In the weeds
I have nothing really new to report on school, though I did just memorize our crappy AIRT43 non-radar map in 2 hours...bwahaha. I'll choke on my own hubris I'm sure.
But for now, I wanted to give a little update on work. When I first got here and found that I was making $20/hour by serving burgers and 1/2 oriental chicken salads, I thought about how nice it would be to be able to make that kind of money by being on the floor 40 hours/week. Now? Yeah, right. I make a good hourly rate for a reason, and it's not because the job is easy.
I had something kind of embarassing happen tonight. I was in the weeds. Hard. I had everything under control, but I was basically in the "get everyone paid and out" mode that I get into when I get really busy. I start dropping checks like a madman, and even sometimes catch flak from customers about hurrying them out the door. Yeah, well, that's too bad. If I end up at that point, my only goal is to get you out of my section so that I don't have to deal with you anymore. I'm just trying to reduce my workload by reducing my tables. Hey, it works. I'm surprised more servers don't work like that.
Anyway, yeah, things were bad tonight. I'm not sure how many people that read this have been a restaurant server before, but people tend to think that serving food to a few tables is always easy. Sure, there are some days when I'll be working 6-7 tables and won't break a sweat. On the other side of the coin, I've gotten my ass kicked by a 3 table section before. It all has to do with timing.
So, tonight the timing of all my tables was the worst it could possibly be. I must have flipped off an old lady on the way to work, because karma was obviously not on my side. That, combined with the alignment of Jupiter and Mars, made for a good time. It's rare that one simple thing will absolutely throw my section into disarray, but tonight it happened. What was that "simple thing"? I had to wait for a birthday sundae. Yep, you know what I mean. One of those free sundaes you get when it's your birthday...just a scoop of vanilla icecream, some chocolate syrup, and whipped cream. I'll never again look at a sundae the same way.
Here's what happened: I was working a party of 8 (an "8-top"), plus three other tables in my section. That's really not a tough workload at this store. The 8-top (just finishing dinner) requested that we do our stupid birthday song, so I had to actually punch the birthday sundae into the computer and wait for the bar to make it. That damn birthday sundae takes 20 seconds to prepare, tops. Well, 10 minutes later, and I'm still wondering where this thing is. The bartender is walking around cluelessly talking to random people, and he's not really paying attention to my or any of the servers wondering where our stuff is. No worries. I went and told the 8-top that I'd have it out as quickly as I could, and that my hands were a bit tied. Sorry.
Still waiting, I see that the hosts are taking a couple of my tables and putting them together to give me another big party. This is another 8-top. One of the #1 things that you need to do when you're about to get sat with a big party is get the rest of your section sorted out. If anyone needs refills, now is the time to do it. I know that I'm going to have to spend the next 10 minutes getting their drinks, taking orders, etc.
Meanwhile, my stupid sundae is still nowhere to be found. It becomes pretty evident that in order to get the first 8-top their birthday song, sundae, and their check within the next 10-15 minutes (they're now done with dinner), I'd have to do it before the second 8-top sits. Normally I have a plan B just in case plan A doesn't pan out, but I didn't have a plan B this time around. Plan A had to work, damn it. Where's my f-ing sundae?
Well, the second 8-top sat down and started looking at menus, and I had to go over there and talk to them. No way out of that one. I went over there and grabbed drink orders (only 2 of them spoke English), and then had to go make them all. Oh great, there's the sundae. Great timing, asshole. What was that...15 minutes after I put in the order for it? Awesome.
So, now the first 8-top wants their birthday song and a check, and the second 8-top wants their drinks. That's not even considering that I've got 3 other tables going, and they intermittently want random stuff. I ended up getting the second 8-top their drinks first (and then took their food orders), all while the first 8-top is looking at their watches. Greeeat. I went over to the first 8-top and apologized and explained that I simply didn't have time to fit it in, and that I was simply way too busy. They seemed to understand well enough. They told me that they just needed to head out, and asked for their check (here, now I'm thinking I'm about to lose a good tip on a $140 ticket).
While this is all happening, I got sat with two more tables. I told the hosts to tell the new tables to wait. I don't do that very often, but if this section is going straight to hell, I'm going to be driving damn it. Right now I'm working 6 tables, complete with two 8-tops that are getting in each other's way, and 2 tables that need to be greeted and have drinks brought out to. Let's not forget the other (at this point) 2 tables I've been working that have food going out and have random requests. Here's where I start dropping checks like crazy. Weeeeeee.
Unnecessarily long story short, that simple sundae ended up causing bad table timing to propagate through my section for the next hour and a half. If only that lazy bartender had let me get that sundae out to the first 8-top before the second one sat down, all of that could have been avoided. Butterfly Effect anyone?
The people on the first 8-top really were understanding though. They left me a 20% tip on a $140 ticket, which ain't too shabby at all.
