ends versus means
where's machiavelli when i need him
this month is proving to be a difficult one, but, is it worth it?
May may be the new november work wise...for some reason i am struggling to get through this month..day by excruciatingly long day..honestly, i can't even think about the next day, if i were to set my sights that far ahead and think, hey, at this same time tomorrow i'm going to be doing the same thing, i'd probably off myself...that's why i set my sights on the shorter goal....work will be over in 5 hours...then, then you can sit down..then you can relax....then you can eat...then you can escape
another day in a week where my days have been extremely rough, this monday was no different. i was stationed in section one, the head closer, great..another long night, there's no escaping that one, i'm here til after close...and knowing how my nights go, i'll be here way after close...
i was a pretty boring monday...there were a couple private dining parties, and a few other large parties scattered about..of course i was in a section where nothing was plotted...which meant i would be getting all the walk-ins...now, walk-ins aren't a bad thing, no no, they are good...businesses often plan on having walk-ins double their reservation count, and will staff accordingly...sometimes even despite the weather...walk-ins are a good thing because if you can flip your tables on a busy night, you'll more than likely get a chance at one of these non-reservation hoping for a chance fools..who inturn are so grateful that they got a table, will treat you, the server, pretty well at the end, typically.
the problem with tonight is, we have plenty of room and spaces for people...so the walk-ins will have no sense of gratitude or feelings of not getting what they want....now they will just walk in, get a table, and feel as if it is any ol casual dining experience where they can just get apps and sit there for a couple hours..another plight of the walk-in - most come in for drinks and dessert, or something lame like that..not only does that fuck with my cover count at the host stand, but it removes a table from my section for a good couple hours...you can see my sales start plummeting downwards along with my take home cash....this is how it's gonna be tonight..
i get one of the first tables of the night who go out to sit on the patio, it's a walk-in no less. it's a nice day out and i'm surprised to not see more people out on the patios along the street...where i work i have a restaurant across the street, and to my left i have three patios for a couple more restaurants - all of which are casual dining. at times i will stand on our patio and look out onto the other patios...my patio being completely desolate while the others don't have room to squeeze in any more people...i start to get a little upset, knowing i am not making money, starting to wish i was back in casual dining - oh the crazed ten table sections, running your ass off trying to do your best while you and all your tables know you are in the weeds...
but then i think of the money vs work ratio. in casual dining, like the OG, you know you will come in at 5, have tables all night long, run around getting refills on bread, pop, and other free shit..be finished by 10 or 11 and hope to walk with a bill...a lot of work with a nice reward....but where i work, that's not the case...there have only been a handful of instances at this current workplace where i have been in the weeds officially. granted i run around at a fast pace, i may duck and weave in and out of people..but that's just my nature, from driving to walking, i move fast - and others, well, others aren't fast enough.
at my current job i do hustle and bustle...but when i see the servers across the way with their eight table section running around like crazy and they look over and see me with my two tables i'll have all night..it's funny to know we will probably be making the same amount of money...and usually, i'll make more...when i start to think about that..how i'm doing less for more all on the credence i lose part of my personality and stand up straight at the tables, it's a small trade-off but the end of the night cashout doesn't lie.
i spiel my table on the patio, three businessmen all staring down into their menus, i stand at the point of the table which has me facing the patios to the left. most diners for whatever reason when you are talking or answering their questions will only make eye contact with you a few times, generally when they ask their question, then their eyes go straight back into the menu. i, like most servers, will pan their eyes off the table and stare off into the oblivion else-where..spieling for a server is second nature, we can do it in our sleep, and we probably have done it in our dreams. spieling for us is like breathing, we don't have to think about it, and so we can do that while we are doing other things...for me, removing my eyes off the table to scan what's going on around me is starting to become habit as well - i like to look at the other tables in my section, listen in on what the conversations may be, watch the cute girl walk by with her puppy, whatever..today though, i had a little server moment that was probably only worth something to me..
