Hello friends. I was away for a glorious 4 days to visit my hometown and my bestest friends and my family. It was lovely. It was NOT the Italian Restaurant. Alas, I have returned to the fiery shithole that is my place of employment, and it took no time at all for me to be once again pissed off, resentful and disgruntled. And it all started so quickly...
I had literally just walked in the door, I wasn't late (for once) and was counting on a good 15 minutes to get situated before entering the thunder dome. But the phone was ringing, and I didn't see the morning to go person. Since I am the night to go person, and since I think anyone who is standing by a ringing phone should answer it (what an idea!) I picked it up.
"Thank you for calling the Italian Restaurant, this is Waitress, how can I help you?"
"Hi Waitress! Is your soup and salad still 6.95?"
"Well, yes until 4, so for about 15 more minutes"
"Oh, well I would like to order it to go, with the potato soup, and extra olives on the salad"
"okay, anything else?"
"Yes, lots of breadsticks!"
Ah, the vague 'lots of breadsticks' request. We don't just give these babies away, but I have to make sure she knows that so she doesn't slash my throat when she gets here
"Okay, you're order comes with 2, did you want to purchase 6 more for $2.65?"
"uh....isn't it unlimited?"
"Not for to go orders, you get a fixed amount, which is 2 per order"
"You're KIDDING me"
I just don't say anything because she is obviously expecting me to suddenly change my story since she copped an attitude.
".........."
"You only get two?! That's rediculous!"
I explain how we portion it, you get two portions of each item, she finally accepts defeat, doesn't order extra bread, and is sufficiently bitchy when she picks it up. Oh and I 'forgot' her extra olives. The second I hung up from that call I got another one of some chick who needed to know all the ingredients in the breading on the chicken we use in the scampi. And by this point I hadn't even clocked in or rolled up my sleeves. Bad sign.
I had spoken previously about Dude Manager, who I called DM for short. Well I am officially changing the acronym to DOUCHE MANAGER cause this guy fucking sucks. Whoever it was that commented on my last post that he is not really that bad, please let me change that idea for you.
As we already know, he had threatened to take away my shifts because he didn't think I was running enough food. Well I get my schedule for the week and my usual Thursday night to go shift isn't there. I think this may be a mistake since he hasn't been doing the schedule very long, so I ask the person he scheduled, who doesn't normally work nights, if he needs me to work it since DM messed up the schedule. This is via text:
Waitress: Hey, DM scheduled you my Thursday night close, did you need me to work it, don't you work your other job that night?
Co-worker: you really pissed DM off...
W: uh, are you joking?
CW: no...sorry
W: Can you call me at work and tell me what happened?!
So he calls me on the work phone and tells me this; a girl who used to work all to go but is now a server was asking DM if she could have some to go shifts, to which he said "you mean I actually have an option of who I schedule?" and this co-worker guy told him "well, waitress wants to be full time and there are a few people who normally work certain days" and he said "well I want to schedule to go people who actually run food and take control of the alley without being asked" My co-worker, aware of my issues with DM, took this as a direct reference to me. And lo-and-behold, he took away one of my shifts. Might he slowly and surely be taking all of them away?
Of course I am super irate at this. This guy does not know me! and not to point fingers, but the co-worker who he gave my shift to and another togo who works a few days a week can't even run food because they have back problems, so what the fuck is that?! And the thing is, I DO run food. As far as taking control of the alley, we almost always have someone expo-ing the window, and I guess the expectation is that if this person walks away, I am supposed to immediately notice and jump right in. If you ask ANY of the culinary assistants, they will tell you that not only do I run food, but if they tell me they are stepping away from the window, I ALWAYS watch it for them. I just can't believe this asshole walks in here and makes this judgment about me and thinks he can just fuck with my life like that. I need those shifts! So I decide I am going to talk to the GM about it. Problem is, she is crazy. And she was kind of extra crazy last night because she was working alone, and we were on a wait for like 20 minutes (the horror!). So I waited until I could tell she has cooled her jets, and gave myself some time to plan how I was going to present it so she wouldn't get defensive. I finally saw her heading to the office, seemingly not freaking out for the moment, so I followed her
"Hey GM, can I talk to you for a second in the office?"
