Help with work.
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Which sort of pissed me off. Not that I don't expect to work, but I don't much like the fact that I showed up at work expecting to get "trained", but ended up just getting thrown into things without knowing what the hell to do.
I think I did alright though, for my first day, all things considering. It wasn't a fun job, but it was a hell of a lot better than my last job. In my last job, I was getting paid for jerks to call me and yell at me and cuss me out. That ****ing sucks. Being a busboy, I have to deal with customers a lot too, but the nice thing about that is that I don't really have to TALK to them. Just judging from my first day, I might walk up to a customer and ask if I can clear off his plate. And just judging from the first day, the worst that happens is that they get mad and say "hell no, can't you see that I'm still eating?"
Which does suck, because I don't like people get mad at me. But at least they just get mad at me for a minute, then I apologize and walk off. That's a WHOLE lot better than my last job, where I'd often spend an hour listening to people yell at me because they racked up their cell phone bills and I'm not gonna give them their money back.
But everyone told me that I'd done a swell job. Which isn't really surprising, since bussing isn't rocket science. My sister recommended the job to me because I don't like dealing with people, I just want to do work and get paid. And that's basically the job, though I'm sort of P.Oed that my sister understated just how much I'd have to deal with people. But I don't have to TALK to them, which is freaking fine by me.
Although talking with customers can be nice. Like, one of the other bussers asked me if I could clear off some table where a really hot chick was sitting. So then I asked her if I could clear off her table, and she gave me this really sexy smile and said "thanks, sweetie".
And now that I think about it, that sort of pisses me off when strangers call me sweetie or honey or hot stuff. I mean, I'm lonely and I'm trying to be a professional. The workplace is not somewhere to flirt with people. Sometimes I'll go to McDonalds to pick up a burger, and the customer will call me "honey". Which feels good, because it's a nice "I like you" name, but it annoys me because she has no right to be throwing those kinds of words at customers. How does she know that I'm not married? How does she know that I won't take her comment the wrong way, and get all creepy with her even though SHE'S happily married?
And in the case of the restaurant, it was very awkward. Because for the past two hours, I'd been walking by their table and seeing her sitting there eating with a dude. And they were clearly uncomfortable, even though I tried not to get in their business by noticing. For example, several times I saw their plates almost empty, but I sort of passed them by because the guy was sitting their with his face buried in his hands, and the girl was just sitting there frowning at him as he was crying. So I assumed that she was dumping his ass, and that made approaching them awkward. I was like, "woah, I don't want to but into this. I'll come by in about 5 minutes and see if they're doing any better."
And that's the sort of thing that pisses me off. Because when I finally did clear off their table, she was being sort of flirtatious with me. But the guy was still sitting there and he was clearly angry. So the hot lady was clearly just being flirtatious with me in order to piss off her now ex-boyfriend, and he looked pissed off. She was clearly using me as a tool to make him feel worse. Which I don't necesarily mind, but he looked made, and I was afraid that he was going to stand up and punch me in my freaking face.
But here's my question...it was busy hour and they needed tables to be freed up. If you're done with dinner, we need you to go ahead and order dessert so that you can leave and let more people have a table and give us money. The problem is that during the busy hours, I'd sometimes walk around checking to see if there were any tables to clear, and everyone was still bust eating. So I asked my trainer, "look, everyone's still eating. Is there anything else I can do right now to be productive?" And he says "well, it's busy hours. Right now you just want to walk around bussing tables and clearing plates."
So I did. I just sort of walked around the dining room until I finally saw a plate that I could clear. And that just didn't feel right.
So here's my question. You've all been to restaurants, right? I'm supposed to be looking busy. Now I'm asking this to you as a customer. If you were at a restaurant having dinner, and you saw me just walking back and forth looking for plates to clear, would YOU think that I look like I'm working, or would YOU think that I look like I'm just walking around wasting time?
Second question. Suppose you're at a table, and you've been done with dinner for a while. And you're waiting for someone to clear your table so that you can order dessert. But suppose that you're also in a very intense conversation with your mates. Now, as a customer, what do you prefer? Would you prefer that I interrupt your conversation to ask if I can clear your plate? Or would you think it's rude if I interrupt you to ask if I clear your plates? Because I think that's the thing that made me most awkward, and I'm not quite sure how to handle it in a way that makes the customer most comfortable. I just don't know how the CUSTOMER would best want me to intrude on them in order to clear off their tables. Most people seemed cool about me approaching them, but some people seemed annoyed and I would like to fix that.
This is especially important because this restaurant is one of THE places to go in my city. And we occasionally get high profile celebrities eating here. So if I happen to end up bussing a table that is occupied by Bob Dylan, Trent Reznor, or President Bush, I'd like to avoid pissing them off by being an intrusive jerk.
So I'm asking YOU as a customer. If you're in an intense conversation and I approached you and interrupted you and asked if I could clear off your table, how annoyed would YOU be?
I worked as a busboy before, so I know that if somebody is walking around seemingly doing nothing, they need something to do, so I don't think its a problem. As far as being intrusive to clear tables, I don't think its something to worry about. I've had plates taken during very intense arguments, or while describing a serious problem, etc. Its not a big deal cause you know its the busboy's job. I think that's all I can say.
And hey, if you ever do see Trent Reznor there, you could always take it a step further and ask for his autograph, I'd pay you for it!
As a customer if you're just walking around, I wouldn't care if you were working or wasting time. I'm not paying you. I'm just there to eat. If you need to clear my table while I'm in the middle of a conversation, go ahead. That doesn't bother me. I realize you've got a job to do.darkjedirpm
Okay, thanks. That helps a lot. I just felt sort of awkward, because I could tell that a few people got annoyed (it's also possible that they were annoyed before I approached them), and a few customers seemed to be trying to ignore me when I approached them. So your input really helps, I just want to make sure that I'm not annoying our guests by being too pushy. After all, their comfort comes first, because they are the ones giving us money.
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