Starting a new job

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

(Pre-edit: I’m writing a damn book here. Read at your own risk.)
(Pre-edit 2: Seriously, on preview, frakkin’ wall-O’Text to follow)

Well, after seven and a half years working as a cook in the convention business, I’m moving on. And to be honest, it’s a bit hair-raising (well, it would be if I had any hair) and nerve-wracking. I’ve been a professional cook for 30 years, and I’ve officially left a job that I’ve had longer than any job I’ve previously worked. For those not in the business, the restaurant business is not known for employee longevity.

When I accepted the job that I’ve just left, it was a gamble. My previous job (okay, two jobs back) was one I really enjoyed. I was the full-time breakfast/lunch cook, and I loved the job and my coworkers. Unfortunately, as it turned out, breakfast had never been profitable for the place, but they kept serving breakfast because the nights were extremely profitable (it was one of the most popular nightclubs in town), and that justified opening for breakfast. But after I’d been there cooking breakfast for a year and a half, the nighttime business dropped off. They had to cut somewhere, and breakfast got the axe. They kept me around for lunch, but that meant just 20 hours a week for me, and that wasn’t enough to pay my bills.

So I found a new job that looked promising. But it turned out … my new boss was somebody who had no business trying to run a restaurant. An early warning sign was a coworker telling me, shortly after I started, “When you get your paycheck, get it to the bank as fast as you can, because paychecks here bounce.” Fortunately, that never happened to me. But one morning I was working, and our main vendor showed up with a delivery. When we didn’t have cash to pay them, they proceeded to load everything back onto the truck and took it away. Turns out the boss had bounced checks with them. Along with that, he kept changing my shifts around, changing what time the place opened, and basically changing everything, every week. I was really getting the vibe that this guy had no idea what he was doing. Eventually, he decided to stop serving breakfast. Except he didn’t bother to mention this to me. The first clue I had was when I looked at the next week’s schedule and saw I only had 16 hours for the week, just working lunch. This was when I’d only been there for 5 weeks. By that point, I’d had enough, and I simply chose not to show up the next week (something I’d never done before). Two months later, the place was shut down due to the owner’s failure to pay his taxes.

So I was looking for a new job, and not having much luck (lemme tell you, January is an absolutely terrible time to try finding a restaurant job in my town). I finally applied at the restaurant on the top floor of the fanciest hotel in town. They called me in for an interview, but it turned out that they didn’t need a cook, they needed a dishwasher. Well crap. In all my years in the restaurant business (22 years at the time) I’d never actually had “dishwasher” as my job title. Granted, many of my cooking jobs had entailed also washing the dishes, but it wasn’t my primary job description. I almost turned it down. But the guy that interviewed me started mentioning a few things: union job, 401k plan, health insurance, paid vacations … Well, damn. I was a couple months away from turning 40, and I’d never had any of those things at previous jobs, and it was about time I started thinking about them.

I took the job. I washed dishes in this restaurant for a month. Then things changed. This hotel also had the contract to staff the city convention center next door, and one day I got shanghai’d to go over to the convention center to help with the dishes during a particularly large convention. The executive chef in charge was so impressed with my work that he basically “requisitioned” me, and I took over as the main dishwasher at the convention center. I ended up winning two “Employee of the Month” awards over the next couple years because of my dishwashing excellence. (Seriously, you try washing dishes for parties of 800 people eating three meals a day! By yourself.)

After two and a half years, one of the cooks at the convention center left, and I was promoted to take his place. I moved into cooking for large groups. I eventually found myself in the odd position of thinking of a party of 200 to be a “small group”. Prior to this job, I’d gotten annoyed with parties of 30. Now, that ain’t nothing.

But eventually, I started to realize that that style of cooking wasn’t for me. I wasn’t getting any satisfaction from it as a professional. What a lot of it boiled down to was the fact that I was cooking for anonymous masses. Outside of those rare events where I would stand on a buffet line and carve prime rib, I never saw my customers. I started to realize that that was something I missed. One of the best things about being a professional cook is developing some sort of relationship with the customers, even knowing them by name. But in the convention business, the closest thing to a “regular customer” is somebody who attends the same convention every year. And odds are that I’d never even see that customer. So I grew dissatisfied.

