TLDR at the end

so ive been working at this higher-end local restaurant for 3 weeks now. its going pretty well, i work Tuesday through Saturday, 4:30pm until whenever im done. thats usually 10/11pm. its my first dishwashing job, and its definitely new to me, but im learning to enjoy it. sometimes i’ll have a shit morning before my shift and once i start working all the negative feelings go away. i just get into the flow of the pit.

yesterday, i was having a rough day. woke up in a really bad mood, and was excited for work to calm me down. i always make a cup of coffee in a mason jar to bring, and ice it at the restaurant. this time, right when i showed up, i broke the jar and spilled the sticky coffee all over my belongings. i had to empty out my entire bag and wipe everything off. it was so stressful for me that i started crying (i have sensory issues and sticky things are really hard for me to handle). i cleaned up my shit and clocked in, started working, but i never really calmed down. i couldn’t regulate myself, and just kept crying all day. the dishes started piling up and i was rushing to get everything done.

when i put things away, i maximize my time by carrying different items that go in the same area, all at once. so i went to put the round pans away (pictured) and forgot to take the smaller pans off of the bigger pans. a few minutes later, one of the line cooks went to grab a big pan and the small pans fell off with it. he yelled at me, angrily reminding me not to do that, because i had already done it once earlier this week. “fuckin leo, you can’t do that! you’re gonna knock my teeth out someday!” i felt so stupid doing it again. but thats not the big mistake.

my dishes were still piling up. closing time was creeping up and thats when the most stuff is brought to be washed. the line cook had to prep some fish, but because our kitchen is so small they have to use my table for prep. i was drowning in dishes, so of course the table was full. he came over and went “WOW” in this tone of voice that felt like “you’re so fucking slow and pathetic”. he angrily unloaded the table and took it to prep the fish. it really stressed me out because i was going as fast as i could while crying (still). so i worked harder, faster. later on he was back at his station and i went to put the big round pans away. this time i had remembered to separate the smaller pans, but when i went to put the big pans down i somehow missed the shelf and they came tumbling down onto the table. they knocked a plate full of fresh food off, breaking it, and this time both the line cooks yelled at me. “FUCK DUDE YOU GOTTA BE CAREFUL!”

i couldn’t even stick around to help clean up, i needed to step outside. i had a small panic attack, hyperventilating and sobbing my fucking brains out. i felt so small and stupid and scared i would lose my job. scared my tips would get fucked over. i felt so bad that i messed up, now the cooks had to remake a plate, a customer had to wait longer, i felt like i made a tremendous mistake. i sat there crying and hyperventilating until one of my coworkers came out to console me. she helped me calm down and reassured me everything was fine, that it was just an accident. but i cant help but still feel like a failure. im still scared i’ll get fired. i still feel like everyone is mad at me.

is this as big of a mistake as it feels? has anyone else made a mistake like this, and how was the aftermath?

TLDR: while putting away round pans, i missed the shelf and dropped the pans, breaking a plate of freshly cooked food and got yelled at by the line cooks. scared of losing my job. feeling like a failure.

I’m 43 and have been doing this for about ten years. I’m also short and the constant leaning to reach stuff wreaks havoc on my lower back. This helps.

Started my first dish job (and first non-gig work job in general) and I’m absolutely loving every part of it. My coworkers are great, management listens and even two of them even hop in the pit when i’ve been the only one in it all day, and they all answer my dumb ass questions… the only problem is that my hands are absolutely destroyed after almost half a year here.

Is there anyway to stop this level of damage in the first place? We are offered sysco’s food safe nitrile gloves but the size of my hands make even the XLs a tight fit, and they rip as soon as i scrub our cast irons. We use whatever chemicals are used in the EcoLab ES-2000.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that we skip the soak process and straight blast the dish ware with an ecospray pressure hose. I’m sure a contributing factor is the hot, high pressured water blasting my hands, but it’s weird considering it’s my right hand (the more beat up one) holding the nozzle. We also use a lot of sanitizer to wipe bused tables, but the servers do too and theirs aren’t as bad as mine are?

