Jeremy Ervin is a sophomore magazine journalism major and writes ‘No Sleep Til Muncie’ for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the paper. Write to Jeremy at jrervin@bsu.edu
Where there’s food, there are plates. Where there are dirty plates, there’s a dish-tank. Whether you’re dining at a cookie-cutter chain restaurant or receiving five-star treatment, some chump in the back makes it all happen.
Professional dishwashing can be one of the worst jobs in a restaurant. Unless you know the tricks of the trade that make it one of the best.
Show up early
Getting there ten minutes early can be the difference between a smooth shift and getting the business for hours. A lot of restaurants schedule a break between when the lunch dishwasher leaves and when the closing washer arrives. While restaurants are usually slow during this time, dishes still pile up.
Failing to clear out this mess early on may mean you never catch up. Getting a head start however, will give you a buffer for the rest of the night. Each wave of dirty dishes will be cleaned and sorted just before the next begins. The establishment of a sustainable rhythm will make the night move much faster.
Improvise
Your employer should provide you with the tools you need to do your job safely and effectively. Often times, this is not the case. But don’t let bad — or just cheap — leadership bring you down.
First, there should be some sort of non-slick textured pad on the floor of your workspace. This is both a safety concern for you as well as for the plates and other items for you to carry. If your boss doesn’t have one of these, you should make your own.
Go in the back and find some broken down boxes. Break them down even further and lay them out beneath your workstation. Think about it like wood chips in a hamster cage. The cardboard will soak up the water puddles and you wont slip or slide on the surface. Just dispose of the boxes for a super easy closing cleanup process.
Also, there should be a big plastic waterproof apron for the dishwasher. If there’s not, pin a garbage bag to the inside of a cloth apron. It won’t get in the way and it’ll keep your torso and thighs dry.
Headphones
Your shop’s policy on this is probably well known. Some places let their dishwashers have an open-air radio. Others, not so much. Regardless of what the rules say, it’s still really easy to get away with listening to music.
Unless you have other duties in addition to dishwashing, you probably don’t have to interact with others much. It’s a repetitive job, in the back of the building with minimal oversight. You pretty much only get noticed if you screw up. As long as there are clean forks and plates, you’re golden.
Grab these conditions by the horns. Jam out to your favorite songs on the clock. Lock into that rhythm. If you get sick of listening to music 40 hours a week, check out some podcasts. They’re pretty much all free and there’s some for every interest. Catch up on news, educate yourself or just
enjoy your favorite radio personalities.
After all, it’d be a shame to waste your time working.
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