I saw a quote tonight that has me thinking.
"Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid." --Albert Einstein
I think it is interesting how the mind works. Everyone thinking differently about the exact same thing amazes me. I'll admit sometimes it is extremely frustrating to explain something to someone every different way you can think of while they stare blankly back at you like "huh?"; however, I know that there are certain things I "don't get" or perceive totally backwards from how others do.
For example, I often forget how long I've been in the restaurant business and that things that I find as "common sense" sometimes are only second nature to me because I've been around this atmosphere for so long that certain things are "no brainers" for me but may not be for others. I started waiting tables when I was 19 (nearly 7 years ago), and many things were brand new to me and I had no idea what I was doing. I try to think back and remember the first time I ever rolled silverware, something I'm a bit of an expert at now and could probably do in my sleep, when we have new employees so that I don't get frustrated with having to explain "simple tasks". I remember the girl that was training me, and we all sat down at this big round table with tons of silverware in front of us with stacks of napkins and "tabs" to hold them together. I had no clue what I was doing or if I would ever be as fast as those other girls. The trainer looked at me shocked when I said, "Can you show me how? I've never done this before."
At least every other week or two we have new servers in training at the restaurant, and I often have to remind myself that I once didn't know how things worked and had to be explained the things that today are now part of my auto-pilot behavior. This is one of my biggest weaknesses for me I think. It is hard for me to not get frustrated with the "dumb questions" that I get asked over and over day in and day out. I always think "Why is this so hard? What aren't they getting it? Why don't they know this already? Haven't I already explained this 73,268 times today?" And this is where my sarcasm comes in.
For anyone who knows me very well at all--especially the adult me--knows that I am one of the most sarcastic and quick-witted people around. This works to my advantage in social situations. If I am out with a group of people, it is not usually difficult for me to make conversation with people--even the ones I don't know very well. Usually this is because I will spout off something quickly. Some little meaningless "dig" into someone. It's all in good fun. Everyone laughs and we have fun. This is not always true for me in my job--especially with my newer employees.
I tend to answer questions that are in my mind "dumb" with sarcastic responses--not always on purpose, and they are not always received well. Some people view me as hateful or rude because of it even though 99% of the time in my life I have the best of intentions. I am an extremely empathetic person. I go above and beyond to make sure my employees have a schedule that they like as well as what works with their life. I feel like I am a pretty fair boss and a genuinely nice person. I feel like I have my employees' best interests at heart as well as the restaurant's. However, that is not always what is perceived because of these quick witted responses.
Here's an example from today (there are many more every single day): we have a mandatory training class scheduled for a day next week. As the manager that does the schedule, I am fully aware that this meeting occurs during some people's normally scheduled shifts. This class is being offered once in the morning and once in the afternoon in the same day. The schedule will be posted tomorrow for our employees to see even though it has been ready since Thursday (so I already know who is scheduled when and they do not). An employee asked me today "So what if we're scheduled at the time of that meeting? How are we supposed to go if we're scheduled to be here when we're supposed to be there because I always work on that day?" I looked at her and with a straight face said, "Well, believe it or not that girl that makes your schedule (me) is aware that you have to attend one or the other of that training class so you will be off in time to attend." It just rolls off my tongue. I should've probably been more sympathetic and explained for the 1,315th time this week that we are going to have them scheduled differently on that day than we normally do, but at that point I couldn't help but have the reaction of what do they think? We scheduled this class with no plan as to how they'd be scheduled? Wednesday we were just going to say "oh sorry we forgot we needed people to run the restaurant while this class is going on?" I guess it wasn't a dumb question I was simply tired of answering it over and over again as I do with every question ever asked. I wish I had an "off switch" for these responses because they probably make me seem like a jerk, but I'm the boss--aren't I supposed to be the jerk? haha. just kidding.
I guess the point to all my rambling is that I should start to give the benefit of the doubt to my employees and better explain things to them even if I think they should already know them. Even if it is something I've done a billion times, like rolling silverware, it may be their first time so I need to take a deep breath and think before I speak... even though if I turn over a new leaf on this subject I know some of my more veteran employees will be quite disappointed without my responses to the "newbies" that aren't getting it, but you can't please them all I suppose.
You always hear them say "There's no such thing as dumb questions. Only dumb answers." Well, if you're ever wondering "What would be a dumb answer to this question?" I've probably got one for you.
Showing posts with label Restaurants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Restaurants. Show all posts
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Appalled
Sorry Folks, but I need to do a little venting because I am in shock of something that happened this evening. (There is a little graphic language in this because it is dialouge in the story so please keep that in mind when reading.)
