r/KitchenConfidential • u/Beeaybri 10+ Years • Jul 01 '25

Discussion I got let go today.

First time in my 15 year career of being a chef.

I was working at a college running their dining hall, with a ton of creative freedom. In nearly 3 years I trained the entire staff from bare basics knowledge, to being able to execute things like pork roulades and etoufee's for 1500 kids, 3 times a day. I revamped the menu for each shift from the bottom up, and created an entire vegan focused menu for one station in the dining hall (im non vegan so it was a challenge). I did so many things, and with one decision the rug was pulled from my feet.

It was due ti budget cuts within the school for low enrollment trends. They had to make up for over 300k of the budget somewhere and I got axed. They made it very clear several times that this decision had nothing to do with performance or a lack of want for me to be there, but it was what was being asked of them financially. I was the chef manager, directly under my chef director. And I ran the floor. 20 employees. Those guys became my family. My dining general manager that let me go was crying while even trying to give me my papers.

I'm distraught. I worked so damn hard. Im sad for myself, but I'm so sad for my team. Its hard being let go, but its even harder having to watch my staff cry after they got the news and I was cleaning out my office.

Its a really hard day. Im trying not to take it personally, or feel less than, or that I didn't do enough. Its just hard.

This is just really really hard. :(

anyone been in this boat?

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u/RevelArchitect Jul 01 '25

I was laid off at a company a few years ago for reasons that went beyond budgetary concerns. I was not the only one and I fully understood and supported the reasons despite the negative consequence for me.

It was rough. I was well-liked and my supervisor was really upset about it. Thankfully, I had a friend in upper management who let it slip that my group was getting axed like two weeks prior so I had plenty of time to accept it and I felt good about making that conversation a lot easier.

It fucking sucks though. Barely keep in touch with any of the friends I made there.

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u/Beeaybri 10+ Years Jul 01 '25

Yeah, my girl was really upset that they knew this was happening and let me look them in the face for a week and didnt give me any hints or heads up. The papers were drafted 5 days before I was told. Sigh.

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u/RevelArchitect Jul 02 '25

That really sucks, man. In my case it was super weird. I had known it was coming for two weeks, but the supervisors were told that day in their morning meetings.

I’d mentioned it to a few people that I’d be getting let go Friday after next and nobody believed me. That was at least amusing to play that up for a couple weeks.

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u/Beeaybri 10+ Years Jul 02 '25

Omg hahaha. If I would have had the chance to play that up I totally would have. And my team would NOT have believed me. I have to wonder how long my direct boss knew. The only thing I know was that he seemed really mad. Upset, actually. And he just stared at the ground the whole time.

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u/RevelArchitect Jul 02 '25

I know in my case management prefers to avoid having that pressure on supervisors all week. They don’t need to know till they need to do the deed. Knowing ahead would just give them a chance to slip up or something. Kind of like my friend in management did.

We were talking about the obvious layoffs coming up and he asked what agency I had come from and then went dead silent while we were gaming. I made sure to let him know pretty quickly that I was cool with it and wouldn’t let everybody know. Concerns were widespread enough that I was able to convince a few people to get their resumes in order, “just in case”. “Never hurts.” “May as well even apply and see if anything better is out there.”

Those people had to have realized retrospectively what I was doing.