I am creating this blog article to host a discussion for those of us who have worked or are currently working within the food industry. My primary aim of this article is to derive a discussion of “unique” experiences that, we as food handlers, encounter daily in dealing with dining guests, fellow employees, and managerial staff. Posts on this topic can be either pleasant or unpleasant experiences. If it is your desire to post a negative experience be sure to include how the situation derived and how it was resolved, and if choosing to post about a positive experience be sure to include how and why you deem the circumstance a positive incident. This discussion and its contents are NOT to resemble a dairy or journal.
I have held the title as a food server for approximately four years, but have working within the food industry roughly six. I will keep my name and the company I am employed with anonymous because of the nature of this discussion. I have created this discussion for an Advanced Composition class I am currently enrolled in. Anyone (preferably those with food industry experience) is welcome to post. I am eager to hear what the life of food handling will bring.
Category: Food Serving, Serving, Waiting |
Tags: None
Related Posts
- No related posts found.
Comments
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Food Serving, Serving, Waiting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Links in Technorati
Add to del.icio.us
Subscribe to RSS
Over the past six years I have had, what seems like never-ending, encounters with people I have never met. These occurrences have greatly contributed to the way I view others in this world. I have come to realize many people are not who they appear to be, and should not be treated as such (mainly outside the food industry).
During this past summer I had many guest experiences that didn’t fit the norm of everyday serving. I’m going to focus on one incident that could have resulted in the loss of not only my job, but my manager’s as well.
It was sometime in mid-July when I was on shift. Everything seemed like a normal day. I had to be at work by 10:30a.m. and was scheduled to be a “lunch only”, which meant that by 4:00p.m. I should have been on my way home. Nonetheless, it was 5:00p.m. and I still wasn’t cut from the morning shift. Now, where I work, a server is only allowed three table sections in order to better tend to their guests, and if a circumstance would arrive that caused you to acquire more than those three tables, managerial approval is mandatory. So, at the time I had three tables, none of which were actually in my section. Then a little after five o’clock I was seated yet again, and as you all may know it is THE most aggravating thing to know you should be home already but you’re stuck dealing with random people you’ve never met and, quite frankly, aren’t interested in meeting, tending to their wants so our bills get paid. This table was actually sat in my section, so I had four tables with only this one in the correct area. It was a family of four and, not to be disrespectful, they were all extremely heavy. I did my introduction and took their drink orders that consisted of: one tea and three Diet Cokes. After dropping the drinks they didn’t want any appetizers so I took their entrée orders and proceeded to do my thing. Well within the first five minutes of them having their drinks, before I could make their salads and tend to my other tables, they had drank all of their drinks. I re-filled them and kept trying to dig myself up out of the weeds. Before I could even finish making their salads they had, yet again, drank all of their drinks. When I dropped off the salads I gave them re-fills, again, and they could obviously see I was occupied with other tables as well. In between serving my other tables their food was ready, so I took it out, and to my surprise what did I find? No more drinks. I did my duty once more after the food was on the table I re-filled them again. A few minutes went by and I was occupied with my other tables when I walked by them and the first thing the father said to me was, “Hey boy! We’ve gone through half our meal without drinks, we need some, now!”
I replied, “Yes sir, I know, I’ll get you some re-fills.”
Then, before I could finish my sentence his wife replied, “You know?! You know?! You BETTER watch that attitude BOY or I’ll get your manager.”
This lit up a fire inside of me like no other I’ve ever felt. I kept my mouth shut and did not say another word. I picked up the glasses and took them to be re-filled. Three Diet Cokes, and one tea. The only thing in the tea glass was tea, a lemon, and about an inch and a half of ice. I took them immediately to the table and set the tea down for the husband first. Before I could even get the glass on the table the lady yelled, “No ice! No ice!” (like I couldn’t hear her the first time she said it), “You better go get your manager, BOY!”
Without saying a single word since her first remark, I set the other glasses down and went straight to find a manager. There were two on duty that day and I walked in the office and told one of them, “I’m not waiting on that table anymore!” (It wasn’t quite as pleasant though), and immediately my manager told me I don’t have to, to just calm down. I told her my table wanted to speak with a manager and she sent the other manager to talk to them.
