Friday, January 21, 2011

Late Night. Quick Post.

Tonight was also relatively smooth. Figures. However, it is rather late, and I'm suspecting a long morning of cleaning off my car and shoveling my driveway. Great. Regardless, I made a promise to myself that I would be more diligent with this, and so it goes.
The thoughts weighing on my mind are not really related to tables or peeves, but to my current employment situation. I really hate being a secretary. I hate it more than being a server. I never thought that was possible. It is. People treat servers like shit, but there is an underlying blanket of respect covering their food as it leaves the kitchen: (most) people don't want to piss off their server because they know that we are in charge of their food. It's important to them. Secretaries should have that same blanket, but generally, they don't. The general public sees secretaries as peons for the man. Just like servers, secretaries make things run. Without them, the business crumbles. With secretaries, shit also always runs downhill. Even though I get paid next to nothing, have no benefits, or paid holidays, I'm the one who gets a raft of shit from the "suits" when something goes wrong. Servers can blame it on the kitchen, or get a manager to deal with the irate customer because we only make $2 and change. We don't get paid enough to deal with the shit as servers, and even as secretaries, but somehow, in an office, that's just what happens. At least that's what happens in my office. I do have support, don't get me wrong, but on a whole, I'm the one who is questioned first before anyone in any given situation. It sucks.
This week, I've sent out my resume for two job postings, in hopes of getting out of this life. As the week went on, the feeling of hatred for the office weighed on me, and by today, I'm brainstorming about how I can potentially quit secretary-ing while searching for a new job.
Funny thing: I have a job. Serving. What if, I quit the secretary gig, continued searching for alternate employment, and served full time? Currently, I make more hourly serving than I do at the office, but it's always a gamble. I spoke with my manager tonight when I got into work, and he said he could guarantee me five or six shifts. I really need seven, but the beauty about the industry is the ability to pick up shifts. There is always someone who doesn't want to work. Still...a gamble. He says he'll give me five or six, but when this particular manager started writing the schedule, I sat down with him, told him how crucial this job is to me. I then opened my availability to seven available shifts, with the hope of getting four. For the last three weeks, I've only been scheduled three shifts. I just don't get it. There is another manager who is showing some interest in trying to take the schedule over, but he screwed it up last time, so who knows what's going to happen. These are my brainstorms, but I've come up with a plan...as usual.
Rather than hastily put in my two weeks tomorrow (oh, I really wish I could), I am going to average my tips for the next few weeks to see what I'm averaging hourly. If it comes out to a substantial pay raise, then I'll take the jump. Until then, I will continue to send out resumes for alternate employment to eventually get me out of both industries all together.
Good night.

Friday: Secretary / *Off* (I really should pick up a shift!)

3 comments:

KV said...

I hope something wonderful and fabulous comes your way! You deserve it. Positive thoughts! :)

alex said...

Can't you get another job waiting so you could have 7 shifts between the two? Or is that what you're trying to do?

Darby said...

Currently, I work Mon-Fri *day* as a secretary and Tuesday through Saturday *nights* as a server. I don't make any money as a secretary, so I was considering working full-time at the restaurant until I found a "real" job....
I've considered getting another restaurant job, but there's a lot that goes into it...
I don't really want to take the time to get to know the nuances of a new restaurant. In addition, I have seniority at the restaurant I'm working for now. At a new restaurant, I'd be starting at the bottom...working the "shit" shifts, and getting the "shit" sections until I worked my way up that ladder.
I just don't want to work two jobs anymore...I've been doing it for the majority of the last 10 years...I'm done. :)

Thanks for reading!