I find it hilarious when my co-workers, who insist that they don't speak English, sing along perfectly to Katy Perry songs when they come on the radio.
It is definitely interesting now that I work in a predominantly Spanish speaking workplace, and by "interesting," I mean 30% hilarious, 45% frustrating, 20% confusing and 5% increase of burritos eaten while at work. I have one new co-worker, "The Whistler", who I sometimes think likes me but most of the time I'm pretty sure he hates me. When I ask him for something he has this frustrating tendency to look at me like I just ran over his dog. Dave doesn't think I can tell if someone likes me or not when there's such a big language barrier in the way, but I disagree. You can't deny those looks. Sometimes, if I'm using something that he decides he needs to use (and of course his needs are more important than mine), he will literally walk over to my station, take it out of my hand and walk away! It doesn't happen often, but it's so shocking when it does that I really don't know how to respond. After all, I can't yell at him when he, "doesn't understand me." Although I get the feeling that he actually has selective understanding of language, because when the two bosses (brothers) talk to him in Spanish, he claims not to understand them either so go figure.
I call him The Whistler because, well, he has a tendency to whistle shrilly or sing what I can only assume are mournfully sad Spanish songs for upwards of 6 to 7 hours a day. It's pushed me to the brink of insanity so often, that I've taken to keeping my iPod in my shirt pocket every day and as soon as he starts going I immediately plug in. I don't really want to tune the whole bakery out because I think that you can miss a lot that way, but its so bad that I'm afraid I might eventually snap so maybe being a little clueless is acceptable for retaining what little sanity I may have left.
As I mentioned before, my two bosses are brothers, which is interesting because they couldn't be more different in their managing style. They never actually work together (and I can see why), instead they each take turns running the business every other day Monday through Saturday. I feel like it might be weird to run a business with your family member without actually working together, but at the same time, who wouldn't jump at the chance to have your own business where you only have to show up 3 days a week? I tend to get along with each of them fairly well, which is lucky since they and their parents (who run another wholesale bakery at the same location) are the only ones who speak English as a first language; but, like I said, they are very different. The first couple of hours in the work day are always the worst, that's when we have to get all of our immediate work done to go out on the delivery trucks. The one brother, J, seems to be able to take this in stride, figuring out ways to get things done. However, C is one of those people who feels that lots of yelling and harassment are the best way to get work out of people. Needless to say (but I will, because this is my blog), it can be very stressful. For example, here is a real conversation that took place between myself and J (Mr. Calm). I had just dropped a gingerbread house piece that needed to go out that morning (an actual piece that would make up the house, apparently they were putting it together themselves). I started to freak out and was apologizing vehemently, expecting to have an example made out of me in front of everyone:
J: Is this the part where I'm supposed to freak out? Do you want me to do it now, or later?
B: Um...later is good.
J: Okay, how soon can you get me a new piece?
B: Well I'd have to make another batch of dough...
J: Okay, can you get it to me within an hour?
And off I ran to make some new gingerbread dough, I don't think I've ever made it faster in my life. As I was handing him the newly boxed piece, he said:
J: Were you just trying to test your packing job? Seeing if it would break or not?
B: I'd actually given it a little shake before to see if it sounded secure, but no, I didn't drop it on purpose.
J: Because you know, we usually try not to throw our boxes on the floor, even for testing purposes.
B: Well...science
is important... (to which he laughed)
Not so bad, right? On the other hand, we were super-crazy busy on Thursday when I was working with C (Cranky McShortpants), and 300 decorated cookies had to go out. Unfortunately, the ladies who make the cookies hadn't gotten them ready to be decorated until that morning and just because they kept saying "cookies" to me as I walked by didn't mean that I didn't also have 20 other things to do on my list, in addition to other people making me do things that also had to be done by 6am. I got started on them as soon as I could, with the ladies yelling at me, constantly throwing different trays in front of me, deciding apparently on a whim, which ones were more important than others. Then C comes by and starts yelling about why they're not done yet. Of course the ladies blame me and I got pissed so I told him exactly what I told you, not that it really matters in the end. He just yelled and paced behind us until they got done, constantly asking other people why they weren't helping, etc.
I wound up being there for 11 hours that day, and it was so bad, and I was so terrified that Friday would be just as busy that I wound up
volunteering to come in on Saturday. You see, there are these macaroons, and man do I hate the macaroons. The batch makes a huge amount, and the recipe they use makes a really stiff dough, so it's always really hard on my hand having to pipe all of them out. Anyway, they're not something that companies order every day, but when they do they always order a minimum of 20lbs and sometimes as much as 60lbs. I knew that I only had 15lbs left over from my last batch and there was no way I was going to have time to make more on Thursday. Because I was so worried that Friday was going to be more of the same, I stupidly volunteered to come in on Saturday to "just make macaroons." C of course said no problem and I consoled myself with how I was being such a good, proactive employee. Plus Dave was going to be out of town this weekend anyway, so it's not like I'd be screwing up our time together. Then C comes back and says, "So you're definitely coming in on Saturday, right?" I said yes, warily, and with good reason because then he tells me that he's decided to give someone else that day off because why not just have me do their work too? Awesome. Sure. So of course, Friday ends up being nothing like Thursday (probably b/c I was working with Mr. Calm instead) and I wind up not only making the macaroons, but making them in record time. This amused by boss immensely because, as he pointed out to me, I'd now volunteered to come in on a Saturday for no reason. Saturday really didn't wind up being so bad as its their slowest day of the week (this is what happens when almost all of your clients are corporations), but no one likes going to work at 3am when they normally wouldn't have to. Blergh.
What's amusing to me, is that on Friday their Dad walked by my station and said, "Today sure is different than yesterday..." to which I laughingly responded that yes, it was, thinking that he was just talking about the workload. Then he says, "My sons are pretty different from each other, wouldn't you say?" He then asked me if I noticed that their Mom only comes in on the days that Mr. Calm is working. I actually hadn't noticed and he laughed saying that she never comes in to work in the office when Cranky McShortpants is there. His own Mom won't even come in because he's so crazy. Kind of funny, kind of sad, eh?
By the way, I made my first personal baked goods sale over Thanksgiving! A friend of ours asked me if I could make her a lattice-topped cherry pie to bring to her holiday celebration and apparently it went over gangbusters. Anyone want to start placing their orders for next year?
