Wednesday, March 23, 2011

People are strange....

I should have started this blog sometime ago. Probably when I started my waitressing career over two years ago now. Now that I'm officially on to my third restaurant, I suppose better late than never. I'll start with a brief background of what this is about. My mother was a waitress/in the biz for nearly thirty years, and a damn fancy one at that. She has always had high standards, and meals out growing up always came with a fat side of opinion on the service. From the very beginning I was doomed to be critical. Not in a mean way, I just came to expect things of service, perhaps more so than the average person. My mom eventually stopped, becoming tired of the constant ass-kissing and yes siring that comes with the job. Not to mention, physically it is an exhausting job, throw in the emotional and mental energy that it takes to be a successful server and you've got a recipe for full on wiped out. I recall her telling me never to get into the restaurant business if I could help it. I probably could've helped it, but naturally I became curious and wanted to see if I could do it as well as she and I had both come to expect of others. The money never sounded bad either, and turns out it wasn't. When I realized how much could be made off of getting people good and stuffed and drunk, I recognized why my mom took so long to leave. Great money, low expectations beyond getting the job done correctly and efficiently. No degree? No problem. Do drugs? So does everyone else. Alcoholic? Ready to become one. Steal cash? Prepare to lose a hand. Ok, so there are a few expectations, but I don't really consider being an honest person an expectation, I consider it a responsibility of any respectable person.

Not having a good server is frustrating. Not everyone can hone the craft(and yes I would call it a craft, as it is not nearly as easy as it looks). I got lucky and learned to be a great server. Toot my own horn? Don't mind if I do. Being a server, it is frustrating to have bad customers. That is probably the general direction this blog will go. Some people are clueless about proper etiquette when eating out. Even Oprah. For a multi-billionare, I find it pretty unfair that she found it necessary to broadcast that it's acceptable to leave a 12% tip. It's not. Doubling the tax isn't either. So that is where I suppose I will begin...with this past Sunday.

Sunday morning breakfast is usually a decent crowd. Around the middle of my 6 hour shift, I had a table of 4 and a table of 2 that happened to know one another. Towards the end of the 4 tops meal, one of the ladies asked that I include the other tables bill on hers. Of course I did. When the 2 top was ready to pay, I informed them that it was taken care of and directed their heads to the other table which so graciously paid for their 30 dollar bill. They left, and not so graciously did not leave a tip. Here is the thing, although the other table paid and left me a tip, I consider that tip as such for my service to them. For the 2 top to blatantly disregard my equal and gratuitous service to them was insulting. Not to mention, they had to pay nothing for their meal, so a little appreciation thrown my way, even a few dollars would have been the right thing to do. Some people just don't know how to do the right thing.

On to today. My co-worker/owner of the place I currently work at, lets call her JC, really got a bum deal today. Perhaps this lady was out to get anybody she could, but as far as I am concerned what she did was out of line. At the end of this single diners meal, JC took her empty plate off of the table. When she returned from the bathroom, she questioned why the plate had been taken and insisted there was a piece of bread left from her breakfast sandwich. Some nice old ladies watching nearby, confirmed that in fact, there was nothing left on the plate. So now, this woman is irate about a non-existent scrap of bread and proceeds to scream obscenities at JC, in front of surrounding customers. I don't care who you are, you can not act like a raging brat in public. It doesn't look good for anyone. I would have told her to grow up, but JC having her businesses reputation to uphold did her best to resolve the situation, even though she was nowhere close to being in the wrong. Simple server ethics, if a plate has something on it, it will not be taken until cleared with the customer. An empty plate is free game and will be taken. Point being, if the plate was in fact not empty, it would have still been there.

Tomorrow is another day, and as always in this business it will have its highs and lows, just like it does everyday. Maybe I'll have some highs to report, anything is possible.

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