A little backstory...
A few months ago it was kind of getting late in the night, and I was at work--there weren't many customers in the restuarant at the time. One of my servers came into the kitchen crying because a man was being rude to her. She said he was angry and rude because there was lettuce on his burger and was apologizing to me because she didn't remember him asking for no lettuce. I calmed down my employee and fixed the man's burger and walked into the dining room (took a total of about 3 minutes to fix). I found the man angrily standing in front of the entrance to the kitchen--waiting to speak to me. I smiled and told him I had fixed his burger, and while holding it in my hand, he continued to belittle and scream at me about how incompetent he thought my employee was for putting lettuce on his burger. (Does any one else see a problem with anyone getting this angry at a stranger over lettuce?!?)
He refused to eat the burger or even take it to go--even though it was IN MY HAND and fixed. He left angry and swore he'd never be back; however, the next day he returned when I wasn't there and joked with the staff and manager on duty at the time laughing while saying "I was an asshole to those girls last night."
Since then he's been in a couple times, always speaks and is genuinely pleasant to me, and I try not to hold it against him. BUT we still fondly refer to him as "the burger guy" haha...
Then tonight....
A friend and I went to a local restaurant for her to have a late dinner, and I was going to have dessert and sit with her so she didn't have to eat alone. We were seated at a booth in the back--there were only about 3 other tables in the restaurant including a couple at one booth right behind us and then a couple guys at the bar--one of which happens to be one of my employees.
My friend was texting and receiving messages while we sat and waited on the server to bring our drinks and take our order. The woman at the booth behind us said something (I'm assuming asking what the noise was) I didn't understand and he loudly said "I guess it's someone's f***ing phone going off!" I asked her if she heard him--she hadn't and then she put her phone on silent so it wouldn't disturb anyone including them.
The server brought our drinks and there was a piece of ice stuck to the side of the glass. I was talking to my friend while trying to get it unstuck with my straw and knocked my glass over! It was embarrassing because I hadn't even taken a drink out of it yet, and it almost went all over my friend. The woman from the next booth again yelled "That's what you get you stupid bitch!" I was shocked. Then my employee joked from the bar "Hey, Kristen! Do you need a lid?" I joked back "I think I need a sippie cup!" We laughed and the man then said loudly "I think you need a f***ing babysitter too!"
I am a 25 year old adult professional woman in a nearly empty restaurant being treated so horribly by a stranger that I nearly LOST it. I was angry I needed to walk away. So I went to the restroom to get away and chatted with my employee and his friend at the bar briefly and walked back to the table...having to walk past the angry booth to get back to my seat. Apparently while I was in the bathroom, the couple was still angrily speaking loudly about us and my friend turned around and said to them calmly "Didn't your mother ever teach you that if you don't have anything nice to say then you probably shouldn't say it?" The woman yelled back something about jumping over the booth to get at my friend.
They were packing up to go boxes and about to leave when I walked past them, but I got a good enough look at him to realize he was "The Burger Guy" and it ALL made sense.
Although when this all happened his back had been toward me, so there was no way he knew it was me before I went to the restroom, but the attitude made sense. It is clear that he/they do not care who you are or if there is a reason--they will be rude. I am still in shock at the way this situation unfolded (over a cell phone getting text messages at 10pm in a nearly empty restaurant). Some people have ZERO respect for people or know how to behave appropriately....
A little backstory...
A few months ago it was kind of getting late in the night, and I was at work--there weren't many customers in the restuarant at the time. One of my servers came into the kitchen crying because a man was being rude to her. She said he was angry and rude because there was lettuce on his burger and was apologizing to me because she didn't remember him asking for no lettuce. I calmed down my employee and fixed the man's burger and walked into the dining room (took a total of about 3 minutes to fix). I found the man angrily standing in front of the entrance to the kitchen--waiting to speak to me. I smiled and told him I had fixed his burger, and while holding it in my hand, he continued to belittle and scream at me about how incompetent he thought my employee was for putting lettuce on his burger. (Does any one else see a problem with anyone getting this angry at a stranger over lettuce?!?)
He refused to eat the burger or even take it to go--even though it was IN MY HAND and fixed. He left angry and swore he'd never be back; however, the next day he returned when I wasn't there and joked with the staff and manager on duty at the time laughing while saying "I was an asshole to those girls last night."