so while i was spieling the table i naturally went off into my own little world, i took my eyes off my table and lifted them upward, towards the patio right across from me...at that very moment a server on the opposite patio was facing me, spieling her table, and as she was spieling her head lifted off her table and she looked over at me. we continued on spieling our tables staring not at them, but straight across, memorized hand gestures flailing and all - to give the customer the illusion we are talking to them and we care..the mirrored image of the casual versus the fine, two sides of the same dynamic character, everybody needs to eat.
the night grows on....of course i get sat the last table at 10:30, on the patio, only there for coffee....AND to watch their son valet next door. Really? if i was this kid, i'd kick my parents ass...i remember these people from a couple nights ago, they did the same thing....came in right about closing time to sit and watch their son at work...look, i don't care when his shift ends, but mine is about to, how bout ya'll stop this nonsense, you're making not only yourselves, but your son, look like idiots.
i'm losing my cool at work..mainly i'm getting tired of the people i work with, for the most part. i'm tired of getting used and abused by everyone, from hosts to management - just because i am the nice guy at work who will practically do anything that is asked of me, doesn't mean to overuse those powers...tonight one of the veterans mouthed off to me...as much as she may have been in the right, she had half a valid point, she came to me with it the wrong way...and i, of course as of late, replied the wrong way...
long story short she tried scamming out of doing work as usual, tried to pawn it off on me, and after an exchange i told her, ahem, quote just get the fuck outta here, i don't fucking have time for you. leaving the kitchen to go and take care of someone else's work i passed by the manager, the same one from the night prior ironically enough, and said the same line i used the night prior, "hey, no talent clown is gonna come to you and say something, it's probably all true..i'll explain later"
i can only take so much of that place..i liked it when i was only working three nights a week there...but last week i worked 47 hours there...maybe that's what the problem is...but maybe this is all in my head as the two year expiration date is nearing as well..only time will tell...
"BOOM goes the dynamite!"
where's machiavelli when i need him
this month is proving to be a difficult one, but, is it worth it?
May may be the new november work wise...for some reason i am struggling to get through this month..day by excruciatingly long day..honestly, i can't even think about the next day, if i were to set my sights that far ahead and think, hey, at this same time tomorrow i'm going to be doing the same thing, i'd probably off myself...that's why i set my sights on the shorter goal....work will be over in 5 hours...then, then you can sit down..then you can relax....then you can eat...then you can escape
another day in a week where my days have been extremely rough, this monday was no different. i was stationed in section one, the head closer, great..another long night, there's no escaping that one, i'm here til after close...and knowing how my nights go, i'll be here way after close...
i was a pretty boring monday...there were a couple private dining parties, and a few other large parties scattered about..of course i was in a section where nothing was plotted...which meant i would be getting all the walk-ins...now, walk-ins aren't a bad thing, no no, they are good...businesses often plan on having walk-ins double their reservation count, and will staff accordingly...sometimes even despite the weather...walk-ins are a good thing because if you can flip your tables on a busy night, you'll more than likely get a chance at one of these non-reservation hoping for a chance fools..who inturn are so grateful that they got a table, will treat you, the server, pretty well at the end, typically.
the problem with tonight is, we have plenty of room and spaces for people...so the walk-ins will have no sense of gratitude or feelings of not getting what they want....now they will just walk in, get a table, and feel as if it is any ol casual dining experience where they can just get apps and sit there for a couple hours..another plight of the walk-in - most come in for drinks and dessert, or something lame like that..not only does that fuck with my cover count at the host stand, but it removes a table from my section for a good couple hours...you can see my sales start plummeting downwards along with my take home cash....this is how it's gonna be tonight..
