Tales of an unemployed journalist

Yesterday I worked for the big-name shoe company again, Nike, bussing tables at an event for 700 regional sales managers in town for the Spring '07 sales convention.

The staff was mostly college students, and a few tired, middle-aged women with little education or work experience. There were a few oddballs and creepo's too, those who probably couldn't get work anywhere else because of criminal records and whatnot. Courtney, a relatively fair-looking black man asked me to come over to his place after work and watch a movie. I thanked him and told him my boyfriend would probably not appreciate that. Ten minutes later, he offered to drive me home in his van.

Later, he asked the woman standing next to me if she had a car, a boyfriend, and any plans for that night. I found out later he'd gone around to every woman working and asked the same things.

Anyhoo, while working there I couldn't help but be my curious self, and I pretended to be an employed, undercover journalist. Here's my first story idea:

The amount of waste that I watched get dumped into the trash yesterday was stomach churning. I had a hard time doing it, and I watched several staff members wince as they poured perfectly good food into plastic bags bound for the dump. I spoke with several of them, as well as the banquet manager. What follows is my totally biased personal account:

I guess the catering division of Nike, called "Guggenheim" who employs its own catering and banquet staff, as well as on-call employees and those from staffing agencies, was sued a few years ago by someone who got sick. Since then, they have adopted strict policies that, when looked at from a certain perspective, make sense:
1. Any food that leaves the kitchen cannot come back. If it is not finished, it gets dumped.
2. No employee or guest can take anything home, even if it's untouched.
3. Any food in the kitchen which has had the plastic removed and is not used, must be thrown away.
4. Any food that has been out for 2 hours or more must be dumped.

But because of the logistics of planning a giant event, and the unreliablitly of humans, they must plan far in advance for a certain number of guests, including seating, food, staff, etc. They'd always rather have too much than *god for-fucking-bid,* too little food.

In my 9-hour shift, I personally poured a half-gallon each of untouched ranch dressing, Italian dressing and blue cheese dressing into a garbage can.

I poured a heaping 12" x 12" pan of roasted red potatoes into the can.

I poured a 12" x 24" (that's enough to feed about 30 people) untouched pan of filet mignon, with grilled portobello mushrooms into the can.

I couldn't bring myself to dump the two loaves of fresh bread and two bags of rolls that I had neatly arranged not 2 hours earlier, into the can. I left it on the table for someone else to do.

I helped clear, and/or watched 6 untouched chocolate cakes, 3 plates of mango flan, salad niscoise, fresh loaves of bread, pounds of shredded cheddar cheese, Peruvian halibut, trays of handmade chicken enchiladas, soda, wine...

Meanwhile, I'm postponing the purchase of salt, shaving gel, and nuts because I'm broke, and I feel they are somewhat indulgent...

...Mayonnaise lovingly heaped into oversized serving dishes, peanut butter, jelly (who makes pb&j's at lunch when you are offered filet mignon???!!!), mustard, horseradish, peas, tuna salad, eggs, etc. etc., go into the can.

Because of ludicrous policies and the maintainance of an image of "success and wealth" that Nike wants to promote to its employees, we liquidated enough food for the 300 of the 700 sales managers who did not show up.

The banquet manager did seem deeply disturbed by it as well, and told me he does not agree with these policies. Later, against the rules, he pulled a chocolate cake off the buffet line for the staff in the back.

Still, he and others planned for the placement of the food in a way that suggests over-abundance, and limitless wealth. The tent alone for this 2-week event cost $65,000 per week to rent--even though Nike World is a 174.6 acre campus with numerous buildings and convention centers.

Keep in mind that this convention is two weeks long. Also keep in mind how common an event like this is. My questions: Are all caterers this wasteful? Is it the caterers fault? Their clients fault? The American mindset? Are all of us at fault?

Now, in cynical defense of Nike, they are most likely a good company to work for. In fact, earlier today, I considered an advertising manager position with them, which I found on www.indeed.com. Turns out I lack marketing experience, but here's a paragraph I found intriguing:

"Benefits. You probably already know we have a pretty generous benefits package, but here's the highlight reel: a stock purchase plan, matching 401(k) retirement plan, on-site sports complex, childcare and full health insurance. There's not room here to mention every benefit we offer, but hopefully that'll give you a sense of how we take care of our own."

So, scratch what I said earlier about companies not taking care of their employees. Some do! This mega-corp cares about their employees! That's why they give such great benefits and feed everyone so well. I wonder if they treat everyone this well? Even the children working in its overseas factories like Vietnam and Pakistan? Maybe not. Maybe they make up for it by feeding the seagulls at the dump.

Refs:
http://www.saigon.com/~nike/childlabor.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1020-01.htm

www.indeed.com, type in "advertising manager, Portland"