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When workplace cultures collide
A cook finds himself lost at sea in the world of retail grocery
It was with some trepidation that I went to work in prepared foods for a high-end grocer that had recently opened its first New York City store. But the pay wasn’t bad and benefits were quite good. Employees were called team members and the handbook promised fair play, lots of opportunities and, most importantly for me, the potential for authentic teamwork.
They put me on the night shift.
Okay. Isn’t that teamwork? You show up on time, do what needs to be done, don’t complain and things will happen. Right? I cut lettuce for salads, scrubbed zucchinis, chopped peppers and rolled meatballs to sell in trays with bagged marinara and stale pastas for six months. When I contacted the prepared foods boss to suggest that my skills weren’t being utilized to the fullest — after all I had a culinary degree, food handling certificate and some decent fine dining restaurant experience under my belt — his reply was: I need bodies on nights.
So much for creating opportunities.
I finally escaped when the company opened a new location on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
This location didn’t have an overnight shift. Instead I worked the small Italian bistro-style restaurant tucked into the second floor. Naomi Watts…
