Happy Friday.
This is my first best and worst and I feel pretty honoured to draw the straw, as it is such a Mamamia institution. I’ve been hoping for a while to get the gig and today’s my turn so I am going to jump straight into it.
Best:
I’m helping out with a few posts for KFC this week and so I really knew what I was talking about when they took me on a tour of one of their kitchens in a massive flagship store they have in Sydney.
I bet you are surprised that this has made my best list cause if you are anything like me you are thinking all sorts of the usual assumptions we make about the fast food industry.
Just as an FYI, you should know that this week’s Best and Worst is sponsored by But all opinions expressed by the author are 100% authentic and written in their own words.
It was an interesting choice for this tour as I am such a gung-ho, my-kids-are-NEVER-going-to-eat-junk-food wowser.
It’s a bit hypocritical actually (and I realise that) because I am a total chocoholic who actually has a crisis if there is no chocolate in the fridge at night. (There always is as I am super organised when it comes to my nutritional needs) … And I am all for having a Friday or Saturday night off cooking and we have take-away Chinese/pizza/chicken-and-chips from the local shopping strip.
So it’s a bit much that I get on my high horse and preach how MY KIDS have never had KFC or any of the other fast foods out there while they are happily munching into a deep fried spring roll washed down by lemonade.
Well this tour surprised me.
I was allowed to bring my five-year old son, Odie with me (such a cool work place, if only others were so accepting of working Mums) and a few things made me eat my words – the main one being the fact that all the chicken is fresh – not frozen – and they actually prepare the whole kit and caboodle on site. One hard working young guy even pulls out all the yucky bits of the chicken before he hand rolls it in flour and cooks it.
I had my first taste of a wrappy salady chicken thing and it was delish. (They call it a chicken salad twister)
And Odie devoured his lunch, which I saw all prepared before my very eyes.
Obviously I am not going to be having this every day, but in all honesty I am not going to be so afraid of this kind of food anymore.
Worst:
I yelled at someone else’s kid. It was a friend of my three-year old here on a play-date and she was throttling my daughter with a plastic Elsa doll. I couldn’t stop her. So I yelled. She actually cried and I felt terrible.
Is it ever ok to yell at someone else’s kids when they are on your watch? I’m not so sure. I told her Mum when she arrived to pick her up and all she said was, “good on you, I yell at her too”.
So over to you… Hit me with the best and worst of your week.
On Saturday 23rd August, KFC kitchens at more than 150 stores across the country will be open to the public for the first time for its inaugural Open Kitchen Day, giving customers the chance to see firsthand how food is prepared in store every day.
KFC takes lot of pride in its unique cooking process, hand-breading fresh chicken with The Colonel’s 11 secret herbs and spices throughout the day to deliver the iconic taste people know and love.
You can register for a free Open Kitchen Day tour in their local area at www.kfc.com.au/openkitchen.
Top Comments
Best and worst all jumbled up because I'm too tired to think straight.
So mired down in work - last week at the old job coming up, learning the ropes on the new job as well, trying to be all things to all people does my head in and nobody seems to be happy!
But still time for a wonderful dinner with friends last night, where the menu encompassed Argentinian, Australian and German food and three languages spoken at the table. And book club the night before. Friends keep you sane :-)
First time poster, long time lurker. I was hoping someone could give me some perspective on my situation.
Worst: My job and my team of five have been made redundant, we finish up on Aug 29. So in the letter it says there is a redeployment period between Aug 22 and 29. And they're changing the role so that it could suit one full time person or two part time jobshare. I'm a part timer, two days a week. So I'm fairly hopeful that I'll be a shoo in, especially since all the other team members are taking the redundancy and two have found full time jobs that start in the next three weeks. And when my manager explained the changes to me he did say, "I think you will be suitable for this."
So my questions are:
a) Am I understanding the situation right in thinking that I'm likely to get it. If only because I'm the last one left who knows how to do it. Flipside is maybe they'll want more hours and I can't do those because I have two kids in daycare. Working more than 20 hours means I won't bring anything home.
b) Even though we knew redundancies were coming and I'd already made up my mind to stay on, I still feel really sad. I'm feeling 'left behind'. I know it'll be harder to find another job that will have to work around daycare hours, I don't have another one lined up. Wonder if this anxiety is normal.
c) My MIL has put some doubt in my mind. She's wondering if it's possible that I could lose the redundancy if I say I'll take the job, and then if it's not suitable for hours/days then I'll lose out. I'm still not remotely sure what she's meaning as I'm fairly certain I would be able to go over all this with my manager before the deployment period ends.
Best: We've bought a new car, a zippy Honda Jazz. It's gorgeous and has less than 18,000kms on it. It'll be more efficient with petrol and easier to park.
TIA.
Sorry about the double post. I wrote the first one then thought it wouldn't be published because it didn't have a B & W. ;p
Hi, tough times! Redundancies suck big time. Even in staying on, ont under estimate the emotional toll of seeing good people leave and them the adjustment to coping with less people who were also friends. So rake card if yourself during this.
Your anxiety is very normal, I too stayed on after my employer closed down as part f th remediation cord team, 500 people to 10 and I was anxious too, but it settles down once you get past the people leaving.
In relation to staying on, my company when we went through a first found of redundancies and then redeployment build into the redeployment letter a 3 month window to settle in or opt out with redundancy at the same rate as before. So where a supervisor took a voluntary redundancy and someone else stepped into their role ( and they don't fill that role as that becomes the missing position). If the person who stepped in that 3 months found they councils do it, didn't like it ( let's face it if is supervising with less people in a thought time) they could still take a redundancy, but not calculated and their supervisor rate but at their old rate pre the step up. Maybe they can build this in for you?? If they won't it is a risk esp as with less people, the company may find they underestimated and need more hours, but then they won't get the savings they just made redundancies for if you get what I mean. Hope this helps. Take care!
Hi Fatgirljesse, thanks for the reply.
Well there are redundancies in another department finishing up in 6 weeks and it's likely we will receive applicants from them. They have a narrower skillset than my job, but they could still be trained to perform it. Likely the new role would be same pay, award wages. I'm sticking around as I think it's more stable then taking a redundancy and then being one of the thousands unemployed.