Sometimes You Gotta See The Big Picture

I went into work the other evening. We only had three servers on so I was hoping for  prosperous night.

The owners have a firm rule about cell phones...they are NOT allowed. They have a sign before you even come in the front door that says "No cell phones please." Customers still use them, the polite ones walk outside to take calls, others ignore it totally and use speaker phone where you  can hear both  sides of the conversation.

We servers had to sign a piece of paper saying we knew if  caught on a cell phone at work you could be fired.

A good friend and co worker of mine got caught  by the owner checking her cell phone. I happened to come out of the kitchen and knew immediately she had gotten busted.

The owner stopped me and asked if we were supposed to use our cell phones at work? I knew my friend was in  trouble, knew she was wrong but hated throwing her under the bus. I hesitated and said something along the lines of "Umm.."

He almost fired her and I feel grateful he didn't.

When I went to turn in my check out after my shift he called me in the office. I knew what was coming, unfortunately.

He was livid I didn't stand up for him being right and her being wrong. He WAS exactly right and I was exactly wrong.

 He told me he felt he couldn't trust me and that really hurt his feelings. He said several things that were true but also said he felt I had no respect for him. I have so much respect  for him that it isn't even funny. The man works seven days a week. He isn't rich but gives us all the opportunity to survive and thrive without having the load of the tremendous over head of running a business.

The man can simply scare  the poop out of you when he's angry and I thought with my emotions instead of my head and  took the coward's way out trying to save face for a friend.

After stewing about it for a day I realized he WAS exactly right and I was EXACTLY wrong.

He told me (glaringly) the rules and demands he has aren't so he can line his pockets with money or get rich but simply trying  to make ends meet.

 He asked  who paid my mortgage...was it my friend I took up for or him? He replied before I could answer...  it was neither, it was the customer  and that is who he is most concerned about. He added that if I didn't take the side of the store over another employee who was obviously in the wrong then I could not be trusted.

He was exactly and one hundred percent right.

They hired me when I was at an all time low. Our house was being foreclosed on, we were on food stamps, unemployment insurance and my younger kids were both on medicaid. They have loaned me money for bills time and time again , money for dog food when the pups had nothing to eat but each other and even money to take on our first vacation in over five years. They gave my daughter a part time job for Christmas and gave my son a job when he needed one  to be eligible for  a work release program when he got arrested and sentenced.

These people saved me and what did I do in return? I backed up someone who I knew was wrong because they were my friend and I didn't want them to get fired.

I thought about how much I believe in "Pay it Forward." They have always paid it forward to me  because I am a hard worker and they believe in me ... yet I failed in paying it forward with loyalty and respect.

Yes they can be crazy and often times are... but if I worked the hours they do and have for the years they have, I'd be sitting in a rubber room bashing my head into the wall.

In hindsight, I am lucky he didn't fire me. I have apologized to both of them and feel grateful they seem to have slightly accepted my misguided and misplaced knee jerk reaction which was totally  wrong especially considering I am a fifty two year old woman, wife and mother who happens to help support her family by  them keeping the doors to their restaurant open and allow me to work all the hours I want as long I do my job well.

I failed to do my job well the other night. I failed to support what has supported my family for over two years.

I'm not perfect...no one is,  but  have realized my mistake and won't make it again. If you don't like working there and don't like the rules, then don't work there.

I like working there. Some days are tough and the owners can be too,  but nobody is forcing us to work for them.

Apologies to my friend, I love you but you were wrong and I was even more wrong.

Lucky to still have a job and lucky that I have remembered "Pay it Forward."

Til next  time...COTTON

 

 



You Gotta Have Thick Skin When You Are A Server

I have been a server so long that this is actually the way we used to send checks to the kitchen. Write it down and walk over and hang it up with a clothes pin on a wire they had strung.

Now everything is computerized and when a computer goes down  we have to use our brains...that's when the trouble starts.