Anyway, long story shortened somewhat, about three years ago I started keeping my eyes open for other opportunities. Unfortunately, this coincided with our national economic problems, and there wasn’t a whole lot out there. I also confined my “looking elsewhere” to the “slow” times at the convention center. I wanted to time my departure with a slow period, so as not to create too much inconvenience for my employer and coworkers. Because I’m not a dick. Unfortunately, the “slow” periods at my job were also slow periods for everybody else, and so nobody was hiring during those times.

Then, every time I thought it was a good time to go, something happened. In 2012, I saw some advertisements for cooks, and I was ready to start submitting resumes, when I got a call from my senior coworker: “[executive chef] got fired!” Well crap, I can’t quit now. I’ll stick around until the new executive chef gets settled in, then I’ll go. New executive chef got settled in … and then my senior coworker had a medical emergency that required immediate, lifesaving surgery, and it kept her out of action for 3 months. Crap, I can’t quit now. She eventually came back to work, and things got back to normal. I started looking for new opportunities … and new executive chef abruptly quit because he couldn’t get along with upper corporate management. Right in the middle of the busy Spring convention season. Well FUCK, I can’t quit now - we now-leaderless cooks have to fly by the seat of our pants and try to feed these conventioneers (and we did a damned fine job of it, I tell you). Again, because I’m not a dick.

But that finally drove something home for me: there is never going to be a good time to leave. Take care of yourself.

So we got yet another new executive chef. The guy walked in and immediately started rearranging the kitchen (meaning that my coworkers and I now had to hunt for everything - I’d been there for 7 years, and my senior coworker for 15 years, and we found ourselves stymied because we couldn’t find anything) and instituting new procedures. And while I’m sure that his formal training is valid and makes him a good chef, I had personal problems with the idea that everything taking five times longer to do is an “improvement”. My position, after 30 years in the business, is that the most important part of food is how it fucking tastes. And I’m also extremely efficiency-driven. So from my perspective, if some fancy-schmancy formal cooking technique means that cooking a dish takes five times longer than it used to, it damned well better taste five times better. But this chef kept saying things like, “I’m a white guy - I can’t handle spicy stuff”. Well fuck that. I’m a white guy too, and I want some damn flavor in my food. This guy’s stuff, formally-trained-fancy-ass-chef-created as it is, was utterly flavorless. I heard one of the serving staff mutter, “Does he season anything?” Food isn’t for fucking looking at. It’s for fucking eating.

So, having convinced myself that there was never going to be a “good” time to quit, I started looking elsewhere. Hello Craigslist! I spotted an ad for a local retirement/assisted living facility that wanted a cook, and so I e-mailed them my resume. Two days later, I got a call. The guy on the phone was the same guy whose position I’d been promoted into at the convention center. He was also a guy I’d known for 25 years, and who I’d worked for briefly long before we worked together at the convention center. He was now the head of foodservice at this retirement facility. It also didn’t hurt that my sister, a Registered Nurse, is the head of nursing at a different location within the same company. I didn’t even have to “interview”. This guy knew my work, and knew that I could handle the position. He sold me to his bosses, and I basically walked into the job. Man, I love professional “connections”!"

So I was hired, and even though I still needed to pass a drug test (no problem, I don’t do drugs), a background check (already did that when a former roommate’s 13YO grandson came to live with us a few years ago) and a tuberculosis test (also did that a few years ago when I lived in a homeless shelter), I was told, “go ahead and give your notice at your current job”. So I did. Here’s my resignation letter, of which I’m very proud; I think it’s well-written and professional (identifying company names redacted, naturally):
August 23, 2013

To the management of the [company name]

This is to inform you that I, [Mister Rik], have accepted an offer of employment with another company, and will be reporting for work with them on Monday, August 26, 2013. This letter serves as my notice that I am leaving my employment with the [company name].

The regular shift I will be working for my new employer (10:00AM to 7:00PM) will make it impractical to split my days between here and there on the days I work there. However, I will have Wednesdays and Thursdays as my scheduled days off and am willing to work those days at [company name] for the next two weeks, to help as I am able.

Please be assured that my departure is not based upon any personal issues with management or coworkers. Neither is it based entirely on recent changes in format. I have been keeping my eyes open for suitable new opportunities for more than three years, and only now has such an opportunity presented itself. For some time now, I’ve been frustrated with the irregular nature of shifts and schedules at the Convention Center (which I realize is unavoidable), and the accompanying inability to make any kind of personal plans or commitments very far into the future.

