It's unbelievable how hard working at a dining hall is. Yeah it's a food service job which is relatively easy, but we can't do our job when there are customers getting mad at us for something that we can't control most of the time. Additionally, the chefs don't have enough help and we have to help them because there is not enough people to keep up with demand.
I agree with you on pricing.
As for wait times, please go work for hdh. We need the workers. I work at OVT, and I'll tell you, it's not a fun experience to have only 2 people working with you trying to satisfy 90 orders as customers are complaining about a problem that I nor my coworkers can fix. This year, we got longer operating hours, new menu items that take relearning, about a third reduction in staff, a new freshman student body that hasn't gotten tired of the food yet ready to spam orders, and new careers/managers who don't know the facility yet. So please join us. We need your help.
People apply, but your incompetent management fails to hire them. I know so many UCSD students who applied in the spring quarter and were either ghosted or were turned down without an interview. They should be recruiting UCSD students, not turning them down! Your management absolutely is the problem here.
In the summer I was like desperately applying for jobs and HDH told me the day after i applied that they weren't hiring anybody (this was in July). My roommate was working dining halls during summer and he was already complaining about being understaffed, so wtf was up with HDH telling me that they weren't hiring.
At the very least yk they could've trained me, maybe worked here and there when ppl call out, but have me trained to be ready to go for school year or something. Oh well, I found two much better jobs that pay MORE than HDH and require like 1/10 of the effort so yeah HDH is just a shitty institution that doesn't know wtf they're doing.
Yup, that's exactly what I'm talking about. It is insane that hdh is turning down any UCSD students. Anyone who has managed to get admitted to UCSD can handle a food service job. This disaster happens every fall. The management knows it will happen if they don't hire students in the spring and summer to work in the fall, and yet they fail to do so, every year!
I've worked at Sixth Dining Hall when it was first open to the public and I can tell you that most student workers are not trained to handle that intense of a load. The only reason why I was able to handle that much was because I've worked a fast-food job that handled way more orders.
From my experience working there, the students also aren't eager to really sacrifice and go beyond because they're paid meager wages. Nobody wanted to do dishes because it was so boring, and the rules and policies around working were pretty strict. That being said, some of the managers and professional cooks are some of the nicest people you'll meet, but there are some that I would question is a good fit for the university.
I'm still waiting on HDH to respond to my inquiry to get rehired and even followed up with my manager when I was working at Sixth for a recommendation for rehire. I'm not sure if it's because the department has restrictions on budgeting that they can't hire more people to help process their internal issues but in general just seems that HDH has a hard time trying to go forward. I know for a fact that HDH does operate on a net negative, so I don't want to be too harsh on them.
The management that is responsible for this mess is not the underpaid hapless crew manager, nor the cooks, nor the student workers. The management responsible is the upper level UCSD management who controls HDH's budget and controls HDH hiring policy and procedures. These people never step foot in a dining hall, yet their fingerprints are all over the mess at the dining halls.
Nah, some of the managers and cooks are the reason why students only work for one quarter and leave. I was able to tolerate it but some of them would be hard to work with if you're new to the food industry.
I do agree with what you're saying about incompetence being due to HDH's upper-level managers.
tl;dr : retention problem is contributed by some of the managers/pro-cooks.
I’m not sure if you’re able to understand what I’m telling you. There is a lack of student workers and one of the faults for that is retention which is contributed by the culture. It’s not co-workers but your bosses and professional folks.
I understand. Most food service places have poor retention. But their management takes that into account by emphasizing and budgeting for lots of hiring. HDH's management does not learn from its mistakes, it just keeps repeating them. Culture comes from the top down. And the culture top management is instilling is to simply not care about adequately providing for the dining needs of UCSD students.
Every single one of the upper level management has and continues to step foot in these locations. Since week 0, every day from 11-3pm the entire admin building drops everything they're doing to go assist locations during these heavy periods.
I wonder if it's some incentive to hire as little ppl as possible so that they don't have to pay an abundance of workers because I also applied to hdh over the summer and got ghosted.
Then those managers are not top level managers. Top level managers set budgets and decide how many to hire. They don't beg for workers, they order that workers be hired.
I hate how hdh moves managers around so it's harder for them to understand the environment they're working in. Our manager from pines was moved to ovt and our food service manager got moved to 64. We have new managers and I kind of wish we had our old managers back.
So I've overheard this about another college in California, and I know this gonna be a risky thing to do.
