So, I (16F) am in the first year of cooking school and this guy from my class, lets call him Mike is in the second year, and our school has these days where people can come eat the food that students make in the kitchen, and thats all four years together, and Mike and I are in the same lunch group.
And as he is a second year he is supposed to guide the first years, but instead he was acting like he was the best chef ever, but in a four/five hour class I didn’t see him even hold a pan once. And during those four/five hours he was just shouting and cursing non-stop. He was screaming at the first year kids and laughing when they made mistakes.
At some point I was on dish washing duty with a friend of mine, and Mike came in whilst I was grabbing hot plates with a towel, and he told me I didn’t have to dry them, and I told him I knew that but the plates were hot as shit and I didn’t feel like burning my claws off and he walked away, and like half an hour later there was this plate or something that was just covered in soap and I started cleaning the soap of because otherwise bacteria would build, and he came in and told me that I wasn’t supposed to dry stuff. And I told him I cared more about health code than his half baked orders. And I mumbled under my breath ‘asshole’ and he turned around and asked me what I said and I told him ‘I said asshole. and I stand behind it, all you do is boss everyone around and scream at people, you might have to guide us but you are not doing that, you are just acting like an asshole.’ and he told me that if I would just follow his rules he wouldn’t shout and I told him ‘I am following proper health code, that goes above your rules, the third years rules, even the teachers rules. Because if an old lady eats from a soap covered bacteria filled plate and dies, I don’t need that on my hands.’
But I am conflicted because my parents and even some of my friends told me I should’ve just kept my mouth shut and waited to clean the plate when he left. Am I wrong for standing my grounds?
Comments
^^^^AUTOMOD Thanks for posting! READ THIS COMMENT – DO NOT SKIM. This comment is a copy of your post so readers can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. This comment is NOT accusing you of copying anything.
So, I (16F) am in the first year of cooking school and this guy from my class, lets call him Mike is in the second year, and our school has these days where people can come eat the food that students make in the kitchen, and thats all four years together, and Mike and I are in the same lunch group.
And as he is a second year he is supposed to guide the first years, but instead he was acting like he was the best chef ever, but in a four/five hour class I didn’t see him even hold a pan once. And during those four/five hours he was just shouting and cursing non-stop. He was screaming at the first year kids and laughing when they made mistakes.
At some point I was on dish washing duty with a friend of mine, and Mike came in whilst I was grabbing hot plates with a towel, and he told me I didn’t have to dry them, and I told him I knew that but the plates were hot as shit and I didn’t feel like burning my claws off and he walked away, and like half an hour later there was this plate or something that was just covered in soap and I started cleaning the soap of because otherwise bacteria would build, and he came in and told me that I wasn’t supposed to dry stuff. And I told him I cared more about health code than his half baked orders. And I mumbled under my breath ‘asshole’ and he turned around and asked me what I said and I told him ‘I said asshole. and I stand behind it, all you do is boss everyone around and scream at people, you might have to guide us but you are not doing that, you are just acting like an asshole.’ and he told me that if I would just follow his rules he wouldn’t shout and I told him ‘I am following proper health code, that goes above your rules, the third years rules, even the teachers rules. Because if an old lady eats from a soap covered bacteria filled plate and dies, I don’t need that on my hands.’
But I am conflicted because my parents and even some of my friends told me I should’ve just kept my mouth shut and waited to clean the plate when he left. Am I wrong for standing my grounds?
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Welcome to /r/AmITheAsshole. Please view our voting guide here, and remember to use only one judgement in your comment.
OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> I feel like the action that should be judged was me standing up to Mike because my friends and family told me I should’ve just shut my mouth. And the action might’ve made me the asshole because he was in fact my higher up since he was a year above me.
Help keep the sub engaging!
Don’t downvote assholes!
Do upvote interesting posts!
Click Here For Our Rules and Click Here For Our FAQ
Subreddit Announcements
Follow the link above to learn more
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.
NTA. Way to stand up for yourself and your classmates. Dude sounds like a wanna be Gordon Ramsey without the actual cooking skill.
NTA. I work in care, so the potential consequences for cutting corners are similar. Your attitude is 100% correct: regulations and standards are there for a reason, they supercede colleagues and management’s judgement when they try to cut corners, and the person you’re supporting/cooking for comes first every time. Good on you for standing your ground.
Edit: slight caveat in what I said earlier. I work with adults with learning disabilities specifically, so I use different approaches to each person we support based on their particular needs that might appear odd at first. As a result, I encourage staff that are shadowing me to learn the job to ask questions and challenge anything that they see me so that they don’t understand, on the logic that they have done the training more recently and either 1) there’s a good reason for me to do something in a non conventional way for this particular person, and asking allows me to share that logic, or 2) the new staff are correct and there’s something I need to change or rethink in my approach.
You are not the asshole in the example you gave and this guy was clearly not in the business of giving learning opportunities, but I would add that while doing what is right is paramount, don’t forget to be open to the possibility that you missed something, and to be sure that you are correct and that there is no other way around the problem before you go guns blazing. The other guy was 100% sure HE was correct too after all, so being sure to cultivate a greater level of self awareness than he had will be very valuable to you.
All the best in your course!
No nta
Of course, there are different ways you could have let your opinions be known of his questionable leadership style… you are allowed to voice your opinions. Seeing as you’re allowed free speech. However, if there are any consequences based off your actions, you have to be willing to accept those as well.
As long as you understand that NTA.
NTA. You’re gonna meet a lot of assholes like that working in kitchens, and being able to call them out their bullshit is an important skill to have.
ABSOLUTELY NTA! Health code goes above all rules
Info: What was the soapy stuff? If dishes are being done by hand, it should be a three compartment sink to wash, rinse, and sanitize followed by air drying for meal sites/restaurants. You are not supposed to towel dry dishes in a commercial/restaurant setting.
First sink to wash, second sink to rinse, third sink submerge in approved sanitizer, then air dry. It sounds like you were not following the correct procedure.