Since then he's been in a couple times, always speaks and is genuinely pleasant to me, and I try not to hold it against him. BUT we still fondly refer to him as "the burger guy" haha...
Then tonight....
A friend and I went to a local restaurant for her to have a late dinner, and I was going to have dessert and sit with her so she didn't have to eat alone. We were seated at a booth in the back--there were only about 3 other tables in the restaurant including a couple at one booth right behind us and then a couple guys at the bar--one of which happens to be one of my employees.
My friend was texting and receiving messages while we sat and waited on the server to bring our drinks and take our order. The woman at the booth behind us said something (I'm assuming asking what the noise was) I didn't understand and he loudly said "I guess it's someone's f***ing phone going off!" I asked her if she heard him--she hadn't and then she put her phone on silent so it wouldn't disturb anyone including them.
The server brought our drinks and there was a piece of ice stuck to the side of the glass. I was talking to my friend while trying to get it unstuck with my straw and knocked my glass over! It was embarrassing because I hadn't even taken a drink out of it yet, and it almost went all over my friend. The woman from the next booth again yelled "That's what you get you stupid bitch!" I was shocked. Then my employee joked from the bar "Hey, Kristen! Do you need a lid?" I joked back "I think I need a sippie cup!" We laughed and the man then said loudly "I think you need a f***ing babysitter too!"
I am a 25 year old adult professional woman in a nearly empty restaurant being treated so horribly by a stranger that I nearly LOST it. I was angry I needed to walk away. So I went to the restroom to get away and chatted with my employee and his friend at the bar briefly and walked back to the table...having to walk past the angry booth to get back to my seat. Apparently while I was in the bathroom, the couple was still angrily speaking loudly about us and my friend turned around and said to them calmly "Didn't your mother ever teach you that if you don't have anything nice to say then you probably shouldn't say it?" The woman yelled back something about jumping over the booth to get at my friend.
They were packing up to go boxes and about to leave when I walked past them, but I got a good enough look at him to realize he was "The Burger Guy" and it ALL made sense.
Although when this all happened his back had been toward me, so there was no way he knew it was me before I went to the restroom, but the attitude made sense. It is clear that he/they do not care who you are or if there is a reason--they will be rude. I am still in shock at the way this situation unfolded (over a cell phone getting text messages at 10pm in a nearly empty restaurant). Some people have ZERO respect for people or know how to behave appropriately....
Monday, January 30, 2012
"Normal" Weekends
Wow... What a weekend off! I have LOVED it... Starting this weekend I have Saturday AND Sunday's off now... If you know anything about the restaurant industry, then you know that is unheard of, and I couldn't be any happier about this. AJ has "normal" weekends off too so we got to enjoy two full days off together, and it was wonderful.
Yesterday, we went to the pig show (first one I'd ever been to) to watch my brothers and 3 year old nephew (well technically he's my cousin, but my family's kinda special so don't ask me to put the family tree together... just trust me he's more like a nephew because his momma is one of my dearest friends). They did their pig showing things--still not sure how it all works, but I was supportive and pretended I had a clue. I also had an excuse to wear my cowboy boots so I was excited.
This is what my super cute boots look like. LOVE them--bought them for a George Strait concert in 2008 and have only worn them like 10-15 times since so I get pretty excited for any chance I get to wear them. I had so much fun watching them show their pigs--they did so good in my untrained clueless eyes, and I couldn't be any more proud of them...
Then went for a "night on the town" with AJ and one of my bestest friends in the whole world. That was a blast--but one of those "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" kinda nights, so, that's all the details I can give you. Then this morning woke up much too early for a Sunday off of work, and went to a yummy breakfast, took a big ol wonderful Sunday afternoon nap that can't feel nearly as good on any other day of the week, and then some good friends came over for dinner. I made roasted pork loin, rolls, salad with homemade ranch dressing, corn, and roasted/fried potatoes. These potatoes were my demise tonight. I am normally a pretty decent cook and have people over for dinner almost every Sunday night--it's my favorite time of the whole week. I have made roasted red potatoes with butter, salt, pepper, and vegetable seasoning a million times, and they are usually pretty fail-proof. I seemed to forget how long they take in the oven, and it seemed like they would NEVER be finished. The pork loin was done to perfection and waiting on the potatoes (guess I should've started them before the meat instead of the other way around). So, being impatient and surrounded by hungry people, I poured the potatoes in a pan on the stove, cranked the heat up to high, and fried those bad boys in aforementioned butter until they were golden and wonderful (I mean, what wouldn't be wonderful after frying in butter?).
