Preperations
How do you prepare for what you feel is the inevitable?
We are in the midst of an economic nightmare...you've seen the news, you know, your pocketbook feels it daily. Well, here on the island, it is as bad or worse than a lot of other places. Incoming flights are down 20%, unemployment is almost 2x the national average and climbing, occupancy is down almost 40%, and layoffs are becoming a daily occurrence.
So how do you get ready to receive that pink slip? Because it could happen any day. The dread is not the feeling of' 'oh, if you eff something up your going to get fired',that you get used to; its more the feeling of the inevitable mountain sliding down on you slowly.
We have gone from a time a few months ago of 'we will not be laying people off', to 'we will begin to lay off employees form various departments slowly, but no managers'; to 'we are beginning to lay off a few managers, but the culinary department is safe', to....?
No department is exempt. There has been no official word of layoffs reaching into the kitchen, but anyone with common sense can see that it will happen soon. Occupancy is down, the banquet season, which should be kicking right now, is just not happening, and we are one of the largest departments with the largest management teams in the hotel. So the mountain will slide over us eventually.
Am I in the path? Maybe possibly...there seems to be a trend of not telling the person getting laid off until their last day when they show up to work. Kinda poopy thing to do to a person. But hints have been dropped, and rumors are flying, and if you can read between the lines and use your brain, you can see where cuts are going to be made. And the word is that its not going by seniority, (which is shady and crappy anyway), but that decisions will be made based on whether a person has been putting forth the effort of busting their ass and has a desire to be here...in other words cut the people who dont like it here. And that cuts will be made at all levels.
And so, since I have been in the doghouse the most of any sous chefs, I have a feeling...and I feel for some of my cooks, who have had no shifts for a few weeks...with no relief in sight due to no appreciable banquet business, but I cant really say for sure if anything or when or whatever.
And so the tension grows.
We are in the midst of an economic nightmare...you've seen the news, you know, your pocketbook feels it daily. Well, here on the island, it is as bad or worse than a lot of other places. Incoming flights are down 20%, unemployment is almost 2x the national average and climbing, occupancy is down almost 40%, and layoffs are becoming a daily occurrence.
So how do you get ready to receive that pink slip? Because it could happen any day. The dread is not the feeling of' 'oh, if you eff something up your going to get fired',that you get used to; its more the feeling of the inevitable mountain sliding down on you slowly.
We have gone from a time a few months ago of 'we will not be laying people off', to 'we will begin to lay off employees form various departments slowly, but no managers'; to 'we are beginning to lay off a few managers, but the culinary department is safe', to....?
No department is exempt. There has been no official word of layoffs reaching into the kitchen, but anyone with common sense can see that it will happen soon. Occupancy is down, the banquet season, which should be kicking right now, is just not happening, and we are one of the largest departments with the largest management teams in the hotel. So the mountain will slide over us eventually.
Am I in the path? Maybe possibly...there seems to be a trend of not telling the person getting laid off until their last day when they show up to work. Kinda poopy thing to do to a person. But hints have been dropped, and rumors are flying, and if you can read between the lines and use your brain, you can see where cuts are going to be made. And the word is that its not going by seniority, (which is shady and crappy anyway), but that decisions will be made based on whether a person has been putting forth the effort of busting their ass and has a desire to be here...in other words cut the people who dont like it here. And that cuts will be made at all levels.
And so, since I have been in the doghouse the most of any sous chefs, I have a feeling...and I feel for some of my cooks, who have had no shifts for a few weeks...with no relief in sight due to no appreciable banquet business, but I cant really say for sure if anything or when or whatever.
And so the tension grows.
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