Blog moving to www.standingsushibar.com/blog

Dear lovely followers of this blog.  We are moving!  After two years of utilizing the wordpress.com hosting services, I’ve decided to move the blog to our own domain. Please update your links and feeds to our new blog located at http://www.standingsushibar.com/blog.

Thank you for staying with us!  The sushi adventure continues and is on the cusp of getting a lot bigger.

Kids these days!

I must be getting old.  I want to go on a rant about kids these days.  Specifically 15 year olds.

If you ask any F&B person they’ll tell you that the manpower situation in Singapore is dire.  Citizens and PRs simply aren’t applying for the jobs.

I’ve been short-staffed on service crew for what seems like forever, so I decided to offer a high hourly wage for starting service crew members to see if more people would apply.  (7 SGD versus what seems to be an industry norm of 5.50 – 6.00 SGD).

Received 4 applicants who are Singapore citizens.  I suppose the timing of school holidays played a part – these were all 15 year olds applying.  Of course this is 4 more citizen applicants than my series of ads that ran on all the major job portals, so I was feeling happy.

I hired all 4.  3 of them lasted 1 day or less.  1 is still working at the restaurant (thank goodness).

Kid #1 and #2:  They were friends so applied together.  45 minutes late to the interview and extremely rude on the phone when they called me to find out how to get to the restaurant.  I figured I would give them a chance though.

First day of work – when asked to do anything, kid #1 would respond with “Why?” and ask why the other staff member (who was doing something else) couldn’t do it.  Horribly bad attitude, no initiative, and simply rude.  So I fired her.

Kid #2, second day of work. 1 hour into the shift says, "I think I’m sick, I’m going to leave.”  Let’s just say I was highly skeptical that she was actually sick.  So I fired her.

Kid #3: She applied via e-mail and on Wednesday afternoon we confirmed she would start on Friday morning.  Friday morning came, and she didn’t show up.  I wrote her and asked what happened and have not received a response.

The quest for staff continues.

October 29 Dinner

Hi all, Standing Sushi Bar at 8 Queen Street will be hosting a private birthday party tonight during dinner, so we will be closed to the general public.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused!  We will be back to regular operating hours tomorrow.  Have a good weekend!

Still hiring: Service Crew and Sushi Chefs

In the never-ending quest for staff, Standing Sushi Bar is looking for sushi chefs and service staff (waiter / waitress).

Ideally we will find full-time candidates, but if you know anyone interested in part-time, we are hiring for our lunch shifts (generally 10:30 AM – 2:30 PM).  Part-time pay is 7 SGD an hour for the service crew.

Full-time pay is dependent on experience.

Hiring Singapore citizens or permanent residents only

National Environmental Agency responsiveness

An amusing thing just happened – a NEA officer came to our restaurant because someone reported we had cats in the restaurant.  This was based on the previous blog entry which I had also posted on Facebook.

Two items I note from this:

1) I thought it was obvious that I was just being playful by posting these two cats up. They’re my cats living at home.  In my kitchen.  Not in the restaurant.  I do not seriously have these cats trying out our fish before we serve the fish to customers. But hey, aren’t they cute cats?

2) On the positive side, I think it’s cool that the National Environmental Agency is so responsive.  They received a complaint and followed up within 4 days (I posted it on October 13 so not sure when they actually received the complaint) by sending an inspector to the restaurant.  That should make us all feel more secure about food safety and hygiene in Singapore. 

Quality Control Team

Meet the quality control team from Standing Sushi Bar. Terror and Sumo declare the fish A-OK! Currently perched on one of our sushi cases in storage.

Hiring: Sushi Chefs, Kitchen Staff, and Service Crew

I should just change the title to be “Hiring: all positions!”

Standing Sushi Bar is looking for more staff!  As many of you know the F&B labor market is very tight, so as an incentive to refer / recommend people, we are offering a 100 SGD referral amount to anyone that introduces us to a new staff member (who works with us for at least 3 months).

We’re looking primarily for full-time positions but am open to receiving people interested in part-time positions as well.

Must be a Singapore citizen or permanent resident.  I would love to open the positions to everyone but since I’m at my quota level I can not hire any foreigners. (I know this is not going to stop foreigners from applying, but hey, at least I’m open about it).

Service Crew: We are looking for people of every experience level including a manager.  Please note that it is a requirement to speak English.

Kitchen Staff: Inexperienced to mid-level experience.

Sushi Chef: Senior-level to junior level (to be trained up – but have at least 2 years experience)

Please send CVs to eat@standingsushibar.com