Moral of the story: If all else fails, fry it. Oh, and don't forget that roasting potatoes in the oven takes a very long time so you should probably start cooking them before 8pm!
Hope ya'll have a great week and enjoyed your weekends as much as I did!
Yesterday, we went to the pig show (first one I'd ever been to) to watch my brothers and 3 year old nephew (well technically he's my cousin, but my family's kinda special so don't ask me to put the family tree together... just trust me he's more like a nephew because his momma is one of my dearest friends). They did their pig showing things--still not sure how it all works, but I was supportive and pretended I had a clue. I also had an excuse to wear my cowboy boots so I was excited.
This is what my super cute boots look like. LOVE them--bought them for a George Strait concert in 2008 and have only worn them like 10-15 times since so I get pretty excited for any chance I get to wear them. I had so much fun watching them show their pigs--they did so good in my untrained clueless eyes, and I couldn't be any more proud of them...
Then went for a "night on the town" with AJ and one of my bestest friends in the whole world. That was a blast--but one of those "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" kinda nights, so, that's all the details I can give you. Then this morning woke up much too early for a Sunday off of work, and went to a yummy breakfast, took a big ol wonderful Sunday afternoon nap that can't feel nearly as good on any other day of the week, and then some good friends came over for dinner. I made roasted pork loin, rolls, salad with homemade ranch dressing, corn, and roasted/fried potatoes. These potatoes were my demise tonight. I am normally a pretty decent cook and have people over for dinner almost every Sunday night--it's my favorite time of the whole week. I have made roasted red potatoes with butter, salt, pepper, and vegetable seasoning a million times, and they are usually pretty fail-proof. I seemed to forget how long they take in the oven, and it seemed like they would NEVER be finished. The pork loin was done to perfection and waiting on the potatoes (guess I should've started them before the meat instead of the other way around). So, being impatient and surrounded by hungry people, I poured the potatoes in a pan on the stove, cranked the heat up to high, and fried those bad boys in aforementioned butter until they were golden and wonderful (I mean, what wouldn't be wonderful after frying in butter?).
Moral of the story: If all else fails, fry it. Oh, and don't forget that roasting potatoes in the oven takes a very long time so you should probably start cooking them before 8pm!
Hope ya'll have a great week and enjoyed your weekends as much as I did!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Order In
I must first start with telling you that I love my job. I love what I do--the busy, fast-paced work is exactly what I enjoy. It's not very monotonous, and I get to work with people, which I love. I believe that everyone should do what they enjoy--makes life a lot easier to bear when you are doing something you like especially considering how many hours/week you spend doing it. With that being said, I think that EVERYONE should be required to work in a restaurant for at least 6 months in their lives. You learn to be more patient, understanding, and the importance of alcohol--ok maybe not alcohol but the importance of having time to relax. It's the type of business that you work hard so you reward yourself with playing harder (with or without alcohol depending on your preference).
I have had some of the best times of my life while working in restaurants (I got in the business when I was 19 as a server and couldn't imagine doing anything different in my life right now). I have also learned some of the biggest lessons in life while doing this job. The greatest of all these lessons is to treat others with respect. Outward appearances are a "big deal" in today's society, but I'm here to assure you that some of the "best dressed" have been the most down-right awful people I've ever met. On the other hand, some of the people that may not have dressed/presented themselves as "high class" have been some of the most generous and nice people I have had the pleasure of serving--this is not true in all cases but it does happen so it proves that appearance isn't everything.
Also, the most obvious thing it has taught me is the importance of tipping. In Oklahoma, servers make $2.13/hr plus tips. I know that it's not THAT low in every state because it's based on cost of living and minimum wage, but almost always servers make a lower than minimum wage rate of pay to offset the fact that they are also making tips. That means if you leave no tip (or practically no tip) for a server they are having to use that $2.13/hr to pay bills, feed their children, and buy gas to come back and forth to work for you to just come back the next week and not tip again. Can you imagine your boss walking up to you and saying "I'm sorry I'm too cheap to pay you today..." or "I'm sorry you weren't 'up to par' today so I'm not paying you rather than letting you know what you've done wrong". If either of those things happened you would be raising hell until you got the money owed to you for the job you had done--you're doing the same thing every single time you don't tip appropriately (at least 15-20% of the total is acceptable in case you were wondering).
