Hello all! I want to talk about this new baker from our cafe. Let’s call this guy J. This guy came from Toronto to Vancouver this January to join our team. Honestly, we expected much from him because he said he had experience in the kitchen. Of course, if that were the case, I wouldn’t be writing this post. When I realized that I have just too many stories about this guy’s “amazing” kitchen life, I concluded that he deserves a dedicated blog section for public entertainment.
Let me start with what happened to him this week, just to give you (the readers) a taste of what kind of guy this J is. By this time, all the staffs know that this baker is… different from what we call “a skilled baker.” All of us are aware that J always tries his “best” (his own definition of it, unfortunately), but that it’s not quite what we want.
It was just another day with no one expecting major troubles from J (in retrospect, actually odd). He was prepping in the kitchen, and no one expected what he would do outside the usual routine. Because we were having a photo shoot for the new menu items on that day, as a model, I headed to the Wicked Cafe at West Point Grey (3605 W 16th Avenue, Vancouver).
I realized something was wrong when I arrived there. Our marketing manager was there with photographers, seemingly very busy. However, in a kitchen that was clearly occupied by somebody not too long ago, there was no one. It was like a snapshot from a mystery novel: where is J? I am his supervisor for his night delivery shift, and I did not hear anything about it.
It did not take too long to have the answer to that question, although that did not solve the whole mystery. I heard from Wicked Cafe‘s first location at Fairview (1399 W 7th Avenue, Vancouver) that J showed up there out of thin air, delivering a box. We then got to know where J was, but… why was he there?
We only found the answer when we asked J himself much later (Yes, that is usually the ONLY way we get to know his motives).
When he prepared the items for delivery from our West Point Grey location to the Fairview location, he forgot to add a box of our Cheddar Spinach Scones into the car. As he realized his mistake much later, without giving second thoughts, he told the first manager that he would leave the store to deliver the missing item by taking Uber. He then ran outside with the box to our Fairview location–without setting up anything on his UberEats delivery app, left with no supervision.
When he showed up in our Fairview location, all who knew that he was in charge of the delivery and saw him gasped. They all had the same question: “Why is he here?” which would be the same for every clear-minded team member. The night delivery person at Fairview thus immediately checked the app and informed our boss that the delivery app was still running and J was not in the store.
Later, our supervisor from the Fairview location told us that she saw J waiting for an Uber ride to return to the West Point Grey location. He seemed like the most miserable person in the world, unable to do anything against his doomed destiny. He was extra unlucky that day, waiting for the Uber ride back for about ten minutes. Pitiful it was, but entertaining for all else.
I think this incident explains a lot about J. He is short-sighted, trying to solve the problem in front of him, but cannot see anything else. But, at the same time, he tries to cover up his mistake once realizing it, compensating his own time and money. As a team member, it is hard for me to say that he is a likable person in the workplace, although he seems to be trying. However, I still want to root for him as I write this. Who knows? One day he may be both hard-working and good-at-working.