While he was beginning to talk to them, I was tending to another table four or five booths down, but I couldn’t concentrate because the man was yelling at my manager. This went on for a few moments, then I heard the lady asking for my manager’s name, while all four of them were getting up to leave. My manager convinced them to sit back down, but it was no use. They kept yelling and while I went back to the kitchen got up and left without paying. Their tab was $99.98, I got screwed.
As soon as this happened I went back to the office where both my managers were, only to find one of them extremely upset, but not at me. He asked me what happened and I told him. He told me they didn’t say a single thing about me or my service, that as soon as he got to the table the man started yelling at him that there was something large, floating in his drink, and there was. I know for a fact there was nothing in it but what I mentioned earlier. My manager told me he would pay for his meal, but the man told him no, that he was going to pay for all of it. My manager tried to reason with him but he refused to comply.
This discussion took less than five minutes and as soon as we were done talking about it I went to buss the table. When I got to the table I immediately picked up his drink and noticed what looked like a soggy crouton at the bottom of the full glass. I took it back to show my manager as soon as I saw it, and asked him if it was floating when he saw it. He said yes. So, between him talking to the table, them leaving, and us discussing it, the less than five minutes that it took, the crouton had absorbed tea and sunk to the bottom. I reasoned that by the time it took me to tell the other manager the table wanted to speak with one of them, her telling the other manager to go visit, and him actually getting to the table, if I was the one who put that crouton in there, it would have sunk long before he arrived at the table.
We were both in fear of our job security for the next couple of days. Although, I was lucky enough not to have to pay for their meal, it spoiled my already aggravating day. There these people were, sitting there with a plan to cheat me and my company out of our services. I mean seriously, who did this lady think she was talking to me like that when I had been nothing but respectful? Does she think that because I’m a food server I’m automatically lower than her and don’t deserve her respect? Who does this man think he is yelling at my manager for something he obviously did? These people had two sons. How could some one set that kind of example for their children? I mean, I don’t get it. These people were just rude, ignorant, disrespectful and totally CLUELESS! They obviously had a plan from the get-go and didn’t realize what they were doing. Not only were they cheating my employer out of a hundred dollars worth of food, they jeopardized my job and my manager’s job, they created an ugly scene in a public place and just set an example for their children that is morally wrong. Individuals like that need to be separated from the rest of society, and as a result it just adds on to the distrust I have for people I do not know. We (my manager and I), were helpless in a situation we couldn’t control. There was no compromise, or any resolution of this situation. The people screwed us, plain and simple.
Last week I had an encounter with a table that rubbed off on me as one of the top ten, most awkward situations I have experienced while serving.
I was working a shift from five thirty to close at ten in the evening, and roughly half an hour before close I was sat my last table for the night. It was a woman and her middle-aged son. It looked like they were just going out for a nice late evening dinner. I did my presentation and asked for their drinks. The guy’s mom ordered a water, and he ordered a lemonade with no ice, while at the same time giving me a look that chilled my spine. This was the type of look that makes someone think they’re a serial killer.
Once I returned with their drinks, I asked them if they had any questions, and the lady had a few. Well, these few questions ended up taking about ten minutes to answer and in the end they both ordered appetizers for their meals, granted they did have a decent tab and the mom tipped me well. They took their time but the mom couldn’t finish all of her meal, but there were no worries because she had her son with her. The whole time they were eating she didn’t seem to want to conversate much, until the very end of their meal, she stopped me while I was cleaning up and started talking to me about her pet birds. She went on for about fifteen minutes basically talking so much I couldn’t get away, I was trapped!
She was telling me how much she loved her birds and their different names and how they are her best friends. Tell me about weird, I felt so awkward listening to her and just watching her son eat and smile with a grin that made my hair stand on end. I should’ve showed her I was in more of a hurry, obviously she didn’t get that the restaurant was closed and it was the end of the night. Now I do understand maybe she just wanted to tell some one about her birds, or just some one to talk to, but the situation was uncomfortably awkward, and I don’t know why. Maybe it was the look he was giving me, or the creepiness of her story, I don’t know and don’t particularly want to feel like that again.
I guess next time I’ll just not let it get to me, maybe I should be a little more understanding? Whatever it is, it was way too weird for me.
Bill the Thrill…
That is all very interesting, but I’m still not totally on board with this….