"Yeah sure, what's up?"
"When I work to go with you, do you feel like I do a good job? Like, do I run food and get things done?"
She gives me a pensive look "well...you could run more food.."
"Well everyone could run MORE food, but I'm not a bad to go person am I, you don't think I'm lazy?"
"No, why would you say that?"
"Well, I get the impression DM doesn't like me and thinks I'm lazy, and he's taking away my shifts"
"what, why would you think that? He wouldn't do that!"
So I fill her in on both my conversation with him and what he said to my co-worker, concluding with the fact that twice now he has not scheduled me my regular days
"Well, he hasn't said anything to me about that, and he really hasn't been here long enough for me to know if that is something he would do, but I'll talk to him about it. You're doing a fine job, don't worry"
It was like some kind of Christmas miracle! Not only did the Crazy GM actually listen to me, she didn't get defensive, didn't make it into a problem about me, and admitted that she wasn't so sure about DM at this point! I would like to point out that I have NEVER gone to a manager about a problem with another manager, but when it gets to the point that my shifts are being taken away, that just hits a little too close to home, ie my fucking bank account asshole. The douchebaggery and the threats are one thing, but even Bitch Manager has never actually fucked with my schedule. So who knows if she will actually talk to him, and maybe he will talk to me himself and yell at me for talking to GM and not him, but whatevs, I needed to say something.
On that note, I am going today to talk to someone about a job I am trying to get. Cross your fingers for me. I can't handle 35 hours a week of this madness anymore.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
They learn so quickly
New manager at the Italian Restaurant, a dude. He is the only male manager. Used to work there back in the day, went to another IR for awhile, and then returned. I thought he seemed cool at first. Likes to play music in the kitchen, and not shitty music. He is the manager of togo, so I was hopeful about my scheduling needs, maybe getting full-time weekdays. Until this exchange that is...
Side note: It was insanely slow, I was doing togo. I had been running some food, had expo'd the window while he was on line, but I am not going to run every single tray of food, that would just be exhausting and there is no need since there was also a salad maker to run food, and if it is slow, obviously servers can run too.
Dude Manager (DM): I need a follow! (running an additional tray of food to the same table)
The salad maker is walking towards him, clearly to me she is intending to take the follow
DM: Waitress?...
Waitress (W): She's got it
the salad maker takes the follow
DM: You know, Waitress, it offends me when I ask for runners or follows and you just stand there like that (I was in fact leaning against the plate chiller)
W: Well obviously I'm going to wait and see if someone else is able to run it first before I will take it (This was said slightly in jest)
DM: Well, it offends me, it's something I expect from my togos
W: well, don't be offended
DM: Well...(thinks for a second) don't be offended if I don't schedule you togo shifts anymore
WHAT THE FUCK. Seriously, did Bitch Manager and Crazy GM already teach you how to be a complete asshole? Was there some kind of crash course in threatening employees as a means of getting the behavior you want? Did they also emphasize the importance of doing it loudly in a public area so all the other employees can hear (which they did, a few people talked to me about it after). Great, we are still at 75% on the managers-who-are-fuckholes scale. And the other one is so ridden with apathy she would never do a thing about it. GRRRRR
On another note, since I only find the time (or more likely the fury) to write on here once a week or so, I would like to officially extend an invitation for all my fellowslaves servers to contribute, anonymously of course. Or, if someone who isn't a server has something fun to contribute as a guest, that could work too. Email your contributions to the email on my facebook and i'll make it juicy for ya. I'm talking to you, whiskey-a-bobo!
On another-nother note, I would like to acknowledge the loss of one of our dishwashers this past week. He was a great natured, really funny guy and will be missed. RIP Gia
Side note: It was insanely slow, I was doing togo. I had been running some food, had expo'd the window while he was on line, but I am not going to run every single tray of food, that would just be exhausting and there is no need since there was also a salad maker to run food, and if it is slow, obviously servers can run too.
Dude Manager (DM): I need a follow! (running an additional tray of food to the same table)
The salad maker is walking towards him, clearly to me she is intending to take the follow
DM: Waitress?...
