Home Kitchen Registration Enquiry

Hi everyone. Am so angry I have to let it out & my husband isn't home from work yet so I knew you guys would understand better than anyone else I could call.

At 4:20pm today, I got off the phone with someone from my local council after enquiring about the structural &/or other requirements of setting up a registered home kitchen. He was so patronising ... I am furious! more so at myself for not responding in the way that I should have - simply because I wanted to keep him onside!

I enquired anonymously as I didn't want to commit myself to anything & wanted to get a feel for what this man was like. I told him that I was tossing around the idea of doing some cake decorating from home - as a hobby - whilst my kids were young, instead of going back to work & doing some Emergency Teaching & asked him to simply tell me what structural modifications I would have to make to my kitchen.

Well ... you know what his reponse was?

"My advice to you is to go back to school".

"I beg your pardon?" I responded.

"How much money would you be making selling cakes?" he asked. I was speechless. He went on. "I know emergency teachers get over $200 a day clear so why waste your finances setting up & working from home for a probable loss?"

This is where I managed to gather my wits about me & tell him that I did not call to ask for his advice - simply to find what the council's regulations were & that if he couldn't give them to me then to put me onto someone who could!

You know what his reply was? "I'll give you my name & number, talk it over with your husband & listen to him."

I took his details in silence & then hung up without a further word.

I am so angry!!! I don't know what to do. If I report him, kiss my chances of a home kitchen goodbye; if I don't, he gets away with a chauvanistic & patronising manner which he will pass onto the next person - female in particular. What do I do?

Xanthi.

OR...

1. Report in writing to his boss with a C.C. on the bottom to the General Manager of the Council in question - make sure you cite all the relevant Government Legislations he has breached in his comments to you - sexual discrimination (barefoot & pregnant and talk it over with the hubby) equal opportunity (that MANY people are already doing what you enquired about - and making a LOT of money from it... he is only showing his ignorance!!! of the subject matter)
Also make contact with all your local members in the Council and ask that they explain how this antiquated approach to business is condoned by THEIR council - remind them it is 2008 and not 1888!!
2. Make contact with you local Chamber of Commerce and ask their advice - they like to support ALL local businesses.... and you may even find a group supporting HOME-BASED businesses

3. I suspect they will bend over backwards to assist you THIS time.
4. Make sure you tattoo his name on your arm so that if he ever enquires about a cake of any sort that you charge him triple!! or be TOO BUSY to help him

DO NOT LET HIM intimidate you ....... be VERY assertive and make a stand !!!!!!!!!

Make sure HE develops a NEW respect for women!!!!!

Oh Xanthi that's terrible!

I agree with Pam - if your kitchen is set up according to guidelines you cannot be declined.

Besides he doesn't know your name as you made an anonymous enquiry so if he asks did you call before or make a complaint - just play innocent and say you didn't.

Never ever let him get away with it.

So what did hubby say?? (Not about getting his permission but what the guy said to you)

thats such an innapropriate and unproffessional response. Alls I can say is that council man is a

That is disgusting to say the least. I hope you got all his details so you can make a formal complaint!

ok where in Melbourne are you? And what department was he from? You need to talk to Planning and(to find out if your zoned ok), public or enviromental health department. If this guy was not from these departments his opinion dosetn count. So I would get you licence and then report him.

Thanks everyone for the advice. Have calmed down now & am able to look at the issue more rationally - funny what a normal evening routine of cooking dinner & cleaning up, bathing & getting kids to bed will do for you.

When hubby got home, I told him what had happened. He fired up - as I had expected - but eventually took it all in his stride & we began to organise our plan of attack.

Goal number one is to get the kitchen registered so we will try to do so by taking me out of the picture & having my husband pose as the cake decorator to see if he is treated any differently. I have passed the council worker's details on to him. He will be dealing with him from now on, beginning with a phone call to him in the morning to organise an inspection of our kitchen.

My husband has a few contacts he will be using to determine the council employee's work status & position; hopefully we can find out how important he is to my cause. If a licence is issued down the track, (or even if it's not & I decide to return to teaching - because I choose to do so) then I will be putting in a formal complaint to the relevant body/bodies. I am documenting everything as I go.

I'm sorry for ranting earlier. I am usually a very calm & patient person who does not get flustered easily & I allowed that idiot to get to me.

