Pathetic Managers

I started my part time job on Thursday. Tomorrow I work my fourth (and final) training shift.

I really could have been done training yesterday, in my opinion.

At the present time, I’m wishy-washy about the place. Yes, there is a great opportunity to make a whole ton of money there. I could quite honestly more than double my current income working just 2-3 shifts per week. Seriously.

Quite frankly, I am more than capable of doing a kick-ass job. I’m not usually one to talk myself up, but I’ve been waiting tables since I was 14. I have an incredible ability to multitask, up-sell, make conversation with my tables… and I can do it all very quickly, efficiently, confidently, WHILE still finding time to help others who I’m working with. In every serving job that I’ve held in the last five years, I’ve been the server that others go to for help. I’m the one picking up the slack. I’m great at it, plain and simple. For fuck’s sake I’ve held every front of house position possible within a restaurant over the years – I’ve served, I’ve done phones, I’ve hosted, have bartended (both low and high-volume restaurants)… I’ve been a restaurant manager here in uptown Minneapolis! I think that any restaurant would be lucky to have me on their service staff (that is, if they’re willing to work within the time constraints of my current [and faaar more important] full-time job).

I do NOT appreciate being talked down to when I’m serving tables… especially by self-important managers that are just yelling to yell (because they’re frustrated about something that is totally beyond anybody’s control). I do NOT appreciate being yelled at because a fellow server threw a dirty plate into the bus tub that I was attempting to carry downstairs as a favor to everybody who was busting their asses on the floor (I was yelled at because that plate still had some food on it, and apparently food is supposed to be scraped before carrying bus tubs downstairs. I was halfway down the three flights of stairs when it was thrown into the bus tub that I was carrying. Was I supposed to stop, walk back up the flights of stairs, push through the crowds on the patio, run all the way back to the other side where the bus tubs/garbages are, scrape it, and then turn around and go all the way back downstairs again? Are you fucking retarded?).

I mean, I get being jaded… I do. When you’ve been in the industry for a long time, you can definitely become bitter. When you’re managing your restaurant, however, it does not make sense to attempt to assert your dominance over your employees by threatening, yelling, being bitter, angry, pompous, or by treating them as though they’re stupid (it doesn’t take a fucking genius to be a restaurant manager, FYI. It especially doesn’t take a genius to be a bad manager.).

Ahhhh!

Okay, so, are my problems with this place shining through the words that I’ve written rather clearly? If not, let me spell it out for you: the management BLOWS over there. Apparently the managers all hate each other (this was told to me by the server who was training me in on Friday night). The owner of the place comes in all the time and is a total dick (he’s apparently been known to come in, scream about tiny issues, and then fire anybody on the spot who is unlucky enough to be around him while he’s flipping shit).

It is so sad. On my first day I was yelled at for wearing jeans that were too dark of a wash (before my shift I was not once told by anybody what kind of jeans I was supposed to wear… they just said that I was supposed to wear jeans).

These are not the jeans that I was wearing, but this is what color they were:

 

I should add that I do not own a single pair of lighter wash jeans. I do not buy them because I think that they look cheap and are ugly (just my personal opinion! I’ve never claimed to be the most fashionable person on the planet. They’re just not my thing.).

 

Later that evening, I watched another server get yelled at by another manager because her jeans were too light. This is the approximate color of the jeans that she was wearing:

 

??????????????????

So what color, exactly, should I be buying when I go out to purchase new jeans for this job?

I also helped set up the patio while being watched/instructed on what to do by the server that I was following. One manager checked everything and said that we did a good job. We then went downstairs to work on some training paperwork with our trainer. Not 15 minutes in to it, the general manager came stomping downstairs, his face red with anger. "ALL THREE OF YOU. GET YOUR ASSES UPSTAIRS. WE NEED TO HAVE A TALK, IMMEDIATELY. NOW!!!"

We all looked at each other, and followed him up the stairs to the patio.

Once up stairs, he proceeded to berate us over the fact that ‘two weeks ago’ they’d received the following salt and pepper shakers:

 

and FIVE WHOLE CADDIES (the things that house the salt, pepper, silverware, ketchup, etc. on the patio tables), of the 30 or so that we had put out, had old salt and pepper shakers in them that looked like this:

 

The trainer stood straight up next to the two of us trainees with her hands behind her back, apologetically saying, "Yes sir! No sir!" like somebody from the fucking military answering questions that her drill sergeant was screaming at her. It was so sad. I’ve never seen anything like it.

The kicker to all of this? The people who closed are in charge of stocking the caddys. That means that the people who closed left those salt and pepper shakers in the caddys. All the three of us did yesterday while opening was put the caddies on the tables, which is all that we’re supposed to have to do in the morning. Additionally, Thursday was our first day. We had no idea what the salt and pepper shakers were supposed to look like… we only knew that there were supposed to be salts and peppers in the caddies. FINALLY, once we finally did start replacing the salt and pepper shakers, we found that there were not enough of the new ones to go around. We HAD to leave some of the old salt and

pepper shakers on the tables because management hadn’t ordered enough of the new ones to put them on every table.

WTF?

Really, when it comes down to it, I do not need this job. I want a part-time serving job because I know that the money is great and that I could use it to pay down a nice chunk of my student loans working only a few nights a week during the summer months. So, my plan is to laugh off the ridiculousness of the managers, not take anything too seriously, and attempt to fly under their radar. I’m going to show that I’m more than capable of not only doing my job, but also taking that stupid managers job (though, I wouldn’t ever manage a restaurant again. No way.). I’m not afraid to talk shit if I need to, and I’m not afraid to flip him the finger and walk out laughing at him if things get bad enough.

So, yeah, it’s been a great first few days there! Lol. Really, the service staff is pretty great. I haven’t had any issues with any of them, and that’s all that really matters, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve got thick skin.