The Hostess with the Mostess...Not!

So, my night started out like every other night.  I walked into work with a big smile and was ready to make that money.  I am always anxious to see what section I have been assigned and am, of course, always hopeful that it will be a good one.

Every shift, as I walk in the door, I say hi to the host/hostess.  This is my signal that I am here and that they can seat me a table when they come to my name in the rotation.  Rotation, let's talk about that for a minute.  The servers at my workplace are put on a list from first in to last out.  It is procedure for first in to get the first 2 or three tables that come in and then the hostess is required to start rotation.  This is something that is almost always followed except when you have, we'll call her Marjorie, at the stand.

I stop by the host stand, per my ritual, say hi to Marjorie, look at the floor plan to see what my section will be and then make my way to the kitchen.  As I'm walking I notice my section is empty which excites me because I know I won't have to wait for my section to empty before I can actually start working. Or so I thought. As I get my uniform in order I take a second to look out into the dining room.  To my surprise, Marjorie has sat my section already so I scurry to the time clock to clock in, only 10 minutes early by the way.  Walking out of the kitchen I notice another server greeting my table, or so I thought.  Not only had Marjorie sat my section, she had this other server pick up the table as if she hadn't just spoke to me a few minutes before.

I instantly was irritated and this is why.  The server who took the table, well, his section was adjacent to mine, and empty I might add.  Now normally the other server would consult with you and it would be decided that you would just trade a table so we would be equal.  This, however, was not the case.  There was no trade.  On top of that, Marjorie proceeded to then fill his entire station.  This left me with only one empty table in my section (servers are only allowed 2 and 3 table sections).

Now, I'm seeing red.  I made my way back to the kitchen to wait for "Barry" so I could make another attempt to convince him to let me have one of his tables.  Not an option, so I make a joke saying "You have 30 minutes to get that table turned".  A few laughs were exchanged and he disappeared back into the dining room.

At this point I am not only growing more irritated with Barry but I am furious with Marjorie. See, Marjorie thinks that it is more important that her friends, all of which are single and have no children, are more important than everyone else and that they need the money more so she will ALWAYS proceed to sit and fill their stations for them regardless of where they are on the rotation.  She will always make sure her friends stations stay full all night until they are cut.  She seems to think that no one else could possibly need to make more money than her friends.  Like I don't have children to put through school, or a mortgage payment every month, car payment, utility bills, etc.

These concerns have been brought to the managers attention many times by numerous people and still nothing is being done.  Now, I could be like some of the other servers and confront her about the situation however, then I wouldn't make any money ever.  I can picture my section now, little mini dust tornadoes blowing by followed by the tumbleweeds.  It would look like an old, abandoned, western town...no one in sight.

Needless to say, my table was occupied for 2 1/2 hours.  On a night where I would normally break $100 not closing, I walked with $75.  So disappointing!

Anyways, I had to vent and will probably do so, often.  Any advice on how to handle the situation will be welcomed and appreciated.  Now I'm off to play another round of the "waiting game".  Ciao!