Waitress (W): She's got it
the salad maker takes the follow
DM: You know, Waitress, it offends me when I ask for runners or follows and you just stand there like that (I was in fact leaning against the plate chiller)
W: Well obviously I'm going to wait and see if someone else is able to run it first before I will take it (This was said slightly in jest)
DM: Well, it offends me, it's something I expect from my togos
W: well, don't be offended
DM: Well...(thinks for a second) don't be offended if I don't schedule you togo shifts anymore
WHAT THE FUCK. Seriously, did Bitch Manager and Crazy GM already teach you how to be a complete asshole? Was there some kind of crash course in threatening employees as a means of getting the behavior you want? Did they also emphasize the importance of doing it loudly in a public area so all the other employees can hear (which they did, a few people talked to me about it after). Great, we are still at 75% on the managers-who-are-fuckholes scale. And the other one is so ridden with apathy she would never do a thing about it. GRRRRR
On another note, since I only find the time (or more likely the fury) to write on here once a week or so, I would like to officially extend an invitation for all my fellow
On another-nother note, I would like to acknowledge the loss of one of our dishwashers this past week. He was a great natured, really funny guy and will be missed. RIP Gia
Friday, March 12, 2010
When You're Here, You're Disposable
One of the other serving blogs I follow is written by a woman who was fired from Capital Grille (a Darden Restaurant) for writing a blog similar to this one. In her posting this week, she told the story of another server who was canned for something he said that was taken the wrong way when he wasn't even at work or at a work related event. Read the full story here.
It is just so insane the lengths that corporate restaurants like the Capital Grille and The Italian Restaurant and the like will go to make sure not a single douchebag will vow never to come back. They seriously would rather fire a good hardworking server than have some piece of trash redneck bitch say she "Ain't never gonna eat here again." If you read the comments on that blog post, you also saw the story of a woman fired from Red Lobster because a guest who was a total bitch claimed she was racist, based on nothing. It's scary and infuriating knowing that your side of the story or your opinion mean absolutely nothing to the management. They literally DO NOT CARE. Well, I wont say none of them care, but the one's that care don't get to be GM's, and all the final decisions come down to them.
When I was 20, I worked at Target for a year and a half. Now Target is a big corporation, bigger than The Italian Restaurant, but I can easily say I was treated with way more respect there than I am at the IR. The Store Manager there, a fucking rad guy named Lenny, didn't take shit from anyone, and he didn't expect us to either. He was a very nice, very calm and reasonable guy, but when assholes started busting out that "let me talk to your supervisor" tone and trying to get free shit, the show was over. I watched him on more than one occasion dish peoples attitudes right back to them, and hold firm to our policies, making sure to remind them that they were company policies, he didn't write them. If someone got really bad, if they swore at him for example, he would tell them he was not going to continue the conversation and walk away or hang up, and he advised us to do the same. He would say something like "If someone starts getting really unnecessarily rude or they use vulgar language, just say 'if you are going to talk to me like that I am not going to continue this conversation' and if they continue, just hang up the phone or walk away from them. Nobody can talk to you like that, I don't care who they are."
It was great knowing that someone had my back. That if I didn't let someone walk all over me, and calmly and politely stuck to my guns, I wouldn't get fired or yelled at but praised. I don't know what it's like working at Target these days, or if it was just because of Lenny, but I never worried that making a simple mistake would cost me my job. I knew they realized that I was human and it was to be expected. I didn't know that this was not something I should count on from an employer.
Today one of my coworkers, a smokin hot lady we'll call...Autumn (ha), had a table intentionally fill out their credit slip in her full view so she could see them write a big fat zero in for the tip. After the fact, she was justifiably angry at this blatant slap in the face, and regretted not having said something. I asked what she would have said
"I don't know, like 'what could I do in the future to get a bigger tip than zero?' or 'how can I improve my service since you clearly didn't like it?'"
