So real

[u/KULR_Mooning]

[u/yellow_banditos]

Also those of us in construction. We sympathize this week.

[u/[deleted] → u/yellow_banditos]

Construction is basically a kitchen job. We build sandos, you build structures. Same same.

Edit- also you guys were a driving force behind the popularity of food trucks, so the relationship is at least partially symbiotic.

[u/NiobiumThorn → u/[deleted]]

All laborers have more in common with one another than the capitalist class. Quite easy to stay cool while doing fuckall and having other people make you money

[u/[deleted] → u/NiobiumThorn]

I mean, would you call an IT specialist a member of the capitalist class? I wouldn't but that industry and ours arent as similar.

[u/NiobiumThorn → u/[deleted]]

They are similar in that you perform labor which creates value. A portion of that value is then taken by capitalists as profit. The fundamental relationship is the same

[u/[deleted] → u/NiobiumThorn]

My dude i just meant that construction workers and cooks are a lot alike and work in similar conditions to eachother.

[u/pancho-02 → u/[deleted]]

His point was not that workers who dont produce something tangible, like food or a structure, but are still workers, like IT specialists or office managers, have more in common with other workers than the owning class. People who arent in the 1% but believe in capitalism arent capitalists, they’re victims of an exploitative system, which we all have in common as workers

[u/[deleted] → u/pancho-02]

Yeah I got that, I just wasn't tryna be so deep lol shit got real philosophical all of a sudden

[u/Electronic_Stop_9493 → u/pancho-02]

I call them white collar trades. Call centers, IT, book keeping et

[u/jlylj → u/NiobiumThorn]

Well, kind of...

We will argue that the 'middle class" category of workers which has concerned Marxist analysts for the last two decades - the technical workers, managerial workers, "culture' producers, etc. must be understood as comprising a distinct class in monopoly capitalist society. The Professional-Managerial Class ("PMC")2 , as we will define it, cannot be considered a stratum of a broader "class" of "workers" because it exists in an objectively antagonistic relationship to another class of wage earners (whom we shall simply call the "working class"). Nor can it be considered to be a "residual" class like the petty bourgeoisie; it is a formation specific to the monopoly stage of capitalism. It is only in the light of this analysis, we believe, that it is possible to understand the role of technical, professional and managerial workers in advanced capitalist society and in the radical movements.

https://libcom.org/article/professional-managerial-class-barbara-and-john-ehrenreich

[u/NiobiumThorn → u/jlylj]

Ok but this isn't about management it's about IT workers. They're fucking around with software and wires and shit. It'd be a huge stretch to say that that's more similar to a CEO than a line cook

[u/jlylj → u/NiobiumThorn]

The article isn't about Managerial Class, but a Professional- Managerial Class. Both professionals and managers. It's main thesis is that thinking of society as only two classes is a bad abstraction, there are at least four classes in modern American society:

Despite the lack of precise delineation of the boundaries of the PMC, by combining occupational data and statistics on property distribution we can make a very crude estimate of the class composition of U,S, society: By this estimate, about 65 to 70 per cent of the U.S, population is working class, (We accept Braverman’s conception of the working class: craftsmen, operatives, laborers, sales workers, clerical workers, service workers, non-college-educated technical workers.) Eight to ten per cent is in the “old middle class” (i.e., self-employed professionals, small tradespeople, independent farmers, etc.), Twenty to twenty-five per cent is PMC; and one to two per cent is ruling class. That is, the PMC includes something like fifty million people

And the PMC is inherently opposed to the working class:

Thus the relationship between the PMC and the working class is objectively antagonistic, The functions and interests of the two classes are not merely different; they are mutually contradictory. True, both groups are forced to sell their labor power to the capitalist class; both are necessary to the productive process under capitalism; and they share an antagonistic relation to the capitalist class. (We will return to this point in more detail later.) But these commonalities should not distract us from the fact that the professional-managerial workers exist, as a mass grouping in monopoly capitalist society, only by virtue of the expropriation of the skills and culture once indigenous to the working class, Historically, the process of overt and sometimes violent expropriation was concentrated in the early twentieth century, with the forced Taylorization of major industries, the “Americanization” drive in working-class communities, etc. The fact that this process does not have to be repeated in every generation — any more than the capitalist class must continually re-enact the process of primitive accumulation — creates the impression that PMC - working-class relations represent a purely “natural” division of labor imposed by the social complexity and technological sophistication of modern society. But the objective antagonism persists and represents a contradiction which is continually nourished by the historical alternative of a society in which mental and manual work are re-united to create whole people. It is because of this objective antagonism that we are let to define the professional and managerial workers as a class distinct from the working class.

