That sucks, LIP.
I just happened to come across an article yesterday saying that this year and last year are the best college hiring climates in 7 years (granted, they are talking about graduates, but still). If you, as a VT student, can’t find jobs and/or internships where you are, I strongly suggest moving to somewhere more promising.
As a couple other people have suggested, try looking at local tourist attractions - amusement parks, state parks, pools, recreation areas, etc. This is their busy season, and even if they had enough workers at the start of the summer, they usually lose some after a few weeks and have new openings. They love college students because usually your vacation time overlaps nicely with their busy season. And they’re usually fun places to work because most of the other employees are college students too so it can have a fun atmosphere.
While this may be no help at all this year (it’s late in the season and the available positions might be filled), you might try working at a summer camp. They’ll only need you for the summer and the pay is pretty good. My daughter has been doing that for about 3 years now and loves it.
Sorry about your getting fired. That sucks mightily but the owner sounds like a dick.
California law requires immediate pay upon termination for all hours worked up to the point of termination. Late pay is grounds for “wait time” penalties on the employer for one full day’s pay for each day the final paycheck is late. Penalties accrue for 30 days max, then stop. If you have to sue with an attorney to get your pay and/or late penalties, you may be entitled to have your attorney fees paid by the employer.
What state are you in?
I’m not telling you what to do with this information, but the term “asshole tax” comes to mind, especially for someone with time on his hands during the summer break.
I don’t think you’re going to find a more robust job market than Northern VA/DC Metro Area. True, the internships/summer jobs are likely filled, but regular jobs not dissimilar to what LIP got canned from abound.
The key is to find a McJob and don’t tell them you’re leaving in two months. It’s not like those lovely benevolent employers are going to tell you you’re getting laid off in two months, even if it’s been planned.
I would agree up to the point that Greg said “Get out of here now or I’ll call the police.” What kind of non-sociopath says that to a guy he’s just fired on the first day?
I’m actually a big fan of Bob and Edith’s and usually go there once or twice a year, although I usually go to the newer location further west on Columbia Pike (the original location is usually too crowded). But I hate asshole employers. Palazzo, you’ve posed me a difficult problem.
You could always try staying in Blacksburg for the summer next year. When the town empties in the spring, a lot of the businesses will end up short-handed and looking for help to tide them over. It also gives you the opportunity to keep the job (scheduled around your classes, of course) when school starts in the fall.
…and you can never take vacation because you can fill in for everyone who does. 
You’ll find people like this in every type of employment, but it seems to me (and correct me if I’m wrong) that the food industry seems to attract an inordinate amount of them.
OTOH, I understand that for a restaurant to work, the wait staff has to truly work as a team, and one bad worker can ruin the days of everyone else. Perhaps the head waiter saw a deficiency that the OP, due to inexperience, could not possibly have been aware of.
Actually, it wouldn’t take you very long to get used to it. I had a bunch of bartending and waiting jobs in my twenties, often with long breaks in between. The first couple of days standing for 8-10 hours always leaves you tired and footsore, but it usually only takes about a week to get into the swing of things.
Sounds like the guy was a fucking tool. You’re better off out of there.
The OP is in Virginia. According to the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry:
So it looks like the employer is probably OK giving him the check on Saturday, if that’s on or before the next payday.
From a different page on the Virginia DoLI site:
Personally, i think that’s fucked up.
Greg is a small-minded, narrowly-focused creature who probably sees himself as a “self-made man.” His greatest achievement ever will have been to borrow a huge amount of money, use it to buy a restaurant, and then eke out a 3% margin until he either retires with little or nothing to show for it, or it kills him from the stress. You, on the other hand, are attending one of the finest universities in America, a university Greg isn’t fit to walk across, let alone study at. Your contribution to society, when both you and Greg have run your courses, will be far, far greater than his.
I have to agree with **hajario ** and **sapo ** – headwaiters often want people who “intuitively” know what needs to be done, and then do it. He just didn’t want to spend that much trouble training you. His refusal to put any real effort into your training and Greg’s status as a top-drawer asshole combined to give you this particular experience. Shake it off. You’re destined for much bigger things. They will always be where they are.
Having spent more years than I care to think about working in food service, I would like to say that it doesn’t necessarily have to be an either/or situation: that either the boss was a dick, or the OP wasn’t working as hard as he thought he was.
First of all, the food service industry is notorious for quick-hire/quick-fire policies. I too was once fired on Day #2 from a waitressing job–I came in, BossLady said, “You spilled a tray of glazed donuts into the display case and didn’t clean the front of the glass inside the case, you’re fired.”
And by the same token, they will hire you on the spot and put you to work immediately. So, food service job = your career hangs by a thread, for good or ill.
Second, the OP’s boss didn’t need a reason to fire him, let alone a good reason. In food service, since it’s just hourly minimum wage, the boss can just jerk his thumb at the door and say “out”, and you have very little recourse.
