Safer Kitchens Have to Start with Customers

Emily Meko, of Chatham, Ontario, is a high school student who submitted an essay/blog post in the annual MySafeWork contest. Her work appears here.

After sending out a flurry of resumes this spring, I was excited to be offered a job working as an expeditor at a local restaurant. My duties would involve preparing salads, stocking the salad bar, dressing plates and delivering meals, busing tables, and occasionally washing dishes.

Race against the clock

I found myself catapulted into the high-speed, high-pressure world of the working kitchen. The clock on the wall above the dishwasher spins unnaturally fast as rush hour looms and the orders begin to fly in.

Above all else, kitchen staff is aware of one thing: TIME. The buzz of the till printing a new order could be the starting gate bell at the Kentucky Derby. Every minute, every second lost, leaves diners more likely to be unsatisfied with the service, and less likely to tip well and return to our restaurant. Restaurant managers are all too aware of this fact, pressuring line cooks, expeditors, and dishwashers to crank out meals at top speed. No mistakes.

Although I personally had a relatively safe summer, I saw many teenage workers suffer burns, cuts, slips and falls, and repetitive stress injuries.

Initially, I was shocked to see plates being pulled, blistering hot, out of the oven without mitts, and flung quickly onto the counter.

I saw fancy knife work that usually left me in awe, but I also saw hands slip, and one of my colleagues required stitches in her index finger after trying to dice vegetables too quickly.

I was witness to a number of hot oil burns, the deep fryer spraying its protest at being rushed. One unfortunate line cook had hot oil fly into his eye. He was lucky not to suffer permanent damage; however, he had to rinse his eye thoroughly and go home early.

I myself slid several times on the kitchen floor, which was often slick with spilled oil and water, though I was luckier than some of my coworkers who lost their footing entirely. This is how one girl bruised her tailbone.

Another, more subtle menace comes in the form of repetitive stress injuries from repeatedly hoisting trays loaded with plates often weighing in excess of 30 lbs. This risk is often overlooked; it does not pose an immediate safety concern. But by the end of the summer, I could feel the strain in my shoulders where I supported the weight of the enormous, unwieldy trays. These are often loaded beyond capacity to save trips and time. Sometimes a plate teeters and falls, posing a severe hazard to expeditors, as the meals are extremely hot, and a dropped bowl of steaming alfredo would result in serious burns.

A dropped bowl of steaming alfredo would result in serious burns

As in most workplaces, the biggest cause of worker injuries was doubtlessly the unrelenting pressure to beat the clock. Most of the hazards I witnessed in the kitchen could have been eliminated or greatly reduced by simply slowing down and being more careful. Should we put on oven mitts to take the plate out of the oven? Of course, but the unfortunate reality is that the customer is waiting, and to waste precious time would be a folly punishable by management.

I went in search of a job mainly to make money, but I also wanted a good learning experience. For me, part of this was learning to take responsibility for my own safety, and decide what risks were worth taking to save time. I definitely learned to work quickly, while simultaneously minimizing my personal risks.

I learned my own limits for what I feel safe and comfortable doing, and to say no things I am not. If a tray is too heavy, I will make two trips to deliver the meal, no compromising. Exceptionally hot plates are positioned as far away from my face and body as possible, lest they should fall. Little precautions go a long way.

Wherever young workers are pressured to work quickly, accidents will inevitably occur. With industries that tailor to fast, exact customer service, the change for a safer workplace must begin with the customers. Managers must ensure that their businesses thrive, so if they are to be more forgiving of kitchen staff, the diners must be as well. Only then can we expect to see a decline in such work-related injuries.