I work at the most wonderful restaurant I have EVER worked for. The owner's are crazy...but a good kind of crazy. A married couple that could easily be an entire season of "The Marriage Ref." They both work incredible, long hours seven days a week and I once commented to the husband that it's a wonder they weren't crazier with the hours they both put in. They welcomed me into their restaurant family at a time when I felt like I was going to seriously and literally lose it. I was desperate, I was broke and I was the mother of three children with a husband out of work.
They are my saving salvation...they were the answer to my prayers. My own family and tons of friends helped me survive but these folks gave me the opportunity to survive on my own and have given me the greatest blessing of working somewhere that realizes your potential...they give me free reign with my personality and trust me to realize when to tone it down or when to play it up.
The first month I was nervous wreck. The second month I felt a little better. By the third month I started to feel comfortable. I am in my fourth month and "Stella got her Groove back!"
I was fired from a company after 13 years of receiving merit pins , being made trainer...going above and beyond the call MORE than numerous times only to have it all snatched away once my personal life was in turmoil.
All the years of being a great server were forgotten as my life spiraled and I was suddenly considered a liability for the huge corporation that had bought out my company and was tossed to the wayside like a piece of trash ... stumbled in the wind and fell into a ditch, with my house going into foreclosure and scratching to make meager ends meet.
By the grace of God and with the help of many others...we survived. I had to humble myself and had to do things I never thought I would have to do but my family is still intact and we are still in our house.
The people I work for and with are just what I needed. I don't work for a corporate head far off in some distant galaxy that could care less about ME, but for two people that own a restaurant that is their life and their livelihood.
They know that I have been doing this for almost 33 years. They know that I will show up, pressed and clean. They know that I will push and sell their amazing product and be a part of the gears that make it all work....for THEM and ME.
I have been happier here than I have been in years. That's a lot of "Haves" but it is better to "Have" than to "Have not."
Some of the servers I work with are kids. They are good servers but they are just kids. Getting back to the picture I posted above..."Cat Dog."
Two girls that work with me are sweet girls but appear to be hooked together . They come in and if we aren't busy they don't seek out work...they seek out each other. They sit at the bar chatting or they stand in front of the computers we ring orders in on...chatting. For Pete's sake....I don't care what he said about your best friend and what happened after you left the gym. I don't care about the sale at Kohl's. Just don't talk about it in the part of the alley that I need to make drinks in or get bread out of.
One of the bartenders remarked to me that she thought she was on hidden camera just waiting to see how long it would be before she smacked them both into action ...a paid for action. We would say "Excuse me, I need the computer." Or we would say "I'm sorry do you need to make a drink or can I get these three drinks out of the soda tower while you talk about that great sale at American Eagle?"
I commented to the owner's son that they were driving me crazy...standing in the way when I was trying to get things done. He said to me right off the cuff... "Who, Cat Dog?"
OMG....He hit it right on the head.
Working with young people is nothing to me. I have three kids that can spend more time doing nothing than it takes me to cut two yards on a riding lawn mower.
What IS crazy is that I am SO stinking happy at my new job and believe it or not they seem to love me too.
Let Barb or Len see "Cat Dog" standing around doing nothing and they will wish they could unhook...and quickly.
That's what's best about working for owners and not corporate underlings.
When they see something wrong they fix it quickly. When they see something right they stick with it and stand by it.
So glad to be there and so glad they WANT me to be there.
Til next time..."Contented and Catching up COTTON"
PS If you've never seen a "CatDog" cartoon, just google it.
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