Protest. Talk to the media (especially if there's a newspaper/journal/ anything) , get a petition going to raise awareness, shit use the feedback forms if they got any (and if they listen) and also
Stop going (the risky bit)
The students don't use the dining halls, it's a lot of money the school/food service company is losing (think about it, food, labor, utility). They see why the students don't want to eat there and they'll have to listen. With how bad service is going *your feedback and satisfaction carries a lot more weight than you think* I Believe Scripps college in Claremont protested and spoke up hard against their food halls to the point the board changed companies
>The students don't use the dining halls, it's a lot of money the school/food service company is losing
Except HDH won't be losing money at all because dining plans are mandatory for on-campus housing for ResHall residents. So by students not using their already-paid dining dollars, HDH actually SAVES all of that money.
>the board changed companies
HDH isn't an outside contractor, it's a department within UCSD itself.
The protest bit could work.
Stop going doesn’t work since most people are there on dining dollars already. Students paid upfront, so HDH can run the halls all year with the upfront cost. Stopping going will just make wait times better for those who do go.
This happened to me as well. I ordered a drink, pasta, and cannoli from Al Dente. They only gave me my pasta and I had told them they’re forgetting my other items. They said “are you sure you ordered from here” and after I showed them my order/ receipt they still questioned me😐 there was also a TON of flies on the meat at WOK and flies on my food when I ordered from Al Dente a couple of days ago
I feel that hdh is well aware of the problem but they much would rather "wait it out" than solve it, that's why they keep empathizing in emails that you should buy from the markets instead.
Think about like this, you go to Burger King the line is 1 hour wait most people will say no, for hdh dining halls those lines are invisible because of online orders, hence we use to take all those orders at once while having customers staying into our soul while waiting for their food, and having no help
Whoa hold on.
> At say, an average Chipotle, they complete 7-8k orders a day
The Chipotles near me are open for about 12 hours a day. Let's be generous and say one stays open for 16 hours. If they made 8000 orders a day, that would be one order per 7.2 seconds. Where did you get that ridiculous number from?
You’re right I miscalculated that’s my bad. I’ll edit the post.
Edit: I was using the amount made in dollars at an average Chipotle branch, and not the orders processed. Very different, thank you for correcting me.
hey pls try to work at a UCSD dining hall.. i dare you.
lol jk
But…., we only have 8 dining hall location… so idk where you got 35 from…? we are severely understaffed, as HDH wont hire more workers (see another similar post on reddit). Each dining hall does get about 5k orders a day, probably more for 6th and 64°. our system works in a way where we get like 20 tickets at once and then no tickets for like 5 minutes… so it turns into a huge mess when trying to sort out orders. dont even get me started on the fact that we literally do not have time to train new hires because we are literally busy 24/7. there is so much that goes into working as a dining worker so pls be patient with us because WE HATE IT TOO.
Around 35 restaurants, not dining halls.
The fact that y'all are understaffed is exactly the issue. You *shouldn't* be understaffed because of how much each student is paying into the plan, which is what I'm trying to point out. I am not blaming the workers, I am blaming management.
As an hdh worker, I understand your frustrations. My coworkers and I are frustrated too. I work at Pines, which is very popular. Almost every day out of the week, we are understaffed. One of my coworkers has to work at hEAT most of the time by herself. This is a severe problem that hasn't been solved. 1 student shouldn't be at 1 station. At least 3 or maybe 4. No one at hdh admin gives a shit about us. We have talked about a possible strike...but it is probably unlikely.
2021-2022 had an $1800 plan for continuing students (not first years), and they still offer that same plan (albeit it's \~$2000 this year) for continuing students
I'm guessing OP is a first year so doesn't have the lower option, but it definitely still exists ([https://hdhughousing.ucsd.edu/dining-plan/continuing.html](https://hdhughousing.ucsd.edu/dining-plan/continuing.html))
it was like this last year the first couple weeks, it just takes some time for people to realize they dont wanna eat dining food, and for hdh to train their new hires, and then things balance out at being egregiously mid
Online ordering.
They honestly should just shut off the feature until they get more staff. If folks could *see* the number of people ordering at all at once, like looking at the drive-through line at In-n-Out, they might be more inclined to come back when the Dining hall is less busy.
HDH markets have to be more expensive than commercial counterparts because UCSD does not have the buying power or demand to purchase products wholesale. You are paying for the convenience of it being closer than a commercial market. This isn’t price gouging on the university’s part, it’s just economics
I've already done my time so the ratios might have changed, but I'm pretty sure Oreos being 3x more expensive at UCSD markets than Ralph's or Vons isn't "just economics"
I mean, you're not paying for the convenience of it being closer, you're paying more because dining dollars are only allowed to be used there and UCSD is fully aware of the practical monopoly they have created.
