He gave me the finger

I'm thankful for every almost normal day that I have. Because you just never know as a business owner when the sh*it is going to hit the fan.
The other day one of my temperamental (emphasis on mental) night shift line cooks informed me that he was finally going to have an operation on his finger that he had injured a few months ago. It happened to be his middle finger and for a while he had an unsightly metal splint on it. He loved to talk about it endlessly too. So he informs me on a Tuesday that he's going for surgery on Thursday and will be out, maybe for two weeks, maybe not, I don't know, don't bother me, it's not my fault, you knew I had to have an operation, etc...

Let me get this straight- you are getting your Peruvian panties in a bunch because you are royally screwing me? I'm sorry, for a moment I thought I was actually the boss.

It's not like I'm a lady of leisure. I own and operate this business and am clawing to keep it going during the worst economic downturn of my lifetime. It's not an easy business to begin with. I cook, I hostess, I order food, I clean, I deliver, I network, I do publicity, I do maintenance, I have a teenage son who needs me once in a while, I have two dogs that have to go out occasionally, I hire, I fire and I even have a new man in my life now.

Now thanks to Sr. Finger, I have to work the line every night till either he comes back or I find a replacement. Next week is a really busy week with charity events, donations, appearances and day to day operations.

I put an ad out right away. I spread the word to the culinary schools. I called local chefs I know and was overwhelmed with resumes immediately.
Ohhhhhh, cooks resumes. They are a category all on their own.
They are either from people that are educated, overly so and therefore have over written their resumes. Too much information! And all that BS about sales, cost control, blah, blah, blah. Where did you work? How long? I am not interested in your opinions on world peace.
Or the ones that are completely misspelled, grammatically incorrect and frankly incoherent but English is not usually their first language. And if it is, shame on them.
The egos, the pathos. What a pain in the neck.

So I'm looking. Because I don't think he's coming back and I don't think I want him. He's very stubborn. And very moody. He won't wear a hat when he's on the line. He changes my recipes and when I ask him to come up with a special he always comes up with things that he knows by now are not my type of cuisine.

Bottom line- they are employees. They may profess their undying loyalty, affection or what ever else they claim but they'll always put themselves first.

He gave me the finger. So I'll give him the boot.