8/357: Peanuts

I'm gonna just suck it up and take it for now. Skinny's is easy work, but the manager is a big, disorganized, micromanaging mess. Friendly and even generous, as noted by how he paid me on Monday. But last night during my "waitress training", he hovered over me to make sure I filled the salad dressing cups correctly. What, really?

Also, there's no work schedule to speak of. The manager, I'll just call him Hank, just tells me what day he'd like me to work the following week, and I respond "yes" or "no". Doesn't sound like I will have a certain day of the week to count on, either. It's all in his chaotically organized head.

Funnily, at the end of my shift last night, I was told to write my name on a waitress pad sheet, include the day, date, and the times I worked, and place it within a disorganized collection of other waitresses' pad sheets stuffed into a small, plastic meal basket on top of the microwave. That is record keeping system. It's how he remembers waitress hours in order to calculate our pay at the end of the week. What the hell? God forbid one of those sheets accidentally falls in the fryer grease. It's his word against the waitress's word as to whether she worked last Tuesday. This system needs help.

I only make $5.50 an hour there, plus tips of course, and I knew that going in. However, I was kind of counting on tips. Although a light night last night, I still had customers, but no tips. That's because I learned that customers sitting at the bar (and not at the traditional tables) will walk up to our service window and order a meal from me. I take their order, serve their food at the bar, ask how their food is tasting, clear their dishes with a smile....but I won't receive a tip at all. The barmaid gets all bar tips, the wait staff gets all table tips. Oh well, I guess she depends on tips, too.

Nice, here it is. Underemployed, yet desperate for extra money. I gotta do what I gotta do. Maybe after a while, if I choose to continue to work there a couple of times a week, I will have made enough of a positive impression that I can ask about how to earn my share of the tip. Or, maybe after a short while, I'll decide that this is chicken shit and I'll just leave. Maybe a part time position at the Sylvan Learning Center will give me a call. But I'm not gonna hold my breath.

Question: Share one employment experience that drove you nuts. How long did you stay before you threw in the proverbial apron?