Additionally, the up and down nature of my income from month to month was manageable when I was sharing rent and bills with two roommates, but now that I’m living alone and paying everything myself, it has become extremely stressful having to save my money during the busy seasons and hoping it will be enough to hold me through the slow seasons. In 2013 alone, I had to spend my entire 2012 tax refund to make my March rent, and I had to claim my entire accumulated vacation/personal day pay just to pay my September rent. My recent car repair emergencies, coming as they did right when I could least afford them, drove home the need to find a regular, consistent source of income.

Thank you all for keeping me around these last seven and a half years. My experiences working here have been far more good than bad, and I will miss you all.

Sincerely,

[Mister Rik]
And so today I started cooking in this retirement facility. And one of my fellow cooks said something that convinced me that I’d made the right decision. Remember my comments about developing a relationship with my customers? This cook said, “Sometimes the special requests can be a pain in the ass, but then you remember that every meal you cook for them might be their last meal.” Whoa.

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Congratulations! I wish you success and happiness at your new job!

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Congratulations on the new job and it sounds like it’s tailor made for you. Hope you enjoy yourself there and that you realize tremendous satisfaction in your new position.

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Update!

My second day on the job, I was walking out to use the restroom (there’s no employee restroom attached to the kitchen - we have to use the restrooms that flank the dining room), when a very old Lady with a walker spotted me. She held up her hand and said, “STOP!” She looked me up and down, saw how I was dressed, and said, “You must be a cook.”

“Yes, ma’am, I am.”

“What’s your name?”

“My name is Rik, ma’am.”

“Hello, Rik, my name is Anna.”

“I’m pleased to meet you, Anna!”

And then she let me continue on to the restroom. I’ve gotten to speak with her, briefly, a couple times since then. She seems like a very sweet lady. I told my supervisor about our initial meeting, and he said, “She’s 98 years old!” I spoke to her today, and she mentioned that my supervisor had told her that he was going to make custard for dessert, and then didn’t do it. So she asked me if I knew how to make custard, and I had to admit that I didn’t, and she seemed disappointed. So that’s my next project: learn to make custard.

On another note, when I realized that I was going to need to use the same restrooms that the residents use during meal times, it occurred to me that there was a good chance that a resident might enter the restroom and forget to lock the door behind themselves. So from Day 1, I made a point of always just cracking the door open a bit, to make sure the restroom was unoccupied before proceeding into the restroom. My foresight paid off. Yesterday, I cracked open the door and discovered that the restroom was occupied by a lady. Of course, I averted my eyes immediately, muttered an “excuse me” and pulled the door shut again.

As to the cooking part … I am having to do a crapton of improvisation. This facility is part of a corporate chain of retirement homes. We have an “Anytime” menu that never changes, but … Somebody at corporate HQ decided that there should be an ever-changing “daily” and “weekly” menu. So every day, for each meal, there is a unique daily “special”, in addition to three other “weekly” specials (that is, these three things are served all week). The problems with this are complex.

My supervisor is limited to dealing with one specific supplier, and he has a list of items that he’s allowed to purchase from that supplier. So we keep getting these dictated “specials” that call for ingredients that we’re not actually allowed to purchase from the supplier. He has to submit a request to the corporate office to purchase such-and-such, and by the time the permission is granted and filters down to him, it’s too late.

On top of that, after only three weeks at this job, it’s become painfully apparent to me that the person at corporate who is dictating the menus has never worked as a professional cook before. True fact: this corporate person is literally searching the Internet for recipes, finding things that look good, and saying, “Okay, serve this dish on this day.” We literally get printed out pages of recipes from various Internet cooking sites. And these are recipes that are designed to serve maybe 4 people, and we have to adjust them to serve 150. And one of the things that makes it painfully obvious that this corporate person is not a cook is the sauce recipes. Some recent sauce recipes have clearly been for sauces that are intended to be prepared “to order” and served immediately after preparation. Sauces like that simply do not survive sitting in a pan on a steam table. They break down and become completely unpalatable. So, we ignore the recipes and prepare a more suitable sauce. Which, unfortunately, annoys the residents because it’s not what the printed menu says. Also, it looks like this corporate wonk is looking at the “preparation time” these recipes list. What, 20 minutes? Yeah, if you’re making it for 4 people. And aren’t trying to simultaneously prepare 3 other entrees.

