Wednesday, October 11, 2006

DIL Thai Restaurant # 2

Lesson learned today:
1) "Skinny chef can't never be trusted" just doesn't apply to Thai chef.
2) When you are Thai and you are young, don't even try to argue with the olders (who are supposed to be more experienced and, of course, Thai) even though you're right. They will NEVER EVER admit they are wrong.
3) The one who cares about portion conscious is the 'owner.' The rest, they just don't seem to care.
4) Experienced Thai chefs in the US deserve to get paid more for their skills and specialty. For whatever reasons, I feel that McDonald's workers even get paid more. This is ashame.

Questions:
1) Why are Thai chefs paid like shit (think $1800 per month with 6 days work a week from 11 am to 9pm) even though they contribute so much to the restaurant? (I secretly believe that there are 3 reasons for this: ONE: restaurants cannot afford to pay them due to financial difficulty. TWO: Some chefs work without work permit. Some Thai res owners seem to enjoy taking advantage of their hardship. THREE: Because of the second reason, this makes no-work-permit chef struggle to find a job they wish they can do better or move on to the next best thing that may be available.) To make a great Thai dish requires skills (unlike making ham/cheese sandwich.) I believe if Thai chefs (who, of course, hold a green card, work permit, or whatever) improve their English just a little, their experience and skills will be able to attract other restaurant businesses with a higher pay.
2) So when people get paid very little, work 6 days per week all day long (say, 12 hours,) why can't you just cut them some slacks by giving those employee a little break (say 30 minutes at least.) The restaurant I work for (fun) gives no break. Now look at these over-60-year-0ld chefs around me, they don't get a break. Aren't you supposed to give them some times. 12 hours??? That's cruel.

Man...thank God I only work for fun to gain some experiences and work whenever I wish and as long as I wish. I've learned so much already!!!

2 comments:

Pondering said...

Oh..P'Pung, I agree. When it comes down to profits, Thais can be very cruel. Working with Thais are also hard, especially when they are older and you are younger, when they are your boss and you are little guy. You will never win your case.

Pondering said...

Nah...I think all asian cultures pretty much share the same concept of respecting the elders no matter what, but as far as western, I'm not sure. However americans probably don't care much about seniority in the workplace. I somehow feel that I agree with that. Work place should be where people can argue and make comments, regardless of how old they are.