Party Down

I started watching this great show:  Party Down.


You'd think, given my recent words about my waitress-ing career, that I'd hate this show and that it would bring up all these horrible memories.  But I find myself totally enjoying it and laughing really hard because I can so relate to this group of people.



So I started thinking about it all.  There were always similar waiter types in every service team I worked with.  Today, I'd like to reminisce about three general types: the newbies, the bitter waiters and the career waiter.

The newbies are all excited about the people they are meeting, all the glamour (depending where you work), and the constant cash in their wallets.  Basically, they're being paid to party and chat people up.  Usually they are hopeful with all these dreams and aspirations ahead of them. They're networking themselves and they smile a lot. They're thinking, "this isn't my real job", but they're still proud of it.  All these new relationships and friendships begin to develop and before they know it, they are part of a cooky and often incestuous family - the restaurant staff.  This is a super fun time.  One that I look back on with great fondness.  You all work hard, and then after work you play hard. 

But soon enough, the bitter waiter develops.  They are either still students, students on hold, artists, or looking for their next venture.  They've been there long enough to realize that all these wonderful people they meet and serve are highly repititious and that no one is really that original. The magic behind people and social interaction is no longer existent.  All the customers they serve at the bar or at the table, the've met before.  There's the successful business man, divorced three times and now ordering a Cosmopolitan for his super young girlfriend because he thinks Cosmos are still 'in',  the cougar obviously on the prowl, the young entrepreneur always trying to get you on board or trying to sell you something, the partyers who ingest nothing else but vodka/redbull, the young girls trying desperately to get some attention, the rich kids mixing coke with a quality whiskey and returning their food because you (the waiter) didn't mention that there was meat in the spaghetti bolognese or the families pretending to be perfect thinking they're hiding their dysfunctions so well.  These people are all the same, yet they think they're unique and that is so sad. These waiters are tired of saying the same things and laughing at the same jokes over and over, as if for the first time.  They're tired of being expected to jump at a snap of the fingers or to produce extra tables on the terrace out of thin air.  Believe it or not, many people think waiter = slave or magician.  These people have probably never been waiters.  And the reality that these waiters go to work everyday, just to be treated like dirt is sad.  But they are willing to take it, willing to swallow it all for the money.  They often remind themselves about their nice clients or their friends at work who can empathize, and that somewhat makes up for all the crap.

Then you have a special kind of waiter - the career waiter.  He takes himself very seriously and has a lot of experience.  He is resolved with the fact that waiter is his profession.  Some of these guys or gals are cool - really cool and they have developed their skills into a sort of artform.  They can control their clients and elicit the desired responses from them.  They are excellent at their job.  They fully understand behavioural psychology, even if they don't know they do.  They just really suck if they're power trippers and they can make your life, as a coworker, a living hell.

Being a waiter has its good times and bad times.  It's not a complex job, but what makes it hard is the extreme physical and emotional demands.  But as I've mentioned before, and of course depending where you work, it's an easy way to make fast cash ... legally that is.  One could then always consider being a prostitute or a drug dealer...

'till next time,
Holly

end = begin

It's been a while...

Today was my last day at a job I really disliked.  I think I have been feeling sour because of it.  This is probably why you haven't heard from in a while.  How did this happen, you wonder?

Well, we moved to Frankfurt at the end of September, we settled in, my mom came to visit, we got married and all the while I was anxious about finding a job.  I had no clue what I would do here in this new city, but because there was so much commotion I knew that October and November were not going to be months where I would be working.  That was part of the plan already.  But like clock work, by December 1st, I had started a new job.  Initially I was very excited and super proud of myself.  I was going to be working at cafe at the airport.  Nothing crazy but I applied for the job and had an interview - all in German.  I was excited to be working in a busy place and get to really practice my German - with clients, but especially with co-workers.  Learning German is very important to me and I felt this was going to help me a lot.

I quit a week in!

In my first week, which consisted of 4 shifts, I realized certain things.  I realized that behind the scenes, the cafe was super old and in actual fact, nobody cared about it.  I mean, no was was going to invest any more money into it and hadn't for some time now.  It was a dying place.  The food quality was not as good as it looked, they didn't even have take away bags for clients - we were told to wrap stuff in tin foil if they want to take it away.  For me, professionalism and care were lacking.  I also learned that the company that ran this cafe also had some kind of agreement with the Mc Donalds in the terminal, and apparently we HAD to eat there.  We weren't allowed food from anywhere else.  I almost lost it.  I told a co-worker that I would not eat at McDonalds and that forcing us to is like physical abuse.  I told her I would bring my own lunch.  She warned me not to let anyone see it.  So obviously, my apprehension kept growing. The next thing I learned pushed me over the edge.  They make the schedule there a month in advance.  So December 1st, I had my schedule for the month.  During that first week, my schedule changed like three times.  Understandable, life is unpredictable - except that nobody called me to ask me if I could work those other days or even just to tell me!  Another co-worker told me this was a regular occurrence and that I should get used to it.  That was it.  No way!  I found that so disrespectful.  The next day I called and quit.  I told them I would finish my shifts for December.

So today I had my last shift.

I also realized I'd forgotten about a vow I made to myself when I left Canada.  It was that I would do my best not to have to work in another restaurant again.  I already have a nearly 10 year "career" in the service industry.  It really is the best job as a student.  You can make good cash in a short amount of time.  And since I love being a student - waitressing and bartending have always well supported that.  But at the end I was a bitter, bitter waitress.  I hated feeling like that.  Although, I have to give myself credit for always being professional with my clients even though I would go home and hate myself for it.  Oh, how many nights I would replay a scenario and think, "I should have said this ... or, I should have spilled the drink in his lap ... or, I should have just slapped her across the face!"  But no, smile and keep smiling and the customer is always right.  Ughh!  I hate it and I promised myself I would avoid the industry at all costs.  And there I was right back into it, whoring my emotions around once again.  I think I forgot about this promise because I was too curious to see how I would do in a German speaking environment.  Well, it wasn't so hard.  And once that became clear, the rest just came cascading down and it all fell apart.  I'm glad I got to do this little experiment, but at the same time I can't help but feel like I wasted some time.

I think this place was making me miserable.  I haven't been in the mood for much and I've been feeling overwhelmed for no reason.  But  tonight, I felt like I flew home from work.  Like suddenly I had wings and I was just soaring and carefree.  Man.  Hating your job is a very depressing.  I don't want to experience that again. Although, I have said that before.

So what now...?  I have a couple of ideas.  I'll let you know how the job situation is going in the new year.  But I can say one thing ... I'm going to be self employed.

'till later,
Holly