'slammed kitchen staff'

[Olympian]

Hello,

while reading the Yahoo news story on Why Rick Santorum dined alone at Iowa City’s Hamburg Inn, I came across the following:

Well after Santorum departed, the reporters continued their search for non-reporters to interview. Robert "Ajax" Ehl, a young dishwasher at Hamburg, emerged to say that Santorum's visit was "annoying" for the slammed kitchen staff, "but not as annoying as his politics."

What is the meaning of 'slammed kitchen staff'? One of the meanings I came across for 'slammed' is '

To criticize harshly; censure forcefully.'

So does it mean 'criticized kitchen staff'? It gives the impression that the kitchen staff at that place is always/frequently criticized. I can understand 'overworked kitchen staff', but 'slammed' ?

Thank you

[SoothingDave]

They mean that the were "slammed" with customers, i.e. really busy at the time.

[TheParser]

NOT A TEACHER


(1) Thanks to your question and thanks to the key member's excellent answer, I learned something today that I had never known.

(2) I also did some googling and discovered that the phrase is often "slammed busy."

[Olympian]

@SoothingDave, @TheParser, thank you.

With so many questions being posted to this forum, the teachers are slammed busy.