Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Wow. Working 65 hour weeks is a bit stressful. And restaurant hours should count double, 'cause boy are they labor-intensive. I've settled into the new job okay and can handle the normal three tables at a time, though of course my skills are still being fine-tuned.
I had my first major asshole of a customer last night. The Endless Shrimp promotion really brings out the greediest, least classy people. First, the guy ordered the Endless Shrimp for himself, but no meal for his grandson. He just kept giving the refills to the kid. Another server told me that I had to do something about it- it's not allowed since it's intended to be an all-you-can-eat for one person. So I politely informed them that I wouldn't be able to fill any more refills. They were obviously not happy, but weren't too hostile (yet). He'd placed a refill pasta order before that conversation, though, and kept asking every server that went by the table how long it was going to take. All of them just stalled, saying probably five more minutes. I don't know what happened to the pasta, but it never arrived. I couldn't put a new order though, because the freeze on refills was in place. I apologized profusely and told him that he could speak to the manager if he wished, but he just went ballistic on me, raising his voice and angrily telling me, "I don't want to hear it. Don't be sorry, just do your job! You won't be seeing me in here ever again!" I got pretty upset, since it was obviously a personal attack and not just dissatisfaction with the food or anything. But it ended up that the joke was on him because he'd already filled out the credit card slip and left an okay tip before he found out that his refill wasn't coming.
So yep, I'm exhausted. I spend my lunch breaks from the field station washing and ironing my RL uniform. Pretty soon I'm going to ask to go down to 4 days a week instead of 5, because to keep up the pace indefinitely would really have me miserable. Good money, though.
I had my first major asshole of a customer last night. The Endless Shrimp promotion really brings out the greediest, least classy people. First, the guy ordered the Endless Shrimp for himself, but no meal for his grandson. He just kept giving the refills to the kid. Another server told me that I had to do something about it- it's not allowed since it's intended to be an all-you-can-eat for one person. So I politely informed them that I wouldn't be able to fill any more refills. They were obviously not happy, but weren't too hostile (yet). He'd placed a refill pasta order before that conversation, though, and kept asking every server that went by the table how long it was going to take. All of them just stalled, saying probably five more minutes. I don't know what happened to the pasta, but it never arrived. I couldn't put a new order though, because the freeze on refills was in place. I apologized profusely and told him that he could speak to the manager if he wished, but he just went ballistic on me, raising his voice and angrily telling me, "I don't want to hear it. Don't be sorry, just do your job! You won't be seeing me in here ever again!" I got pretty upset, since it was obviously a personal attack and not just dissatisfaction with the food or anything. But it ended up that the joke was on him because he'd already filled out the credit card slip and left an okay tip before he found out that his refill wasn't coming.
So yep, I'm exhausted. I spend my lunch breaks from the field station washing and ironing my RL uniform. Pretty soon I'm going to ask to go down to 4 days a week instead of 5, because to keep up the pace indefinitely would really have me miserable. Good money, though.