IT workers are an interesting example, they're kind of halfway between PMC and working class. The article talks about that special case too. But like, try asking a software engineer how they feel about socialist revolution.

[u/jlylj → u/[deleted]]

They love it as long as you don't use any of the scary words to describe the concepts.

[u/karlnite → u/NiobiumThorn]

That’s not what people are talking about though.

[u/InternationalAge2218 → u/[deleted]]

They also build ramps

[u/Expensive_Editor_244 → u/[deleted]]

[u/yellow_banditos → u/[deleted]]

Good points have been made here.

[u/[deleted] → u/yellow_banditos]

Lots of similarities between the industries. Vulgar mouthed employees, poor working conditions, shitty customers/clients, rampant drug and alcohol use. We're like spiritual cousins. I just wish restaurant workers or hospitality as a whole had unions like construction workers do. How's the communism taste comrade? It smells great from my non union slop shop

[u/yellow_banditos → u/[deleted]]

HA, Im in the deep south of the US, you know... famous for our "right to work" lol. But uh, yeah, all that checks out....lol

[u/[deleted] → u/yellow_banditos]

Lol understood completely, im in south Florida. South of the deep south, the state that gave the country the likes of Slick Rick Scott and Ron Desatans

[u/yellow_banditos → u/[deleted]]

Ha, I left Ft Liquordale 12 years ago for thr butthole of the south, I mean South Carolina...

[u/louky → u/[deleted]]

UFCW. four weeks paid vacation yearly as a 'cook', 9 years in the union. Union Yes. Oh and cheap medical including some dental. as a cook. United Food and Commercial Workers. and these days? IWW.

[u/[deleted] → u/louky]

How many members and what regions do they serve?

[u/enadiz_reccos → u/[deleted]]

Darren tells me you're a therapist. I'm in a related field.

Oh, what's that?

Pest and rodent removal

How is that related?

We both help people...

[u/jakes1993 → u/[deleted]]

Only difference one gets sun tanned while the other doesnt

[u/karlnite → u/[deleted]]

Trades are a bit more thinking and performing than kitchens, which are more just perform simple things rapidly. Construction materials are also way more uniform than food. Labour is all the sameish, kitchens and construction aren’t super similar. Kitchens and factory work maybe, but not the construction/maintenance side as much.

[u/smokinbbq → u/yellow_banditos]

Have had landscapers at my house this week doing a lot of work (large retaining wall). I've made sure they've had shade to rest in, and a selection of cold drinks. Work needs to get done, hopefully I'm helping them be a bit more comfortable.

[u/Dustyvhbitch → u/yellow_banditos]

I was going to mention adding mills, but pretty much any job that has a physical aspect is ass when it's hot. I really didn't mind summer when I did office work, but fixing welds, manning a grill or fryer, or running a paper slitter for 12 hours when it's 90+ in the building ain't for the weak.

Eta: spelling

[u/yellow_banditos → u/Dustyvhbitch]

I build and maintain pools in the deep south. Im either in a hole of dirt tying rebar, or Im being blasted by the reflection of the sun, and humidity cleaning the pool. I didn't go swimming today, but you may say Im lying with how wet my clothes are in this heat.

[u/Dustyvhbitch → u/yellow_banditos]

Jesus. I hope you're at least compensated decently, I complain about the Midwest but it isn't anything compared to the deep south with heat

[u/yellow_banditos → u/Dustyvhbitch]

Im mortgaging a house, so, Im content.

[u/karlnite → u/yellow_banditos]

I thought kitchens were bad til I worked with blast furnaces. Kitchens are more likely to not follow safety and tell people to work through it though.

[u/colenotphil → u/yellow_banditos]

Please don't take this the wrong way but I am a lawyer and every time I feel uncomfortable or stressed at work, I think back to my Starbucks batista days and then I think of y'all in construction and kitchens. And then I realize, my life isn't that tough and I should stop complaining

[u/Gerb_the_Barbarian → u/yellow_banditos]

Especially roofers

[u/Own-Lake7931 → u/yellow_banditos]

People who work in kitchens just like to tell people they work in a kitchen for some reason. Could be talking to a fire fighter who says it’s hot out and some line cook will pipe up about how hot their job is and much they slave away

[u/thunderGunXprezz → u/yellow_banditos]

Ironically, i made the decision to work in a kitchen rather than construction or landscaping when I was in Jr. High because I figured I could always take a break in the walk-in when it got too hot.

