Most “unskilled labor” is heavily skill dependant. You wouldn’t want a chef, builder or painter who didn’t know what they were doing. And for production: machinists, mechanics and foremen make or break profit with their skills.

So what’s a better name for these jobs?

Edit: I have been told that plumbers don’t qualify as unskilled, and as such they have been exchanged for painter.

  • remon@ani.social
    1·
    8 days ago

    First, you have to memorize the menu backwards and forwards. Not just the items, but also the ingredients and the cooking techniques […]

    The servers in the local resurant here have a small tablet and can just look this up on the fly. No need to memorize anything. Not quite sure about the allergens, but that could easily be solved with software.

    I can see how this could be a required skillset for a waiter in a super high-class restaurant where it would add to the prestige and professionalism, but in a average restuarant I’m totally fine with the waiter having a look at the tablet before answering a question about the menu.

    Second, you have to be a salesman. You need to be able to know how to convince people to buy something that they may not have considered buying when they walked through the door, and you have to know that they will not only thank you for it in the end, but financially reward you for it.

    I guess being annoying is a skill. But I absolutly fucking hate when people do that. The job is to take the order, not suggest one.

    Again, outside of super-fancy restaurants, I’d think that’s actually quite inappropriate.

    Third, you have to be cool under pressure. […] You’ll also be talked down to by customers, yelled at by cooks, burned by hot plates, sexually harassed by both customers and coworkers

    So the skill to cope with a shitty work environment. I’m not trying to diminish that, it’s a serious skill. But also one that is require in almost every job these days. But I guess it’s particularly important in the gastronomie, I give you that one.

    Fourth, you need to be able to get along with everyone, or at least be such a convincing liar that Ted Bundy would be impressed with your sociopathic people skills. […]

    Disagree.

    The entire fake-friendly act with a fake-smile is very annoying American thing. You job is to take the order and bring the food. After that I really don’t want to hear anything else but “Enjoy your meal” and “Was everything alright?”. Talkative waiters are the worst.

    • Doctor_Satan@lemm.ee
      1·
      8 days ago

      The servers in the local resurant here have a small tablet and can just look this up on the fly. No need to memorize anything. Not quite sure about the allergens, but that could easily be solved with software.

      I can see how this could be a required skillset for a waiter in a super high-class restaurant where it would add to the prestige and professionalism, but in a average restuarant I’m totally fine with the waiter having a look at the tablet before answering a question about the menu.

      At this point you could just have a tablet at the table and let the customer look it up themselves. In the mean time, for restaurants that don’t provide tablets to their waiters (which is most of them), this is a skill they need.

      I guess being annoying is a skill. But I absolutly fucking hate when people do that. The job is to take the order, not suggest one.

      Again, outside of super-fancy restaurants, I’d think that’s actually quite inappropriate.

      This is specifically a waiters job. I love that you think you’ve never been sold anything at a restaurant. Those waiters did a good job.

      The entire fake-friendly act with a fake-smile is a very annoying American thing. Your job is to take the order and bring the food. After that I really don’t want to hear anything else but “Enjoy your meal” and “Was everything alright?”. Talkative waiters are the worst.

      Hate it all you want. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s part of the job for American waiters. They don’t have the luxury of not having to be friendly.