LNO, I can’t give away food, but I’ll give you my 40% discount, but that’s only if you promise to treat me like a sub-human.
pezpunk, I hear what you are saying. While I am always considerate about throwing out my stuff and stacking my dirty dishes when I eat out, I realize this isn’t the customer’s job. It is also my job to clean up messes whether deliberate or accidental. That doesn’t mean I can’t occasionally whine about my job. I think lots of people whine about their job. My boyfriend writes software apps and he occasionally whines about customers demanding some task to be completed by Monday morning when it was assigned Friday afternoon. Is it his job to do it? Yes. Is it inconsiderate of the client? Yes. Sometimes people just have to rant about their jobs. I dont think it’s a crime 'specially here in the pit.
THAT is the reason I hate the service industry-it’s not challenging enough. I get bored out of my fucking SKULL, I want to be able to use my brain, not just stand there by rote. I KNOW it’s just a little longer, but I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE.
Shit, now I’m crying again. AGAIN, I had to call off for tomorrow because I’m having fucking panic attacks at the thought of going back there. I HATE IT!!! I HAVE to find another job, before I can quit…but everywhere I look it’s just dead ends.
Guinastasia, I’ve been there, too, and your health is more important than a job. I also understand how hard it can be to get from one job to another, but you have to do it. Having panic attacks at the thought of going to work is unacceptable for any length of time. Maybe another job would be a dead-end too, but please keep looking until you find a dead-end that is at least bearable. Remember that nothing is forever; it only seems like it.
Back to the discussion at hand here, my reason for cleaning up after myself in restaurants is the same reason that I pick up other people’s garbage when hiking, and sweep glass off the street in front of my house. Somebody has to do it, and I’m willing to be that somebody. No skin off my rosy-pink bum to make a little effort, you know.
Actually, THAT isn’t part of my job at all. (Technically. I do it anyway.) I’m one of 2 full time employees (count 'em 2. Plus 1 part time on Wednesdays - the other full timer goes home. That’s all.) who work 6 days a week cooking, doing dishes, refilling the napkin dispensers, refilling the condiments, preparing food to be cooked, cleaning up our work areas AND the seating areas.
Tell you what. If you don’t want me to bitch about customers making my job harder than it needs to be (and I’m not talking not cleaning up a few drips of mayo or ketchup - I’m talking about leaving more on the table than I have on my burgers), next time you go out to eat, if the table’s not clean, eat at it without complaining. Or if your food’s late, don’t complain about that.
Because, guess what, if people make more work for me, but you don’t want me to rant about it, ONE of these things will have to happen, because I’ve only got one body and one co-worker. We can’t be everywhere. And if I have to run from room to room to keep up, I’m going to bitch. Today I had to stop in the middle of sweeping up (with a table out of place) in order to go and cook when we suddenly got swamped with customers (Luckily they were all take-out so the table being out of place wasn’t a problem).
The job can be done by a trained monkey. That doesn’t mean the monkey or man doing it isn’t run ragged by the end of the night (and run we do). Of course, the monkey’d probably get more respect.
Nope actually I would get you and ask you very politely to clean it for me. Know what else? you would do it for me. Know why? It’s your job! Restaraunt employees should act like a team. Although a function isn’t neccesarily in your job description you do it to help the restaraunt. At least thats what I’ve seen. I wasn’t a food runner but damn straight if there was food in the kitchen that needed to be served, I took it. If a customer needed a drink but wasn’t at my table I got it for them anyway and you know what? I didn’t complain about it.
Please don’t think that I don’t appreciate a good pit rant about hating your job. Please, rant about your manager or a specific customer who was rude to you. I haven’t been paid my proper commision for 6 months! Now that is a rant worthy issue! I work selling DSL to customers. I may complain about commisions or poor management but you will NEVER see me complain about a customer asking too many questions and taking up a lot of my time. Know why? That’s what I do.
In other words you chose a job in customer service. Feel free to bitch about anything you want but I don’t think you should bitch about serving the customer.
I work part time on the weekends in a snazzy restaurant. I work there for fun, mostly for profit, but for fun.
I work in F&B because I like people. I like waiting on people, bringing them good food, fixing things for them if it goes wrong, and trying to get a repeat customer base. I’ve done pretty well so far, as I have a lot of regulars who only come in on my shift. (I only work 1 or 2 shifts a week.)
I do have to say, though, that Tengu has a point. There is a limit to what I should have to do once you leave. But, you are there to make those people happy. It sucks, and we all know it’s a lie, but the customer is always right…(I could smack myself for saying that!)
I have waited on a party of 18 before. 18 college boys, who ordered 2 pizzas and waters all around. I busted my ass for those guys. I flirted, I got them anything they needed, and basically did whatever I could (short of taking them in the back) to make them happy.
I tried bussing the table while they were still there. I said polite little things, like “Oh, honey, can I get that out of your way?” and “Let’s clear off this table so you guys can hang out for a while.”
