Hot take: that Tuesday before Thanksgiving was the worst shift I've ever worked

I've been cutting meat for 11 years, but nothing prepared me for this. We had 14 bone-in rib roasts come through the door by 9am, all with custom trims. By noon I had a guy yelling at me because his prime rib was 0.2 pounds under what he ordered. The band saw died at 2pm and I had to hand-cut 30 pork chops. Has anyone else had a holiday week just spiral out of control like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

finley_wells662mo ago

Feel for you man, that sounds like an absolute nightmare. Holiday weeks always bring out the worst in everyone (customers and equipment both seem to break down at the same time). Hope the rest of your week calmed down a bit.

cole_hall2mo ago

Man I've been there... band saw dying mid-shift is basically a death sentence. What finally worked for me was talking to the owner about setting a hard cutoff for custom orders on holiday weeks. We started capping them at noon and anything after that gets the standard trim no exceptions. Saved my sanity and actually cut down on the yelling because people knew what to expect. Also started keeping a spare blade and a backup saw in the back ever since that Tuesday... learned that lesson the hard way.

jamie79429d ago

Wait, are we really acting like one bad shift before Thanksgiving is some kind of war story? I mean yeah the band saw dying sucks, but @cole_hall acting like capping custom orders at noon is some genius move when that's literally what any halfway decent shop does already. You had 14 rib roasts by 9am, I get it, but you're a butcher man, that's literally the job. Hand-cutting 30 pork chops sounds like a minor inconvenience, not a disaster. People yell at you over a few ounces? Happens every Tuesday in my experience, holiday or not.