Just a quick comment about my last post. I've talked to my brother since then and he explained why he was refusing to pick me up from work (it had to do with some tough love), and the "friend" that owed me money. Well let's just say that I decided to cut my losses and I paid for the cake and we are no longer speaking to each other (and I couldn't be happier).
But back to the reason why I choose my subject. I do have decisions I need to make with regards to my current employment. First off, I love what I do for a living, even though I don't want to do it the rest of my life. But my job is very demanding, and exhausting. My boss can be difficult to work with, and the working conditions themselves are straining.
I guess I'll start with the demanding part and work my way down the list. So my job is demanding in both the mental and physical aspects. Its demanding like that because I need to get every little detail perfect, but be as fast as possible and then some. And I'm on my feet for long hours, but not to mention hunched over a cake for a long time (and I already have some serious preexisting back conditions). I also lift heavy objects. So at the end of the day (which is usually 12 hours long) I'm too exhausted to even cook myself dinner.
Now on to my boss being difficult to work with *insert sarcastic yey here*. I'll give you a few examples I guess. So imagine an unfrosted cupcake. But instead of it being filled enough so that when its baked it rises to the top of the liner, it only rises up half way. Now in my past experiences, when I just frost the cupcake with the normal amount of frosting my boss whines that it looks to small. But when I frost it with a little extra frosting to make it match the other cupcakes, she complains that there is to much frosting. Sounds like a typical boss right? Well trust me it gets annoying when she does it with every single little thing you do. And when something happens its automatically your fault, even if she is the one that does it. Like today when I was making a cake in the shape of a soccer ball, I wanted to frost it with a star tip, so it would look neater. But instead she wanted me to airbrush it, then she started complaining that airbrushing it was dumb and asking why I did it. Then I suggested that we just put black fondant patches on it and she agreed that it was better. Then when I did it I cut the black patches to match the pattern she made on the ball (which was uneven), and she started complaining that it was uneven and asking why I did it like that. And when I told her I was just matching the pattern she made (because if I didn't match it I knew she wouldn't be happy), then she was all like "but I thought you said that you would make it look better" which I never said anything like that to her. And that's not it, one last thing that makes her difficult to work with is how disorganized she makes me. Now I have ADD, which is fine because over the years I have disciplined myself enough to funcition without medication. But in order to do that I have to be strict with myself and very well organized. And for examply let's say I'm working on a cake that is covered in regular frosting, but has flat 2d flowers on it. Now what I would normally do is make the flowers first, allow them to dry while I was frosting the cake. Then when I frosted the cake I'd put the flowers on. Easy right? Not with my boss. She would watch me doing the flowers then stress out that I'm either taking too long, or that the cake wouldn't be ready in time. Then make me stop what I'm doing and frost the cake. Then when I'd be almost done with frosting the cake she would start questioning me why I didn't finish the flowers first. Then would make me stop frosting the cake to finish the flowers. And usualy when I'm done with the flowers she would make me drop everything and do something else like make frosting or work on another cake for her leaving my cake unfinished. And then she would complain and question me on why I was taking so long to finish the cake and why it wasn't done yet. And she complains about how slow and inefficient I am all the time.
So on to my working conditions. For starters where I work is beyond small, we are literally tripping over each other. The back kitchen is probably like 150 square feet. And that includes 2 fridges, 1 freezer, 3 huge shelves, 5 large tables (3 of which is actually usable on a regular basis), a double oven, cooling rack, proofer box, like 8 bins, and a 30 quart mixer. All of that is in this small room (trust me its tiny for an industrial kitchen). And there are usually about 3-4 people working at any given moment. And 1 of those people are usualy either our bread baker or cake baker, and both of them have to take up a lot of room. So it basicly leaves my boss, another decorator and I about 2 square feet of working space, reguardless of how large our cakes are. And this would normally be fine because its usually till the bakers are done. But my boss always takes up as much space as she wants and isn't very mindful of how much space that leaves me and another decorator. And I don't think she's the most considerate person either. Because if were holding something and need to get by her she rarely moves, even if we say 'excuse me' or like 'sorry I need to get by you'. And our pathways are about 2 feet wide, so it gets a little cramped. And then on top of all that we have water damage and a bacteria problem at my work that I think is making me sick. It's either that or working 50ish hours a week is making me sick.
So the decisions I need to make are the following:
1.) Should I find another job?
If I find another job:
1- I don't want it to look like I'm flip-flopping from job to job, even though I've been here for a year now.
2- I really do like what I do, and dispite how difficult it is to work with my boss I do like her.
3- and if I decide to look for another job, should I wait till the walk-in fridge and freezer are installed (probably about 2 months) and see if the working conditions improve? Or should I just rip the band-aid off now?
4- I will miss this job A LOT.
5- But I'm pretty sure this place is making me sick, either from the bacteria problem, or over-working myself.
2.) Should I stay?
If I stay:
1- it will look good on a resume that I stayed for so long (untill I go to college)
2- I might get sicker
3- I will either get to see the business flourish or die (were at that make or break point)
4- if the business flourishes it will feel amazing, but if it dies it will be devastating becaused my boss and I have worked so hard.
5- if I stay I will learn amazing cake decorating skills that I can use the rest of my life.
I hope you can see why I'm conflicted, and hopefully by the time I post again I will have an idea of what I'm going to do.
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