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Where I've Been, Figuratively
Oct. 16th, 2008 05:56 pmI am near the end of my second week of randomly switching between day and night baking. This is about as much fun as you would expect, if sleep deprivation experiments are your idea of fun. New baker #1 has had her first solo night and did very well; I'll start training New Baker #2 this weekend. Meanwhile New Baker #3 will get trained in bread baking by my (remaining) experienced bread baker, as they will be working as a team from now on. Very soon now I'll need to figure out how to train the two of them in the non-bread things I'll be wanting them to produce. (Also, I'll need to generate a list of what sort of things I'll want them to produce. Granola bars and chocolate cake are no-brainers, but what else?)
Having two night bakers on a shift is a new thing for the bakery; but it should allow a big increase in our production capacity. Which is good, as we are having trouble keeping up as it is and the holidays are coming and I'm behind in my efforts to develop new products.
My day crew has (with one exception) has preformed heroically in keeping the shelves stocked these past two weeks. When I'm training night bakers the day bakery loses a huge chunk of production hours, so that is a huge credit to them. I've tried to make sure that they know that I've noticed and that I'm impressed.
The exception has been a new employee who is not preforming to expectations, and has already gathered verbal and written warnings for lateness. There are other problems, but let the lateness suffice for the tale. As the ultimate authority in the bakery I had a brief talk with them today, to let them know that I am not satisfied with the current situation. Beforehand I was tempted to explain that they were still on probation and as such I could fire them any time I wanted for any reason at all, but decided that this was probably my sleep dep talking. I'm hoping that the talk I did give helps fix the issue, as I do think they have potential.
Meanwhile, some of my coworkers have started asking me when we are going to start making pumpkin cranberry bread again. I've told them 'November', but that is just because I don't think I can find cranberries before then. Now I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to check my suppliers and see if any of them have fresh or frozen cranberries yet.
Having two night bakers on a shift is a new thing for the bakery; but it should allow a big increase in our production capacity. Which is good, as we are having trouble keeping up as it is and the holidays are coming and I'm behind in my efforts to develop new products.
My day crew has (with one exception) has preformed heroically in keeping the shelves stocked these past two weeks. When I'm training night bakers the day bakery loses a huge chunk of production hours, so that is a huge credit to them. I've tried to make sure that they know that I've noticed and that I'm impressed.
The exception has been a new employee who is not preforming to expectations, and has already gathered verbal and written warnings for lateness. There are other problems, but let the lateness suffice for the tale. As the ultimate authority in the bakery I had a brief talk with them today, to let them know that I am not satisfied with the current situation. Beforehand I was tempted to explain that they were still on probation and as such I could fire them any time I wanted for any reason at all, but decided that this was probably my sleep dep talking. I'm hoping that the talk I did give helps fix the issue, as I do think they have potential.
Meanwhile, some of my coworkers have started asking me when we are going to start making pumpkin cranberry bread again. I've told them 'November', but that is just because I don't think I can find cranberries before then. Now I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to check my suppliers and see if any of them have fresh or frozen cranberries yet.
