I don't believe in hiring practices that constantly leave a kitchen short-handed, but if I am in a pinch (dishwasher quits, no-shows, calls sick, etc.) I expect my cooks to pitch in and help (I will always be the first to volunteer for dish patrol). One of the quickest ways to work your way out of my kitchen is to tell me "that's not my job" or "I don't do that". At my last job, one night we were short on dishdogs, and very busy. At the end of the night all the cooks pitched in and helped, though I noticed one cook seemed to be absent. I asked the cooks to finish helping the dishdogs by mopping. At about that time this absent cook walked through the kitchen with his street clothes on. I told him that we weren't finished yet and he needed to help mop. He told me that mopping was beneath him, as he was a cook and not a dishdog. Needless to say, I asked him not to come back to work, if he felt being a team player was beneath him.