By the time those guys left, they had dumped not one, but two pitchers of water, taken all the napkins out to soak it up, and then decided to pour the crushed red pepper on top of Mt. Napkin. I had done everything I could to keep that table relatively straight, while also maintaining 9 other tables.
They left me a 27 cent tip.
The only thing that I ask of my customers is that if something happens that affects your pleasure, (i.e. spilling two pitchers of water) please let me know about it if I don’t see it happen. If I miss something that big, it should be obvious that I am really busy, and I may need you to get my attention.
Oh, and on a good note, I make $2.13 an hour to wait tables. If you do get good service, please remember that your server probably makes the same amount. If you let a server know that she/he has done a good job by tipping them, it will carry over to the next person. (So, basically, it’s like spreading a little joy.) If you do not get good service, don’t leave anything on the table. It is more insulting to get a nickel than it is to get nothing. Let your server know that you were unhappy. (Usually management comes in handy at this point.)
Ok… I’m off the F&B rant now…
You ARE an idiot, aren’t you? How can you possibly miss the point?
Here’s the equation:
I have 2 things to do, and a limited amount of time to do them in.
Under normal circumstances, it’s plenty of time to do both.
But, when people like the people I’ve complained about come in, I either have to drop the cleaning and go cook, or else put of the cooking until I’ve finished cleaning. If I have no right to complain about getting yelled at because a bunch of slobs decided that they have no reason to carry their trays to the trash receptical THAT THEY HAVE TO PASS TO LEAVE, then YOU have no right to complain about the fact that I couldn’t get it done.
I don’t understand why the American public has allowed themselves to be so brainwashed regarding fast food. If we eat in a fast food place, we find ourselves standing in line to order our food(?) from a limited menu, carrying that food(?) to a sub-standard table, making another trip to obtain condiments and then eating under the watchful eyes of employees who want only to see the last of us. When we finish our food(?), we are then expected to clean the remains of the food(?) that we bought and paid for off of the table and then bus it to a trash receptacle, so the employees who scorn us will not be required to do something inconvenient. What the hell? We could as easily hire a couple of neighborhood teenagers to stand around and give us disparaging looks while feeling contemptous of us while we eat at home. That would at least save gasoline.
Wait a minute? I’m an idiot for asking you to do your job. I know this is the pit but If you dont want anyone to disagree with you than don’t post it you stupid fuckin moron. The real complaint then should be with your management for not hiring enough people to do your job.
BITCH ALL YOU WANT MORON (Since we are quickly lowering the intelligence of this thread) you have every right but know what? I have every right to disagree. Don’t call me a IDIOT for telling you that I would POLITELY ask you to clean the table. Here’s another idea. Don’t bitch… get a new job or are you to incompetent to get one?
Ps: You never said you got yelled at. I would have responded differently. If you got yelled at by your boss then the rant should have been about the boss. Not enough people + too much work = Bad boss. Simply that peoples trash takes up too much of your time.
This pit thread is like beating a dead horse. I am seriously tired of it. I dont care about your job and thanks to your personal attack I don’t give a flying fuck about you. Have a good day at work
[sub]I really don’t feel that you are incompetent but since you felt the need to lower this to personal attacks then I just think you are an asshole[/sub]
No, you’re an idiot for telling me I have no right to bitch about people who make it impossible to do my job. If I have to clean up after idiots who don’t know what the fuck a trash can is for - meaning carting trays to the trash cans, then to the counter, THEN going back and wiping the tables off, I can’t finish cleaning the tables before I have to go and cook.
CAPICE?
(Oh, and how is telling me that complaining about this is ‘bullshit’ above calling you an idiot because you can’t comprehend a simple equation layed out before you several times? You can only take the moral highground when you start out there.)
I dunno…As a former McD’s employee, I found it somewhat helpful when guests left evidence that they’d been there. When I was working dining room, I wanted all tables to be sanitary, but I also wanted to move fast. If a table had nothing on it, I couldn’t be sure if it hadn’t been used since the last time I’d been through or if closer observation would reveal salt granules and fingermarks. So I had to spend valuable (and I mean that: every second in the FF business is valuable!) wiping down tables that might not have needed it. If I saw a crumpled straw wrapper or a stray fry, that was like a signal, which I didn’t mind at all.
The only times I got bent out of shape was when people did cute things like smearing a whole pie on the table, or cutting the base out of a salt shaker so it would snow when I lifted it. Haw, haw.
When I was a for real waitress, the point was moot, because I knew which tables had been occupied. There was one guest, though, who ended up being banned, or at least turned away, because bussing her table genuinely disrupted our routine. She was a real Scary Mary type, with two kids, and for whatever reason, she would mush all their food up for them. Not our concern as such, but it was when the mush ended up all over the table…and the benches…and the floor…and the window…I wish I were kidding, but I’m not. Finally, the manager Said Something to her. I don’t know if the Something was an ultimatum, but they never came back. I’m willing to put up with a lot, but that was unreasonable.