Vent with me! Please

What things in your kitchen require that extra bit of soap and sanitizer?

Today is family day at the school I wash dishes at, we’re serving over 1,400 people. Pray the dish gods show me a sliver of mercy

I went back to my favorite restaurant and applied. I got a call back within 2 days and was hired back in 5. They moved a dishwasher to a line cook so I can take her place. Competitive pay is nice. They started me at 1.5x the national average. I think they like me there. Payday is going to be nice.

It's my second week dishwashing for this restaurant and I'm just fuming in the dish pit. They got me wearing these fuck ass hair nets and plastic aprons and gloves. I can't look like this IN FRONT of the baddie servers. They got me feeling like a fucking rat digging around trash. I'm just FUMING inside the dish pit. I see the FOH staffs smiling and laughing eating fucking ice cream in the outside air conditioned area (basically everywhere outside of the dish pit). How DARE you have fun and laugh doing your job. Deadass piss me off and I'm here picking up trash like a rat. Why the fuck did I sign up for this job AGAIN? Oh right, because basically any other job I have no experience in, I'm not sure how people are getting hired without experience. My legs are tired from standing in one place in this hot hot area and getting sprayed with HOT water and water dripping on my head. Every time I put stuff back I feel so nice because of the air conditioning. Some people take this job way too seriously, I have to hand wash things first, but you really can't take your time hand washing every plate spot clean if you don't want dishes to pile up. Also, the machine already washes dirty dishes pretty spot clean, the handwashing in my opinion is only a waste of time. I got this old lady up my ass to clean it well, like SISTER, you are getting paid MINIMUM wage to take this job WAY TOO SERIOUSLY. Just scrub it a few times, then put it on the rack. WE GOT DISHES TO CLEAN. I'm not sure how people actually ENJOY this job. After this job, I am NEVER going back to a dish washing position AGAIN.

Has anyone ever dealt with anything similar before? I noticed it gets a lot worse under my gloves which I assume is because of the trapped moisture but I’m really not too sure. It’s on both hands and there’s no puss but it’s getting worse by the minute and I have no idea how to prevent it.

Honestly I never been so happy in my life, I was getting so burnt out on this job and wanted something new. I gave my two week notice and now I am free, honestly I never been so happy in a long time. My hours stacked really bad and now I have weekend free ( well I will have one day for weekend, but that doesn’t matter too much ). Including I get paid the same, so I no longer will need to rush my jobs too much.

At first I was afraid to stack and carry mugs like this, but I realised they were pretty stable. I started carrying 4 at a time, then 6, and eventually 9, but 8 is the most comfortable. That's 16 mugs in one trip using both hands. Saves me tons of time when putting them away.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

There is absolutely no love or hardly any mention of dishwashers on any of these episodes. They never show, introduce or involve any dishies at any point. I understand that the focus is on the food and the flow from that to the customers but come on man! They work just as hard as cooks and are part of the skeleton! I'm not saying make them front and center but at least have them in on the meetings they have at the tables. I garuntee you they can offer good lines and directions for these stories too!

Side note. I'm fully aware these are scripted and acted out events but I'm just saying a tiny bit of rep for dishies would be nice.

It's close to halloween, so I got curious. What kinds of horror stories do you guys got? And not like horror as in a slasher film horror, I mean creepy moments you experienced, tales from being a dishwasher that you still remember till this day, things customers did (nothing too bad, obviously), things like that. Did your boss get drunk and almost fire the whole kitchen crew? Things like that.

Honestly I am getting burnt out pretty fast here because how stressful it is. Including how I need to always wash my clothing after work, it getting so annoying and spending so much money on cleaning my cloths. Not even bringing up how my feet still hurt after 4 months of working there still.