Posts tagged waiting

There’s this saying that you always know what you were doing or where you were when a major catatrosphe happens: 9-11, the Kennedy assassination, the bombing of Pearl Harbor; I remember the first time I ate at Red Robin. During my freshman year in Arizona, my Cousin Tracey treated me to my first meal at a Red Robin, breaking my routine of what was either pork ramen (breakfast), chicken ramen (lunch), or beef ramen (dinner). I remember ordering a Royal Red Robin burger, your standard bacon cheeseburger with a fried egg; and even though I’ve had months of ramen in my system, that thing was a symphony of flavor. While the thought of repeat business crossed my mind, employment never had. But as of the 4th, I no longer work for the company, and while I’ve been looking for the perfect time to share my thoughts on serving, why do today what you can put off tomorrow there’s no time like the present. Of all the times I wanted to quit, I thought it was only a matter of time before i walked out, but unfortunately Red Robin has the last laugh. I didn’t quit, I was fired; and not for misconduct or peeing in someones lemonade, but for something truly stupid. Like call the main office to verify stupid, or wrongful termination stupid.

Why I was fired. I’m not sure how many times I did this, probably no more than four, and I assure you it has nothing to do with my credit card fraud? post (which is a bad idea, I end up losing money because the amount I end up “gaining” from my credit card company refund is much less that what I’d lose from paychecks for declaring so much money). Once a guest leaves and paid with cash, I would then take the cash and pay their bill with my credit card (saving me a trip to the bank and dodging an ATM fee). That’s it. Stupid I know. I thought the term was “money handling” but I couldn’t find anything about it online. It’s insulting to think all the times I helped out, and get fired for something completely irrelevant to performance, attitude, law, or ethics, not to mention there was a 10 day gap I didn’t work before they let me go. It reminds me of a dating situation where you look for any situation to get out of a relationship, or possibly make one up. Due to unprecedented brand loyalty, it looks like they’ve lost a customer for life, as far as .

On to serving…

LIKES:

1. Every guest is Christmas: One of my favorite feelings is opening a present, or being surprised. Every tip is always a surprise, the question is whether its a Nintendo 64 or… socks.
2. Experience: I’ve always had a personal feeling that since everyone in their life eats out, you should also spend a little time serving. Perhaps the mutual respect, the general understanding of operations, or an exercise in patience.
3. Flexibility: For a student and a reservist, servings a good deal. Can always adjust for whatever unnecessary life interruptions arise.
4. Easy: I believe Othello says is the best, a minute to learn a lifetime to master. Although I suppose it took me a few minutes to find an efficiency… nitch.
5. Service: Providing good service is a way to be nice to people. Its also a nice way to be mean to mean people, if that makes sense. Both feeling are mutually rewarding. Providing a good experience is rewarding and worthwhile.
6. Co-Workers: I think I have to mention this since some of the might visit my website.

DISLIKES:

1. Bad tips on good service (coincides with pen thieves): I figure its because people are cheap, but there is always this haunting feeling that I did something to rub them the wrong way, like got caught looking at the wife’s tits or something, but if she didn’t want people to look, she shouldn’t be wearing something so low cut. But, there’s a really good rule of thumb about this kind of stuff, if you can’t afford to tip properly, you can’t afford to eat out. And fuck you to whoever stole my pens.
2. Mundane: Soooo boring. While the possibilities are endless for interaction, you will never be more than a robot.
3. Cindy: It’s pretty difficult for me to say anything mean about nice people. But I’ve never met someone so much of an airhead that I’ve wanted to… Wayne Brady. She should work for Interpol, I’m surprised her head hasn’t exploded from contradicting rules. If I were smart I’d write a rule to jump off a bridge.
4. Bullshit employee propaganda: I think this is mandatory for all teetfeeders of a company, I find it degrading, but maybe there is chaos without it.
5. Music: I’m not sure who their target audience when they picked this stuff out, but that place plays 0 good music. All crap. 100%. No classics, all 90′s top 40 garbage.
6. Not serving: Worst part of going to work, is doing all the work that isn’t serving. It’s mostly cleaning and pointless crap that “has to be done”. I usually end up weaseling out of it, or doing way too much.
7. Blacks: Blacks are Mexicans that speak English and know better. As a whole, they are generally decent people, but as Chris Rock puts its, there are two types of black people.
8. Mexicans: Cheap, but I bet they don’t know better. Yeah, right.
9. Inconsistent: Granted the job is flexible, I don’t think I ever had the same schedule for more than 2 weeks.
10. Good tips on bad service: This doesn’t apply to me…
11. Kids: They’re trying to have a good time, I’m just trying to make a living. A bit of a clash.
12. Dreams: Dreams about work are never good. The worst part is it takes over the part of having my regular awesome dreams.