What I can't believe is that I just wrote all this about waiting tables. Jeez. In the words of the great Dane Cook: I can't wait to quit this job.
But for now, I wanted to give a little update on work. When I first got here and found that I was making $20/hour by serving burgers and 1/2 oriental chicken salads, I thought about how nice it would be to be able to make that kind of money by being on the floor 40 hours/week. Now? Yeah, right. I make a good hourly rate for a reason, and it's not because the job is easy.
I had something kind of embarassing happen tonight. I was in the weeds. Hard. I had everything under control, but I was basically in the "get everyone paid and out" mode that I get into when I get really busy. I start dropping checks like a madman, and even sometimes catch flak from customers about hurrying them out the door. Yeah, well, that's too bad. If I end up at that point, my only goal is to get you out of my section so that I don't have to deal with you anymore. I'm just trying to reduce my workload by reducing my tables. Hey, it works. I'm surprised more servers don't work like that.
Anyway, yeah, things were bad tonight. I'm not sure how many people that read this have been a restaurant server before, but people tend to think that serving food to a few tables is always easy. Sure, there are some days when I'll be working 6-7 tables and won't break a sweat. On the other side of the coin, I've gotten my ass kicked by a 3 table section before. It all has to do with timing.
So, tonight the timing of all my tables was the worst it could possibly be. I must have flipped off an old lady on the way to work, because karma was obviously not on my side. That, combined with the alignment of Jupiter and Mars, made for a good time. It's rare that one simple thing will absolutely throw my section into disarray, but tonight it happened. What was that "simple thing"? I had to wait for a birthday sundae. Yep, you know what I mean. One of those free sundaes you get when it's your birthday...just a scoop of vanilla icecream, some chocolate syrup, and whipped cream. I'll never again look at a sundae the same way.
Here's what happened: I was working a party of 8 (an "8-top"), plus three other tables in my section. That's really not a tough workload at this store. The 8-top (just finishing dinner) requested that we do our stupid birthday song, so I had to actually punch the birthday sundae into the computer and wait for the bar to make it. That damn birthday sundae takes 20 seconds to prepare, tops. Well, 10 minutes later, and I'm still wondering where this thing is. The bartender is walking around cluelessly talking to random people, and he's not really paying attention to my or any of the servers wondering where our stuff is. No worries. I went and told the 8-top that I'd have it out as quickly as I could, and that my hands were a bit tied. Sorry.
Still waiting, I see that the hosts are taking a couple of my tables and putting them together to give me another big party. This is another 8-top. One of the #1 things that you need to do when you're about to get sat with a big party is get the rest of your section sorted out. If anyone needs refills, now is the time to do it. I know that I'm going to have to spend the next 10 minutes getting their drinks, taking orders, etc.
Meanwhile, my stupid sundae is still nowhere to be found. It becomes pretty evident that in order to get the first 8-top their birthday song, sundae, and their check within the next 10-15 minutes (they're now done with dinner), I'd have to do it before the second 8-top sits. Normally I have a plan B just in case plan A doesn't pan out, but I didn't have a plan B this time around. Plan A had to work, damn it. Where's my f-ing sundae?
Well, the second 8-top sat down and started looking at menus, and I had to go over there and talk to them. No way out of that one. I went over there and grabbed drink orders (only 2 of them spoke English), and then had to go make them all. Oh great, there's the sundae. Great timing, asshole. What was that...15 minutes after I put in the order for it? Awesome.
So, now the first 8-top wants their birthday song and a check, and the second 8-top wants their drinks. That's not even considering that I've got 3 other tables going, and they intermittently want random stuff. I ended up getting the second 8-top their drinks first (and then took their food orders), all while the first 8-top is looking at their watches. Greeeat. I went over to the first 8-top and apologized and explained that I simply didn't have time to fit it in, and that I was simply way too busy. They seemed to understand well enough. They told me that they just needed to head out, and asked for their check (here, now I'm thinking I'm about to lose a good tip on a $140 ticket).
While this is all happening, I got sat with two more tables. I told the hosts to tell the new tables to wait. I don't do that very often, but if this section is going straight to hell, I'm going to be driving damn it. Right now I'm working 6 tables, complete with two 8-tops that are getting in each other's way, and 2 tables that need to be greeted and have drinks brought out to. Let's not forget the other (at this point) 2 tables I've been working that have food going out and have random requests. Here's where I start dropping checks like crazy. Weeeeeee.
Unnecessarily long story short, that simple sundae ended up causing bad table timing to propagate through my section for the next hour and a half. If only that lazy bartender had let me get that sundae out to the first 8-top before the second one sat down, all of that could have been avoided. Butterfly Effect anyone?
The people on the first 8-top really were understanding though. They left me a 20% tip on a $140 ticket, which ain't too shabby at all.
What I can't believe is that I just wrote all this about waiting tables. Jeez. In the words of the great Dane Cook: I can't wait to quit this job.
posted by Brent at 2:45 AM
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