I promise this blog won’t become just about my waiting tables job. But for the moment, it’s what’s happening.
And I’m fucking tired again tonight. I ran my ass of tonight, just so my trainer could make a shit load of money. Some how it’s a fucked up system but what can you do. The night started out a little less frustrating. I got to the restaurant about an hour early so that I could start to fill out this booklet that must be completed before I’m official. For a company that prides it’s self on it’s environmentalism, it sure as hell produces a lot of paperwork. So I used my little cheat-sheet and filled out about 1/2 of it while waiting for my shift to start.
And then it started.
And for as good as the waiter last night was. Tonight’s was awful. For the first two hours she drove me fucking bonkers. When a waiter is super busy it’s called being in “the weeds.” Don’t ask me why. I’ve never been told. Well for the first two hours my trainer was acting as though we were in over our heads and completely in the weeds. For the life of me I couldn’t get her to calm down. Eventually, I took her computer card (everything has to be entered under her number since she’s the one who is getting the money) and took over all the tables. I told her to stand back and just let me do my thing and help if I needed it. I didn’t need it. I ran the whole station for the whole night. Not only that, at the end of the night she walked with 20% of her net sales, after tipping out the bartender, busser, food runner, and me. That’s right and with the amount of selling I did tonight she’s well on her way to paying rent. I didn’t learn a lot tonight, but I realized I’m back in the groove of this and that I CAN do it. As they say it’s just like riding a bike.
As for my training. Seems the manager was even more impressed tonight. So I get to cut another day off the total and will finish after tomorrow night’s shift…if I pass the test. Of course this makes me nervous because I haven’t taken a test since 1989. I’ll of course report in and let you know how it all goes tomorrow.
And I’ll end on things that piss me off.
I don’t understand people who find it a surprise they have to pay.
Tonight I waited on a table of 6 college age students. After the meal, I dropped off their check so they could pay. And I waited, and I waited for them to put out their money or credit card. What I eventually found out was that one of them had to go and get money from the ATM. This took about 30 minutes. (Don’t ask me why, there are about 50 ATM’s within spitting distance of my restaurant.) The question is, who goes out to eat and doesn’t bring money? Or a credit card? Or an ATM card? You knew you were going to eat. You knew you’d have to pay. Get the fucking money before you eat.
And along the same thought. Why do you have to wait till the cashier has finished ringing up your purchase and put it in a bag BEFORE you start searching through your over-sized purse to find your money? And for the record the purse is big enough to fit all of New Hampshire in it. Did it not occur to you, while you were waiting behind the 12 other people in line that you might have to pay for what you wanted? Did it not occur to you that you couldn’t have it for free. You want something from a store. You pick it out, go to the counter AND PAY for it. This is not a surprise. Your fucking around in the purse caused me to miss the 2:00 A.M. train home tonight, and forced me to wait 30 minutes for the next train. Causing me to not get home till almost 3:15. In the fucking morning. Would they have really convicted me if I had slapped you right there in the line? I’m just curious. That’s all.
A Maddog In The City 