How Do You Train For This?

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At the beginning of my second shift today, I asked around for some good material for my writing. I probably should have clarified that I wanted to write about other people's shitty serving experiences, not my own.

It was totally different from last night. I was actually waiting tables with someone following me. The back of the house was understaffed and I was probably a little over zealous. My trainer and I took on some extra tables thinking that the two of us could cover a lot of ground. But, yeah, we can't cook the food so, we were left making promises and trying to keep people happy.

I admit, that I was a little unprepared for this. After the first few nights of everything moving so smoothly at the restaurant, I was unsure of how to handle things. And honestly, I AM still in training, and I did make a few mistakes. The couple of small mistakes I made, however, would have been easily recovered any other night. Tonight was just a complete shit-show.

I literally had a table get up and walk out on my partner because their food took too long. I had another table tell the manager that it was the worst dining experience they had ever had. And if you know me, you know that I did not take these comments lightly. They were a dagger to the heart. I tried. I schmoozed. I offered replacements and compromises. It just didn't work out.

I did end the night on a high note. My last few tables who arrived after the kitchen got their act together were very happy. I got a literal pat on the back from one family and another family was very generous as well. So, I think I'm going to take this as a lesson learned. When things go bad, they go really bad. And I'm pretty sure that this was the worst I've ever seen them.

On a completely different note, I think one of the Managers in Training thought I was hitting on him. I simply showed a little interest about where he came from and what store he was going to when he was done training. It turns out that he's also a runner so there was that to talk about. I really didn't mean anything by it.  But at the end of the night when I asked for his manager's card so that I could clock out, he asked if he could buy me dinner. When I declined, he asked if he could buy me dessert. When I told him I was refraining because of a strict diet, he asked when I worked again. His last day at our store is Wednesday, the same day as my final exam. He was sure to mention that he'd see me then.

Thank the heavens that I've been studying my manual and I know that it is NOT acceptable for the management to mingle with the staff, so that's my next excuse. I only hope it works for management and staff from different stores since he will not be my direct manager.

Damn, where's my wedding ring when I need it?


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