Friday, November 23, 2007

A Day Late and Everyone's Short...

The "suit" stuck around the store for three days. When I saw her car there the third day (Wednesday), I was astounded--"suits" never stay that long!
Okay, fine. Maybe it won't be that bad...Boy, was I wrong.
Because she's the server manager lady (I really don't know her official title), she was involved in that morning's shift meeting. She decided that we were going to play a game. This surprised me because this is the only restaurant I've worked in that doesn't play reward games (for up-selling, no promos, etc.). Anyway, her game was focused on refills...

Standards for the restaurant state that we must refill the glass at 1/3 full without asking, throughout their entire meal--not a big deal. Refills are always a topic of standards, right? But the thing is, our cups are GIANT--no, really. "Oh, my, now THAT'S a coke!" or "Wow, I'm going to float out of here!" or "Could you find a bigger glass?" I get something to that affect at least twice a day. So, my system runs like this--If I've already given them two or three, I ask; but, if the fat man sucks down more than two diet cokes before his meal, he will get them constantly (and obnoxiously) throughout. :)
Okay, so this bitch informs us that we are no longer permitted to ask guests, we must simply bring them a refill, and if she catches one of our tables without a refill, then we're "out." Whoever is left "standing" at the end of the shift gets a prize (a $5 gift certificate to Dunkin Donuts. woo. hoo.).

This "game" didn't piss me off initially, until she started stalking my section!!

At one point she said to me, "You're not going to let me get you, are you?" I replied snootily, "Nope," turned up my nose and sped passed her, on a mission to refill all the drinks...in the WORLD.

She just wasn't playing the game right. She was being condescending and patronizing, rather than supportive, hoping that ALL of us gets a "prize." A lot of servers were annoyed with her. She would run up to them laughing, "I got you!" and shit like that. It wasn't motivational, it just made us quit so she would lay off.

At one point, I had a full section, but everyone was okay, and I noticed a huge mess around the appetizer station, so I started to clean. Mind you, I had a two-top of gentlemen who had finished eating nearly 30 minutes prior (ugh), I had refilled their drinks four times, and I was annoyed that they were still sitting in my section (and they hadn't paid yet).
So, anyway, as I'm cleaning the app station, the "suit" walked over, bent down to my level (I was cleaning the shelves under the station), and proceeded to "Nanny-nanny" my "boo-boo" and tell me that the man at #114 needed a refill. At first, I thought she was talking about the other guy, who was finishing the iced tea in front of him, "Oh, he has a full iced tea next to him." She says, "No, the other gentleman." I look and find that the guy with the diet is a little less than half-full and is ready for his FIFTH (she had no idea how many he'd had, or how long he had been sitting there, she just wanted to get me OUT). Fuck that.
I was pissed also because I was cleaning up a huge mess that someone just LEFT, and I get OUT of the fucking refill shit because of it...I really didn't want the "suit" to win. Bitchily, I said, "It sucks that I was cleaning up after someone else..." (or something to that affect, pretty bitchy, annoyed, and simply unmotivated to do ANYTHING for this lady). So, I stopped what I was doing (mid-mess) and got the man, who sat at my table for two and a half hours and tipped me $4 on $23, another fucking diet coke. I went about my business for the next few minutes, and as I'm up at the host stand, she approaches, and I start to flee, "Alright, I'll let you slide--this time!" she sneered. I didn't even stop walking and said, "I really just don't care about it that much." So, I was OUT.

I know I sound like a COMPLETE bitch through this whole ordeal, but she just picks and picks and picks, and she's pretty familiar with our store, so she's comfortable with us, as we are with her. We have a rapport where we can say stuff candidly and it will not really be taken into offence. If I had screamed at her (like I wanted to) or ripped her face off (like I wanted to), then, yes, I would have been fired...But that didn't happen...this time...

2 comments:

Ali said...

Wow. It really doesn't get much more obnoxious than that.

Some people just need to be smacked.

Anonymous said...

I tried to post a long-ass comment about this the other day. Apparently it never worked. (Damn you Blogger!) It basically came down to this: This little 'game' the suit was playing - who did this benefit? It cost the restaurant lots of time and money. Money wasted on non-necessary refills, money and water wasted in washing the additional cups needed for the refills, water wasted in the extra trips to the bathroom by patrons, etc. And the $5 Dunkin Donuts "gift certificate"? A freaking insult if you ask me.