A Day That Will Be Remembered...
Nov. 24th, 2008 04:51 pmFor far too long. Okay, I expect Mondays to be mondayish - but really! I go into work and start, as usual, by getting the bread upstairs. Or rather, I try. The elevator wasn't working.
Now understand, my loading dock is on the ground floor. The kitchen and dining rooms are on the next floor. This means that everything needed to make about 2500 meals per day needs to go upstairs. The typical meal, not counting production waste, requires about a pound of food. So those 2500 meals require 2500 pounds of food, plus production waste (5 percent on a good day I'd say or 125 pounds,) and packaging (another 5 percent or more,) and of course, since we don't know exactly how much of any one thing we will serve, we have to have plenty of everything (some of which will have to go back downstairs tomorrow,) adding perhaps another 25 percent. Somewhere in the neighborhood of two tons have to go upstairs every day. In cases averaging about thirty pounds. So say 125 assorted boxes, bags, what have you. Not a problem when I have a nice big elevator and can load enough onto my big cart that it usually takes me ( mumble mumble ) six or seven trips to do it all.
Without the freight elevator, I either carry stuff upstairs by hand (125 trips!) or use a small handtruck that can carry about a fifth of what my big cart can handle AND push/pull it through another department (catering) or two (catering/conference offices) to get to the front of the building where we have a small elevator intended for handicapped access. And when upstairs, I then have to schlepp the load through the buffet/serving area and through the kitchen work area itself (instead of behind the work area where the reefers and storerooms are and where the freight elevator goes to.)
Needless to say, I earned my exorbitant pay in full by the time the elevator repairman finally showed up. Tired now. Will sleep well tonight - family drama permitting.
Now understand, my loading dock is on the ground floor. The kitchen and dining rooms are on the next floor. This means that everything needed to make about 2500 meals per day needs to go upstairs. The typical meal, not counting production waste, requires about a pound of food. So those 2500 meals require 2500 pounds of food, plus production waste (5 percent on a good day I'd say or 125 pounds,) and packaging (another 5 percent or more,) and of course, since we don't know exactly how much of any one thing we will serve, we have to have plenty of everything (some of which will have to go back downstairs tomorrow,) adding perhaps another 25 percent. Somewhere in the neighborhood of two tons have to go upstairs every day. In cases averaging about thirty pounds. So say 125 assorted boxes, bags, what have you. Not a problem when I have a nice big elevator and can load enough onto my big cart that it usually takes me ( mumble mumble ) six or seven trips to do it all.
Without the freight elevator, I either carry stuff upstairs by hand (125 trips!) or use a small handtruck that can carry about a fifth of what my big cart can handle AND push/pull it through another department (catering) or two (catering/conference offices) to get to the front of the building where we have a small elevator intended for handicapped access. And when upstairs, I then have to schlepp the load through the buffet/serving area and through the kitchen work area itself (instead of behind the work area where the reefers and storerooms are and where the freight elevator goes to.)
Needless to say, I earned my exorbitant pay in full by the time the elevator repairman finally showed up. Tired now. Will sleep well tonight - family drama permitting.