This corporate person is failing to recognize something that I’ve observed over my 30 years in foodservice, much of which has been spent cooking for elderly customers in restaurants: old folks tend to like eating the same damn thing every day. I had a regular customer at one restaurant where the servers didn’t write down his order — they just wrote his name on the ticket: “MARVIN”. And that was all the information we cooks needed. And it’s the reason that I’ve made more BLTs in the last three weeks than I’ve made in my entire previous restaurant career. The old folks like “familar” more than they like “new” and “variety”.

OTOH, while all of that sounds like a big complaint, it’s honestly one of the things I’m enjoying about this job. I have almost complete culinary freedom to use my experience, my training, and my imagination to come up with something good to eat. I actually mentioned these issues to the General Manager (the “big boss”) today, and he agreed that the menus are not well-written. And then he thanked me for everything I’m doing. Basically, I look at the dictated menu, look at what supplies I have to work with, and then invent something that is as close as possible to what the menu says.

Another interesting thing is that, today, I suddenly realized that I had learned more at the convention center than I realized. If I had stepped into this new job with the experience and knowledge I had 8 years ago, I would have already been reduced to a blubbering basket case. But I’ve found myself drawing on skills I learned at the convention center to help me improvise. And it’s all been simple things, but simple things that I didn’t know before the convention center. So, speaking honestly, as much as I hated that job, it taught me a lot.

5

Congratulations on the new job. I don’t know the rules under which you operate, but might Anna get a kick out of teaching you to make custard?

PS Try knocking on the rest-room door instead.

6

This sounds like a whole new chapter in your cook book, Rik - best of luck with it. Can you maybe have a guitar around and make music during breaks? I bet they’d appreciate it…

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Alas, a commercial kitchen is no place for a 98-year-old woman with a walker. Even one as spry as Anna. My servers went into a total panic the other night when a younger, but less able woman with a walker wandered into the kitchen, and did everything they could to politely, but firmly, explain that the kitchen was dangerous (wet/slippery floors and all that) and help her back out of there. But 98-year-old Anna (the second-oldest resident - the oldest is 101, but blind) is still very mentally agile; she came and talked to my boss and I while we were out back taking a smoke break the other day, and she had actually noticed that we had both been working every single day. I was hired to replace a cook who was leaving, and no sooner was I hired, when a second cook put in her notice, and now she’s gone, and her replacement doesn’t start until tomorrow. So my boss has hardly had a day off, and I’ve been here a month now, and I’ve only had 2 days off. I worked 16 days in a row at the beginning, between working the new job and working out my notice at the old job. Then I had 2 days off … and I’ve worked now another 11 days in a row without a break.

The new cook is a 62-year-old guy with an extremely impressive resume, and odds are that he’s going to be able to slide into the job even more quickly than I did. So we’re looking at a couple days of showing him how we do things, and I may get a day off as soon as Thursday. One day off, but I’ll take it.

I’ve started doing that :smiley:

Well … the other night I sat down at the piano and plinked out a little bit. Unfortunately, I was overheard by the one resident who frequently plays that piano, and she insisted that I play some more. The problem was that, while I know how to play the piano, I’m not very good at it. And, since I don’t have a piano to practice on, what few songs I used to play reasonably well have fled my memory. But I explained to her that I’m really a bass guitarist, and she suggested that I should bring my bass in. Of course, I can’t do much “solo” with just a bass, but she seems to be a competent pianist (I’ve heard her playing some jazzy stuff), so maybe she and I can have a little “jam session” :smiley:

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Nursing home residents tend to like things like music and whatnot. Maybe you can borrow some recording equipment (even a computer with a mike is fine) and record yourselves to play during meals for ambience.

9

Just an update:

My boss, my old friend from way back, just got fired. And I hate to say it, but I’m glad to see him go. The guy who was hired just after me is now my new boss (which is fine with me; if they’d offered me the position I would have pointed at this guy and said, “he’s better qualified”.) I have no experience as as supervisor.

As I told Bob, “I really like coming into the kitchen after you. Everything is clean and ready for me to take over.” My previous boss, my old friend, would take off on 90-minute lunch breaks, and leave me with not enough time to get dinner ready. And a couple weeks ago, while covering the dinner shift on my night off, he apparently bailed right in the middle of dinner, claiming, “I need to get to the pharmacy to pick up my anti-depressants!” And left a 17-year-old kid with no experience whatsoever as a cook to finish cooking for him. I heard after the fact that the receptionist and entertainment director had to come help cook, because this 17-year-old kid was practically in tears trying to cook. Not to mention how many times upper management came into the kitchen, while I was working, asking, “Is Tim here”? because Tim had scheduled a job interview with some prospective employee, and then was “on break” when the person showed up for their interview. Gods, I can’t imagine showing up for an interview only to hear that the guy I was supposed to interview with wasn’t there.

