coming up on a year working for this place. A little background on me, my parents owned a business and i learned the value of "hard work". Im the type of person who never gets on their phone and bullshits their way thru the day, i actually put in work and did stuff nobody wanted to do. Cleaning bathrooms (during covid no less) yup, sweeping cigarette butts from the drive thru and parking lot even tho it was cold and raining, you betcha, cleaning equipment no one else wanted to clean or knew oe to clean, yuuup. I became what i like to call "the workplace bitch".
I said yes to pretty much everything (probably because of abuse at home cuz if i said no, someone would get very angry) but either way. I was a hard worker. Did my job with 0 questions asked. Surrounded by teenagers on their phone scrolling their day away. It may sound like an old boomer, but im a young guy.
For job context i was the guy who did the frying, cleaning and any other things that didnt involve a cash register, or people. Didnt wanna work with the general public due to social anxiety disor
... keep reading on reddit ➡I work in foodservice and went home ot visit family for the holidays. Unfortunately someone I saw tested positive for COVID the day after we were all together. I recently got my booster so hopefully that helps. But it was really an unfortunate situation
As soon as I found out I texted my boss letting him know that I was exposed in close contact and that I set up a test the earliest I could (Thursday). He asked if I was vaccinated and if I was experiencing symptoms. At the time he texted me I wasn't.
This morning he texted me saying according to the CDC guidelines for our county, as long as I'm asymptomatic and wear a mask, I can work until I receive a positive test. (Un)fortunately I started experiencing some symptoms this morning and told him that.
I'm worried that he's gonna think I'm lying to get out or working, but I'm also in shock that they would let someone who, in all likelihood can have the virus, work in a kitchen, serving food to people. We do live in a conservative area, but it's still insane to me.
Anyway the whole point of this is that the CDC is in the corporation's pocket and is helping to continue exploit workers, even when they may be carrying a potentially dangerous virus.
Long story short - I’ve been doing foodservice for 18 years (I’m 41 now) and was fired from my job of 16 years bc a 19 year old kid drove his motorcycle into me while I was making a turn. My last job was foodservice, so the work was no joke, but I had Wed/Sat/Sun off and my runs were like 6am-8pm roughly and was averaging $120k/yr. Always took extra routes etc.
Right now I have 2 job offers.
1.) Another food service company in orlando about 15 minutes further drive from where I was working. Here I can make about $100k, but they dispatch every day besides Saturday and dispatch is between 8pm-2am. It’s more the hours and days that gives me hesitation more than the work. This job has a $5k sign on which I’m not exactly sure how it’s paid out.
2.) The second company is the intermodal division of what I think is a major carrier. Job is M-F 4am til finish. Empty container from the yard to the port of savannah, loaded container back to jacksonville. Repeat. The ad says $1400-$1600 a week. It has a $10k sign on bonus, but it’s paid out $100/wk for about 2 years.
Ok - here’s the catch.. A year ago I bought a house in the town where I grew up so I could be closer to my family. There’s no good paying jobs here. It was fine bc I would go to work Monday morning and they’d let me stay in the truck (they had showers and a locker room at the job) for my route the next morning and I’d go home after that route Tuesday night. Same deal for Thursday/Friday. The foodservice job I would be commuting an hour each way (56 miles) 5 days a week. Only silver lining is the commute would be off peek hours. The container job is in Jacksonville about an hour and 45 min drive. The manager told me if they had any trucks I’m welcome to stay in them, but he can’t promise any would be available and it’s mostly daycabs anyway. Now my thinking is the container job would eventually lead to being an o/o assuming I like the job.
Sorry for typing out this novel, but I would appreciate any opinions or experiences.
Thank you guys
Can anyone give me perspective on how much money you can make and what your life is like (hours, stress, daily experience, etc) if you work for one of the big 3 or 4 foodservice companies as a territory manager?
I’m thinking about changing careers from being a Chef to working in food sales.
Thanks in advance.
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Hey all,
Does anyone know of some non quick service restaurant jobs (or any restaurant jobs in general) that might be good for a student over the winter?
Currently doing scooter work, and that is getting furloughed until the spring. I have about a month left before I need to seriously be looking.
Thanks!
I worked food service my whole adult life, horrible pay, 60 70 hour weeks for years with no time off and abusive managers. After endless stress my body finally collapsed. I have constant headaches with brain fog and full body nerve pain. Doctors can't figure out what's wrong. Other than my central nervous system isn't working correctly and its probably from the stress. Companies will work you to death for a profit. Stand up and fight back!
By far the hardest, but best job I've ever had. 60-70 hour weeks, extremely physical. But it will keep you in shape, you'll make bank if you have less experience and you definitely won't get fat. And home every day.
My local Sainsburys has started a new aisle that looks as if they got everything from Makro or Bookers. They've branded it all as a "buy bulk, save money" thing but it seems like they're filling space. Anyone else noticed this where they live?
Nutrition for Foodservice & Culinary Professionals, 9th ed. Authors: Drummond, Karen Eich and Brefere, Lisa M. Publisher: Wiley & Sons, NJ, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-119-14849-4 IMG