Well I am damn glad that Autumn didn't say anything, because at the IR and other douchebaggy corporate restaurants, this is grounds for immediate termination. They see this as embarrassing the guest, even if it is an honest inquiry done in good faith. Many of us would genuinely like to know if there is something we are doing that rubs people the wrong way because obviously we don't want to be unwittingly hurting our tips. This happened to a girl that I trained with when I first started at the IR. Her name was Mae, and she was a really cool chill person, not prone to getting upset or angry with guests. One night after we had been working there about 4 months she had a table of about 6 or 7 that had appetizers, drinks and the works, so their check was well over $100. After they got up to leave, she grabbed the book off the table and saw that they had stiffed her, absolutely nothing for a tip. She was so surprised, she figured she must have offended them in some way so she went to the lobby where they were just about to walk out the door. Approaching the person who paid, she said "Excuse me, was there something I did wrong, did you not like my service?" he replied that no, she did a fine job. "Well I'm just confused because normally when you get great service you leave a tip, and I just don't understand why you didn't tip me." I don't know what his answer was, but whether he complained to the manager or someone who overheard did, she was fired that night. There is just no gray area on this. It doesn't matter if you are so so nice and discreet about it, you are NEVER to ask a guest why they didn't tip you.
Another woman I worked with was fired after working for the IR for something like 14 years because a guest complained about her. She didn't do anything in particular, they just didn't like her. Maybe she was really busy and they were really needy and she wasn't able to conceal her frustration enough, who knows. But she had had two other complaints within a 6 month period, so that was it, they axed her. Never mind that people often complain about their service in order to get their food for free, most managers would rather fire a good employee than lose a shitty customer.
The big wigs up at corporate make all these "rules" or "service standards" as they call them, and think that by telling the local managers that we have to follow them, no exceptions, that they are creating a well-run reliable work machine. When you take circumstances into consideration, or human error, you are weakening the "machine." You forgot to ring in that dessert? Fired for stealing. Doesn't matter if it's an accident, if it's never happened before, that you didn't know or like those people and therefor had no reason to hook them up, FIRED. But we aren't machines, we are people who will fuck up pretty regularly and because we do doesn't mean we aren't good servers or employees. Putting us in a constant state of fear over whether we will get fired for any given mistake doesn't make us a stronger work force, it just makes us bitchy and annoyed and hate the managers a lot more than we should have to.
None of it is really worth it. With the current economy, we aren't as busy as we would normally be, so we are making way less in tips. Given that we are only allowed to take three tables at once (and yes I do know someone who was fired and then later rehired for taking more than three tables), people are walking with 50 bucks on closing shifts (this is not good). Some of us are considering going elsewhere, even just across the street, to someplace where at least if they are treating us like shit, we have the cash to show for it.
It is just so insane the lengths that corporate restaurants like the Capital Grille and The Italian Restaurant and the like will go to make sure not a single douchebag will vow never to come back. They seriously would rather fire a good hardworking server than have some piece of trash redneck bitch say she "Ain't never gonna eat here again." If you read the comments on that blog post, you also saw the story of a woman fired from Red Lobster because a guest who was a total bitch claimed she was racist, based on nothing. It's scary and infuriating knowing that your side of the story or your opinion mean absolutely nothing to the management. They literally DO NOT CARE. Well, I wont say none of them care, but the one's that care don't get to be GM's, and all the final decisions come down to them.
When I was 20, I worked at Target for a year and a half. Now Target is a big corporation, bigger than The Italian Restaurant, but I can easily say I was treated with way more respect there than I am at the IR. The Store Manager there, a fucking rad guy named Lenny, didn't take shit from anyone, and he didn't expect us to either. He was a very nice, very calm and reasonable guy, but when assholes started busting out that "let me talk to your supervisor" tone and trying to get free shit, the show was over. I watched him on more than one occasion dish peoples attitudes right back to them, and hold firm to our policies, making sure to remind them that they were company policies, he didn't write them. If someone got really bad, if they swore at him for example, he would tell them he was not going to continue the conversation and walk away or hang up, and he advised us to do the same. He would say something like "If someone starts getting really unnecessarily rude or they use vulgar language, just say 'if you are going to talk to me like that I am not going to continue this conversation' and if they continue, just hang up the phone or walk away from them. Nobody can talk to you like that, I don't care who they are."
