Today, someone in the restaurant business called in sick.

The BBQ Pit
1

Its hard work feeding all you hungry hungry customers every day, and profit margins in the restaurant business are slim. We run with a shoestring labor budget and everyone is stressed out, and the people never stop coming. Never. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, then we all go home, get drunk, pass out, and then its breakfast again, then lunch again, then dinner AGAIN, then the same thing the next day, and the next day, and we never get a fucking break because you all want to eat every fucking day.

And by “YOU” I don’t mean you, I mean all of you. You all go out to eat, on average, X times a week, and there are X times Y of you. So, yea, somedays some of you stay home and cook your own meal, but you never all do it on the same day. And FUCK FRIDAYS because every last fucking one of you go out to eat on Fridays. I HATE fridays.

And so you come in, and order your food, and you want it now, and you want it perfect, and you want it without tomatoes, and maybe you want the sauce on the side, and, oh, where is your drink that you ordered 30 seconds ago, because you want it NOW too. And when you finally get your food, it took too long, and its cold, and whats this, you said no tomatoes? well, We are very sorry, we will fix that for you, and by fix it we mean go around the corner, pick the tomatoes off then come back out and give it back to you. Then you eat it, but you’re not happy because the service was slow, and the tomatoes! and look at that bill, you could make it at home for a quarter of that price! and then you go home and we go get drunk and pass out and wake up early the next day for when you show up for breakfast.

Every damn day, we happily put up with this, and we work ourselves to death to feed you, and even though you complain about the price, we can barely afford to pay the staff and keep the lights on. So we make do with less… less staff, less pay, less benefits, less sanity, just so we can keep the prices low so you keep coming back to eat, so we can work harder to feed you. Today, and tomorrow and the next day, and the day after that, and then its Friday and you all show up at once, then its saturday, and most of you come out again, then its SUNDAY BRUNCH and we have to cook breakfast for you too? and you want that even cheaper? OK, we will cut more staff and hold off on raises this year, just to keep you happy and feed you every damn day.

But, today? FUCK! Someone called in sick!

You never call in sick. You never call and say, “we won’t be having breakfast today, or lunch or dinner either, so take a day off for yourselves”, do you? No, but today, one of our staff called in sick and now we have to feed just as many of you with one less person to help. so its harder then normal, and normal is fucking hard! Normal is driving us to drink ourselves stupid every night just to forget about how fucking hard NORMAL is! And today is going to be HARDER than normal? I just don’t know how many more normal days I can take before I shoot myself, and today is going to be HARDER then that? Fuck me! Give me a fucking break you guys?

Can some of you, at least stay home today? No? OK, can some of you knock it off with the no tomatoes and sauce on the side bull shit? just pick the tomatoes off your self? No? OK, well can you please be patient with us because we are short-staffed and your order is going to take a minute or two longer then usual? No? well, OK, but could you maybe not give us such a hard time about the high prices? No? Just one god damn day? because someone called in sick? and we are short-staffed? and its stressful enough when we aren’t?

Please?

No?

OK, well fuck it, enjoy your fucking dinner. I’m gonna go get drunk, pass out and wake up early to cook you breakfast, no fucking tomatoes, sauce on the goddamned side, as fast as I possibly can.

2

Sick sick or just didn’t feel like working sick? If the former, I’d be glad to not have that person’s snot dripping in my food.

3

I bet the profit margins would be even slimmer if they did stop coming.

That said, I feel for you, and I swear never to be the kind of customer that you particularly wish would stop coming.

4

“called in because his 5 year-old was in the hospital with a cough” didn’t have a nice ring to it. besides, does it matter why they weren’t there?

5

Sounds like a management problem to me.

If they charged a fair and equitable price for the product they served, there would be sufficient resources to pay the help a living wage (no tips), offer them a balanced medical plan, provide reasonable time off, hire adequate staff, allow for the occasional sick employee, and so forth.

Instead, they choose to operate

The rejoinder is, “If we did that, and our competitors did not, we would go out of business!” If this establishment is charging more for the same meal, but the ambiance is better, the service is better, the help is less overworked and stressed, the food is prepared correctly and in a timely manner, it seems that, while you may lose a few customers due to the higher prices, you would gain some due to the better overall service. And aren’t you complaining about, among other things, there being too many customers anyway?

6

Wal-Mart.

7

And this dear kids is why your parents tell you to stay in school… or you will end up as some disgruntled short order cook. You could be in a nice cubicle in an air conditioned office somewhere.

8

Somehow I have trouble sympathizing. Sorry dude, but jobs suck. Want a better job? Find a better job.

9

Yeah, I bet that person voluntarily chose to become sick (or for their kid to become sick). :rolleyes:

10

you would have no trouble landing a top-flight job in either the food service or housekeeping industries.

11

Counter: Quik-Trip. Most gas stations run with one person on duty, maybe two during rush. QT always has at least 5 people on staff, though I’ve never seen the graveyard shift. They’re not the cheapest for gas, which you’d think would be a dealbreaker in this economy, but they’re always clean, well-stocked, and friendly. And they are kicking the ass of every other gas station around.

12

Goddamn customers! They just keep showing up, demanding to purchase food from the restaurant. Why, oh WHY do they keep doing this?

Life would be so much better if the customers just stayed away.

13

Please tell me this is a full service place. Not self.

14

IMO, this is about the rudest thing anyone can say to or about service people. Sometimes people get jobs in service because they got downsized and they are trying to pay their bills. Sometimes people who are going for their Masters degree need a job with flexible hours. Sometimes people who are too old to get a cube somewhere because they were retired and the bottom fell out become WalMart greeters. Sometimes, people take those jobs because they like serving people.

I just think its rude to assume that someone who is working their butt off to make you happy is only doing it because they couldn’t graduate High School.

YMMV, of course.

Amblydoper, that was an awesome rant. I might not change my ordering habits, but I do tip well.

15

never seen one.

16

Self. I assume a full-service station may exist in the Southwest, but I’ve never seen one and wouldn’t want it anyway.

17

I’ve never seen a Qwik-Trip with more than two people visibly staffing the place. Perhaps I’ve simply always managed to hit it when the other three are on a smoke break.

18

OP, please tell me where you work, and I promise I will call in sick as a customer tomorrow. And the next day and all the other days. I will sacrifice coming in to your establishment so that you’re not so horribly overworked. That’s 'cause I’m always thinking of others.

I love Qwik-Trip- it’s Circle K on steroids.

19

Yea, I didn’t expect sympathy from any of you, and I could careless if most of you didn’t get the point of any of that.

Glad to hear that you all have stress free jobs where it doesn’t matter if someone doesn’t show up, because no one has to cover the work they don’t have to do.

20

1)You should be glad that you have a job. Some people don’t and desperately want one, and so feel unsympathetic and maybe even a little irked, when you complain about working normal hours.

2)You chose your field. Restaurant work is long and hard (and not in a good way). Been there and done that and saw that it sucked and moved on to easier and more convenient work. Maybe you should, too?