I’ve been working in a restaurant for nearly 3 months now. The pay’s pretty good but after all the taxes that I had to pay, I don’t see much of my income. But, I’m not too worried bout that cause come June/July, it’ll be tax return time and I’m very sure and confident that I’ll be getting all the money that I had payed for tax back into my pocket again.
Being a newbie who started really low in the ranks of restaurant staff, I guess I could say that I’ve progressed rather quickly to be put out on the floor and taking food orders now. When I first started out, all I did was polish cutleries and plates in the servery while sending food out. Then, I was still a lowly staff member, having to wear white shirts to work every day and was only able to carry 2 plates at a time. We newbies in the white were always ignored by the old staff and we’re practically invisible to them.
A month later, I was given the restaurant official shirt to wear and hence, was clearly identified as a staff member of the restaurant. Chefs from the kitchen and other staff members started to take notice of me and gradually started being more friendly towards me. I was still stuck in the servery then, but my status in the servery had somehow elevated slightly. I started carrying 3 plates to a table at a time and learned how to make coffees. I was given food training by my head supervisor and was taught how to use Palms to take customers’ order. I had more or less familiarised myself with the menu and was taught to memorise and recite the specials of the day. I learned how to set the table and also the right way and etiquette to use when approaching customers. Mind you, learning customer service is an important lesson in the restaurant because 90% of our customers are really rich people who earn millions and billions of dollars. They get really bitchy if our customer service is not satisfactory and I’ve seen how some of my supervisors had a go at some of my colleagues when they’re not performing well.
After all those training, I was still not put on the floor immediately though. However, I was soon trusted with the duty to direct newbies on what to do when we’re closing the servery every night because I ended up being the only one in the servery who knows everything that needed to be done before we could go home. Half the time, I was not needed to run the food out to the customers because I’ll be busy making cups after cups after cups of coffee. Within the time frame of a few weeks, nearly all the chefs in the kitchen remembered my name and started talking and joking around with me. The head of servery, who was generally a very nice guy, got even nicer towards me and started treating me with extra or leftover food from the kitchen once in while. We recently changed some dishes in the menu and he let me tried some of the new dishes when I went in to work.
Yesterday, for the first time ever, I was finally put on the floor. It was pretty overwhelming although I only had a really, really small section to look after because there were just so many things to do! Other than making sure that the customers are happy, I have to make sure that they have the right cutleries and glasses for whatever food or drinks that they had ordered. Also, I was so stressed out making sure that I do not screw up any orders before sending it to the kitchen and it was not busy at all yesterday! I never thought that they’ll put me on the floor again today since it’s a really busy day but surprisingly, they did. I have a bigger section today and really thought that I wasn’t doing too well looking after the customers. I keep forgetting things that needed to be done immediately and although I did them later, I was still not very happy with myself. I was in for a shock.
When I was clocking out of work earlier on, I had a quick chat with my head supervisor to find out about her opinion on my performance on the floor. I had geared myself up for some serious criticisms but to my surprise, she was actually very happy with my performance and said that I was doing really well. She said that she, together with one of the assistant manager, were both observing me throughout the day and night and they both thought that I did well. She mentioned that there was no complains about me from other colleagues and that some of them thought that I was doing good as a newbie on the floor.
It’s really nice to know that I’m doing better than I thought I was at work. No doubt that the work is not as easy as everyone think it is but I’m quite happy and contented working there. Yes, there are some ignorant and racist customers who made the day miserable but these people only come along once in a blue blue moon. Most of the customers really appreciate the service they received from us. Although I’m always tired like a dog by the end of the night after a long day’s work, knowing that people actually appreciate and are happy do invoke a warm sense of happiness in me. Sounds funny and weird right? But that’s just me.
It’s a really good experience working in a restaurant and I’ve become more appreciative towards F&B staff these days. Frankly, I think I’ll miss the work and people in the restaurant when I have to stop working and go back to Malaysia for good. Oh well, life goes on…