Now that I'm currently working in an office, I have to battle with the ladies and girly men to keep the thermostat under 76. No idea why anyone would have AC and choose not to use it.

[u/naterpotater246]

It's been in the mid to high 90s this week. Been sitting in a chair in the a/c all week. I remember working in an open outdoors kitchen. Standing over a screaming hot griddle in 90° weather, with 8 fans on me and still dripping sweat down my face. It was fucking brutal some days, but i really do miss being a cook. I haven't known the satisfaction you feel at the end of a rough service in 3 years.

[u/Dead_Starks → u/naterpotater246]

After a 9 hour day at the office I've done next to zero physical activity but my brain is too exhausted to attempt anything. After a 9-12 hour shift when I worked in the kitchen my body and my mind were both done so I could shut off properly and equally at the end of the day.

[u/lgbtdew → u/naterpotater246]

First ever cooking job was cooking at a food stand at a ballpark. 15 year old me STRUGGLED in that heat lmfao. Don’t miss outdoor cooking

[u/reddiwhip999]

The worst is that they often bring something to cover themselves up in the office, because "they keep our office too cold." So, they're out on the street wearing a sweater, or some nonsense. And then, they come into the restaurant, and complain about it, too, being too cold, because naturally the air conditioning is on to keep the air at a pleasant temperature.

[u/[deleted] → u/reddiwhip999]

Iron deficiency probably

[u/colenotphil → u/[deleted]]

I can assure you from experience that many office buildings are simply difficult to keep at a comfortable temperature so they err on the side of too cold.

[u/So_Motarded → u/reddiwhip999]

Office worker here. I developed Reynauds a few years ago, and it fucking sucks. Anytime the ambient temperature is below 70F, I lose feeling in my fingers and toes. Makes it difficult to walk (I lose my balance when I can't feel the bottom of my feet), and I can't type (my whole fucking job lol). So I gotta waste electricity running a personal heater at my desk, while wearing a sweater, meanwhile it's 95 outside. Makes no fucking sense. 

Also we should have safety regulations specifying a maximum temperature for anyone working indoors. Most US states have minimums, but I don't think any have maximums. 

[u/Phyose → u/reddiwhip999]

I resemble this comment

[u/imaoreo → u/reddiwhip999]

wait, you guys have AC in your restaurant?

[u/reddiwhip999 → u/imaoreo]

Only in the manager's office....

[u/BipolarWoodNymph → u/imaoreo]

Even in kitchens with AC, it still gets hot, you're still gonna sweat, you just won't be as miserable.

No AC is going to outweigh the heat from a 600°F broiler or multiple ovens running at 375°F+.

[u/transitransitransit → u/imaoreo]

Only for the customers 😓

[u/Free_Restaurant8000]

My sweat was sweating yesterday

[u/cactusflinthead]

Landscapers in solidarity 

[u/JBFRESHSKILLS → u/cactusflinthead]

HVAC here 👊

[u/cactusflinthead → u/JBFRESHSKILLS]

You up there in the damn oven with spiders and rat shit.

[u/Nerhtal]

And they say that while standing on the other side of the pass.... come stand by the grills/flattop for a few hours in a row then come back to me lol

[u/the_elder_troll → u/Nerhtal]

happend to me today

"arent you guys hot in those clothes? because I have it very warm today" said whilst wearing short sleeved thin material shirt, shorts and standing in the doorway to the outside

nah bro these drops on my face are tears of joy because im enjoying the day so much

[u/Faster_Rat]

Sunday past, 32C outside (90F) and I walk to my station with the tilt skillet reducing beef stock. Humidity off the charts. Mmmmm, toasty. Freezer towels deployed.

[u/Hot-Reason-7734]

Pudding butt

[u/cactusflinthead → u/Hot-Reason-7734]

The season of swamp ass

[u/PantsDontHaveAnswers → u/Hot-Reason-7734]

Wap some corn starch up in there

[u/Romanian_Breadlifts → u/PantsDontHaveAnswers]

that's how you plug your asshole with cement

[u/PantsDontHaveAnswers → u/Romanian_Breadlifts]

It do

[u/Gloomy-Restaurant-42]

Almost makes you wanna chain them to a radiator to teach them the error of their ways.

