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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)

#451

Post by bradknowles »

Funny. My family moved in the summer between 5th and 6th grade. But they didn’t have enough money to pay for my school lunches — my dad was a poorly paid teacher at the local University, and I don’t remember what poorly paid work my mom had.

But I discovered that they allowed students to work as dishwashers, and if you did that, then you got your lunch for free — and even allowed to get seconds. That also kept me off the playground, where I tended to get bullied a lot.

So, for me, that was actually a good experience in grade school.

Sure, I had to deal with the super hot water and the super high pressure sprayer, but that didn’t take long. And I could quickly and efficiently load the trays into the commercial grade steamer that sanitized everything. I felt good about doing that job well, and I felt like I got a good reward for it.

Thinking back, I don’t know why they allowed a 6th grader to work as a dishwasher. That was probably illegal according to the child labor laws. But I think it worked well for me.

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

#452

Post by NotCamelCase »

NoboruWataya wrote: post #450
jackyinger wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Loved reading this. I admire your courage and ingenuity to dress as a poor person. If you haven’t already read it you might enjoy Orwell’s autobiographical Down and Out in Paris and London, your story tangentially reminded me of it.

Coincidentally I have just finished this book, and the article and the comment you're replying to definitely reminded me of it. Great book - I was expecting the incisive social commentary and humanity that Orwell is known for (and it delivered) but it's also just a very entertaining read.

This book is so unexpectedly funny! Once I was reading it on the train and couldn't help but laugh loudly a couple of times. People in the compartment were perplexed.

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

#453

Post by huhkerrf »

aj7 wrote: post #297

I have a PhD in Physics from Berkeley. Still, in the strictest real estate sense, my best and highest use is as a dishwasher. I was managing a small optics factory in Livermore. We made laser mirrors to order there — any wavelength, any reflectivity, any angle, any polarization, you name it. I was working my ass off and was unmarried at the time. Thanksgiving came around and I had nowhere to go. But I hooked up with…

> I immediately went over to the sink and kicked out the lady who was pretending to work. I then washed all the dishes and left.

OT, but I'm very jealous of people with this mindset and work ethic. I'm much too lazy to have done something like this, but have always looked up to people who see things this way.

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

#454

Post by reedf1 »

aj7 wrote: post #297

I have a PhD in Physics from Berkeley. Still, in the strictest real estate sense, my best and highest use is as a dishwasher. I was managing a small optics factory in Livermore. We made laser mirrors to order there — any wavelength, any reflectivity, any angle, any polarization, you name it. I was working my ass off and was unmarried at the time. Thanksgiving came around and I had nowhere to go. But I hooked up with…

This story has it all, even from the first sentence - you should start a cult.

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

#455

Post by yurishimo »

bradknowles wrote: post #451

Funny. My family moved in the summer between 5th and 6th grade. But they didn’t have enough money to pay for my school lunches — my dad was a poorly paid teacher at the local University, and I don’t remember what poorly paid work my mom had. But I discovered that they allowed students to work as dishwashers, and if you did that, then you got your lunch for free — and even allowed to get seconds. That also kept me off…

I think as a society we've come quite far, but if a kid wants to wash some dishes at school under adult supervision for a limited amount of time, I don't see a lot wrong with it. Obviously, it would be better if we could just not make families pay for school lunches, but that's another topic that isn't terribly relevant to this discussion.

Do you think you learned any valuable lessons that carried into adulthood? I started working in 9th grade as a busboy/washer and look fondly back on those memories; not only as a way of getting out of the house (bad family situation) but also as a look into the lives of the adults that worked there. As an adult now, I feel sorry for the middle age people who worked there because they obviously didn't really want to be there, but they needed a job and frying eggs as the local greasy spoon was apparently what was available. But I'm happy now and I get a small amount of comfort knowing that I can go back to that line of work if I ever found myself in a bind and needed to make an extra $2k. I'm sure my adult body won't handle it as well, but mentally, I think I'd be prepared.

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

#457

Post by infecto »

luqtas wrote: post #425
infecto wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

maybe to find a decent pay is to not treat dishies as an easy to replace person?

don’t confuse a fact, that it’s a role that’s easy to replace with how the person is treated. All deserve respect but that does not entirely translate to their wage.

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

#458

Post by Straw »

darby_nine wrote: post #73
FredPret wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm quite disappointed that you're willing to lift your ideas wholesale from a French communist [0] unless of course by "Capital" you mean "Das Kapital" in which case it's the original, German one [1]. Perhaps you should broaden your horizons and read up on the theory of people who disagree with you. Specifically: > The dish, obviously. A company (or a product) is an abstract concept that is largely meaningless witho…

> Improving the work of 100 people by 1% is worth a hell of a lot more than a clean dish, no matter how society is organized. Not if the benefits of this marginal productivity increase are hoarded by a small subset of society: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoupling_of_wages_from_produ... You don't need to listen to communists to figure this out—you can just read Schumpeter.

This only looks at wages, not total compensation. Benefits increases have made up much of the difference.

When you look at productivity vs total compensation, there may have been a small decoupling but its far less.

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

#459

Post by GaryNumanVevo »

aj7 wrote: post #297

I have a PhD in Physics from Berkeley. Still, in the strictest real estate sense, my best and highest use is as a dishwasher. I was managing a small optics factory in Livermore. We made laser mirrors to order there — any wavelength, any reflectivity, any angle, any polarization, you name it. I was working my ass off and was unmarried at the time. Thanksgiving came around and I had nowhere to go. But I hooked up with…

So if you were just able to walk into the dish room and start washing dishes, why dress up like a poor person?

Just walk up to the church and say you're the guy who volunteered to wash dishes that day. Of course the people who volunteer get something out of it, something you should have noticed when you were volunteering!

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

#460

Post by natmaka »

praptak wrote: post #443
bumby wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they give up just as much time to be there for an hour as the CEO does. I think this misunderstands a fundamental economic idea: people aren’t paid commensurate to their time or sweat invested; they are paid (in theory) with their differential contribution to the economy. Therefore, people who get paid well tend to have at least two things: 1) a rare skill and 2) a relatively high contribution to the economy. Somet…

Isn't this a circular explanation? You are paid for your contribution to the economy. What is your contribution to the economy? Well, it is the amount you are paid.

In theory the more difficult to replace you are, the more you are paid.
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