Training..

Some large businesses find that training their employees is worthwhile, while many small businesses don’t see the importance of spending the time and money. During my first job in a kitchen, I was semi-trained by a fellow employee that the chef really didn’t seem to like. He always yelled at him and put him down in front of everyone. I was very confused on why the chef wanted me to learn from someone like him. I learned all the wrong ways to do things and I was never taught where anything was. I honestly never left my station to find out how the rest of the kitchen operated. After a few months of this I decided to give up because I had little experience to know how to fix the problems on my station, and no one was giving me any type of direction. I should have stuck it out know that I look back, but I was very young and it was easier just to give up.

While working at The Greenbrier, which was much larger than my first job, there was a lot of on the job training. This was fine because the chefs’ showed me exactly how they wanted tasks done and left me to work. There was no actual training. They just told me where to work and hopefully I would catch on eventually. This wasn’t hard to do because everyone was very helpful and wanted me to do my best for the sake of the restaurant. Even though there wasn’t a set training schedule or even orientation, the staff was knowledgeable enough to take a few minutes out of their prep time and help fellow employees. There was a true sense of teamwork in all of the kitchens at The Greenbrier.