"Just a Little Venting"

So, there's this girl I work with, Suzette.  She's a cute girl.  When she comes to work she always says hi to everyone with a smile.  When she greets her tables she is very professional and always describes the specials in a way that makes your mouth water before you even try them.  However........it seems as though she suffers from multiple personality disorder.

Each and every shift she moseys on into the restaurant with a mouthful of "Hi's".  As she makes her way to the back of the kitchen to get into uniform she goes through a transformation.  Kind of like a super hero.  Her entire person changes.  She turns from positive to negative in a matter of seconds.

Throughout the night she walks around the kitchen barking orders.  "We need glassware at the bar!".  "Someone needs to shine spoons for deserts!".  "Can someone empty the trash?!".  "Food runners please!".  "Does anyone in this place ever make coffee when they take the last of it?".  "Who took the last glass and didn't remove the empty rack?".  "Am I the only person that actually works in this place?".

No, no, and no!  I swear she thinks that the restaurant would not function properly if she weren't there.  No, she isn't the only person who actually does work.  She's just the only one who complains about it.  All night long we hear her scratchy voice complaining about this and complaining about that.  Everyone hates it when she works.

One time she actually started crying, in the kitchen of course, because she felt that no one was doing any work except for her.  Oh what a scene that was.  She was crying so hard that she could barely speak and what was being spoken was just a tad short from screaming.  She took it so personal.

My opinion,  she needs to chill the "f" out!

She's a pothead, nothing wrong with that but, if you're gonna smoke before you come to work at least smoke enough to get you through your 3 hour shift.  I'm tired of dealing with your attitude as you are coming down off your high.  Your tirades aren't working, can't you tell. 

For almost a year she has worked with me.  Not one single shift has passed without her whaling about what's not being done.  Nobody's listening!  We're hearing but we don't care.  Why?  Well, it may surprise you but, when you aren't at work spoons get polished, glassware gets taken to the bar, trash gets emptied, food gets ran, coffee gets made, and empty glass racks get taken to the dish pit.  The restaurant still makes money and isn't in jeopardy of closing it's doors because you didn't work that day.  Our ability to keep our jobs does not depend on whether you are at work or not. 

So, with that being said, Suzette, don't flatter yourself.  We DO NOT miss you when you're gone!!

"On Automatic"

Good morning all.  As I am sitting here with my coffee in hand I am searching through my mind trying to figure out which story I would like to share.  I have decided that, today, I will talk about automatic gratuities on parties.

At the place where I work we automatically add an 18% gratuity to parties of 8 or more.  I do believe this is the case in most restaurants.  Sometimes it's a good thing but most of the time it's a bad thing.

Back in the day we would be allowed to add the gratuity at our discretion.  This meant that if we had a 10 top and 7 of the people happened to be children we usually would decide to leave off the gratuity in hopes that we would get 20% or more as a tip.  Also, if we felt a vibe from the table that we may do better without the auto-grat, we would leave it off.  Most of the time this worked to our advantage.

Over the past few months, however, our managers have made it their mission in life to monitor this and have decided that, no matter what, if there are 8 or more people, we add the gratuity.  This happened because a specific server would get parties of  7, 6, and sometimes 5, and would add the gratuity because she thought she may be in jeopardy of getting stiffed.  She ruined it for everyone.

Anyhoo, my beef has to do with adding the grat.  I hate it!  In about 99% of the cases we almost always get ONLY 18%, nothing extra.  So no matter how well you take care of the table you're stuck with 18%.

I waited on a table last night, 15 people.  They received exceptional service.  Their cocktails stayed full as well as their waters.  They received all of their meals in a timely manner and they were served piping hot. The table was immaculately prebussed.  They also received 3 deserts on the house because of 2 birthdays and an anniversary.  When they left, the only thing on the table was napkins and water glasses.  They had my full attention the entire time.

I didn't receive not an extra dollar from any of them.  I worked my ass off to make sure they had an exceptional dining experience.  They told me how I took such great care of them and how great of a server I was and thanked me for an enjoyable night.

Complaining about this may make me sound unappreciative but who cares, I'm venting!  We, as servers, work so very hard to make our money.  With each table comes the opportunity for us to do whatever it takes so that we can make that 20% or more as a tip.  A lot of us go above and beyond just to get shot down.  A little extra would have been nice since, by your own words, I did a fantastic job.  A $19.93 check with an added 3.59 just doesn't cut it for me.  I usually get a $5 tip off of a $20 check.

Come on people!  If you really feel that your server was that awesome, then show them a little love and throw in a little extra.  I threw in an extra effort to make sure you had a great dining experience didn't I?  I scratched your back so why don't you scratch mine?