Thursday, January 23, 2014

You Can't Sit With Us

Plain and simple-- girls can be bitches.  Yes, I know this can apply to anyone, but women especially in the workplace.

We recently purged our restaurant of employees.  And I mean, an absolute mass exodus went down.
Whether they left on their own accord, or were shown the door...it doesn't matter.  What did matter is that the remaining few were over-scheduled and falling apart due to exhaustion.
 
So, out with the old and in with the new.
Thus far, our measly lineup has added both Natasha and Shoshana as servers.
When there are new employees, a trial run begins.  Are they a good fit?  Are they easy to work alongside?  Are they easily trained?  Do the guests like them? Can they keep up, and more importantly, do they have thick skin...

Some people last longer than others.  Some people phase out after awhile.  Others are immediately sent running for the hills.  I find it that women make it particularly difficult for newer women to join the current staff. I would compare my gender to savage animals.  Similarly, we've pissed on our territory, and newcomers are not to talk to our regulars.  If you're cuter than us, kick rocks.  We can only pray that you don't know the difference between a red and white wine so that you'll be on your way out shortly.



What's worse is that women are catty.  Unnecessarily so.  Shockingly, I catch myself acting this way from time to time.  Who am I, and where did this asshole of a person come from?
I've been the victim and the culprit.  I've been kicked when I was down, and yet at times when I couldn't beat them I have shamefully joined them.  I should know better.

Natasha is doing just fine as an employee at The Valley.  Shoshana, on the other hand, not so much.
She served as an employee a few years back, but much has changed.  The menu, the wine, the staff, the customers.  Like a new piece of fine gossip, she waltzed into the workplace and started waiting tables.  Struggling here and there, we saw her weaknesses.  The good person might sit down and go over what she should know already-- in all honesty, she didn't receive much of any training this time around.  But no, she is the topic behind the bar, and at the table as we fold napkins.  Why so cruel?

The odd one out.  The stinky kid in class.  The overweight girl at the lunch table.  The anomaly.

When did we become too cool to extend a hand, or become too busy to be concerned with someone else's questions?  Afterall, isn't the point of hiring new waiters to lighten the load?


At the same time, I balance out the scales.  Fact: Some people are not meant for waiting tables.  It's not that people are too fragile, or easily offended... It's that they are too nice, too kind-hearted even to a fault.  Perhaps the restaurant is not a conducive environment for their personality and ability to adapt.  Maybe it's the best thing that they get out now before it's too late and they become numb to the tyrannic rage we occasionally endure from the boss, agitated by the tables we greet, and grow more indifferent day in and day out.  

 Although brief, I have spent some time with Shoshana outside of the restaurant.  She definitely is nice and genuine, considerate and hard-working, dealing with much of what I am dealing with in my own personal life, but is being stepped on in the dog-eat-dog world of waiting that we exist in... and I've made up my mind.

You should be happy with the job you have, in the very least be content.  People don't deserve to go into work everyday expecting something to go amiss. To be alienated.  To feel unappreciated.  

 

So no, Shoshana, you can't sit with us.  You don't belong here.
Ironically, that's the nicest thing I've said all day.

Use your skills in a workplace that values you, and stay beautiful.

-Malia Etienette

Photo Credit: 
Pink Slip: www.lexleader.net 
Jealousy: www.forbes.com
2 Broke Girls: www.butch-in-progress.tumblr.com 
Keep Calm: www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk



Thursday, January 9, 2014

It's the Little Things

I'm the kind of server who will run after you in the unfortunate event you left behind your tablet, laptop, phone, keys, credit card, a pair of gloves-- even those leftovers that you so adamantly had me remember to wrap up for you.  Random acts of kindness.  Things like this come full circle, or so we hope.


A few years back, thanks to a friend, I got the chance to fly out to Seattle to spend the week-- gallivanting mainly.  Day drinking.  Shopping.  Day drinking some more.  I took myself on a tour of the city.  Fun little nooks and crannies to explore there.  I even had so much fun that at the end of one night I left my cell phone behind.

I had asked to charge my phone behind the bar, and definitely left without it, genius that I am.

Without my cellphone, I felt naked.  Like something huge was missing.  There I was, losing my mind, actually sleepless in Seattle without my precious lifeline.

A month later I received a package in the mail.  Guess what?  My cellphone and its charger, sent all the way home from Seattle.  God Bless whoever sent it.  Some of the shadier characters that I know in this state would have probably sold it on eBay, or pawned it off on Gazelle.  Anything to make a buck and watch out for the good of oneself.  I think it is too often we consider the benefits we personally can reap instead of the good for all, or anybody else for that matter.  Today is a "me first" and "what can you do for me" kind of society.  The fact my phone found its way back to my hands absolutely blew my mind.
 


A lesser fortunate experience I've had-- also in a bar-- would be related to coat checking.
I hate checking coats.  I had always heard too many horror stories.  Upon the offer of placing my coat in the employees' coat room at a "once upon a time regular drinking hole" of mine, I jumped at it.
Seems like a safe bet, right?



Wrong.  When it came time to collect my belongings and head home, my coat turned up missing.  Not an expensive coat, but a GOOD coat in the middle of a bone-chillingly cold and snowy season.  Let me tell you, there is a very special place in hell for people who steal coats in the dead of winter.  Right next to the pedophiles and the rapists, I'm sure. Apparently you can't win 'em all.




Actions come full circle...which is why I couldn't be too upset about the coat; see: karma.  I try my best to do what is expected of me, and in the very least to treat others the same way I would expect to be treated.

So I'll continue to run after people who leave belongings behind at my tables.  I'll make it a point to check up on those I haven't seen in awhile.


Kindness is about the little things that don't matter, that matter the most.  It's the little things that are often overlooked, or even mistaken for some other intention.  They will all catch up one day.  So hold a door.  Pick up the scarf that fell off the back of a chair.  Say something so simple as "thank you".  You're only given one life, so live it well. 

For the moment, keep paying it forward.

 

-Malia Etienette

Photo Credit:
Lost Phone:  www.blog.yesheis.com
Finders Keepers: www.assaugm.wordpress.com
Coat Check: www.peoplewhodeserveit.org
Karma: www.supermarkethq.com
Kindness: www.acihealthyu.wordpress.com