It was great knowing that someone had my back. That if I didn't let someone walk all over me, and calmly and politely stuck to my guns, I wouldn't get fired or yelled at but praised. I don't know what it's like working at Target these days, or if it was just because of Lenny, but I never worried that making a simple mistake would cost me my job. I knew they realized that I was human and it was to be expected. I didn't know that this was not something I should count on from an employer.
Today one of my coworkers, a smokin hot lady we'll call...Autumn (ha), had a table intentionally fill out their credit slip in her full view so she could see them write a big fat zero in for the tip. After the fact, she was justifiably angry at this blatant slap in the face, and regretted not having said something. I asked what she would have said
"I don't know, like 'what could I do in the future to get a bigger tip than zero?' or 'how can I improve my service since you clearly didn't like it?'"
Well I am damn glad that Autumn didn't say anything, because at the IR and other douchebaggy corporate restaurants, this is grounds for immediate termination. They see this as embarrassing the guest, even if it is an honest inquiry done in good faith. Many of us would genuinely like to know if there is something we are doing that rubs people the wrong way because obviously we don't want to be unwittingly hurting our tips. This happened to a girl that I trained with when I first started at the IR. Her name was Mae, and she was a really cool chill person, not prone to getting upset or angry with guests. One night after we had been working there about 4 months she had a table of about 6 or 7 that had appetizers, drinks and the works, so their check was well over $100. After they got up to leave, she grabbed the book off the table and saw that they had stiffed her, absolutely nothing for a tip. She was so surprised, she figured she must have offended them in some way so she went to the lobby where they were just about to walk out the door. Approaching the person who paid, she said "Excuse me, was there something I did wrong, did you not like my service?" he replied that no, she did a fine job. "Well I'm just confused because normally when you get great service you leave a tip, and I just don't understand why you didn't tip me." I don't know what his answer was, but whether he complained to the manager or someone who overheard did, she was fired that night. There is just no gray area on this. It doesn't matter if you are so so nice and discreet about it, you are NEVER to ask a guest why they didn't tip you.
Another woman I worked with was fired after working for the IR for something like 14 years because a guest complained about her. She didn't do anything in particular, they just didn't like her. Maybe she was really busy and they were really needy and she wasn't able to conceal her frustration enough, who knows. But she had had two other complaints within a 6 month period, so that was it, they axed her. Never mind that people often complain about their service in order to get their food for free, most managers would rather fire a good employee than lose a shitty customer.
The big wigs up at corporate make all these "rules" or "service standards" as they call them, and think that by telling the local managers that we have to follow them, no exceptions, that they are creating a well-run reliable work machine. When you take circumstances into consideration, or human error, you are weakening the "machine." You forgot to ring in that dessert? Fired for stealing. Doesn't matter if it's an accident, if it's never happened before, that you didn't know or like those people and therefor had no reason to hook them up, FIRED. But we aren't machines, we are people who will fuck up pretty regularly and because we do doesn't mean we aren't good servers or employees. Putting us in a constant state of fear over whether we will get fired for any given mistake doesn't make us a stronger work force, it just makes us bitchy and annoyed and hate the managers a lot more than we should have to.
None of it is really worth it. With the current economy, we aren't as busy as we would normally be, so we are making way less in tips. Given that we are only allowed to take three tables at once (and yes I do know someone who was fired and then later rehired for taking more than three tables), people are walking with 50 bucks on closing shifts (this is not good). Some of us are considering going elsewhere, even just across the street, to someplace where at least if they are treating us like shit, we have the cash to show for it.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
slackertown, I'm the president
okay, I haven't written anything since before I went to Arizona. I just haven't felt that ravenous need to bitch online. Not that I haven't been bitching, just not online.
Being off for 5 days, just chilling at my brother's house, playing with his kids, did NOT make me like my job any more, or hate it any less I should say. I got to experience how nice it is NOT to be there and it just kind of made me depressed when I had to go back. I really really super hate serving more than ever, and I am working on trying to only do to go. It's just to hard for me to pretend I even remotely care about all the stupid crap they make us do, and I get really irritated about being chastised for not knowing the wine of the week or putting a bread basket on top of bread plates.
I just want to scream "this does not matter in the world! It doesn't matter to me! No one's life will be in any way improved by me doing or not doing this pointless crap!!"
