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A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

washingtonpost.com

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Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#21

Post by infecto »

tennisflyi wrote: post #6

The "heart," but the only mention of pay is $10/hour, and advancement leads to more long nights as a chef in the volatile restaurant industry? Such respect Edit: also, the lip service of the title "porter" - the electric company will surely except that as payment

Honest question, what should they be paid? Its purely manual labor, there is not much if anything to innovate or be creative. The output is fairly binary, clean or not clean. I am all for fair wages but how do we know if $10 is the right price or too low?

Interesting how serious questions get so quickly downvoted. I am genuinely curious how you would price a dishwasher when the output is important but the work itself is fairly low value. Line cooks, chefs and most of the rest of the crew are not making much money themselves. Most Michelin restaurants are happy to breakeven for dinner service but make lots of profit on the catering, special events, books, branding area. I am not saying $10 is the right price only asking how do you price it when the industry as a whole does not pay well for back of house. We could say raise labor costs but most are already running razor thin margins.

Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#23

Post by Y-bar »

infecto wrote: post #21
tennisflyi wrote: post #6

The "heart," but the only mention of pay is $10/hour, and advancement leads to more long nights as a chef in the volatile restaurant industry? Such respect Edit: also, the lip service of the title "porter" - the electric company will surely except that as payment

Honest question, what should they be paid? Its purely manual labor, there is not much if anything to innovate or be creative. The output is fairly binary, clean or not clean. I am all for fair wages but how do we know if $10 is the right price or too low? Interesting how serious questions get so quickly downvoted. I am genuinely curious how you would price a dishwasher when the output is important but the work itself…

If the full time wage can't result in a decent living (housing, food, medical expenses, clothes, feed and clothe a kid or two, and put away a little on the side) then it clearly is too little.

Edit: Check out https://livingwage.mit.edu/ for examples based on real-world data.

Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#24

Post by darby_nine »

infecto wrote: post #21
tennisflyi wrote: post #6

The "heart," but the only mention of pay is $10/hour, and advancement leads to more long nights as a chef in the volatile restaurant industry? Such respect Edit: also, the lip service of the title "porter" - the electric company will surely except that as payment

Honest question, what should they be paid? Its purely manual labor, there is not much if anything to innovate or be creative. The output is fairly binary, clean or not clean. I am all for fair wages but how do we know if $10 is the right price or too low? Interesting how serious questions get so quickly downvoted. I am genuinely curious how you would price a dishwasher when the output is important but the work itself…

I get paid six figures to fart in a chair and occasionally type. The idea that I'm more deserving than a dishwasher is insane. Of course I won't turn down the paycheck, but the idea that $10 is anywhere in the ballpark of what the dishwasher deserves is delusional. Certainly they deserve the paycheck more than the vast majority of the people on this forum who get paid orders of magnitude more while doing barely any work (if that).

Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#25

Post by didgetmaster »

Y-bar wrote: post #23
infecto wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question, what should they be paid? Its purely manual labor, there is not much if anything to innovate or be creative. The output is fairly binary, clean or not clean. I am all for fair wages but how do we know if $10 is the right price or too low? Interesting how serious questions get so quickly downvoted. I am genuinely curious how you would price a dishwasher when the output is important but the work itself…

If the full time wage can't result in a decent living (housing, food, medical expenses, clothes, feed and clothe a kid or two, and put away a little on the side) then it clearly is too little. Edit: Check out https://livingwage.mit.edu/ for examples based on real-world data.

If the job is unskilled (i.e. you can train the next person to do it in less than one hour) and you have several people standing in line to take it if the person doing it, quits; then the current wage is clearly enough.

It is just like the price of the meal. If it costs more than people are willing to pay, then it is too expensive; regardless of what you personally think it should cost.

Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#26

Post by kccqzy »

unwind wrote: post #5
gryzzly wrote: post #4

but unfortunately the speedy commercial ones aren’t removing the all the chemicals properly – https://www.news.uzh.ch/en/articles/media/2022/Geschirrspuel... another reason to eat at home.

I think the article refers to the actual human(s) doing the work, not machines. Quite confusing, not sure if it's intentional or not.

They obviously still use the machines. From the article:

> I push a full rack into the dishwashing machine, where it gets blasted with 160-degree water and a solution of detergent and a drying agent, emerging 30 seconds later. Well, most of the time. When I send a large cutting board into the washer sans rack, it brings the machine to a halt and forces my teammates to open a metal door in the center to remove the obstacle.

Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#27

Post by wodenokoto »

pfdietz wrote: post #18
HenryBemis wrote: post #3

Back in the late 90s I was working in a nightclub in the UK. It was my first time when I had to use a 'professional' dishwasher. That thing could wash 50-70 glasses in 3-4 mins and I remember that when I was pulling out that tray it was hotter than the sun. We had 5-6 trays for each dishwasher of them and at any given time 1-2 trays were out filled with glasses cooling down. These were like tiny ovens (same horizonta…

At one point West Virginia had a very large glass industry, including production of drinking glasses for eastern cities. Sustained breakage ensured a large steady market. https://www.glassonline.com/usa-opinions-differ-on-decline-o... "One hundred years ago, by one historian's estimate, the bars, hotels and restaurants of New York City broke 500,000 glass tumblers every day." (2003)

I’ve never worked at a place where we broke 1 glas a day on average, let alone 1 tumbler.

That would put my estimate at over a million bars, hotels and restaurants in New York in 1903.

Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#28

Post by wodenokoto »

gryzzly wrote: post #17
unwind wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the article refers to the actual human(s) doing the work, not machines. Quite confusing, not sure if it's intentional or not.

Interesting, I was called a busboy when I was working in a restaurant washing the dishes, not a dishwasher. Never heard it be used for anything but the device.

No, busboy clears tables and delivers it to the dishwasher, who cleans the items using a dishwasher.

Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#30

Post by ripe »

edu wrote: post #15
HenryBemis wrote: post #3

Back in the late 90s I was working in a nightclub in the UK. It was my first time when I had to use a 'professional' dishwasher. That thing could wash 50-70 glasses in 3-4 mins and I remember that when I was pulling out that tray it was hotter than the sun. We had 5-6 trays for each dishwasher of them and at any given time 1-2 trays were out filled with glasses cooling down. These were like tiny ovens (same horizonta…

The article is about people, actual human beings washing the dishes by hand.

Yes, and yet...

Guzman says he's a better chef for having cleaned pots and pans and worked his way up in the kitchen. “Cooking school doesn’t prepare you for a broken dishwasher,” he says.

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