Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

411–420 of 496 posts

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

#411

Post by edgarvaldes »

dataviz1000 wrote: post #384

I'm a little late to conversation. As a chef for 17 years, here is the advice I was given when I asked someone at age 16 what I should do to become a chef. He said I should get a job as a dishwasher. His reasoning is I needed to learn to appreciate and respect the restaurant's dishwasher because, in his words, 'when shit hits the fan and everything goes wrong, it is the dishwasher who will save your ass.' At 17, I wa…

>when shit hits the fan and everything goes wrong, it is the dishwasher who will save your ass

I'm 100% sure I have already read this exact phrase before.

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

#412

Post by throwaway2037 »

kulshan wrote: post #274
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

Dishwasher at my bar here in Sonoma County CA...make 25$ plus tips...which usually is at least another 10 per hour up to 30.... We can't survive without a strong happy disher

What does a drink at your bar cost? It must be incredible -- may 15 USD minimum. If you paying a dishwasher that much money, you must be paying other staff plenty as well.

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

#413

Post by infecto »

anon115 wrote: post #238
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…

you sound like an ass right now 'its fairly' binary' have you done the work yourself?

Who are you to assume what I have or have not done or use foul language.

I have worked as a washer before and it’s hard work. It also took zero skill and have hired people off the street before to do it. The output is binary. Clean or not clean. Nothing wrong with it. Its a job but not meant to be a career

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

#414

Post by infecto »

kjs3 wrote: post #247
pakitan wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how do we know if $10 is the right price or too low? We don't. It's the market's job to determine the wage. If the wage is too low, then businesses won't be able to find the people they need.

If the wage is too low, then businesses won't be able to find the people they need. Or complain that "no one is willing to work".

That’s the worst excuse that I think the vocal uneducated minority use. I wish it would stop though.

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

#415

Post by infecto »

bwat49 wrote: post #332
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…

> 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? Have you ever worked as a dishwasher? It may not be complicated, but it's hard work. It's not usually just washing dishes either, you're expected to help all arou…

Spent plenty of years in a kitchen. Hectic during service but a mental piece of cake . The night would be over in a flash. Have washed dishes before. It’s not pleasant work but not too bad.

Again. I am not suggesting the wage is too low, high or right. Only suggesting it’s hard when there is a line out the door to fill that role.

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

#416

Post by QuantumGood »

melagonster wrote: post #401
QuantumGood wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Three others, and none were lost. One was the nephew of my boss, who was allowed to just go sit in a break room pretty much any time. The other two just hung around looking busy whenever the boss came by. The cooks knew what was going on but didn't say anything. Eventually, my boss figured it out and assigned me to clean pots and baking racks in the bakery. Dysfunctional place for dishwashers. She told me I could be…

>"He thinks he knows everything!" God, this is crazy. If she relies on proficient people, she must trust them. I cannot understand her motivation—just for fun or cruel?

Her position was due to nepotism, I believe, and so her personality problems weren't disqualifying. The other person who cleaned trays was a kind of diversity hire, an adult with the maturity of a four year old or so. So I don't think "motivated employee does good work" was in her common experience. The bakers and cooks knew to keep their heads down around her. I was playing in the U.S. Open (chess) at the time, so I welcomed some time off (and then pursued other work).

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

#417

Post by infecto »

kjs3 wrote: post #246
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…

I am all for fair wages No, you're very obviously not. This line of argument is the very poster child of "if you're not doing something I think is important (and, apparently having clean dishes at a restaurant is by your own words "fairly low value") like being 'innovative' or 'creative', you are of little value and don't deserve adequate pay". Were you twisting your Mises Institute wristband fondly while writing it?

Do you have an actual counter point or do you just attack people. What’s the emptiness feel like?

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

#418

Post by infecto »

luqtas wrote: post #159
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…

i dunno where this idea of manual labor being treated as something so simple it shouldn't deserve a decent pay... i worked as a dishy also as a bicycle courier & i bet i'm ballparks more efficient than anyone who never had to these jobs we have a heck of a hard time emulating or creating navigational system for robots, specially if we don't train them million of times for extremely simple tasks like grabbing boxes in…

It’s the intersection of skill, risk and mental requirements. Being an old school drill rig guy, high risk, long hours, bad locations. You get high pay. Washing dishes is unpleasant but easy to replace. There are many labor jobs that pay well for a reason. I asked what is the right pay then for a job that anyone can pick up immediately.

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

#419

Post by infecto »

darby_nine wrote: post #299
immibis wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I literally did this. At the end of Chaos Communication Camp last year I had no reason to immediately leave, so I went to see if they needed some extra help and ended up drying and stacking dishes for an hour.

I hope you realize this mostly just reveals you have no clue how hard and skill-intensive kitchen work is. Yes, even dishwashing. The average person is not going to be able to drop into a kitchen and wash thousands of dishes a night.

I have work lots in kitchen. Your post just shows you’re full of it. We have hired people off the street to wash dishes. Yeah of course people quit on the first day sometimes. Same goes for working other entry level jobs.

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

#420

Post by Brian_K_White »

Gormo wrote: post #116
bastawhiz wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that was actually true, minimum wage for tipped employees would be equal to the standard minimum wage.

Why? I'm not sure I see how that follows.

You don't seem to see a lot of things. If anyone ever tried to tip me when I was on-site I don't know what I'd do.

Whatever your job is or was, are you not a professional who already gets paid well for your work? You're at my office as a consultant already getting paid a good salary by your company, and I try to flip you a 50, you just take it? Oh right, that's why you laughed at all my jokes. Well good boy. I like that.

Tipping reduces the tip receiver to a prostitute. The only people who are ok with that are people who like the feeling of being on the top side of that power dynamic.

Post reply on HN