It’s better to work for an asshole for one day than a whole bunch.
As far as I understand, they used to. Bear in mind that this diner opened in 1969. This was 38 years ago. That would be a mighty long time for a nice, elderly couple to both stay alive and hang onto a small business that they started.
There are a few reasons I didn’t try this tactic.
Firstly, it didn’t seem likely to help my case. There were probably dozens of things that added up to my not being particularly busy when Greg happened to show up. I could have said I was tired. I could have pointed out that there was not much that I, an inexperienced employee, could really be doing. I could have mentioned my bad knee, which, prompted by 7 hours on my feet, started hurting for the first time in months. I could have pointed to any number of things, all of which had small effects leading up to the big effect of my not being actively working at that particular time. However, listing 100 small causes isn’t likely to make anyone see the big effect, It’s likely to make me look like a whine who’s constantly making excuses.
Secondly, I felt it would be unwise to try and keep the job on the grounds of being tired. If I’m tired by 2 o’clock today, chances are I’ll be tired earlier tomorrow, having spent today working and all. Sure I’ll be able to go further without tiring over time, but how does that help if I’m only there for 2 months?
Thirdly, I hate to feel like I’m making excuses. It’s just how I am. When I was a kid, I had an excuse for everything. Nothing was ever my fault. These days, I’m trying to take more responsibility for my actions. While I still believe that Greg handled the situation like a real jerk, I acknowledge that, especially on my first day and in front of the owner, I really should have been giving 100% to look like a useful, hard worker even if I didn’t feel like it. First impressions are important and if today reminded me of that (and netted me 8 hours pay) then it wasn’t a total waste.
I honestly don’t buy that the owner is a jerk based on the OP. Per the OP, Greg spent ten minutes talking to the main waiter who probably did most of the training. The main waiter probably told Greg that the new guy wasn’t going to cut it and based on that Greg made the decision to let him go. I highly doubt it was based on him not seeing the OP working for a few minutes during a slow time.
Except for the fact that the OP’s description of his performance does not fit with this line of reasoning. The way I see it, either Il Palazzo was not doing as good a job as he thinks, or the boss is a dick. If I know the average doper, I’m going to go with the latter.
My only advice is: get used to it. Maybe you’ll be lucky and never work for another asshole, but chances are, you will. I once worked for a guy who fired the entire night shift on Christmas Eve, without giving a reason. Some of the employees had worked for him for years and years. Yeah, it’s his loss, not yours.
If he was in the back taking lunch or a break, I would agree with you. If he was on the floor he should be working.
You might not have been a good fit. As others pointed out, if they won’t hire you if you are going to have to leave just as you are getting up to speed. I’ve been there and it is a pretty small place and they usually have only one or two people working. Don’t take it personally. You might not be cut out to be a server. I’m not and I found other summer jobs.
I second the advice about the temp jobs. You can find some pretty good gigs with the temp agencies which is what I did between my freshman and sophomore year.
I’ll bet Bob and Edith (and possibly the other waiter) aren’t going to be happy with Greg either. They took the time to interview, hire, and train you, and the boss puts them back at square one.
They must have people lined up to work there, or the boss wouldn’t have been so quick on the trigger.
Considering how many Dopers are chronically unemployed or underemployed, I’m not sure if I can agree with your logic here. In any event, if you were doing something for the first time ever and were totally unexperienced at it, would you really be in a position to judge how well you did? Maybe the people who have been in the business for a while (i.e. the head waiter and owner) might be in a better position to make the call.
Look, there is no shame in not being able to be a good waiter. It’s a grind and not for everyone. The fact the the OP survived a year at VT is a much better indicator of his competence in general but waiting tables just isn’t his forte.
You raise a good point. Maybe the manager wasn’t a total dickweed. I guess we’ll have to nuke him from orbit…
What a jerk. You’re better off…
If anything, it’s entirely possible that they ended up hiring someone else instead. A friend of the owner or something. No big deal.
I know some restaurants, particularly busy ones, are very fickle with their waitstaff, and if you don’t show initiative (ie, hey, it’s not busy, I’m going to go clean this table, maybe do some roll-ups until someone gives me something else to do) they fire you.
Meh, it sucks, but you’re probably better off.
So who was the person that hired you? Did Greg talk to that person at all before firing you? Did you say goodbye to that person as you walked out the door? Did that person say anything at all to you? Maybe when you go back to pick up your check, you could ask that person for a better reason for your firing.
I second this. The OP was fired because his trainer didn’t want him around. Maybe it was his performance, maybe it was his choice of socks. We will never know. Main waiter didn’t want to keep the OP and he is free to say whatever he wants to the owner. Who is Greg going to believe, his “top officer” or the new kid?
Summer seasonal employment at the Dells is never filled. They bring students over from Europe. Look into something that is a summer job, and they won’t be saying we don’t want you if you only stay two months. The temp agency is another way to go if there are not summer student jobs around.
One compensation tip for when you do someday find a job that you just love and want to keep forever:
Learn to do everyone’s job, not just yours. You will become indispensable.
Wrong!
You’ve already said that you are willing to learn from this experience: the importance of making a good impression, working hard on the first day, knowing when the boss is nearby, etc.
Well, how about learning one more lesson: show initiative!
There is always “more that I, an inexperienced employee could really be doing.” Join your fellow workers, offer to help, ask questions–and look like you really,really care. This is true for “real” work even more than this silly Mcjob.
also–if you are just looking for 2 months of minimun wage work, why tell them in advance that you are planning to leave? Tell them you decided to stop being a student for a while, so you can save money, or decide what to major in,etc, etc. Then two months later, you tell your boss that your parents decided to fund your college, or you suddenly got the financial aid you needed, or won a scholarship, etc…so now you can afford to go back to school.
First thing that came to my mind (like DustyButt said): Why on earth are you telling your prospective employers that you’ll be leaving in a couple of months?
I had a similar story, though. I was wandering through the mall picking up applications. I had exhausted all of the stores I could see myself competently working for, and made my final “safety job” stop at a shitty little gelato place (Melt in El Cajon, CA; the manager responsible now owns the Chula Vista, CA location IIRC). I asked the manager if he was hiring and he said no, and as I walked away he said “Hang on a second! Let me ask you some questions.” and proceeded to interview me. That was a WTF moment, but he hired me on the spot. I was to complete three days of training and then start working at the Chula Vista location when it opened a month later. On the third day of training, he showed up right before my shift ended to fire me on the spot and pay me in cash for the hours I’d worked so far. No explanation or anything.
The weird thing was, that’s what he did to every single one of his employees, except for the cute, underaged female ones. Everyone I worked with there had been fired and re-hired at least once, and while I was there I actually saw two employees come in together and get the job after being fired a week earlier. I figure the guy just had a Napoleon complex–wanted to show everyone how powerful he was all the time or something.
fetus
You must have been a snap fire hire decision. I wonder who got the ax. He may have been trying to avoid workers going past being temp workers, and didn’t want anybody that qualified for mandated benefits like unemployment insurance.
I’ve found that the simple act of “moving with purpose” will make you better in the restaurant boss’s eyes. If you were just moseying rather than zipping around, they may have viewed you as a slacker.
That said, I would never tell a prospective employer that I was only going to be there for the summer. Years ago, maybe…but there is little in the way of boss-to-employee loyalty these days. I no longer feel obligated to be the only dedicated partner in the relationship.