Brian Kelly
Eng. 100
Teamwork’s
Throughout all of high school I was lucky enough to not have to worry about getting a job. I never had a job my whole life. I have tried working at grocery stores before, but that kind of job wasn’t for me. As all of this was going through my head I was nervous about my first job that I had just gotten. I got hired to be a chef at an indoor sports venue in Northborough called Teamwork’s. The drive to teamwork’s is only 5 minutes away from my house so I didn’t have much time to think about what I was getting myself into. I have never cooked anything before and of course they schedule my first night during the Celtics opening game of the season vs. the Miami Heat. Pulling into the parking lot I made sure I was early so that I would make a good first impression. After I clocked in I made my way into the kitchen where I heard loud rap music. There was no one in the French fry smelling kitchen when I first walked in. I was a little confused to why I was hearing Method man and Redman blasting out of the speakers because no one was around. I began to take off my jacket when one of the older employees came out of the freezer with a large box of pizza dough. He introduced himself as Gary and told me that he was going to be training me tonight. It was Six O’clock and the Celtics game started at seven. We had an Hour to pre make pizzas and store them in the freezer. Gary started to show me how to make the pizzas. The dough was the hardest part. I kept getting holes in the dough whenever I would try and knead it. I eventually somewhat got the hang of it. I made about four pizzas and he made the rest. We had ten total pizzas made and it was about to be game time. Gary started to pop a few of the pizzas in the oven. Orders started to come in at the same time and that was my job. I can remember my first order was a BBQ chicken tender’s basket with curly fries. Seemed easy enough to make but that hardest part was actually getting the order out of the freezer. As I walked into the freezer to search for the tenders and fries the door shut from behind me. I grabbed everything I needed and went to go back out to the kitchen but noticed the freezer door won’t open up. For a split second I was thinking that I was going to freeze to death in the freezer on the first day of my first job, basically, the most embarrassing way to die. I started to bang on the freezer door rapidly to see if anyone could hear me. After pounding the freezer door with my fists I realized that the door could be open and only had to be pushed harder. When I walked out Gary and the bartender Nick were standing laughing at me because I thought I got locked in the freezer. I got a good laugh from it and then began to cook the tenders and the fries. When I finished with the order, I had to go bring it into the bar. When I got into the bar I got a chance to see that the Celtics were beating the heat. After rondo scored a basket I heard a lot of cheers and so that the bar was packed, I knew a long night ahead of me was in store. Orders kept coming in and more pizzas were needed. Gary told me to switch with him and start cooking the pizzas in the oven. I thought this was going to be easy since I only had to watch pizzas in an oven. It turns out you have to open the oven about every 2 minutes and rotate the pizzas so that the crust doesn’t burn. You also have to pop the cheese bubbles that rise from the pizza. You have to do all this without touching the oven itself because it is so hot. I found that out the hard way with scars on both my right and left arms from getting burned so badly. I burned three pizza crusts in a row at one point. I wasn’t a big fan of this job at that point. More orders started to come in and the harder the work got. All I wanted to do was to be sitting down, eating the food that I was making, and watching the Celtics game. By the end of the night the orders started coming in less and less. After making the last couple of mozzarella stick orders, I finally got a chance to go sit down and watch the end of the game at the bar. After the game was over I was ready to get all my stuff together and go home. Gary then told me that we had to clean the whole kitchen. That killed my vibe immediately. Gary assigned me to do the dishes. While he swept the floor I cleaned all the burnt cheese off of the knives and washed the pizza trays. I was getting more sick of the job by the minute. We then cleaned all the countertops and tables. Finally ending with mopping the floors. After all that was done it was around midnight and I was exhausted. I didn’t know if I was going to come back to the job again since I had such a rough night. The first night at teamwork’s definitely didn’t go as well as I wanted it to. I was skeptical about going back because maybe the job wasn’t for me. After talking it over with my parents I decided to stick with it for a few more weeks. Those weeks turned into months, and those months turned into half a year and I am still employed at teamwork’s. I realized that it was a great job and it pays good money. I only have to work two nights a week and that’s perfect for me. I’m glad that I didn’t quit when I was going to. All the burns and the chaos that happens at teamwork’s is tough to deal with sometimes but at the same time it’s a great working environment and working there so far has been a great experience for me.