i get one of the first tables of the night who go out to sit on the patio, it's a walk-in no less. it's a nice day out and i'm surprised to not see more people out on the patios along the street...where i work i have a restaurant across the street, and to my left i have three patios for a couple more restaurants - all of which are casual dining. at times i will stand on our patio and look out onto the other patios...my patio being completely desolate while the others don't have room to squeeze in any more people...i start to get a little upset, knowing i am not making money, starting to wish i was back in casual dining - oh the crazed ten table sections, running your ass off trying to do your best while you and all your tables know you are in the weeds...
but then i think of the money vs work ratio. in casual dining, like the OG, you know you will come in at 5, have tables all night long, run around getting refills on bread, pop, and other free shit..be finished by 10 or 11 and hope to walk with a bill...a lot of work with a nice reward....but where i work, that's not the case...there have only been a handful of instances at this current workplace where i have been in the weeds officially. granted i run around at a fast pace, i may duck and weave in and out of people..but that's just my nature, from driving to walking, i move fast - and others, well, others aren't fast enough.
at my current job i do hustle and bustle...but when i see the servers across the way with their eight table section running around like crazy and they look over and see me with my two tables i'll have all night..it's funny to know we will probably be making the same amount of money...and usually, i'll make more...when i start to think about that..how i'm doing less for more all on the credence i lose part of my personality and stand up straight at the tables, it's a small trade-off but the end of the night cashout doesn't lie.
i spiel my table on the patio, three businessmen all staring down into their menus, i stand at the point of the table which has me facing the patios to the left. most diners for whatever reason when you are talking or answering their questions will only make eye contact with you a few times, generally when they ask their question, then their eyes go straight back into the menu. i, like most servers, will pan their eyes off the table and stare off into the oblivion else-where..spieling for a server is second nature, we can do it in our sleep, and we probably have done it in our dreams. spieling for us is like breathing, we don't have to think about it, and so we can do that while we are doing other things...for me, removing my eyes off the table to scan what's going on around me is starting to become habit as well - i like to look at the other tables in my section, listen in on what the conversations may be, watch the cute girl walk by with her puppy, whatever..today though, i had a little server moment that was probably only worth something to me..
so while i was spieling the table i naturally went off into my own little world, i took my eyes off my table and lifted them upward, towards the patio right across from me...at that very moment a server on the opposite patio was facing me, spieling her table, and as she was spieling her head lifted off her table and she looked over at me. we continued on spieling our tables staring not at them, but straight across, memorized hand gestures flailing and all - to give the customer the illusion we are talking to them and we care..the mirrored image of the casual versus the fine, two sides of the same dynamic character, everybody needs to eat.
the night grows on....of course i get sat the last table at 10:30, on the patio, only there for coffee....AND to watch their son valet next door. Really? if i was this kid, i'd kick my parents ass...i remember these people from a couple nights ago, they did the same thing....came in right about closing time to sit and watch their son at work...look, i don't care when his shift ends, but mine is about to, how bout ya'll stop this nonsense, you're making not only yourselves, but your son, look like idiots.
i'm losing my cool at work..mainly i'm getting tired of the people i work with, for the most part. i'm tired of getting used and abused by everyone, from hosts to management - just because i am the nice guy at work who will practically do anything that is asked of me, doesn't mean to overuse those powers...tonight one of the veterans mouthed off to me...as much as she may have been in the right, she had half a valid point, she came to me with it the wrong way...and i, of course as of late, replied the wrong way...
long story short she tried scamming out of doing work as usual, tried to pawn it off on me, and after an exchange i told her, ahem, quote just get the fuck outta here, i don't fucking have time for you. leaving the kitchen to go and take care of someone else's work i passed by the manager, the same one from the night prior ironically enough, and said the same line i used the night prior, "hey, no talent clown is gonna come to you and say something, it's probably all true..i'll explain later"
i can only take so much of that place..i liked it when i was only working three nights a week there...but last week i worked 47 hours there...maybe that's what the problem is...but maybe this is all in my head as the two year expiration date is nearing as well..only time will tell...
"BOOM goes the dynamite!"
2 comments:
Where did you go???
UGH! You said you were writing a new blog!!! Way to suck!
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