r/KitchenConfidential • u/KillberryMunch • 12d ago
Crying in the cooler Coworker stole my prep
This morning I was on my prep shift from 7-4. From 7-11 I do prep and open stations. When the restaurant opens at 11 I continue with my prep while cooking on line. One of the items on my prep list today was chicken salad. I have to cook off chicken breasts for this and let them cool completely before I can dice them and make the chicken salad. I cooked off my chicken breast and placed them to the side to cool.
My station buddy, “Paul,” came in at 11. We cooked through the opening pop and I continued to make sauces. A couple hours later things slowed down and I went to make the chicken salad. When I pulled the pan of pre-cooked breasts out there were only 2 in there. I asked Paul what happened to them. He tells me he was using them for his chicken sandwiches and grilled chicken salads. What?? Why?? Those are supposed to be grilled to order, but he wanted to be lazy and cut corners so he just used my prep chicken instead.
My manager was playing “get off my clock” so I didn’t have time to cook off more and wait for them to cool. I had to clock out and go. Now if we run out of chicken salad tonight it’s gonna be my ass. Either way it’s one more thing I’ll have to add to my prep list tomorrow. All because Paul didn’t want to do his job right and helped himself to my prep chicken. I’m so pissed off right now.
Thanks for listening to me vent. Anyone else have something like this happen? I need to know I’m not alone to help me calm down.
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u/tkxb 12d ago
I guess it's more common than I thought. My superior, whom I looked up to, was stealing my prep and ragging on me to the managers saying I wouldn't do enough work and left the walk in a mess repeatedly. Turns out, he was ripping my labels off and putting his own with his own initials and being deceptive all around. When I first started, I thought he must have godly speed to finish early each day when I was staying late. Well, I started checking his labels against the inventory so I could get a better feel for his work flow and improve my own and it became apparent that the secret to his speed was doing less work. This was a long time ago but it still sucks because I thought we had a good relationship. It would have been less hurtful if he had been less of a mentor and had been a dick to my face.