Also, I have known food service workers to be fired, for example, because the boss had promised their job to his nephew for the summer, and only needed a couple weeks’ fill-in until the nevvie got home from college. Then the newbie gets the boot, baffled.
So, anyway, it isn’t necessarily anybody’s fault that the OP got fired. Sometimes that’s just the way it happens, in the food service industry.
And if you’re gonna try food service again, I always found that “polishing salt shakers” worked like a charm for busywork when the boss was on the floor. See the boss, grab the nearest salt shaker and start industriously cleaning it. Or rearrange the water glasses in their stack.
And if you’re gonna try food service again, I definitely recommend fast food over waitstaff, for two reasons. First, you’re not dependent on tips, and thus your dealings with the general public are limited to handing out food and collecting money–you don’t have to schmooze.
Second, a few months of McDonalds or KFC on your resume looks great to other bosses in the franchise, thus guaranteeing you practically any job in the chain you care to choose. You’re trained, see? Especially with the really big chains, the ones that have the row of black binders on a shelf in the office with Official Procedures, this cuts a lot of ice with managers. You already know the Taco Bell Way, so he won’t have to have somebody train you.
And it also translates into “employable”. Your prospective boss, looking at your resume, can see that some other boss thought you were worth hiring, and you stayed there for two months, and your reason for quitting was plausible (“went back to college”), so this makes you a good bet. You can get two months of work experience on your resume with very little actual work involved, because I’m here to tell you that fast food is MUCH easier than waitstaff. You just stand there. Your biggest enemy is boredom. Unless you’re really a “People person”, you’ll like fast food much better, and the tips in waitstaff aren’t that good unless you’re, as I said, a “People person”, you’re working at the kind of restaurant that encourages tipping, and you’re good at schmoozing. Then, yeah, you can really rake it in, but otherwise, go for Mickey D’s and spend a couple of months staring out the window and counting the bushes in the drive-thru median strip.
The first two weeks of July are an especially good time to try to get on at Mickey D’s et al, because the Fourth of July is when all the high school and college kids who got hired when school was out decide, “Aw, fuck it, I’m not going in to work today, it’s the fuckin’ Fourth of July, man”, and don’t show up, and hence get fired. So that’s an opportunity for you.
And yes, they will hire you knowing you’re only going to be there for another couple of months, because, see, they’re desperate. All the other high school and college kids who were going to get minimum wage summer jobs have already done so, and thus the talent pool is temporarily empty.
Seconded. I went to Tech and stayed every summer. There was no shortage of work to be found. Lots of stuff more interesting (or at least easier) than restaurant work.
One job stands out:I got to work on a data entry/data cleanup project at the library one summer. Got an office with a view on the top floor. I had access to the 1992 version of the internet. Immortalized myself by adding a few ‘personalized’ entries into the card catalog. I learned a lot about working in an office environment, and I had an amazing selection of reading material for my down time. Plus I typically worked through lunch and could head out at noon on Fridays.
Part of one summer I ran the cleaning crew at the old KMart. Great job. Worked on a copntract crew so I didn’t have to take part in any store politics. Got paid more than anyone but the manager too. The shift was 5:30 to 10:00am six days a week. I’d get home, take a nap, then head out hiking, maybe hang out at one of the radio stations and try to get some air time, maybe just go to the Cellar and start drinking the minute they opened.
Working in the dining halls wasn’t bad either. Free food (better now than then, from what I hear), about double the number of workers for what the job required, super flexible schedule. Occasionally I wouldn’t show up, but I never heard anything about it. I don’t think they really cared. Plus there were fun games! Ever wondered just how many baked potatoes you could place into an industrial garbage disposal before it jammed? I don’t remember the exact number, but it was a hell of a lot. A regular potato volcano, it was.
Yep, the owner tends to be a hardass toward new hires.
deleted. I answered my own question, and on preview, so did the next post. LOL crap!
also deleted, answered Bear’s question.
Yep. Dishonesty was clearly called for in your situation. That would have made all of the difference. :rolleyes:
Sorry if I missed this. Are you saying this because you know the guy/restaurant or just based on the OP?
While the boss does sound like a douche, to be fair, on your first day at the very least I would probably at least have had a broom in my hand.
A few things I feel are worth saying at this point:
The tips about finding work next summer are appreciated but unnecessary. I’m graduating next year and will be spending the next two semesters trying to line up work a little better suited to my BS in Aerospace Engineering than waiting tables is.
I still intend to be upfront about how long I’m available to work. I feel it would be dishonest to act like I’m coming on for the long haul when I know full well that I’m going to be gone in August. If I do get hired, I hope to have the job available to me over Christmas break and maybe even next May, if I don’t find an engineering job after I graduate. Dishonesty isn’t the way to make that happen.