Accentuate the positive: Why working in a small restauran kicks ass

Despite the bleak pictuire I've painted, I have rarely, in my life, felt more reward. There are victories on a daily basis, both personal and oragnizationally. Seeing people enjoying your work and the vision of the establishment is far more gratifying than any other industry I've been involved in. There is a level of commraderie that is only superceded by those in life and death situations. There is also a great personal satisfaction at the end of the shift. You've done your job well (to the satisfaction of the customer, the chef and yourself) and there is little left. You think about the things to do tomorrow, what prep you need, the number of potential customers etc. but outside of that there is nothing else. There is no take home job. What you take home is satisfaction in completion. Granted you'll do the more or less the same thing tomorrow, but today you've clearly won the battle. Of course there will be the bad days, but instead of impacting the future, the bad day, when done, is done. You learn from whatever made it a bad day. By having a bad day you become a better cook and hopefully decrease the chance of having another bad day. Of course there are going to be gripes, but gripes in a restaurant are not like inter-office politics. You either blow your stack and resolve it or you get over it. We work too closely under too much stress for there not to be exposed nerves, but as long as you realize that, then it ain't no thing. It is one great dysfunctional family reveling in disfunction. One great dysfuntional family grinding out good food, doing a job others don't understand and doing it at a consistently high level. So when the place succeeds (something I have far too little experience with) everyone takes pride everyday. And everyday we strap in again, slam an espresso, and enjoy the adrenaline of a long night of making people, including ourselves, happy.