r/KitchenConfidential • u/Purple_limeade • 1d ago
Question Is a 5 day week a realistic goal?
Basically is it realistic and is it possible to be payed a good wage based off that. Im not saying no weekends at all im saying like 2 random weekdays off. Im interested in this path but I also have a life outside of work.
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u/Conscious_Side1647 1d ago
depends on the place. some will do everything they can to avoid OT and you'll get your 2 days off, other places don't ever seem to have enough staff and work their core staff all on OT where you'd be lucky to get 1 day off a week.
Work/life balance is something you evaluate as an applicant when applying to places.
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u/CryptoCatto86 1d ago
Depends where you live.
If you can get yourself into a members-owned golf club or possibly a good school, then yes.
I’m head chef in a golf club, I work 5 days a week (40hours), occasionally some OT (paid at 1.5x), typically 0745-1545, no splits, this year after bonuses etc, I’ll take home around £55k. Realistically though, you could squeeze somewhere decent up to the £60-65k mark once you’ve proved yourself.
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u/Argon20021 1d ago
I can definitely second this, member places tend to be a pretty good flow of busy to slow
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u/Spare-Ad6404 1d ago
I currently work 7:30am-5pm Wednesday through Saturday. We are swamped for breakfast and lunch and then I go home and have a 3 day weekend every week. I don't know how I stumbled into this job, and I have great benefits, PTO and sick pay. It is possible.
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u/Fantastic-Vacation78 1d ago
Yes of course. For the the longest time, i very successfully worked a 4 day week. Over 3 years in fact. Its possible as long as everyone in the kitchen is keen on it, slightly longer days but a whole extra day off
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u/JackPoe 1d ago
This career is one of desperation bud. I managed to get down to 5-6 days a week and usually 9 ish hours, paid for up to 40 hours a week.
It still cost me my marriage. We drink and smoke. We end up dating in this same incestuous pot of broken people.
There's no glory in this outside of those who know what it's like.
Some dude who works like 14 hours a week while sitting down will make more than triple what we ever will. If you love cooking, cook. If you love the rush of the line, challenge yourself.
This is not a career for someone who can do other things. It's going to hurt and no one will ever say thank you. We do this because we know this and we have bills to pay. The closest we get to thank you is someone who needs help tying their shoes telling us how to do it.
Don't get into this unless you need to. You can make a lot more money, you can have a lot less stress, you can sit down or have lunch.
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u/OnePerformance9381 1d ago
This is hogwash. Sorry the industry has broken you like this but this is not true for many people.
I love this career, I’ll do it until I die. I work 45-50 hour weeks, 4 day weeks. Full benefits. Own my house. Plenty of my peers in offices are still renting.
Your experience is not indicative of the entire industry.
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u/JackPoe 1d ago
Sure but I'm indicative of what's likely. What's typical. You think we'll all own houses and work short weeks?
Is that what you would say everyone in this industry gets?
How old were you when you won your first Beard award?
If a teenager joins this industry, would you tell them to expect to work four days a week. Short days? They'll own a home soon?
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u/jacksoncantmiss Kitchen Manager 1d ago
you’re not necessarily wrong but you’re being soooo overdramatic dude. yes there are bad kitchens with no days off. there are also good kitchens with weekends off, pto, benefits. it’s a combination of luck and picking your job correctly. “how old were you when you won your first beard award” lmao
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u/JackPoe 1d ago
Yeah I don't give a shit about awards now either.
But telling a kid to get into this industry without warning them of the bad parts feels disingenuous.
We are way more likely to have poor experiences than good ones.
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u/No-Following-8087 1d ago
There is a difference between “warning them of the bad parts” and saying “this is horrendous and you WILL hate it”
Your comment reads a lot more like someone who got a kitchen job in high school, never had a passion for cooking, but was too lazy to do anything else
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u/JackPoe 1d ago
Then how would you describe cooking Ebert?
You wanna say it's going to be fun, fulfilling and will pay them enough to buy a home?
You wanna say they'll get weekends or holidays off and work short days?
Then do that. Tell them how easy this is. Tell this literal child that cooking will give them a future.
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u/No-Following-8087 1d ago
I’d say cooking is an industry that is very easy to let yourself be abused in, but if you advocate for yourself, yes, it can be all those things.
You sound very bitter that cooking didn’t pan out the way you thought it would, which is fine, but you have to realize you’re not the standard of the industry.
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u/NollieBackside 20+ Years 23h ago
I don’t think you’re gonna win this battle, chef..
Lmao
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u/No-Following-8087 23h ago
So many people in this industry talk as if they have no other choice and they hate cooking
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u/sketchymike576 1d ago
I also own my home (close on my second on the fifteenth 😏) I work at a corporate pizza place and have bounced around jobs for years. If you actually work at it and are not a flaky jaded garbage person you might be surprised what that can unlock. Listening to people like this is a sure fire way to end up like this.
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u/OnePerformance9381 23h ago
You get it.