I don’t know if it was drugs or what, but my former “boss” had entirely too many “errands” to run when he took his breaks. For fucks sake, when I take a lunch break at work, I clock out, eat my lunch and get the fuck back to work.

God, my stress level went the hell down as soon as I heard he got fired.

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This is a great thread Mister Rik! I just started a new job in the restaurant business myself (Sous Chef). It sounds like you are a hard working person who enjoys cooking. I would hire you if you ever applied at my place.

I spent the last 4 years working in top gear for 10-12 hours a day. I was officially the Kitchen Manager, but I felt like a glorified prep cook. I was stretched so thin and had so many things to juggle that I eventually blew a gasket and walked out. I stayed for 2 more months after that while we trained my replacement, then I took a much deserved month off.

At my new job, I actually get to “manage” things! I don’t have a huge list of responsibilities to tackle everyday, on top of supervising everyone and ordering everything. I “expo” every service, so I see every plate that goes out to the guests, so I know it looks great, the sides and modifiers are right, and the ticket times weren’t too long. I have time to help the cooks with prep that they couldn’t finish, or make things on the fly when something didn’t get done. I have time to put together a nice special for each service (instead of 3 every lunch and dinner at my last place!).

It is so much less stressful. I almost feel guilty for not having to bust my ass every hour of every day. But I hear that the previous Sous Chef wouldn’t lift a finger to help anyone, or do anything past his minimum responsibilities. I put away 10-15 cases of frozen food and dry goods last week for the prep cook (who was busy), and he THANKED ME, saying the old guy would NEVER do something like that.

Overall, I am thrilled with my new job, and I think the staff is glad to have me there. I really needed this change for my quality of life.

I hope things work out for you too, Mister Rik!

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Holy cow (and apologies for not replying sooner) — is “my place” in the Pacific Northwest? (I live in Wenatchee, WA.) Because it sounds like I’d enjoy working under you. I chuckled at your remark about being a “glorified prep cook”, because that is exactly the term I used to describe my job at the convention center.

Anyway, I’m completely fed up with this retirement home cooking job. I have a royal screed prepared against the company I work for, but given than I am currently the only cook this place has, I’ve just finished my 7th day in a row and my 2nd day in a row of 13-hour shifts, preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner, and will have to continue doing so for the foreseeable future, I don’t have the time right now to type it all out because I need some fucking sleep.

But let me just sum up the ultimate problem with this job: Complete and utter corporate greed.

I will refrain from naming the company (for obvious reasons*, but I do have legal representation should it come down to it), but I’ll take a chance and provide you with my own rewriting of their corporate slogan:

or, alternatively:

*Aside from one obvious reason being “getting my ass fired before I’m actually ready to give my notice”, I’m not certain about the SDMB rules regarding talking trash against specific corporations (what with the board needing to protect itself from lawsuits). Because I’m prepared to discourage anybody from becoming a customer of this company.

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Never been to Wenatchee, WA, but I’ve been in Portland and the Spokane area. Right now, I live in Denver, CO.

Thats too bad that your happy new job turned out to be the same old work-em-till-they-quit BS that you dealt with before. If I could give you some advice: Don’t bust your butt for them. Say “no” to the extra shifts and the scheduled overtime. Working above and beyond is one thing, but they are taking advantage of you at this point. I hope your legal rep gives you some good advice on how to proceed. Who ever is above you that thinks they can staff a kitchen like that with one cook is mental. Pretty thin ice they are on; they better be prepared to put on an apron the day you quit!

I’m curious what I wrote in this thread about my job. I’ve had two employees tell me that I would make a better Chef than my boss, and wish I had applied 3 months earlier for that job. He doesn’t communicate very well, and hasn’t tackled problems that I feel are hurting us.

But, It is still far better than my last job. It was killing me, and my frustrations had no possible resolutions. This job has frustrating/horrible days too, but I have ways to deal with things rather than let them piss me off.

