So about a month ago I started training as a waitress for the Macaroni Grill. It just opened here in Helena and we are actually the first store in all of Montana. Hurray for Helena! Anyway, training has been ridiculously grueling. Lots of memorization, table etiquette, etc… I’ve been doing alright with it though.
This past week was our first time serving real customers. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we did a charity event for St. Peter’s Hospital Foundation where the restaurant donated all the food that was served and I as a waitress donated all my tips. It was all for a good cause plus it gave us all a chance to practice. Therefore, people basically got to come in, enjoy a free meal while we spilled drinks on them and served them cold food at the wrong table. It was great. I actually did pretty well those three days. Not one spilled drink or wrong order. All my customers were satisfied and when they heard that I was donating my tips for the evening I got more than a couple $100 tips put towards the foundation. I was feeling good and ready for Thursday when I would keep my first night of tips.
So Thursday came and I’m weaving in and out of tables, executing every task with perfect form, so much so that when the biggest party of the evening came in all the managers looked around in panic of who would be able to handle it as a server. ….This is where the evening goes bad. I should probably mention that everyone in the restaurant was doing a pretty dang good job considering that half of us weren’t chiefs, severer, or bartenders 2 weeks prior. They probably picked me to take the big party more because I was the first one they saw and didn’t know what else to do. Before any of you get ahead of me…I did great with this table!…..it was the cute young couple that got seated in my section right next to them that suffered.
It was the classic story….A handsome man (which I recognized as a manager from Costco) and a beautiful girl out at the newest restaurant in town, on their very first date. The romantic mood was set when she ordered a glass of wine (followed by the whole bottle) and he cautiously ordered water. Classic. I practically glide up to the table, drinks on a tray in hand. I reach for the wine, place it in front of the woman. I reach for the water……but it’s not there! Oh no! It’s tipped off the tray…all over his lap! It was so horrific that by the time I got the towel off my shoulder (which I carry at all times) everyone was laughing. They really were great about it. I moved them to a drier table and served them an appetizer on the house after my manager made a quick apologetic visit.
I must have said sorry 100 times throughout the rest of the evening and they both told me 100 times that it was alright and even left me a generous tip. But it doesn’t stop there. When I went home that night to recount the whole story to Matt I suddenly realized that I might have charged them for their appetizer that was supposed to be free! The next morning I got up, made a couple loaves of homemade bread and swung over to the restaurant to talk to my manager. I told him what I thought I’d done and he gave me a $20 gift certificate to Macaroni Grill that I stuck in with the bread and headed to Costco. Like I said, I didn’t know the guy, but I knew I’d seen him working at Costco. He wasn’t there so I left the bread in his box (one loaf for him and one for his date) and the gift card with a note inside that said “Sorry again for spilling that water on you. Hope you come in again soon. –Amie PS- I’m a much better bread maker than I am waitress.”
Everything else has been going well for me and my new job. For the most part all my coworkers are highly energetic pleasant people and recovering from Thursday night was a little easier as they all took turns recounting a few horror stories of their own. All in all, I’m still sad to be spending time away from Matt and the kids, but it pays the bills for now while Matt knocks out his degree. Then he’ll be supporting me for the rest of my life. I think I’m getting the better part of the deal!
Since then I’ve gained a new appreciation for work horror stories so, if you have any of your own, please share them after the beep. ………Beeeeep!
12 comments:
very well written Amie! I almost fell out of my seat laughing!! I am proud of you. I will come and have dinner at your place. I ate at one for the first time this past week! Take care adn talk to oyu soon!
Yea for work stories!! This is going to be great! Hmmm, my favorite quote of the week was a girl that said, "How long do babies cry for? I mean, do they kind of get over it by the time they're one, or one and a half?" Wow.
Lollie, I know you'll read this so I'm telling you on here that I tried to comment on your page but it wouldn't let me! Whats going on!?
love amie
Amie you're so sweet! Now that's customer service!
Working at the photo lab at Longs Drugs was a fun job because most of the customers were regulars, and pretty nice. What would get me, though, is the customers you could smell before you saw them coming. Literally. Three come to mind... An older gentleman who was an advocate for AA and showered in Old Spice; an older lady who had an obvious face lift gone wrong- it was like she was wearing a mask!- who smelled like nasty old lady expensive musty floral perfume- you get the idea; and a man who would come in after working in a factory- now that was a sweaty mechanical scent... he was sort of slow, and would spend his money buying cheap watches. He had quite the collection. And loved to talk about it.
The other thing I always hated was the naked pictures. I wouldn't print them, but they come up on the screen and HELLO! They were never of pretty people, either. The most ridiculous one I ever got was a teenager measuring his wingwang. Ruler and all. Wow.
Let's just say the only thing I miss from the photo lab is the free prints. :)
What did you try and comment on? No clue on why it wouldn't let you! Sorry. Love you....and your bread was awesome. I LOVE homemade bread.
My new job isn't too bad. Yes, I get the occasional jackass who thinks they know better than I do, but I figure that comes with the territory. Nothing like the old days at Instant Check Cash where I was protected by steel plated doors and walls, and about 8 panels of bullet-proof glass. Complete with an under-the-counter alarm system to notify the authorities.
I had one woman tell me that she was going to come back and "Put a bullet through my head" because I wouldn't cash her boyfriends check which was from Texas. Another incident was with a man who was so angry with me for not giving him a post-dated check loan that he threatened to, "Come for me" after the store was closed. I had to call the cops that day to be escorted out to my vehicle.
Needless to say, I quit shortly thereafter.
But not before my uncle embezzled over $100,000.00 from them and I had to testify against him in court.
Man, the things we do for a little dough?!
A work Horror Story. Well Lets See.
The worst horror story that I can think of would be when I first started working at IHOP and it was really busy. I had a table that was sat and I took their order, Then I went to the next order at a different table and then the next. I put went back to the first table and asked if everything was alright. They said that they hadn't recieved their food yet. So I went up to the counter and asked the cooks what was taking so long. Turns out I never put their order in. I turned around and noticed them leaving. My manager stopped them and explained it was my first night. While he was doing this I was putting a rush on their order. Then he came over to the computer and yelled at me right where the customer could see. I ran into the back crying. I recieved a nice big tip from the that table with a note that said things happen and my manager should have never yelled at me like that.
Oh I thought of another one from my days at Sears. Now I don't know why, but apparently some people mistake the dressing rooms for the BATHROOM. The ladies dressing room in the Sears on State street in SLC smells like pee! On more than one occasion, I walked into the dressing room to find a pile of clothing on the floor in a pile smelling like pee! Now of course, it wasn't all new clothing that was damaged, half of the pile of clothing usually belonged to the customer because they left the old and wore the new out of the store (stealing). Oh, I am glad those days are over!
I was one of those server cold food! The next time it was great food though!
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