Personal Bubble. Do Not Invade.

So, I work at a cafe that is situated inside a very large tourist trap. We are not a fancy restaurant and none of my coworkers have degrees in Culinary Arts or anything like that, because to be honest, it's not needed. My job is not a hard one, unless you have no common sense and don't have the brain capacity to understand "the rules." "The rules" is in quotes because theses are unspoken rules.

To explain a little more thoroughly, this place is owned by three family members: the father, the brother and the son. All of whom are diehard control freaks, and have no sense of why one actually starts a business in the first place (so you can hire people to work for you so you don't have to be there.) The reason we, as in the employees, have unspoken rules is so that we can survive. There are certain things we have all learned that simply make out lives easier. However, life becomes considerably harder when the new people, and the owners who are there every day, don't pick up on or understand the rules.

For instance: when I am the person cooking on the grill, that is considered MY station. My space, my area, my whatever. The number one rule here is that you do not come along and try to take over MY station and then attempt to try to tell me how to do my job. Especially when I have been doing what I'm doing 4 years longer than you have. I am not going to come over to your station and tell you there is too much lettuce on the plate you're preparing, or that the bread you're toasting is done and you need to take it out of the toaster. I won't do that because that is disrespectful and annoying, and INVASIVE. Not to mention that I am well aware you know how to do your job, so it would be an insult to your intelligence if I were to say something like that.

That being said, these kind of "rules" are not hard to pick up on and it irks me to no end when someone is too dense or self-absorbed to catch on.

Another thing that irks me? When two out of the three owners of the place are constantly breathing down your neck and looking for something to bitch about. This is the real reason for this post. This happens way too often, and if it weren't for the fact that I live in the hardest city to get a job in, I would have quit a very long time ago. However, I am in college and I need money. But back to the point. I would like to say that two out o the three owners are considerably older than the third, and as much as they believe differently, have no idea how "things" work in today's society. They don't understand that I consider it disrespectful and insulting when they attempt, and fail, to be discrete about coming into the kitchen and looking for ways to condescendingly tell me how to do my job.

Looking deeper into this issue, I realize that this all stems from their dire need to be in control of every little thing. (Not only that but I really think they just enjoy being unpleasant to everyone.) However, I would like to say that I pride myself on my tongue-holding abilities. If it wasn't for this, I would have said something that probably would have gotten me fired a long time ago.

I don't own this picture, but I saw it and thought it really describes my situation sometimes.