I've worked too much this week and I know it, but when you are in my line of work every shift is a paycheck.  We are so close I can smell it... It smells like being in the black!

I fell asleep on the sofa in the living room Wednesday night. I keep the ceiling fan on high so it helps keep the house cooler. Woke up the next morning freezing and both my ears ached. My throat hurt and my nose was stopped up . NOT GOOD...

I waited for it to go away instead of simply taking some medicine. By Friday I was miserable. The problem was I was scheduled to work Friday day and night, Saturday day and night and Sunday day and night...added bonus was Sunday was Father's Day or as we like to call it in  the restaurant world "A Mother of a Father's Day."

I started pumping in the meds on Friday during my break between lunch and dinner and felt somewhat better. It doesn't help that I have terrible eating habits unless  you consider coffee a food group. Saturday I was on the fence but feeling a bit better, I found some 800 MG Ibuprofen Zach had left over from when he was sick. They ran out today...and so did I.

I got to work five minutes late today...it wasn't the day to do that. We were already filling up quickly and I got my head bit off when I walked in by  a manager. I knew better than to be late, but almost never am.

Then a computer crashed and we were all fighting to ring our orders in on the two left running.

Here's my beef...

I work like a demon from the time I get there til  the time I clock out and I clock in A LOT! I am fifty two years old and weigh 99 pounds. All the working is of my own choosing and I totally realize that but  keep a good attitude and try to be nice to everyone. I am nice to the dishwashers, the prep team, the hosts out front and even the surly cooks...on top of being nice to customers who sometimes aren't.

I'm not sick a lot, but today I felt terrible. When things went whack with the computer and the kitchen lost one of my checks it got dicey. One of the cooks was yelling at me, Barb was yelling at me because she was trying to make people happy up front waiting to be seated and I was so behind it wasn't funny.

I snapped. And then the worst thing possible happened...The tears started pouring.

I am usually tough skinned (you have to be in my line of work.) I didn't feel good, I'd been working too much and it suddenly BECAME too much. The cooks were screaming at me, the managers were screaming at me and my customers were screaming at me.

Calgon never showed up to "Take me away."

MY point is that YOU don't have to be ugly to get your point across. I get it. I treat every person I work with as an equal. I treat every one the way I want to be treated. It's called the Golden Rule but the memo got lost today. I had a thirty minute breakdown and had absolutely no mascara left, and a snotty nose to boot.

Had I not been sick I could have handled it perfectly and probably even with a joke or two. Feeling like crap though...they better be glad I don't carry a gun.

I think it shocked and  surprised all of them. I am usually the one that can blow off  or defuse any situation and here I am sniveling like a baby.

"I wanted my mommy."

When I got cut from the floor for my break, the owner said "Let me make you some Chicken noodle soup." I told him I just wanted to go home and lay down for a hour and he said "Just take it home with you."

I got home and lapped the soup up, crawled in bed in with my work clothes on and assumed  the position of Lily Munster sleeping...not mussing my hair or what little make up I had left on.

I got back to work and they all seemed to be walking on eggshells around me. I tend to have my seldom breakdowns at home and  think I terrified them all. They let me have an extra hour off, I was due back at five but they let me come back at six.

Six is good...we close at 8:30 on Sunday. The soup was great (everything the owner cooks is) and I felt better having a hour on my back with my girl beside me and two pups wagging those stumps they call tails every time I say their name.

Ya know...sometimes you just gotta flip out, sometimes you just gotta say..."We're all in the same boat and it's not just YOU with an oar... Let's row together."

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love my job. I absolutely love the people I work for. When I'm feeling great I can do it shift after shift after shift.

But when I already feel like crap, don't throw more in my face.

All's well that ends well...and the night ended well.

I usually always work a double shift on Monday but when the owner posted the schedule for the upcoming week before I left...he had me scheduled off for Monday and Tuesday. He said "Go home and get well."

Sleeping til I wake up. Taking a day for myself . Then starting all over again.

Til next time...COTTON