13

Right on the first hour of the first day you should have played “The Immigrant” by Nino Rota. :smiley:

14

Today I completed my 13th consecutive day in this kitchen, and my 8th consecutive 13-hour shift. I’m looking forward to next Friday’s paycheck, because I’ve just racked up 51 hours of overtime. Just this week. My previous job, at the convention center, prepared me for this, but I’m nearing the end of my candle.

We have a new kitchen manager hired, but he needs to work out his 2-week notice at his current job. And then I’ll have to train my new “boss” in our system. Bleh.

On the plus side, the Executive Director did tell me that he’d gotten me a raise, and said, “You’ve really proved yourself these last few days.”

Truth be told, I’m flying by the seat of my pants, trying to get everything done with no help. But it’s been 8 days and I have yet to get a meal out late. My conscience won’t let me just walk out. This is a retirement home, and most of the residents can’t cook for themselves. They shouldn’t have to suffer/go hungry because of the corporate greed and douchebaggery. Though many of them are starting to realize what kind of company they’re paying, and we’re seeing people moving out in favor of other retirement homes. More power to them. I would love to see this company get bit in the ass.

And I’m fucking with the menu. Mainly because I just don’t have the time to do everything the corporate-dictated way, since I have no help, but also because my 30 years of restaurant experience has taught me a thing or two about what the elderly like to eat. So for some things, I’m altering the dictated recipes into a form that these folks like better.

It’s pretty obvious to me that the menu isn’t designed to please the current batch of retirement home denizens (Great Depression/WW2 generation - they’re constantly complaining about the menu); the menu is designed to impress their children. This company (or rather, its founders), spotted the upcoming “boom” in retiring baby boomers/yuppies, and are trying to cater to that crowd.

It’s going to bite them in the ass.

15

Oh, yeah, and we did try out three new cooks this last week.

The first one, after one shift, said, “I don’t think I can keep up with this!” and quit.

The second guy was completely awesome, and after a day and a half I was ready to let him work the morning shift by himself the next day, so that I could sleep in. But he then proceeded to fail his drug test. Bye-bye (Thank you, War on Drugs!)

The third was a Cordon Bleu graduate. Except she graduated four years ago, but hadn’t had an actual cooking job since then. She worked one shift and said, “I can’t do this.”

So, back to just me …

16

So I have another update, seven months after my last post …

The current kitchen manager informed me today that he is leaving. Not a new job, but personal/family reasons. He’s Mexican, but a naturalized American citizen. But his wife is not. So he and his wife have been in the process of getting citizenship for her, and at this point in the process she needs to return to Mexico and do whatever paperwork is necessary there. So my boss will be going back to Mexico with her.

And … he thinks I should be his replacement. I’ve been here almost 14 months now (and have officially outlasted three managers), and basically know how to do his job (I did it during the 17 straight days that I worked by myself). Our new Executive Director also wants to promote me.

I pointed out to both of them that I lack the “cooking school diploma” part of the job requirements, but my current manager said, “That’s because they’re usually advertising outside, to people they don’t know. They know you.” The Executive Director was previously the ED at our other location across the river, where my sister is the head nurse, and she seems to think I must probably be a lot like my sister (I had to stifle my laughter at that idea - my sister is a classic “Type-A” personality; I’m like the polar opposite of that).

Dear Og, I would like the promotion. It would mean a lot more money for me, and improve my resume. But … I’ve never been in charge of anything. But, this would make me the #1 cook, and our current #3 cook would become #2 (my current position) … and I would have to hire a new #3. Having never been in charge of anything, I’ve naturally also never interviewed and hired anybody. But I guess that, after 31 years in foodservice, I should have a pretty good idea about what kind of person I want working with me. And at least we currently have a remarkably competent waitstaff, as opposed to the clusterfuck my current manager walked into.

But holy crap, after 31 years of being “labor”, the idea of becoming “management” scares the hell out of me.

17

You’ve got this!

And congratulations, it sounds like you’ve paid your dues and you’ll make a great manager.

18

Hey - huge congrats. The good news is that you are expected to keep doing what you have been doing. Take a deep breath and keep being yourself and you will be off to a perfect start.

And then, to reward yourself, you can get a cool new bass!! :wink:

19

Congrats! Keep in mind that every single one of us who manages people had a first time.
Good luck with it.

20

This. A million times this.

Also, you have so much experience in your field, you’ve worked under good, bad and otherwise managers. Be the manager you’d like to work with. Good luck!