Teamwork

Oh shit...so even though I slept a decent amount, when I woke up for my alarm today I was so comfortable I decided to not get up...only woke up just before 2am and managed to get to work only about 30min late. Still not a cool feeling though... the fact that the tartiflette last night was so rich meant that I wasn’t hungry most of the day...

I pretty much did all the baking of the breads, with Alexandre guiding me and checking up every now and then. But I did it all which actually means he has a lot of trust in me, as if you f*** up the scoring/baking there`s nothing more you can do...those are the final 2 steps in baking (besides cooling down) but I was owning it. My T80 miches were a little dark but not too much and the pain au lin could’ve cooked a little more, but I think the dough was also too cold even though it was nicely proved. Some of the biological breads were also cold so had to do some juggling but I`m pretty happy with my performance. Benjamin`s shaping was a bit irregular and sometimes he didn’t pleat the couche where there was a hole so some baguettes stuck but whatever...it wasn’t too bad.

It was also Yann`s last day so now hopefully there should be a better interpersonal vibe in the bakery. Although Benjamin was showing signs of lack of motivation and concentration the last few days so hopefully he can pick up his game soon and we will have a killer core team. Nothing gets me more amped than working within an efficient team.

We all helped with the torti crosti and tarelli in the midday so we had a nice factory line going...Alexandre was pretty fatigued so he was joking around a bit…I know that feeling when you`re so tired you really are like f*** it but you still graft hard. You can really produce amazing things if you have the equipment and storage space for it. With only a few people but enough freezers and trolleys and racks you can pump stuff out, but it really is a team effort. No one here says “it`s not my job” as i commonly hear back home. Although at Maison Pozzoli there`s a great symbiosis between employer and employee which I think is important.  Where I`ve worked before, I`ve noticed that the number one influencing factor in job satisfaction is being appreciated. If you feel part of a team, that you are needed and respected and appreciated, you don’t mind longer hours or slightly less pay. Money just can`t buy some things.

I mean, your job is something you will spend doing for the majority of your day if not your life, so if you aren’t enjoying it what`s the point? If you have something that you really like or that makes you happy you can become skilled enough in it to the point where you could provide training or teach others and then you could charge a premium fee, as if there is something you enjoy, chances are there are others who share the same interests as you.

There was a party tonight which is the reason I asked for the day off tomorrow, but I ended up sleeping until 23:00...but it doesn’t bother me that I`m not going out much. I am really enjoying my time at Maison Pozzoli and want to make them proud when I go back and really take baking and bread culture in SA to the next level and help develop infrastructure for awareness and education and eventually competitions and organisations for sharing of knowledge and networking. Just like the actual bread, the knowledge has more value when it`s shared.