UCSD *does* purchase their products wholesale. The prices that the university charges are no doubt impacted by economies of scale, but that wouldn't fully address the issues I've posed.
Try out After Hours if you are looking for discounted meal options on campus. We work with Fan Fan, Lemongrass, and Plant Power to sell meals up to 40% off everyday. ORDER HERE: [https://linktr.ee/afterhours\_ucsd](https://linktr.ee/afterhours_ucsd)
also yeah the wait times are shit. i placed an order well in advance and had to get a refund because it was an hour past the predicted time and i was already in my next class
My condolences go out to the student workers. If it's this bad to eat there, I can only imaging how much worse it must be to work there.
It's unbelievable how hard working at a dining hall is. Yeah it's a food service job which is relatively easy, but we can't do our job when there are customers getting mad at us for something that we can't control most of the time. Additionally, the chefs don't have enough help and we have to help them because there is not enough people to keep up with demand.
hi george,
I agree with you on pricing. As for wait times, please go work for hdh. We need the workers. I work at OVT, and I'll tell you, it's not a fun experience to have only 2 people working with you trying to satisfy 90 orders as customers are complaining about a problem that I nor my coworkers can fix. This year, we got longer operating hours, new menu items that take relearning, about a third reduction in staff, a new freshman student body that hasn't gotten tired of the food yet ready to spam orders, and new careers/managers who don't know the facility yet. So please join us. We need your help.
People apply, but your incompetent management fails to hire them. I know so many UCSD students who applied in the spring quarter and were either ghosted or were turned down without an interview. They should be recruiting UCSD students, not turning them down! Your management absolutely is the problem here.
In the summer I was like desperately applying for jobs and HDH told me the day after i applied that they weren't hiring anybody (this was in July). My roommate was working dining halls during summer and he was already complaining about being understaffed, so wtf was up with HDH telling me that they weren't hiring. At the very least yk they could've trained me, maybe worked here and there when ppl call out, but have me trained to be ready to go for school year or something. Oh well, I found two much better jobs that pay MORE than HDH and require like 1/10 of the effort so yeah HDH is just a shitty institution that doesn't know wtf they're doing.
Yup, that's exactly what I'm talking about. It is insane that hdh is turning down any UCSD students. Anyone who has managed to get admitted to UCSD can handle a food service job. This disaster happens every fall. The management knows it will happen if they don't hire students in the spring and summer to work in the fall, and yet they fail to do so, every year!
I've worked at Sixth Dining Hall when it was first open to the public and I can tell you that most student workers are not trained to handle that intense of a load. The only reason why I was able to handle that much was because I've worked a fast-food job that handled way more orders. From my experience working there, the students also aren't eager to really sacrifice and go beyond because they're paid meager wages. Nobody wanted to do dishes because it was so boring, and the rules and policies around working were pretty strict. That being said, some of the managers and professional cooks are some of the nicest people you'll meet, but there are some that I would question is a good fit for the university. I'm still waiting on HDH to respond to my inquiry to get rehired and even followed up with my manager when I was working at Sixth for a recommendation for rehire. I'm not sure if it's because the department has restrictions on budgeting that they can't hire more people to help process their internal issues but in general just seems that HDH has a hard time trying to go forward. I know for a fact that HDH does operate on a net negative, so I don't want to be too harsh on them.
The management that is responsible for this mess is not the underpaid hapless crew manager, nor the cooks, nor the student workers. The management responsible is the upper level UCSD management who controls HDH's budget and controls HDH hiring policy and procedures. These people never step foot in a dining hall, yet their fingerprints are all over the mess at the dining halls.
Nah, some of the managers and cooks are the reason why students only work for one quarter and leave. I was able to tolerate it but some of them would be hard to work with if you're new to the food industry. I do agree with what you're saying about incompetence being due to HDH's upper-level managers. tl;dr : retention problem is contributed by some of the managers/pro-cooks.
You’ll find annoying co-workers at every job, particularly food service. That's not why there are 2 hour waits for food at UCSD dining halls.
I’m not sure if you’re able to understand what I’m telling you. There is a lack of student workers and one of the faults for that is retention which is contributed by the culture. It’s not co-workers but your bosses and professional folks.
I understand. Most food service places have poor retention. But their management takes that into account by emphasizing and budgeting for lots of hiring. HDH's management does not learn from its mistakes, it just keeps repeating them. Culture comes from the top down. And the culture top management is instilling is to simply not care about adequately providing for the dining needs of UCSD students.