Now that I've got that off my chest, I will step down from my soapbox and get back to my original point. I was certain when I started this blog that there would be plenty of stories about my colorful staff and the many adventures that happen at the restaurant day in and day out. They are an entertaining bunch to say the least. Tonight was a typical busy Saturday night and as some of the staff were getting off work they started sitting down at a table in the back of the dining room to eat and relax. There were several tables still eating. I realized I really had to pee (sorry for the overshare but I hadn't been all night and it was around midnight at this point) so I ran to the bathroom and about the time I sit down I hear laughter/screaming coming from the dining room just outside the bathroom door, and I think to myself, "If that's my employees out there making all that noise, just wait until I get ahold of them, it won't be pretty." So I finish my business and walk out of the stall as two of my servers come rushing in the door and frantically scream, "There's boobs on the tv! Like Girls Gone Wild! You can see everything! Hurry fix it!" And now I understand all the laughter I've been hearing for the last 90 seconds or so... I have just exposed the entire restaurant to full frontal nudity on the big screens. I'm mortified and frantically rushing to the AV tower (did I mention it's a restaurant/sports bar with approximately 50 tvs including 8 big screens and over half of them are showing scenes straight from a XXX site?). I hurry to change it and apologize to a few tables as I rush by them--thank goodness it was so late that there weren't young children around and my customers were still laughing about it, but I am embarrassed and may never live this down among the staff. I can hear it now "Do you remember that time you went to the bathroom and there were boobs on the tvs and we couldnt find you anywhere to get you to change the tvs because none of us knew how to change them?" Ahhh yes... I may hear about this forever....
I have had some of the best times of my life while working in restaurants (I got in the business when I was 19 as a server and couldn't imagine doing anything different in my life right now). I have also learned some of the biggest lessons in life while doing this job. The greatest of all these lessons is to treat others with respect. Outward appearances are a "big deal" in today's society, but I'm here to assure you that some of the "best dressed" have been the most down-right awful people I've ever met. On the other hand, some of the people that may not have dressed/presented themselves as "high class" have been some of the most generous and nice people I have had the pleasure of serving--this is not true in all cases but it does happen so it proves that appearance isn't everything.
Also, the most obvious thing it has taught me is the importance of tipping. In Oklahoma, servers make $2.13/hr plus tips. I know that it's not THAT low in every state because it's based on cost of living and minimum wage, but almost always servers make a lower than minimum wage rate of pay to offset the fact that they are also making tips. That means if you leave no tip (or practically no tip) for a server they are having to use that $2.13/hr to pay bills, feed their children, and buy gas to come back and forth to work for you to just come back the next week and not tip again. Can you imagine your boss walking up to you and saying "I'm sorry I'm too cheap to pay you today..." or "I'm sorry you weren't 'up to par' today so I'm not paying you rather than letting you know what you've done wrong". If either of those things happened you would be raising hell until you got the money owed to you for the job you had done--you're doing the same thing every single time you don't tip appropriately (at least 15-20% of the total is acceptable in case you were wondering).
Now that I've got that off my chest, I will step down from my soapbox and get back to my original point. I was certain when I started this blog that there would be plenty of stories about my colorful staff and the many adventures that happen at the restaurant day in and day out. They are an entertaining bunch to say the least. Tonight was a typical busy Saturday night and as some of the staff were getting off work they started sitting down at a table in the back of the dining room to eat and relax. There were several tables still eating. I realized I really had to pee (sorry for the overshare but I hadn't been all night and it was around midnight at this point) so I ran to the bathroom and about the time I sit down I hear laughter/screaming coming from the dining room just outside the bathroom door, and I think to myself, "If that's my employees out there making all that noise, just wait until I get ahold of them, it won't be pretty." So I finish my business and walk out of the stall as two of my servers come rushing in the door and frantically scream, "There's boobs on the tv! Like Girls Gone Wild! You can see everything! Hurry fix it!" And now I understand all the laughter I've been hearing for the last 90 seconds or so... I have just exposed the entire restaurant to full frontal nudity on the big screens. I'm mortified and frantically rushing to the AV tower (did I mention it's a restaurant/sports bar with approximately 50 tvs including 8 big screens and over half of them are showing scenes straight from a XXX site?). I hurry to change it and apologize to a few tables as I rush by them--thank goodness it was so late that there weren't young children around and my customers were still laughing about it, but I am embarrassed and may never live this down among the staff. I can hear it now "Do you remember that time you went to the bathroom and there were boobs on the tvs and we couldnt find you anywhere to get you to change the tvs because none of us knew how to change them?" Ahhh yes... I may hear about this forever....
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