Days Off

Again, a day off. We get two days off a week – usually they are two days in a row, so regardless of what the days are, it feels like a bit of a weekend. But sometimes they are not two consecutive days. Some of the chefs almost always get the same two days off every week, and others get different days each week. Lately I have been getting Monday and Tuesday off every week, quieter days, which is fine by me. It really all depends on what is going on at the estate, how busy we are, and how many staff we have though. Sometimes days off get shuffles around a lot, and sometimes some of the chefs only get one day off a week. We have to make sure we have enough staff on who know how to cover the many different sections we have. Technically, no one is supposed to work seven consecutive days, but sometimes it does happen that days off get spread apart. I myself have worked nine days in a row, as one week I had Monday and Tuesday off, and the next week I was not off again until Friday and Saturday (you have to pay to get the actual weekend off). But I have also been off Friday and Saturday, worked Sunday, and off again Monday and Tuesday. You just take the breaks when you can get them.

Here are a few examples. When our bar starter chef left, we had to ‘borrow’ one of the chefs from upstairs to work in the bar until the new chef started. This changed around everyone’s hours in both the bar and the restaurant. Recently we had two chefs from the restaurant leave, one expectantly, so we have been short on staff there and working long hours. That’s why I have been upstairs so much lately. On top of that, the sous chef got two weeks of vacation, so now we are really short on staff in the restaurant and some of the chefs are only getting one day off per week. As a student intern, they are required to give me my two days off a week. I feel bad for the chefs who have gone five weeks in a row with only one day off, and offered to come in on a day off, but apparently they have gotten flack for that in the past, so I must take my two days. They tell me I am technically working more hours than I should be already – that my days should be more like eight hour days, but I really don’t mind it. I am here for the experience and the hours.

I think pretty much every kitchen bends the rules for time off and working hours and whatnot, but that’s just a reality of kitchens. It may be law, or written in an employee handbook, and technically we could file complaints, but no one ever does because that’s just how kitchen life works and we expect it. I mean, I knew what I was signing up for getting a culinary degree,, and I don’t regret it. It takes a certain type of person to be a chef – not everyone can work the long hours and consecutive days, and holidays, and weekends, and late nights, etc. It takes some serious dedication. I don’t really get the breaks I am entitles to, but that is partially my fault. I choose not to take frequent breaks. They know I don’t smoke, but if I asked to step out for five minutes, I could. I just don’t feel the need to. Don’t know if that makes me a workaholic or just nuts, but I love what I do and you don’t survive this industry without passion.

You mean, there is a world outside the kitchen???