Thanks again for all the help, will let you know how I get on.

Xanthi, I don't want to trivialise your experience with this obviously ignorant person, but I would like to add my two cents here, in the hope it might help you.
By having your hubby do all the talking, aren't you, in effect, doing exactly what this person suggested you should do?
I would call the council back, and speak to someone in Environmental health, these are the people who should be able to advise you of what is required to set up your home business.
As a minimum, you will probably be asked to appoint a Food Safety Supervisor, which would be you, and in order to have this role, you'll need to attain a Food Safety Certificate, all of this can be done on line. You'll also need to draw up a Food Safety Plan and submit this to your council, but I'm sure you will get all of this info from your council.
I don't mean to defend this person, he obviously was rude and inappropriate, but we all have bad days, don't let him rub you up the wrong way, keep going and good luck with it all.

Thanks for that, Fran. You've given me food for thought here.

You're right in what you say, that by allowing my husband to do the talking I am playing right into his hands & I have never been one to give up too easily or allow someone else to fight my own battles. I still feel he needs to be reported to a higher body for his sexist & chauvanistic remarks & will endeavour to do so at some stage in this process.

I just have a feeling that the man I spoke to was from the Environmental Health dept as he was the third person I was put on to before anyone addressed my enquiry. Nevertheless, I will stop hubby from making that call tomorrow & will re-think how to address the situation before taking over the reigns again myself & trying again.

oh Xanthi, I am in the middle of trying to pluck up the courage to ring my local council (hope it's not the same as yours!!) to enquire about registereing a kitchen. And I am going to do it anonimously too!!!

I would definitely be taking issue with that prehistoric gentleman who decided he was still living in the 50's!!!

Firstly he is no one to give you fiancial advice. he is employed to disburse advice on environmental health.

Secondly, i doubt very much if any council wants to have an employee sop clearly partonise any legitimate enquiry.

Thirdly, maybe it's a tactic of the departments to try and weed out the wanna be home cake decorators to save time on site visits to kitchens that wont really go all the way.

I say you pick up the phone, speak to him directly and tell him your mind is made up, that you determine what financial path you will take and that all you need from him is directions on how to take the next step.

End of story!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I would be inclined to give it one more go and call back and just keep it on topic and if he starts with the other stuff say I am just after the information about my kitchen and if he still goes on I would just say if you are unable to provide me with the kitchen information could you please pass me on to someone who can. If he doesn't give you the information then I'd probably go to his manager.

If you do make a complaint though I would put something in there about requesting this guy not do the inspections because of conflict of interest, I don't know about your council but ours only sends out one guy at a time for inspections so if he said there was something wrong with your kitchen there would only be your word against his.

Gosh, all my writing went down the drain

Anyway, what I was saying was that this guy does what our boss does. ONLY directly related information need to be given. Step left, step right - shoot, he will jump on "I'll tell you how you need to operate your business" horse. If you didn't mention you want cake making in place of the teaching he would never have a chance! Technically speaking nothing stopping you to do both. Just keep to the point with whoever you speak next.

Xanthi why dont you write to the appropriate authority and ask them in writing what you need to do to have your kitchen registered and state that you would like a written response and dont give them your number so no one can call you.

By doing this you have all the details and so long as you follow the letter you will have no problem registering your kitchen. This also means that you will have all the facts and they cant say that you didnt do this or that because you will have the full list in writing.

This also avoids dealing with this idiot who wouldnt dare put those words he spoke to you in writing and you will get all the info without the stress of dealing directly with this rude person.

Afterwards you can make a formal complaint to his supervisor.

Thanks again, everyone. Will certainly try again - perserverence is my middle name! Yesterday's experience has made me even more determined to achieve my goals.

oh Xanthi, I am in the middle of trying to pluck up the courage to ring my local council (hope it's not the same as yours!!) to enquire about registereing a kitchen. And I am going to do it anonimously too!!!

Lili, don't let my experience put you off. By the way, it's the Moreland council that I belong to, & I have been very happy in my dealings with them in the past. I just got a smart alec at the end of the line. Go for it! We'll compare notes as we go along - positive ones I hope!

oh ok. I'm in the city of whittlesea!!!

Good luck, hope it's full steam ahead for you!