eebmore: There Has Got to be a Better Way

There Has Got to be a Better Way

April 10, 2006

I know nothing of French labor laws, but ~~I do know~~ I have been told* how French kitchens work. Here is the formula as it has been explained to me by the French who hated it so much that they came here to work under the British/American system instead:

For the first ten years of your career you are worked like a slave. Eighty hour weeks, piss pay, constant unrelenting abuse from your superiors.
After 10 years or so you acquire a lofty title, like Chef or whatever, and receive a pretty handsome living. You then spend the next 40 years of your career doing nothing but sitting on your ever widening ass, collecting a fat paycheck, abusing newbies and making them do all the work to compensate for the fact that 40 years of your 50 year career is spent effectively doing absolutely nothing. After all, you paid your dues. You yourself put up with that same abuse for 10 years. It is how you got to where you are today. How else could you have learned as much as you did in that 10 years to be able to guide the following generations for the next 40?

It’s a bad system. 10 years of double time does not make up for 40 years of doing practically nothing.

* To say I know is presumptuous. I have never been to, nor do I ever plan to visit France (the only thing I hate more than travel is sightseeing). In actuality, I have been told many many times for many many years. I have no doubt that the approximate numbers and figures were exaggerated to give an understanding of the overall general system.

12:58 PM | Permalink

Comments

Hmmm - I had no idea that the French modeled their labor laws after our medical training.

Posted by: Broadsheet at April 10, 2006 02:32 PM

heh. doc training popped into my head too when i was writing this up.

Posted by: eebmore at April 10, 2006 02:40 PM

can you imagine if this country was suffering from a severe productivity deficiency in the medical professions, and the AMA came out with a solution that did nothing to increase productivity from established doctors, but said residents and interns had to work harder for less, and not be rewarded eventually with a position?

Posted by: eebmore at April 10, 2006 02:46 PM

If you think that French chefs are exploited, just wait until you hear what they do to French ticklers.

Posted by: tfg at April 10, 2006 04:47 PM

Ahhh - but eebmore, they did just that! About 3 years ago, the AMA clamped down on residency training programs across the US and put a strict limit on the amount of hours they were allowed to work. The max is now 80 hours / week, and we had to hire scores of physician assistants and nurse practitioners to fill the gap. US health care prices skyrocketed as a result. Residents are paid about $30-$35K per year, PAs and NPs are at LEAST twice that, sometimes more.

Posted by: Broadsheet at April 12, 2006 01:30 PM

i remember when that happened. didn’t Hopkins have their accreditation temporarily suspended over that? Not exactly the same. the AMA was clamping down on resident abuse, forcing hospitals to employ more PAs and NPs - which, of course, resulted in increased costs. Same thing would happen if the government clamped down on white slavery in the food industries - like at kawasaki. The french bill that was destroyed last week tried to fix the their labor problem by further abusing the newbies, while not affecting the established professional voting majority.

Posted by: eebmore at April 12, 2006 02:08 PM

hmmm - can someone say IMMIGRATION laws?? GUEST WORKERS?

And yes - Hopkins got their hand slapped badly, and for someone outside our industry, I'm damn impressed you even remember / are aware of that. We managed to suck up and make nice within a month and the shutdown was never enforced, but it was a huge effing embarrasment/mess.

Posted by: Broadsheet at April 12, 2006 11:39 PM

huge effing embarrasment/mess = hilarious! that's why i remember it. i forgot you used to work for them. but the lofty grand Hopkins medical institution being threatened with a shutdown. i laughed for weeks.

Posted by: eebmore at April 13, 2006 12:47 AM

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