Corinne
Sous Chef
I so hate to tell you guys this, but my new job is not working out the way I had hoped. I'm very unhappy there. (At the nursing home.) I'm beginning to think that my "dream job" doesn't exist.
I want to preface this by saying that I gave up a lot for this job, thinking it would fulfill me. I consider myself to be a fairly upbeat person & not a complainer by nature. There are just too many things wrong here for me.
So, what are the problems?
- the way the job was advertised & what I was told in my interview was that it would be 30 hours a week and that was considered to be full-time w/benefits. The hours were to be 12:30 PM to 6:30 PM Tuesday thru Friday, and then every other weekend. After I took the job, I was told that it was a 31.5 hour a week job - meaning I needed to come in at 11:30 each weekday (except for Wed.) And when I went in at 11:30, I needed to take a 1/2 hour break, off the clock. (I was working 25 hours per week at the bank so I figured an extra 5 hours per week wasn't gonna be a big deal. Now it's up to 8 hours & I don't get paid for 1 1/2 of them, even tho' I need to be there.)
All I really want to do is cook. I like to put a little bit of myself into what I do. And I was told that I could do things the way I wanted to. Except that I only have certain ingredients to work with there & some things are done "the way they are always done".
Most days I chop & put something (chicken, turkey, eggs, imitation crab, tuna, etc.) thru the food processor, mix it with a gallon or more of mayo, add some salt, pepper, onion and/or garlic powder & that's that. The cream soups all start out the same - just add the steamed vegetable of the day & there you have it. Each item needs to have about 1/3 of it pureed in a blender. Then some more things need to be ground up in a food processor.
It seems that I spend a lot of time cleaning & dishing things up. The most intense thing is doing the "serving line" - which lasts from 40-60 minutes - there are 6 different areas (wings & dining rooms). I have to put the proper type of food on the proper type of plate. During the serving line there are always several interruptions from the CNAs: so&so doesn't want this, they want something else - usually some sort of sandwich (PB&J, Grilled Cheese, Meat Sandwich).
All I ever hear are complaints from the residents - one woman gave me an earfull last Sat. night about how her food is always cold. I made a special effort on Sunday - I did her meal last & made sure the hot things were very hot. I went to see her that evening & she still wasn't happy - she didn't remember that I had spoken to her the evening before, until right before our conversation was done.
It's depressing at a nursing home - to see people just slumped over their wheelchair trays or always "sleeping" in their rooms. 2 people have died in the short time I've been there.
Finally, my supervisor always makes me feel that I don't do much of anything right. He's never said that I've done anything well - just always corrects me & tells me he does things. I feel like this - if we both arrive at the same end point, what does it matter how we got there?
So, where do I go from here? Who knows? Onward...
Corinne
I want to preface this by saying that I gave up a lot for this job, thinking it would fulfill me. I consider myself to be a fairly upbeat person & not a complainer by nature. There are just too many things wrong here for me.
So, what are the problems?
- the way the job was advertised & what I was told in my interview was that it would be 30 hours a week and that was considered to be full-time w/benefits. The hours were to be 12:30 PM to 6:30 PM Tuesday thru Friday, and then every other weekend. After I took the job, I was told that it was a 31.5 hour a week job - meaning I needed to come in at 11:30 each weekday (except for Wed.) And when I went in at 11:30, I needed to take a 1/2 hour break, off the clock. (I was working 25 hours per week at the bank so I figured an extra 5 hours per week wasn't gonna be a big deal. Now it's up to 8 hours & I don't get paid for 1 1/2 of them, even tho' I need to be there.)
All I really want to do is cook. I like to put a little bit of myself into what I do. And I was told that I could do things the way I wanted to. Except that I only have certain ingredients to work with there & some things are done "the way they are always done".
Most days I chop & put something (chicken, turkey, eggs, imitation crab, tuna, etc.) thru the food processor, mix it with a gallon or more of mayo, add some salt, pepper, onion and/or garlic powder & that's that. The cream soups all start out the same - just add the steamed vegetable of the day & there you have it. Each item needs to have about 1/3 of it pureed in a blender. Then some more things need to be ground up in a food processor.
It seems that I spend a lot of time cleaning & dishing things up. The most intense thing is doing the "serving line" - which lasts from 40-60 minutes - there are 6 different areas (wings & dining rooms). I have to put the proper type of food on the proper type of plate. During the serving line there are always several interruptions from the CNAs: so&so doesn't want this, they want something else - usually some sort of sandwich (PB&J, Grilled Cheese, Meat Sandwich).
All I ever hear are complaints from the residents - one woman gave me an earfull last Sat. night about how her food is always cold. I made a special effort on Sunday - I did her meal last & made sure the hot things were very hot. I went to see her that evening & she still wasn't happy - she didn't remember that I had spoken to her the evening before, until right before our conversation was done.
It's depressing at a nursing home - to see people just slumped over their wheelchair trays or always "sleeping" in their rooms. 2 people have died in the short time I've been there.
Finally, my supervisor always makes me feel that I don't do much of anything right. He's never said that I've done anything well - just always corrects me & tells me he does things. I feel like this - if we both arrive at the same end point, what does it matter how we got there?
So, where do I go from here? Who knows? Onward...
Corinne