lessons from the sandwich shop
Hi online friends - long time no see! I hit a blogging drought because though I had a few posts marinating in my head, I could never put pen to paper (er, fingers to keyboard) and crank it out. So, hi!
(I originally had intended to make the sandwich post into a series of sorts, but being realistic about the interest level on my part and readers', i decided to condense it down into one hopefully tidy post.)
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Towards the end of 2011 I came to a near stopping point professionally, for a lot of reasons that would be boring to detail here. I decided instead to apply for a job at a local sandwich shop. It made sense in my head - I love sandwiches, and what else did I have going on anyways? J was very supportive and off I went to Wal-Mart to buy a pair of non-slip restaurant shoes.
I naively thought that it would be a very easy job - I would take orders, ring up sandwiches, make sandwiches, how hard could it be? furthermore, the stakes seemed so low - wrong sandwich, make a new sandwich, get a refund. no one's life, livelihood, or home was on the line.
while it wasn't brain surgery, the job was harder than i thought it'd be and i ended up learning a lot from it. so in no particular order, here goes:
1. it is hard to make sandwiches
it is not easy to prepare food. i was a mess making sandwiches and could never remember the order that i needed to put the sauce, meat, cheese, etc. and spent the first week desperately squinting up at the cheat sheet, which does not bode well when trying to churn out literally hundreds of sandwiches in a couple of hours. in the time it took me to make one sandwich, the guy next to me made five. he had started the same time i did, but had ten years of food biz on me. the receipts just kept pouring out and when it became obvious that i was a liability, i was sent back to the register, sad and in a hairnet. i thought i would be a rockstar at making sandwiches, because really, how hard could it possibly be? too hard for me, it turns out.
2. formal education does not make you more educated or intellectually curious
my co-workers were really interesting. what i found really great about them on a whole was that many of them were genuinely interested in many different topics and sought them out to learn more - music, art, politics, literature. i honestly could not conjure up that type of interest without being tested on it for a grade. once while stocking chips in the front i spent half an hour talking about steinbeck and christianity with a coworker, which was cool.
3. tipping is awesome
at the end of a shift we divided up the tips in the jars up front. it was the greatest thing ever, really. i get that customers shouldn't be burdened with making up for deficient income that should be paid by employers, but man, that extra six dollars every day was awesome. i was fascinated by how much people tipped, especially when they defied the stereotypes in my head. can you believe some people gave a dollar for a six dollar sandwich?
4. there is no shame in honest work
since most of my time was spent ringing up customers at the register, i saw a lot of people. i was mortified the first time i saw someone i knew, someone from grad school. she was clearly very embarrassed for me, which i don't blame her for. i mean, this is not what i went to school for. but after awhile, i got over it, and became oddly arrogant about it - it's not like she caught me stealing T.V.'s or tagging something, it is a real job after all. i got a lot of surprised comments and reactions from people i knew that honestly were kind of offensive, but shrug, in their shoes i might've said something way more obnoxious.
so that in a nutshell was my experience at the sandwich shop. i'm not unhappy to not work there anymore, but it's still one of the best jobs i've ever had.
(I originally had intended to make the sandwich post into a series of sorts, but being realistic about the interest level on my part and readers', i decided to condense it down into one hopefully tidy post.)
*********************
Towards the end of 2011 I came to a near stopping point professionally, for a lot of reasons that would be boring to detail here. I decided instead to apply for a job at a local sandwich shop. It made sense in my head - I love sandwiches, and what else did I have going on anyways? J was very supportive and off I went to Wal-Mart to buy a pair of non-slip restaurant shoes.
I naively thought that it would be a very easy job - I would take orders, ring up sandwiches, make sandwiches, how hard could it be? furthermore, the stakes seemed so low - wrong sandwich, make a new sandwich, get a refund. no one's life, livelihood, or home was on the line.
while it wasn't brain surgery, the job was harder than i thought it'd be and i ended up learning a lot from it. so in no particular order, here goes:
1. it is hard to make sandwiches
it is not easy to prepare food. i was a mess making sandwiches and could never remember the order that i needed to put the sauce, meat, cheese, etc. and spent the first week desperately squinting up at the cheat sheet, which does not bode well when trying to churn out literally hundreds of sandwiches in a couple of hours. in the time it took me to make one sandwich, the guy next to me made five. he had started the same time i did, but had ten years of food biz on me. the receipts just kept pouring out and when it became obvious that i was a liability, i was sent back to the register, sad and in a hairnet. i thought i would be a rockstar at making sandwiches, because really, how hard could it possibly be? too hard for me, it turns out.
2. formal education does not make you more educated or intellectually curious
my co-workers were really interesting. what i found really great about them on a whole was that many of them were genuinely interested in many different topics and sought them out to learn more - music, art, politics, literature. i honestly could not conjure up that type of interest without being tested on it for a grade. once while stocking chips in the front i spent half an hour talking about steinbeck and christianity with a coworker, which was cool.
3. tipping is awesome
at the end of a shift we divided up the tips in the jars up front. it was the greatest thing ever, really. i get that customers shouldn't be burdened with making up for deficient income that should be paid by employers, but man, that extra six dollars every day was awesome. i was fascinated by how much people tipped, especially when they defied the stereotypes in my head. can you believe some people gave a dollar for a six dollar sandwich?
4. there is no shame in honest work
since most of my time was spent ringing up customers at the register, i saw a lot of people. i was mortified the first time i saw someone i knew, someone from grad school. she was clearly very embarrassed for me, which i don't blame her for. i mean, this is not what i went to school for. but after awhile, i got over it, and became oddly arrogant about it - it's not like she caught me stealing T.V.'s or tagging something, it is a real job after all. i got a lot of surprised comments and reactions from people i knew that honestly were kind of offensive, but shrug, in their shoes i might've said something way more obnoxious.
so that in a nutshell was my experience at the sandwich shop. i'm not unhappy to not work there anymore, but it's still one of the best jobs i've ever had.
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