Crazy Town (Part Three)

               Somehow, I had managed to get a slightly better room above the Scottish pub, this one had a window so I could see the rain falling rather than just listening to it, which was the case in the old room. It had a single bed, stool, wobbly table and a small clothes rail.

               It was there I answered a phone call from somebody in head office. They had heard about yesterday’s environmental health visit. A lady from the council had arrived unexpectedly having received a complaint about a cockroach in the food. As a side note, there was no cockroach in that food, she was mistaken. It was actually a wasp. It didn’t seem worthwhile to correct that detail.

               I phoned the general manager, who according to his own rota, was due to be at work. He took the phone call from a caravan by the seaside. Turns out he had gone on holiday and not told anyone. He told me to just leave the report on his desk and he will look at it when he gets back. Anyway, the environmental health inspector spent an entire afternoon going through the kitchen and generally irritating the chefs (although, in my experience, irritating the chefs is very easy to do). She found a number of problems, including products that expired five years ago, but miraculously the pub kept its 5* food hygiene rating.

               So back to the phone call. “We are concerned with the way this pub is being run”. It was hard to argue that it was completely smooth sailing. “So, a relief general manager is joining you tomorrow to take charge”. This was, on the surface, very good news.

               He arrived like a hurricane, within moments of his arrival, the head chef was dismissed, procedures were changed, a new set of opening times were published, and the team were stunned. He even got my wobbly bedroom table replaced.

               His first night was beset with a predictable number of problems. Somebody managed to delete the booking sheets so we had no idea how many people to prepare for, the outdoor lighting failed, a blind fell off and hit somebody on the head and we served chicken to a vegetarian (twice). To him, it was crazy, to me it was becoming normal.

               The following morning meeting was called. We were told the changes that had been introduced were permanent and he wanted to change the culture, make things more positive and boost morale, hopefully earning more money for the business in the process. So far, so good.

               That was until the general manager returned from his caravan… Nobody had told him another manager had taken over…

To be continued…