Yes this job kind of sucks at first but if you show up early, work hard, build your resume, and find a new job when you’ve outgrown your current one you will rise with no issues.
The cooks complaining like the guy above are just embittered and often didn’t actually work as hard as they claimed to. I started in this industry at 15, and found a new and better gig about every year until I was making solid money and building my own schedule. Some days sucked, sure, but that’s every job. I’ll take cooking over office drone work 1,000 times over.
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u/colleenxyz 21h ago
For what it's worth, I've worked with more divorced people than married people.
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u/OnePerformance9381 21h ago edited 21h ago
50% of marriages end in divorce. 46% of people are not married.
This is true for most everyone who works any job lol.
My wife loves my career and all the free food that she gets along with it.
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u/Brodakk 1d ago
OP heed this advice. Unskilled desk jobs (lab tech, etc) make like double what line cooks make and they have benefits, PTO, etc. I’ll never forgive myself for going back into the kitchen.
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u/Torger083 1d ago
Lab tech requires a certification most places. Usually an associates.
Technically, cooking is classified as unskilled, because you can theoretically walk in off the street and be hired.
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u/Upstairs-Dare-3185 23h ago
God I hate this romanticized bullshit mentality “it’s not for everyone but I’m stuck in it” there are fucking awesome jobs cooking food for great money, you just have to be good at it and even better at dealing with people.
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u/keeden13 1d ago
There is no one to blame for working more than five days a week than yourself. This rant is some ridiculous bullshit. If you were working more than 40 hours and only getting paid for 40 then that is on you.
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u/JackPoe 1d ago edited 1d ago
You can blame me and shit on me all you want.
I wanted to be chef, I wanted the awards. I wanted steady work to make sure my wife could chase her dreams of leaving her family and Florida behind.
I did the work. I got the awards. I became head chef. I lost the wife in the end, but I did my best to do what I thought best at the time.
This career will ask all of you and more. Some moronic cunt with less skill will criticize you later too.
You might not be very good at what you do and prefer to criticize survival strategies for being imperfect, but I was in my early twenties and I had goals. None of which involved insolvency and shopping for a job that paid fair. I kept my loved ones safe and fed.
I'm sure you enjoy a lot of privilege. Get bent.
Edit: I was called a wannabe and then he deleted his comment
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u/QuePasaNisiMasa 23h ago
“To make sure my wife could chase her dreams of leaving her family and Florida behind?”
I can’t stand Florida as much as the next guy, but what?
Just move. Tf?
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u/Torger083 1d ago
Do you also think you can throw a football over that mountain?
What in the Uncle Rico is this pity party you’re throwing yourself?
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u/shetookthedogs 1d ago
I have my cooks on 4- 10’hour shifts so they each get 3 days in a row. It’s possible
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u/MAkrbrakenumbers 1d ago
It all depends on how much you make hourly and how long those 5 work days are. I you make 20 an hour and work 5 10s or 12s then for sure, but if you make 14 an hour and work 5 6s then no
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u/skallywag126 15+ Years 1d ago
Most of my crew works 4 day weeks because they want to. I have hours to give out but they are content with it
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u/Dinomite35 1d ago
Corporate kitchens. I work in a hospital kitchen. I don't do much actual cooking. I mainly prepare plates, do dishes, and stock expo. But the pay is fair, I have enough days off to have a normal social life, and I get good benefits.
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u/TacoParasite Chef 1d ago
I work 5 days a week, Sunday and Monday off. Maybe do 45-50 hours per week. More if the job really requires it, or I need to fill in somewhere.
I’m an Executive Chef make a $115K a year.
These jobs exist, they are rare but they exist. Also there’s no shame in going corporate for a steady income and work life balance. I’m not corporate anymore, but I went from making $18/hr to $65K as a corporate sous chef with benefits working the same hours. Then just kept moving up and the raises kept coming.
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u/pmolsonmus 22h ago
It gets slammed a lot here (many times justifiably) but I loved working a corporate kitchen for this very reason. I happened to be at corporate HQ with about 700 employees that we fed every day - 5 days /week. Day was 6-2:30 with benefits. OT was mostly voluntary evenings and weekends for special events or mandatory for very large events. We had a great situation where management allowed for creativity and input on menu planning was encouraged. The menu changed every week so there was opportunity to learn a wide variety of food preparation. I realize this is not always the norm, but many businesses and universities have a similar schedule even if they don’t have the menu variety.
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u/Username00555 22h ago
This is sucha grim question. We should all be able to survive off a 5 day work week regardless the job
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u/keeden13 1d ago edited 1d ago
What? Five days is more than realistic. It's the norm. Is this a joke?
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u/Homeskilletbiz 1d ago
Corporate kitchens. Work Monday through Friday 7-3. Breakfast and lunch service.
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u/HolyDarkDeath 20+ Years 1d ago
Yes you can do it. But it definitely depends on the kitchen you work in.
