A Rotten Tomato

During my senior year of high school, I was looking pretty hard for jobs to qualify my swift CIA admission. My choices were scarce and basically down to which franchise restaurant should I chose from. I looked pretty hard for a decent restaurant to cook in, until I found myself in Waukegan, IL. Walking down the crime filled streets I tripped into Campari Ristorante. It was a new restaurant opened by a young chef named Gabe. I told him that I was desperate for a job to qualify me and I agreed to work for free. I was to work everyday right after school until close.

I was so excited, it was to be my first job in a working restaurant. I was in charge of salad station at first and I got a lot of attention from the 22 year old owner of Campari. He taught me his techniques for pasta and taught me the specials. We worked in a kitchen the size of a small bathroom that fit 2 6-top ovens, a cold table, a two door refrigerator, and a 3-compartment sink. Let's just say, it was a little crammed.

I worked there for about a month and felt pretty good about it. Until I realized how bad the place was suffering. Campari barely made enough to pay for food cost, let alone employee wages. Gabe started dropping people left and right. Acting rude to everyone and just feeling bad for himself. He went out for cigarette breaks every 20 minutes and would occasionally just leave without notice. I tried to learn more, but I didn't see the point of coming in after he put his other prep cook on the salad line and had me mopping floors. It was extremely discouraging to go to work for free when no one cared about you at all.

It all ended one afternoon when I text that prep cook, X, about how I felt. I asked him if he could help me learn more and he agreed to it happily. About an hour later I get a text from Gabe, telling me that he didn't appreciate my rudeness and that he "never wants to see my face again".

You know, I don't know if it was karma, but Campari closed that next day.

Gabe exemplified horrible management and people skills. He drove his own business into the ground in three months. He is someone who couldn't handle all the aspects that a supervisor must be on top of. And, it counts to be nice sometimes, even if you really just don't care.