Uhh...nah.   I've seen dish rats "clean" strawberries by dumping them on a flat rack and running them through the dishwasher.

I'd have a serious talk with your Sous.  For starters, he didn't "Train" the dishrat at all. With those instructions given, he'd plug up the sink with crud, dirty up the dishwashertank with the first load, and within  week, f* up the d/washer impellor and pump, burn out the booster heater, drain your hot water tank constantly, and fill up the greasetrap with crud too, not to mention pumping out filthy dishes.  If the Sous can't train up a dishrat, he shouldn't be allowed to train up a cook.

Take this seriously, or within a week you'll have a whining, moaning p.o.s. who can't clean worth a darn, but can complain and demand for things, and get his bro, to demand for him. 

And if they come in together, they almost always leave together......

Yeah, really, doesn't sound like the dishwasher's fault...I'm assuming this is his first time doing this job. Maybe it's his first job ever. Maybe you should concentrate less on what idiots your staff are and more on training them to do the job properly. Odds are he's never worked in a professional kitchen, never used a commercial dish machine, and has no idea what a "rack" even is. 

Your unprofessional reaction and notion to "keep him just so I can get a laugh out of his next bonehead move" shows more about you than it does about him. 

If someone had called me a "dishrat," when I was a dishwasher, I wouldn't have given a f*** either.

Blame the Sous Chef. He shold have stayed with the guy for a while or at least through one cycleof machine. And stop degrading the guy by calling him dishrat. How would you like to be called the A-- H---owner?.

I agree, the sous should have stayed with him and made sure he was doing the job properly.  If he had never used a professional dish machine before he does need to be trained on it and every dishwasher has their own way of doing things.  I did my share of shifts in the dish and I would soak my dishes in the buspans before rinsing and racking them.. it served two purposes... the dried on eggs and other junk came off much more easily and the buspans were treated to a cleaning!

I can see where this is coming from, as washing dishes (even if you're new to it) isn't exactly rocket science - but I'm going to have to agree with everyone else here and say that the sous chef should have trained him properly, and that calling him a 'dishrat' probably isn't the most proffesional move ever made.

Oh, and, isn't it a dish sanitizer? As in... wash the dishes BEFORE you send them through?

I agree that the dish machine is just a sanitizer but well you'd be amazed at what some try to send through the sanitizer.  At my last place I had a cook give me attitude when I told her to rinse the dishes before they went into the machine... she said "why should I the dishwasher cleans it" and my reply was "you will be staying past close today to find out the answer".. she was pissed off at me for that and then I showed her why we made sure the dishes were debris free when they went in... again I no longer work there and funny she sitll does... but I got out when the getting was good...

I think the only as-holes here are the Chef and the Sous..........Great job in training.....................Learn some respect for people you may have them work for you longer......

Agreed... you all need each other to make the system run smoothly. Everyone deserves the same amount of respect. I always tell the dishwasher at my place not to worry if they need to put cutting boards below my table or need me to move so they can get their cart through so they can put the dishes away. My job is no more important than theirs. Reality is if they did not do what they do I would not be able to get everything I need to do done in the time I have to do it. 

Now the thing he did do was about as dumb of a thing as I can imagine. If you are not clear on how something works you should always have the latitude in the kitchen to ask the questions that will help you get the job done and done up to par with expectations. 

I agree, while a boneheaded move, I think your sous chef is to blame for not training this guy.  I am amazed everyday, by what I take for granted, and what others, new to a kitchen are clueless about.

I have to admit though, I am surprised at the backlash against the term dishrat.  I regularly use that term, dish dog, and others, but that in no way lessens what I think of my dish crew, and they all know it.  They know how important I feel their position is, and train all my cooks that no one is above washing dishes, including myself.

Are you referring to the dishwasher's, the sous chef's, or yours?

Once during a rush I grabbed a fairly new inexperienced worker and told him to fill this pot with with water and potatoes and put it on the stove. When I later returned to get the potatoes, they were nowhere near ready because he never turned the flame on underneath them. I couldn't get mad, only laugh because he did exactly what I told him to do. The stupidity was all mine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheflayne 

Once during a rush I grabbed a fairly new inexperienced worker and told him to fill this pot with with water and potatoes and put it on the stove. When I later returned to get the potatoes, they were nowhere near ready because he never turned the flame on underneath them. I couldn't get mad, only laugh because he did exactly what I told him to do. The stupidity was all mine.

Lol, how many times have you heard about the guy that was told to strain the stock, and came back with only the bones and the mirepoix?

Dunno about the dishrat backlash. If I were a dishwasher, I'd probably take to that nickname. I've also heard suds puppy and pearl diver. The dish pit is one of those areas where people wrongly thing you don't need any training.

IMHO, the Chef is the most to blame! The Chef did not train the Sous Chef to train everyone else!

So, dock the Chef two day's pay, the Sous Chef one day's pay, and the dishwasher gets double pay for the training day!EVERYONE will remember the experience and not repeat it!

totally agreed.  Egotistical, non-empathetic attitudes like this by some chefs is one of the things about this industry that frustrates me the most. Have some respect for your employees, it's your responsability as chef to train everyone to do their job properly Eato. 

Years ago dishwashers were refered to as  PEARL DIVERS   we had no electric machins and all dishes were done in a 3 compartment sink  with a gas burner under one for final rinse which was done in a basket. Does anyone here remember that.?  When dish machines came along any breakfast banquet that served eggs of any kind  The dishes were run through first with a cold water feed into machine, them re run normally . Purpose of this is that the hot water would cook the egg to the dish and you could never get it off.  Those were the days!

I've seen some pretty weird stuff run through a dish machine, but that guy did EXACTLY as he was told. Which is a good thing. He just might be trainable. And I'm going to agree with several of these posts: you have to give respect to get respect.