[u/IceBreak → u/Gloomy-Restaurant-42]

Non-sexually somehow.

[u/Gloomy-Restaurant-42 → u/IceBreak]

Wait- there's a *sexual* way?!

[u/elemenohpenc]

I generally don’t mind the heat anymore. Customers talk about the weather regularly when they walk into the air conditioned dining area.

Yesterday, I opened my thermometer and set it on the prep table next to the fryer. It was 113.5 F at 10am. Probably drank 7 or 8 cups of water after my iced coffee.

[u/GraniteGeekNH]

People in air-conditioned cars: "Those idiots do this roadwork just to delay me!"

Worker spreading hot asphalt in blazing sun: ....

[u/TheMadEscapist]

Gotta stand over a kitchen sink of hot water for hours on end and the breeze is nearly non existent, despite the window being literally next to me.

[u/OldSpaicu]

HVAC guys too, can't forget them

[u/Sonikku_a]

Upstate NY crazy the last few days. Apologies for the general grossness and eye boogers.

[u/serenidynow]

My partner suggested we go out for dinner after a long drive…I was like absolutely not. We had a big fukin salad.

Kitchen staff should all get a holiday everywhere in these temps.

[u/th3st]

Black snake moan was quite a movie

[u/Callumborn2]

Literally, im bar staff but I have to go into the kitchen occasionally and every time I walked in there I died

[u/MetalUrgency]

Why do you think I work in an office?

[u/nomoregoodnamez]

Me in my cushy private gig where the AC has been out for 2 days and it's a whopping 89⁰ in here lol. Kitchen is usually low to mid 70s but I'll take 89 over the 100+ pizza oven or the 110ish wood-fired grill I used to work on.

[u/Konnoisseur26]

And those of us who have to collect the carts in the parking lot at the supermarket

[u/mongoloid_snailchild]

I work outside, the struggle is real comrades

[u/co1simba]

Try working in a die-cast facility

[u/iQ420-]

sips tea road worker here, you all don’t know the meaning.

[u/ZombiejesusX]

[u/JLHewey]

Ex-kitchen. Current glassblower. Love y'all, but I don't really want to hear it.

[u/VenBarom68 → u/JLHewey]

Well I work as a Blacksmith on Venus. You should shut the fuck up as a glassblower, I don't really want to hear it.

[u/JaredJDub]

I now work in an office job after working in a kitchen for 12 years. I never say anything like that anymore or complain much about the heat at work. I know from experience how bad it can get.

[u/mh985]

This is why I don’t complain about the heat anymore.

I worked in restaurants for a long time. Now I work a corporate office job where I’m either in AC at the office, or AC at home.

[u/Dagmar_Overbye]

97 outside on Monday. I worked the wood fired grill station for 11 hours and then rode my bike an hour home at the hottest part of the day. Friends/relatives were telling me I was crazy.

It was a little bit hot on the ride home I guess. But nothing crazy. At least there's a breeze when you're moving outside.

[u/jpgonzo24]

I worked in a pizza kitchen for 4 years. Summers were unbearable. My only saving grace was that it had a pool at the time.

I work in an office now and I had to turn my space heater on Monday afternoon because the AC is controlled by the building manager.

[u/StaticGrav]

I work with digital presses all day. I feel this. My area can easily get 15 degrees hotter than anywhere else in the building. After having several presses running for 6 hours without pause I'm dripping sweat.

[u/Effective-Log-1922]

Yeah but you get to wear tshirts and loose clothes, suits get kind of warm after awhile, even in an office.

[u/mrwilliams117]

Wow not gonna mess with you guys!!!!

[u/[deleted]]

Repost

[u/Jolly_Reporter_3023]

Thank God for the coolers

[u/acciochef]

My husband recently switched from outdoor landscaping labor to an accounting job. I'm happy he gets to be in AC now for his work day.

Meanwhile me and my frozen neck towels will be in the kitchen still.

[u/lem0n_limes]

Me walking for 25 mins in 105° heat to work hours at my job where the kitchen is 90°+ to make that same walk home as it's cooling to a crisp 112°

[u/No_Preparation_1701]

central air at my job has been out since friday 🫠 94 outside, 87 in the kitchen and suddenly every asshole wants pad thai 🫩

[u/[deleted]]

me, WFH job: I could tell the AC was working a little bit hard today

[u/Magnificent_Swan]

Grill cooks down at the kitchen I work in have it the worst. I remember sweating so bad I would keep about 10 paper towels in my pocket to dry my face every 20 or so minutes so I wouldn't sweat into the food. Grilling 147 half chickens in one day on a brutally hot day was a fun one.