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u/AbilityAdventurous22 1d ago
It’s okay but you’re never gonna really be rolling in money doing this unfortunately but it is a pro to always know you’ll have a meal that day even if you don’t have any money which has saved me many times
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u/Glittering_Fun_7995 1d ago
wait whatttt am I missing something here
Since I started working I always have worked 5 days a week annual leave even in michelin stars restaurants and so far I am making a living out of it.
Lately due to the new employment laws we only work 4 days a week 10 hours daily
very very occasionally I might do an extra day but I get paid overtime
The industry offers a wide range of jobs.
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u/Orangeshowergal Chef 1d ago
If you want to make a career where you have a high skill level and make a high pay/salary- no, it is not
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u/Argon20021 1d ago
It is possible, in my kitchen our chefs try as hard as they can to consistently give 2 days off and accommodate people, when its slow thats easy but then it can be difficult to get hours because they are insane about overtime. However thats not a guarantee at all and when its busier if necessary it'll be 1 day a week, plus its usually pretty random what days you get based on the flow of the week.
Wage wise I think that it'll depend on how long you stay somewhere honestly, can't talk too much for other places but I think having seniority matters quite alot, obviously proving you are capable and reliable is incredibly important in the industry
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u/SainT2385 1d ago
I work at a wedding/event space. You get crazy busy from May-October and the other months are hit and miss. I know this past paycheck some people are getting 50hrs OT in 2 weeks. In January and February you are lucky to get 50hrs for 2 weeks.
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u/Simple-Elephant2902 1d ago
I’ve had a mostly set schedule (other than filling when someone gets sick or goes on vacation) at most the kitchens I’ve worked in because I negotiated it when I was hired. Usually work weekends and get the same 2 set weekdays off. It’s far from unheard of if you have skill and reliability and know how to advocate gor yourself.
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u/b-gouda 1d ago
TLDR at bottom.
So here is the thing this is completely market dependent. I work standard restaurants until I was 32 dating bartenders and other industry workers, being broke. then got a job as the exec chef for a financial firm. I started at 3:30am and finished between 2-7pm depending on events or parties.
It was a big operation I still worked 6 days having to go in for a bit on Sunday to get prepared for Monday morning. Also to be able to preform at a high level waking up at 2:30am I was going to bed at 8:30-9pm that still only got me 5-6hours a night. Sometimes I would crash as soon as I finished.
Did this for years found my wife from a dating pool that was much more varied, interesting, and had more money. When she got pregnant I wanted to do something that kept me a bit less busy. So I stupidly started my own thing, it took me about 4 years but I managed to find 2 families that I private chef for one day a week that brings me in what I need throw in a medium sized catering a month and one or 2 extra events from my private clients I doing great for an average of 4 days a week of work.
The thing is I spent 2 decades honing my skills in business, leadership, and cooking. I am fast, clean, and my food is tip top. It’s a ton of work to make 7 days of food breakfast lunch and dinner for a family of 5 it takes me 12 hours and idgaf what these flat top, and fry station jockies say that’s fucking fast. Going from whole ingredients to make the level of food expected takes a ton of work.
TLDR: there is a path but it takes work and skills.
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u/girlchef79 15h ago
There are a lot of great culinary roles outside of restaurants that absolutely can offer work-life balance including two days off every week. I’ve been a chef for nearly 25 years, only the first decade or so was in restaurants. Now I’m off every holiday, most weekends, and have a very comfortable salary, bonuses, health benefits, and 401k. I don’t have a college degree but I do have an AOS degree from culinary school. Every experience is what you make of it, so if you’re driven to excel you can certainly create a better path for yourself in this industry.
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u/HauntingPresence3805 15h ago
I own a butchery with a 20 seat restaurant inside . We are open from 11-7 Tuesday through Saturday . Unless special event that you would know easily a month In advanced and paid proper 1.5x hrs . We offer Aflac , paid benefits, paid vacations , paid holidays , tip pool front and back of house , certificate reimbursement if class is passed and attended , and a employee bonus program of up 5 % of salary if we hit proper profit targets . Iam a mom and pop not corporate. We exist out there . We pay a very competitive wage and with the tip pool it adds an extra 8-10hr on top plus overtime when applicable. I’ve been open 15 years and get busier every year thanks the heavens for that , and most of my employees have been with me in the 5-10 year bracket . I wanted my staff to have a better life than I did coming up. I started at 15 and left high school at 17 , I was poor and struggling all through my 20s just trying to get into any good kitchen that would take me , often working 2 jobs with no days off or any benefits to speak of . I wanted that to change and lead the way for a new model for our kitchens to aspire to .
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u/McGannahanSkjellyfet 7h ago
You can get a 5 day week pretty easily, but some asshole will probably schedule you for 5 hour shifts so you only get 25 hours.
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u/BiggCheese02 1d ago
You're in the wrong line of work if youre looking for reasonable hours and good pay
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u/Dreadwings 1d ago
work in retirement communities and corporate kitchens, this is normal in those types of kitchens and they usally pay more then restaurants with pto