Not that I ever thought serving changed lives for the better, but before you could just go about your business and get shit done and not concern yourself with all the rules and crap. Just make it look like you are doing things a certain way and you're good. Now it's full on war with the managers to try and make us into serving robots who do everything exactly a certain way and like it to boot. I have always thought it would be entertaining/revolting to actually list all the rules and procedures or what they call "service standards" just to see how ridiculous they are. So I'm going to, along with comments on why they are fucking dumb. Please let me know what I've missed. No one can remember it all, not even the people who make it up.
1. Greet the table within 30 seconds of them being seated. Even if you are in the kitchen and have no way of knowing you were sat, you are still "required" to do this. Never mind that people don't even have time to open their menu much less decide on drinks or appetizers. Just do it.
2. You must greet the table in the following way: "Thank you for choosing the Italian Restaurant, my name is waitress and I'll be taking care of you today. Are we celebrating any special occasion today? Can I start you off with an [alcoholic beverage suggestion] or maybe a [nonalcoholic beverage suggestion]?" take their drink order, then say "we have excellent [appetizer, with description] or my personal favorite [appetizer, with description], which of these would you like?" try not to make it sound like no is an option by asking them not if they want it, but which one they want. After forcing them to buy an appetizer, make sure to inform them that we offer sampling on wine and you would be thrilled to get them up to three samples. Also make sure to ask them if they have any time constraints. Thank them again and run off to get their stuff. When you actually do all this, people give you a confused/scared/overwhelmed look, like, "please stop talking and asking me questions!"
3. You must also keep an eye out for when your "service partner" or partners, as you could have two, get sat so you can go up to their tables and say "hello, my name is waitress and I'm waiters service partner tonight, so if there is anything that you need please feel free to ask me as well." This makes you responsible for the table getting good service, but without the hope of monetary reward.
4. Get their drinks to the table within two minutes. Take their entree order but make sure to suggest something to them, and try to get them to buy extras like dipping sauce for the bread sticks. Ask them if they want soup or salad. Ring in the food and bring soup or salad and bread within two minutes. After placing them on the table, ask if they would like freshly grated cheese and grate as much as they would like. This must be done in front of them, not on the tray. There are no exceptions to these time limits as far as management is concerned. If you are busy and unable to meet them, you should find someone who is not busy to help you.
5. While waiting for their entrees, you must not only make sure your tables have enough of everything on the table, but also keep an eye on your service partners tables. If they are all okay, you should then go to the surrounding rooms and see if anyone else's tables need anything. This would not be an appropriate time to use the restroom or take a short break, as there is always something to be done. The only time we can take a break (which includes going to the bathroom) is when there is a breaker there to watch our tables, which is really only during dinner time, and only when they are ready to break you. Just tell your bladder to wait for the breaker.
3. Drop the food at the table, grate cheese on each dish in front of the guest (never on the tray). Prebus all dishes. Check back after about 1 minute to see if everything is prepared correctly.
4.When guests are slowing down, suggest dessert and ask if they would like boxes. Box the food for the guests tableside on a tray, never on the table, never allow guests to box their own food. Write the date and contents on each box. Prebus down to water glasses and napkins. At this time it would be appropriate to bring the check, if there is nothing else. However at lunch time, you should drop the check when you check on them after their food is dropped which is called "check back, check down"
5. Bring the check to the table and be sure to include a card that says your name and thanks them for dining with us, as well as one mint for each guest. It is not acceptable to bring more than 1 mint per guest. If there is a phone survey, a manager must drop the check. If there is an internet survey, you must point it out to the guest. Let them know you will be their cashier at their convenience. Take three steps away from the table and then look back to see if they are already reaching for their purse or wallet. If they are, return to the table. Every single check has an internet survey on it. This is so classless, like fucking Denny's or something. I am not going to tell my tables to go online and fill out a survey, they don't care, and they can read.
For a large party
1. For each 8 guests, there must be an additional server. Party of 7 has one server, party of 8 has two, party of 14 has two, and technically a party of 15 should have three but thankfully they don't normally enforce this. You are NEVER to take a party of 8 or more alone. Even if it is 5 toddlers and three adults, you have to have two servers. But unless they order 8 entrees, you can't add gratuity, so you have to share the tip on a tiny check.