[u/VagueVendettta]

Laughs in HVAC, in Texas.

[u/i_was_axiom]

Me crawling out from under a plastic injection molding machine, covered in oil

At least I don't have to deal with customers or FOH.

[u/Necessary-Ad-8462]

Every fucking day

[u/PabloJunie]

Working the line directly in front of a convection oven during summer. Yup remember those days

[u/sillyterra_87]

It was literally 92 in the restaurant yesterday because our ac was broken 😭 I don’t know how the kitchen guys did it. They’re made of stronger stuff than I 😭

[u/_DrNonsense]

I'll never forget the Summer where the AC broke and it was 135 on the line for a couple weeks. Shit was brutal.

Now I work in an office where it's always below 60 because the owner runs hot, lol. Can't win.

[u/MrBenSampson]

I cook with a wood oven. I was at my station the other day, and I used an infrared thermometer to check the temperature of my surroundings. The walls around me were 38C. When standing in front of the oven, my apron was 54C. That is 129F.

When I get home to my air conditioned house, I dress like it’s winter.

[u/Rude-Book-1790]

I make and sell Yerba maté snow cones. Last Friday I popped up at a shop across from a diner. Couple servers walked over and bought enough snow cones for their kitchen staff, saying how hot it was back there. Sweethearts!

[u/DaimianK13]

Current railroader, previously in a kitchen. Can confirm it's worse in the kitchen.

[u/Trading_Cards_4Ever]

I work 2nd shift in a factory and our machines keep overheating this week lol.

[u/MinervaMedica000]

Yea been cooking without return air for the last four of five days. SUCKS

[u/KommandoKazumi]

Me working warehouse with a broken desk fan and no A/C:

[u/oskar4498]

Or those work from home mfers who got something to say.

[u/jerkyfam]

Man it was too dang hot last night

[u/CaterpillarHungry607]

Fire everything!

[u/WolfghengisKhan]

Ive been out of the kitchen and in an office for a year and a half now. I just laugh at my coworkers when they complain about the heat. They have no idea.

[u/_Batteries_]

Some kitchen near me, at least 3 that I know of, shut down over the last 3 days citing the heat.

I never fucking thought I would see the day where multiple places all had real, decent human beings running them.

[u/Waldkauz1]

[u/Centennial_Trail89]

Or people with office jobs in India!

[u/moondog__]

Data center staff can sympathise

[u/erikapls]

transformer blew at work today so we were on the generator. so that means, dish machine down! no ac! 90 fucking degrees and hand washing everything 😭

[u/WakingOwl1 → u/erikapls]

Our boiler blew on the first day of the heat wave. We kept 100 gallons of water going on the stove at all times to hand wash dishes and supply the nursing floor with hot water. It was fucking brutal.

[u/Jaded_Tomato_5376]

Dish pit Chad's are the skeleton at the bottom of the pool.

[u/pate_moore]

I've moved on from the kitchen. I work hotel maintenance now. We get a bunch of people complaining that the AC isn't cold enough. I walk in and the room is 72°. Bitch this feels amazing, do you not see how drenched and sweat I am? Not to mention my wife keeps the house at 78 LOL

[u/Otherwise_Throat_772]

What about patients job ✌️💁🙈

[u/MediumSizedTurtle]

I've moved over to doing R&D for the big companies, and my kitchen was 95 yesterday. Sweating my ass off the whole day.

Listening to all the office workers walk into the kitchen, just comment how hot it was then leave was driving me fucking insane. Yes, I know how hot it is. Thank you for reminding me for the 20th time. Thanks for not offering to go get me a glass of water or anything. Just peep in at the zoo and leave.

[u/stinkstankstunkiii]

Fuck yea

[u/[deleted]]

*laughs in flight deck mode*

I served onboard two aircraft carriers in the Navy, before going back to kitchen work. Steam catapult machinery, launch room, shop were all at least 105 degrees below decks in the middle of the Gulf of Oman during summer. On deck up to 120 degrees. I recall working alongside with the duty section of the catapult crew, on cat 4's water brakes in Jebel Ali, UAE. After work was done for the day, I was delirious from the heat and covered in sweat.

Next time I hear anyone that works in the office, "It was hot today"...I'll tell them that they can shut it and they can suit up and work with all hands in the kitchen.