My fondest memory of the dish pit is grabbing something that was just cleaned, pulling it down from a shelf and getting doused with residual water. I'd like to say it only happened once, but no. Lots of times.

dishrat, diver, dishpig, disher, ceramic technician...whatever you call them, should get paid atleast as much as the line cooks, not the least as is often the case! a bad disher can bury a kitchen and an entire restaurant. a good disher will keep the whole restaurant flowing...keeping up with glasses and silverware for polishing and resetting. keeping up on the saute pans, which always seem in short supply during service. sorting and organizing the 'pit', dealing with stacks and stacks of dirty dishes, pots, pans, endless silverware and those evil ramekins and ladles that squirt your hair, eyes and face with blue cheese dressing. the mats, the floors, the trash, the smell after a shift....it's a hump every single day! in my place the disher gets tipped out by the waitstaff as he gets them out the door sooner, helps to plate salads, desserts, appetizers, cuts bread or whatever else they might need when we're buried....a good one is invaluable....

a few years back at another little place i owned, we had a new night dishwasher who was eager to impress. he was 'all over' straining the fryer oil, so he did....right into a 5 gallon PLASTIC bucket....impressive, for sure! yeah, lots of stories like that...guess that's why it's called TRAINING!

joey

Call the job as you will but the dishwasher is one of the most important people in a restaurant.  I've left the kitchen many times and done dishes and to be honest I rather enjoyed the break from the line.  At the diner the cooks had to do dishes and like I said before I had one give me attitude when I told her to rinse and clean them fiirst before she parked them into the machine.   All of the debris that was on the dishes she threw in uncleaned was in the bottom of the machine at the end of the shift and it is a B**** to clean out of the machine at the end of the day and much easier to simply rinse the plates and then toss them in!

Quote:

Originally Posted by eato 

My Staff knows how important they are to the operation. They see me scrubbing pots, washing dishes and doing the floors. I have earned their respect through my work, and fair treatment of them. I suppose some people would like me to refer to "the rats" as "sanitation engineers."

I think the majority of people, while not agreeing with the term "dishrat," had more of an issue with your apparent lack of leadership and respect. Refer to them how you wish, just don't turn around and call him a bonehead because you or your sous chef didn't train the guy properly. 

But hey, I guess cursing at your staff and calling them names is your idea of "fair treatment." You sound like a gem of a chef. 

WOW.

Kitchen staff = thick skinned. No one should be bothered by a chef being hard on someone or calling people dishrats. This ain't office work where your boss is supposed to coddle you and give motivational speeches. There ARE a number of chefs who take things too far and are completely out of line, but nothing said in this thread suggests that is the case with eato. Chill out.

Hahaha Allium, Yes you do have to be thick skinned. To me something might be demeaning, but to someone else maybe not. I was his "dishrat" I would just laugh inside when he called me that... It is all a matter of context, and intention does not come across very well in written form. From a leadership perspective, I treat everyone with as much respect as I want to in return. Some think that leading by example is enough... The way I do it works for me, though I have seen others and they get along just as well or better. Gordon Ramsey is a proper prick and he is very successful and seems to have all his staffs respect. To each his own I guess.

This is what I like about reading this forum, you can get a ton of perspectives and you just filter out the stuff that doesn't make sense to you. 

Eh... Leadership is a very personal thing.

I can hate a persons guts but still respect them, even if they give me crap back--right up to the day I fire them, I'll still be smiling.

One of the first and best things I ever learned about leadership was "never work them (employees) harder than you work yourself". This has been very good advice , advice I have followed for about 20 years now.

I've heard a lot of stories about G. Ramsey, with some of his ex-employes hanging up their own shingle here in Vancouver.  When asked by the media about him (Ramsey) the response was not particularily flattering.....

As long as you respect your staff and they respect yof that is what counts in the long run.  I'm only nine years into this business (despite my advanced age   ) and this is a second career for me so I may be a bit more sensitive to terms or whatever than the next person. 

I'm with Foodpump when it comes to leadership... and I have always never asked the guys to do anything I would not do myself.  If there is something I am uncomfortable with I ask for help and when I see someone doing that same task I'm right there to offer help. 

I'm on the other side of the coin. I do not jump in and I certainly don't expect a manager to jump in.

As owner, my job description is to do the things I need to do to keep the doors open and to make sure the business is able to support the families of employees.

As a manager, it is not thier job description to do others work, their job is to make sure the work gets done.

If I walk into the kitchen and see a manager at the pot sink. I don't consider that as being a leader. That tells me he is not doing his job. Every minute at the dish pit is a minute lost at managing. Our job descriptions are very thorough and exact. Something will suffer from that time not being manager.

If business requires more labor on a station I expect my manager to see that things are handled. If I walk in and the AM and PM washers are both there

or if someone is in on their day off, I get excited.  I know that my manager has evaluated the business and revenue and made the call to cover. That means were making more money for all.

This may not be a conventional concept but works for our small group. It's the only way I have found to keep things moving forward. I preach to everyone that they need to work themselves out of the job. I started the place as a pastry cook and as I moved forward the people behind me moved. My manager has been with me for 20+ years. He begged to get off the dishes

and train in the bakery. He is probably the most talented and well compensated Pastry Chef in the city. He gains a percentage of the business each year and now has a pretty good

share of ownership as do the rest of the production people. Our newest cook has been with us 9 yrs. Most 10-14yr. We have no schedules, no time cards and things of that nature.

Everyone is salary. Our books are open and we profit share on a weekly basis. Everyone has ownership. It keeps the shop clean, no riding clocks, no stealing and things of that nature.

I walked out of the kitchen 2 years ago and took an office off property. I look forward to moving on to something else and my manager moving into my job.

This is meaningless and long for most but someone might get something out of it.

pan