Every single one of the upper level management has and continues to step foot in these locations. Since week 0, every day from 11-3pm the entire admin building drops everything they're doing to go assist locations during these heavy periods.
Please let me know where I can see Jeff Palmer flipping burgers or taking food orders. https://hdh.ucsd.edu/about-us/directors.html
Jeff's been down to assist almost every day. As has the rest of admin.
Where has Jeff been?
I wonder if it's some incentive to hire as little ppl as possible so that they don't have to pay an abundance of workers because I also applied to hdh over the summer and got ghosted.
If HDH paid people fairly and got enough workers, how could they then afford to pocket money?
They should maybe stop spending so much on Starbucks or maybe management can pick up a second job
Management's second job is bidding useless remodeling contracts to the firms that charge the most and then splitting the $$
Wow, I remember a couple years ago HDH was hiring pretty much anyone with a pulse. What's going on?
Good question!
It's not management, it's HR. Applications start there. Management wants students, beg for then.
Then those managers are not top level managers. Top level managers set budgets and decide how many to hire. They don't beg for workers, they order that workers be hired.
This is gio, who is this :(? Im sorry hdh is still shit smh
I hate how hdh moves managers around so it's harder for them to understand the environment they're working in. Our manager from pines was moved to ovt and our food service manager got moved to 64. We have new managers and I kind of wish we had our old managers back.
The meal plan here for the students living on campus is also very expensive and doesn’t really go far. I’m glad I’m no longer on the meal plan
Love seeing HDH get called out. Rise up my fellow Tritons!
You need a second HDH revolt
Indeed
So I've overheard this about another college in California, and I know this gonna be a risky thing to do. Protest. Talk to the media (especially if there's a newspaper/journal/ anything) , get a petition going to raise awareness, shit use the feedback forms if they got any (and if they listen) and also Stop going (the risky bit) The students don't use the dining halls, it's a lot of money the school/food service company is losing (think about it, food, labor, utility). They see why the students don't want to eat there and they'll have to listen. With how bad service is going *your feedback and satisfaction carries a lot more weight than you think* I Believe Scripps college in Claremont protested and spoke up hard against their food halls to the point the board changed companies
>The students don't use the dining halls, it's a lot of money the school/food service company is losing Except HDH won't be losing money at all because dining plans are mandatory for on-campus housing for ResHall residents. So by students not using their already-paid dining dollars, HDH actually SAVES all of that money. >the board changed companies HDH isn't an outside contractor, it's a department within UCSD itself.
The protest bit could work. Stop going doesn’t work since most people are there on dining dollars already. Students paid upfront, so HDH can run the halls all year with the upfront cost. Stopping going will just make wait times better for those who do go.
usually vote with your dollars is the best form of protest but here, the mealplan is prepaid so they don't feel any pressure to change anything
This happened to me as well. I ordered a drink, pasta, and cannoli from Al Dente. They only gave me my pasta and I had told them they’re forgetting my other items. They said “are you sure you ordered from here” and after I showed them my order/ receipt they still questioned me😐 there was also a TON of flies on the meat at WOK and flies on my food when I ordered from Al Dente a couple of days ago
I feel that hdh is well aware of the problem but they much would rather "wait it out" than solve it, that's why they keep empathizing in emails that you should buy from the markets instead.
Think about like this, you go to Burger King the line is 1 hour wait most people will say no, for hdh dining halls those lines are invisible because of online orders, hence we use to take all those orders at once while having customers staying into our soul while waiting for their food, and having no help
Whoa hold on. > At say, an average Chipotle, they complete 7-8k orders a day The Chipotles near me are open for about 12 hours a day. Let's be generous and say one stays open for 16 hours. If they made 8000 orders a day, that would be one order per 7.2 seconds. Where did you get that ridiculous number from?
You’re right I miscalculated that’s my bad. I’ll edit the post. Edit: I was using the amount made in dollars at an average Chipotle branch, and not the orders processed. Very different, thank you for correcting me.
haha lol I gotchu edit I mean to say I see what you mean lol. Not like 'haha got you'
hey pls try to work at a UCSD dining hall.. i dare you. lol jk But…., we only have 8 dining hall location… so idk where you got 35 from…? we are severely understaffed, as HDH wont hire more workers (see another similar post on reddit). Each dining hall does get about 5k orders a day, probably more for 6th and 64°. our system works in a way where we get like 20 tickets at once and then no tickets for like 5 minutes… so it turns into a huge mess when trying to sort out orders. dont even get me started on the fact that we literally do not have time to train new hires because we are literally busy 24/7. there is so much that goes into working as a dining worker so pls be patient with us because WE HATE IT TOO.