2. You must greet the large party together. There is no exception to this
3. You must each take half the parties drink orders, then bring them at the same time, take each halves entree orders, each ring them in under the large party system, and get and bring salad together. Basically treat it like two tables. There is no exception to this. If you are really really weeded it is not acceptable for your partner to take the entire drink order. They must wait until you are ready to take it together. But you also are required to greet within 30 seconds. Nevermind that this is nearly impossible, just do it. It's a requirement. The large party will be very upset if you don't do everything together. Back in the day we would just have one person be the face and take all the orders, and the other person be the mule, get all the drinks, get the salad, do all the footwork. This was a lot faster and more efficient, but that's not really what they're shooting for here.
Other Random "Standards"
1. Never call guests "guys" or say "no problem"
2. Bring everything out on a tray, even a glass of water
3. Always grate cheese in front of the guest, never in the kitchen, even if you know they want it
4. Never defend yourself when a guest is complaining. If they say they ordered it with chicken, even when you are 100% sure they didn't, admit fault and apologize.
5. It is unacceptable to hug a coworker. You may give them high fives or handshakes only
6. No servers are allowed behind the bar, even to assist the bartender with washing dishes, etc
I am exhausted just trying to remember all the rules. I just can't handle pretending I care. I just want to do to go where no one bothers me and I am not getting "caught" doing something "bad" every ten seconds. Also, bitch manager is about to become the service manager which means she is actually in charge of the servers, as opposed to now when she just acts like she is. She has already threatened everyone with fucking with their schedules. I am applying for other jobs. At the very least, this needs to be a part time gig. 40 hours a week there will kill you. Slowly but surely. Sorry for the Sad Panda post.
Being off for 5 days, just chilling at my brother's house, playing with his kids, did NOT make me like my job any more, or hate it any less I should say. I got to experience how nice it is NOT to be there and it just kind of made me depressed when I had to go back. I really really super hate serving more than ever, and I am working on trying to only do to go. It's just to hard for me to pretend I even remotely care about all the stupid crap they make us do, and I get really irritated about being chastised for not knowing the wine of the week or putting a bread basket on top of bread plates.
I just want to scream "this does not matter in the world! It doesn't matter to me! No one's life will be in any way improved by me doing or not doing this pointless crap!!"
Not that I ever thought serving changed lives for the better, but before you could just go about your business and get shit done and not concern yourself with all the rules and crap. Just make it look like you are doing things a certain way and you're good. Now it's full on war with the managers to try and make us into serving robots who do everything exactly a certain way and like it to boot. I have always thought it would be entertaining/revolting to actually list all the rules and procedures or what they call "service standards" just to see how ridiculous they are. So I'm going to, along with comments on why they are fucking dumb. Please let me know what I've missed. No one can remember it all, not even the people who make it up.
1. Greet the table within 30 seconds of them being seated. Even if you are in the kitchen and have no way of knowing you were sat, you are still "required" to do this. Never mind that people don't even have time to open their menu much less decide on drinks or appetizers. Just do it.
2. You must greet the table in the following way: "Thank you for choosing the Italian Restaurant, my name is waitress and I'll be taking care of you today. Are we celebrating any special occasion today? Can I start you off with an [alcoholic beverage suggestion] or maybe a [nonalcoholic beverage suggestion]?" take their drink order, then say "we have excellent [appetizer, with description] or my personal favorite [appetizer, with description], which of these would you like?" try not to make it sound like no is an option by asking them not if they want it, but which one they want. After forcing them to buy an appetizer, make sure to inform them that we offer sampling on wine and you would be thrilled to get them up to three samples. Also make sure to ask them if they have any time constraints. Thank them again and run off to get their stuff. When you actually do all this, people give you a confused/scared/overwhelmed look, like, "please stop talking and asking me questions!"
3. You must also keep an eye out for when your "service partner" or partners, as you could have two, get sat so you can go up to their tables and say "hello, my name is waitress and I'm waiters service partner tonight, so if there is anything that you need please feel free to ask me as well." This makes you responsible for the table getting good service, but without the hope of monetary reward.
