back to it

I came back from my little "getaway" to arrive on mothers day, a.k.a the restaurant's day of the year (and the reason I had to catch an 8am flight back so I would be able to work). I don't think I have ever seen that many people rostered on at once, or that many butterballs rolled (four trays- a record)

It wasn't as crazy as I expected. Admittedly I had three tables in my section, and my 8 person party ended up being five, three of whom I have served on countless occasions before and are really nice. I ended up being tipped really well, having lots of bright-eyed, happy, full-of-red-wine mothers tell me how lovely I made their evening. It's easy to impress the mum's though- a simple "I hope you enjoyed your mother's day" on the receipt was enough to compell most of the tables to throw in an extra ten bucks.

So it went off without a hitch and I found myself leaving with the strange feeling like I had forgotten to do something, because I am so used to doing close that I didn't have to polish any extra cutlery or pull the mop out!

After I left in tears the week before (I was overtired and frustrated that the previous three weeks of my life was a blur of dropping coasters on tables, explaining steak temperatures and cleaning bread boards) my boss took pity on me and has started taking me off close shifts. So this Tuesday just gone I didn't do my usual close shift which was definitely a pleasant feeling. I managed to escape by about nine thirty, eat a salad and head to the unibar for the band comp. I actually was permitted to have a life!

The next day, however, I came in for my usual open shift and found the back of the restaurant in chaos. Not only were the three trays of cutlery not polished, but there was so much crap lying around that the dish guys hadn't bothered to move that I spent at least twenty minutes (of which I could have used to roll butter balls) having to clear up the crap that people had left behind the night before. And then to make it worse we had customers walk in five minutes before open. By the time I had put the drink fountain together and set up the expo line, me and the only other server on had THREE TABLES each! We got smashed that night so the fact that back of house was consistently behind just made the whole situation worse.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't expect the servers to stay back till midnight polishing the last little bits of cutlery because I am aware that this arduous process often encourages people to take to the steak knives and use them for a purpose other than sticking into loaves of bread. However, every single close shift I have worked I have been expected to, unquestionably sacrifice the later hours of my evening to making the knives and forks dry and sparkly. And then the one night I don't do close, she decides this is too much work for everyone and leaves it to the Wednesday night crew. The one night I don't do close!

I am now only going to work the absolute minimum. Karma clearly does not exist in this universe.

J