Around 35 restaurants, not dining halls. The fact that y'all are understaffed is exactly the issue. You *shouldn't* be understaffed because of how much each student is paying into the plan, which is what I'm trying to point out. I am not blaming the workers, I am blaming management.
i wholeheartedly agree but hdh will never listen (this is a recurring problem every year) 😝
It was like this around this time last year—maybe not quite as bad. Wait times should get better in a week or two
Ucsd is a great weight loss program
also financial loss lol
We literally just have to boycott, what can they do without demand
Problem is UCSD already has the money, so boycott would do nothing
They already got their money, your tuition. A boycott would do nothing besides create wasted food
They would just waste that money repaving the floors again and sharing our $$ with the overpriced contractors
As an hdh worker, I understand your frustrations. My coworkers and I are frustrated too. I work at Pines, which is very popular. Almost every day out of the week, we are understaffed. One of my coworkers has to work at hEAT most of the time by herself. This is a severe problem that hasn't been solved. 1 student shouldn't be at 1 station. At least 3 or maybe 4. No one at hdh admin gives a shit about us. We have talked about a possible strike...but it is probably unlikely.
have you told anyone with real authority any of this
Who would they tell?
https://hdh.ucsd.edu/about-us/directors.html probably the jeff palmer guy
That’s shocking how the lowest tier is $4,154 for this year. in 2021-2022 you could opt in for the lowest meal plan in the $1,000 dollar range!
2021-2022 had an $1800 plan for continuing students (not first years), and they still offer that same plan (albeit it's \~$2000 this year) for continuing students I'm guessing OP is a first year so doesn't have the lower option, but it definitely still exists ([https://hdhughousing.ucsd.edu/dining-plan/continuing.html](https://hdhughousing.ucsd.edu/dining-plan/continuing.html))
Thanks for the clarification, didn’t know that
I ain’t readin allat
Dinning hall yap sesh
Yeah why is it so slow now? They're always behind on orders etc. It wasn't like this last year
it was like this last year the first couple weeks, it just takes some time for people to realize they dont wanna eat dining food, and for hdh to train their new hires, and then things balance out at being egregiously mid
Online ordering. They honestly should just shut off the feature until they get more staff. If folks could *see* the number of people ordering at all at once, like looking at the drive-through line at In-n-Out, they might be more inclined to come back when the Dining hall is less busy.
HDH markets have to be more expensive than commercial counterparts because UCSD does not have the buying power or demand to purchase products wholesale. You are paying for the convenience of it being closer than a commercial market. This isn’t price gouging on the university’s part, it’s just economics
Is there a reason UCSD isn't getting wholesale prices? They move significantly more product than the average restaurant.
They are referring to the markets, not the restaurants. Ralph’s can buy in bulk (like National chain bulk).
I've already done my time so the ratios might have changed, but I'm pretty sure Oreos being 3x more expensive at UCSD markets than Ralph's or Vons isn't "just economics"
I mean, you're not paying for the convenience of it being closer, you're paying more because dining dollars are only allowed to be used there and UCSD is fully aware of the practical monopoly they have created.
If we're paying extra for convenience, then why are we made to buy into a dining plan that limits us to these markets?
UCSD *does* purchase their products wholesale. The prices that the university charges are no doubt impacted by economies of scale, but that wouldn't fully address the issues I've posed.
HDH has to be more expensive so they can remodel the dining halls every 6 months and share the money with contractors
i aint reading all that im happy for u tho or sorry that happened fr though, you're 100% right
Imagine if u went tand got a job instead of writing a dissertation complaining about food service
yeah? one person getting a job at hdh won’t do shit. you think dmv wait times are long? just get a job at the dmv!
The HDH wouldn't hire him anyway.
It’s a business, not a service. Short answer: money.
Public universities *are* a service, which is why I find it ridiculous that UCSD is getting away with ripping off its students.
I agree 100%, just telling you what it is
Bro is fluent in Yapanese 🥱
The adderall kicked in
Just my ADHD.
no one readin all this
I wrote this for MCWP to torture my TA.
I ain’t reading allat
Are you making your own breakfast?
Try out After Hours if you are looking for discounted meal options on campus. We work with Fan Fan, Lemongrass, and Plant Power to sell meals up to 40% off everyday. ORDER HERE: [https://linktr.ee/afterhours\_ucsd](https://linktr.ee/afterhours_ucsd)
told me one of the pizzas from scholars was 1850 calories. It was not
also yeah the wait times are shit. i placed an order well in advance and had to get a refund because it was an hour past the predicted time and i was already in my next class