4. Get their drinks to the table within two minutes. Take their entree order but make sure to suggest something to them, and try to get them to buy extras like dipping sauce for the bread sticks. Ask them if they want soup or salad. Ring in the food and bring soup or salad and bread within two minutes. After placing them on the table, ask if they would like freshly grated cheese and grate as much as they would like. This must be done in front of them, not on the tray. There are no exceptions to these time limits as far as management is concerned. If you are busy and unable to meet them, you should find someone who is not busy to help you.
5. While waiting for their entrees, you must not only make sure your tables have enough of everything on the table, but also keep an eye on your service partners tables. If they are all okay, you should then go to the surrounding rooms and see if anyone else's tables need anything. This would not be an appropriate time to use the restroom or take a short break, as there is always something to be done. The only time we can take a break (which includes going to the bathroom) is when there is a breaker there to watch our tables, which is really only during dinner time, and only when they are ready to break you. Just tell your bladder to wait for the breaker.
3. Drop the food at the table, grate cheese on each dish in front of the guest (never on the tray). Prebus all dishes. Check back after about 1 minute to see if everything is prepared correctly.
4.When guests are slowing down, suggest dessert and ask if they would like boxes. Box the food for the guests tableside on a tray, never on the table, never allow guests to box their own food. Write the date and contents on each box. Prebus down to water glasses and napkins. At this time it would be appropriate to bring the check, if there is nothing else. However at lunch time, you should drop the check when you check on them after their food is dropped which is called "check back, check down"
5. Bring the check to the table and be sure to include a card that says your name and thanks them for dining with us, as well as one mint for each guest. It is not acceptable to bring more than 1 mint per guest. If there is a phone survey, a manager must drop the check. If there is an internet survey, you must point it out to the guest. Let them know you will be their cashier at their convenience. Take three steps away from the table and then look back to see if they are already reaching for their purse or wallet. If they are, return to the table. Every single check has an internet survey on it. This is so classless, like fucking Denny's or something. I am not going to tell my tables to go online and fill out a survey, they don't care, and they can read.
For a large party
1. For each 8 guests, there must be an additional server. Party of 7 has one server, party of 8 has two, party of 14 has two, and technically a party of 15 should have three but thankfully they don't normally enforce this. You are NEVER to take a party of 8 or more alone. Even if it is 5 toddlers and three adults, you have to have two servers. But unless they order 8 entrees, you can't add gratuity, so you have to share the tip on a tiny check.
2. You must greet the large party together. There is no exception to this
3. You must each take half the parties drink orders, then bring them at the same time, take each halves entree orders, each ring them in under the large party system, and get and bring salad together. Basically treat it like two tables. There is no exception to this. If you are really really weeded it is not acceptable for your partner to take the entire drink order. They must wait until you are ready to take it together. But you also are required to greet within 30 seconds. Nevermind that this is nearly impossible, just do it. It's a requirement. The large party will be very upset if you don't do everything together. Back in the day we would just have one person be the face and take all the orders, and the other person be the mule, get all the drinks, get the salad, do all the footwork. This was a lot faster and more efficient, but that's not really what they're shooting for here.
Other Random "Standards"
1. Never call guests "guys" or say "no problem"
2. Bring everything out on a tray, even a glass of water
3. Always grate cheese in front of the guest, never in the kitchen, even if you know they want it
4. Never defend yourself when a guest is complaining. If they say they ordered it with chicken, even when you are 100% sure they didn't, admit fault and apologize.
5. It is unacceptable to hug a coworker. You may give them high fives or handshakes only
6. No servers are allowed behind the bar, even to assist the bartender with washing dishes, etc
I am exhausted just trying to remember all the rules. I just can't handle pretending I care. I just want to do to go where no one bothers me and I am not getting "caught" doing something "bad" every ten seconds. Also, bitch manager is about to become the service manager which means she is actually in charge of the servers, as opposed to now when she just acts like she is. She has already threatened everyone with fucking with their schedules. I am applying for other jobs. At the very least, this needs to be a part time gig. 40 hours a week there will kill you. Slowly but surely. Sorry for the Sad Panda post.
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