My work experiences at Sherwood Oaks and my externship site could not have been more opposite. At Sherwood, I loved going to work so much that, to this day, I cannot say how much I got paid because I didn’t care. I had three incredible managers who knew how to communicate, train and manage their staff. At my extern, I had a chef and a sous chef who couldn’t communicate, didn’t bother to train their staff, and had the management skills of a monkey. Working at my externship site made me realize the true value of a good manager and the benefits to their workers and establishment.
As we all know, training, or lack thereof, is an extremely important part of every operation. At Sherwood Oaks, I was required to take a three hour orientation class before starting the job and then I was given four days of training in order to become a server. I was evaluated for each of these days of training and given a written test at the end of the training period. After these four days of training, if a server did not feel comfortable, it was made clear that they could request more training and it would be given to them. Also, every time that I began to work a different position within the establishment, I was trained for several days on that position to ensure that I was comfortable with my job. This practice of training employees carefully and thoroughly results in a group of highly trained servers who are competent at their jobs.
Due to the large amount of servers working at Sherwood Oaks, it is sometimes difficult to establish a team. You rarely work with the same group of people twice; however most of the servers have good relationships and work well together. Although Sherwood was constantly turning over employees, it was mostly due to the fact that the employees were leaving for college. Most of these college goers stayed on as casual employees and came back to work on their breaks, which is a testament in itself. This establishment is an excellent example of why taking the time and effort to train your employees is so important. Also, the three dining room managers at Sherwood Oaks were well practiced in communicating with each other. Information was always passed along to all members of the management staff so that nothing was vague or unclear. It made working under three different managers very easy and rewarding. I would gladly go back to work at Sherwood Oaks because I know that they take the necessary steps to make their staff comfortable and happy in their jobs.
Upon my arrival at my externship site, I filled out my required paper work and was sent down to the kitchen. There I was greeted by a flustered employee a little older than me who then attempted to show me what I needed to do while continuing to complete her own tasks. My first task was to make rice pudding and vanilla sauce. The other employee handed me the recipes, pointed to the rack of pots and the stove and told me to go ahead. This type of training was what I received the entire time I was at my extern site. I was never taught the specifications for making certain items and so I asked an enormous amount of questions and was reprimanded by the chef frequently for failure to meet his specifications. I quickly began to resent working for him because even if I asked questions about the standards, he was not able to express them clearly. This kept me in a constant state of fear while I was at work because I was never sure when something that I made would not meet the requirements. I was given a book of recipes; however I quickly realized that they were all wrong. If I was given the task to make one of the items in the book, I would follow the recipe and get yelled at for doing something I wasn’t supposed to or not doing something I was apparently supposed to do. All I was trying to do was follow the recipe I was given by the extern site, which was incorrect. Situations like these were frequent and discouraging for me.
I also discovered that my chef and sous chef did not know how to communicate with each other. For example, I was told by my sous chef that he was taking peach pie off of my menu for the next week and so not to worry about ordering any peaches to make more filling. I agreed and did not order any more peaches. Unfortunately, he failed to communicate this decision to my chef and then went on vacation for the remainder of the week. When the next Monday came, I discovered that peach pie was still on the menu and I had no filling in order to make said pie. I told my chef what my sous chef had told me the week before, to which he responded by screaming at me and telling me that I had better have a peach pie made by lunch service. He refused to listen to anything that I had to say and instead gave me more extra work to do on top of figuring out how I was going to make a peach pie with no filling and no peaches. With the help of the purchasing department and my friends in the kitchen, I was able to accomplish all of my tasks; however the experience made me realize how important communication was and how lacking my chef and sous chef were at this practice.
At Sherwood Oaks, I never had any issues working under three different managers because they all knew how to communicate, trained their staff and managed by coaching. At my externship site, I was not trained, the management staff had no idea how to communicate effectively, and the management was through fear and punishments, not coaching. I am glad that I have had the experience of working at both places because I was able to observe both good and bad management skills that will help me throughout my journey in life.
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