Decisions, Decisions

So this morning, sitting at the Y, I'm seriously considering just quitting The Office. Claire told me about a week ago that her primary assistant had to quit, so if I wanted to become her primary, she'd be able to give me a lot more hours. The company that runs the personal assistant program is changing, and the new company runs cash model, so she'd also be able to pay me more.
Right now with tips at The Office, I'm making maybe $100 a week. Right now, I get paid a little over $9 an hour with Claire. If I worked with her five days a week, even if only for four hours, that's about $180. So even before my rate went up, I'd be making much more money than I am waitressing.
I was trying to look and see if maybe there were any other restaurants in the area that were hiring, but there really aren't. The closest one is on Rt. 18 in East Brunswick, and that's a 25 minute drive from AJ's, without taking into account the traffic that Rt. 18 is notorious for.
Claire's flexabilty is also a huge plus. I really do need to get out and start going on auditions again, and if I'm constantly worried about my schedule, that won't happen. I can't call the restaurant an hour before my shift starts and say "Hey my audition is running late I can't make it tonight." At least, not more than once. But Claire is so flexable, and she completely understands the difference between part time job and career. She told me she has a few other secondary on call assistants that she can call if I can't work. And we can work the schedule around what we already have planned. That means if I'm going on vacation I don't have to worry about who's taking my shifts. Or when things pop up like Dad wanting to take me to see Mary Badham, I don't have to worry that I may not be able to go. And no working on major holidays (serously, who goes to a restaurant on Thanksgiving anyway?). And it would also mean having a social life agian.

I know I haven't posted in a while

And unfortunately, things at work haven't gotten much better since my last post.

Trying to work three jobs is hard, especially when one is early in the morning, one is during the day, and one is at night. I was working at the Y on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 5am - 9am, Saturday at 7am - 1pm, and Sunday at 8:30am to 1pm, working at The Office Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday nights, going in between 4:30 and 5:30 and getting out between 9 and 11, sometimes even later. And I was trying to fit in hours working with Claire as her assistant during the day.
I ended up oversleeping for my job at the Y two weeks in a row, and then I completely forgot that I said I would cover a shift on a day that I don't normally work and woke up to a message from my boss saying that she got called when I didn't show up and had to go in. I was hysterical. I was so scared I was going to get fired, but when I went in to talk to her, her main concern was my health, not my tardiness. She really is an awesome boss.
So after that, I decided to cut back one night at the office. Monday and Tuesdays are both really slow, so I told my boss I would keep which ever one they needed me for more (they picked Mondays). Then they said they really needed someone to do a lunch shift, and I said that I would take one, because there are only two people per shift so you can make more money. So now I am working Monday night, Wednesday afternoon, and Thursday and Saturday nights.

For the past few weeks, my tips have been shit. Sometimes on Saturdays they can be good, but they haven't been more than $50. Mondays I usually only get one or two tables if I'm working in the back, which I usually am, and I'll end up leaving with $10. It really makes it not worth even coming in. At my last lunch shift, I had four tables, and I left with $27. At one point I was in the bathroom crying, trying to wrap my head around what I was doing wrong. I don't understand why when I'm extremely friendly, helpful, quick, and curtious, I'm getting tipped 11%. I was talking to a friend of mine who used to run a dance studio in the area, and he made me realize that it's not me, it's them. He said blue collar people know what it's like to work, and they'll pay for what they get. Rich snobs, like most of the population of Westfield, have money for a reason; because they don't spend it on anyone but themselves.
And when I think about it, he's right. I'm a good waitress. I'm nice and friendly, I don't forget things, and if something goes wrong or someone has a problem, I do everything I can to fix it. And even with all that, I'm getting tips ranging from 17% all the way down to 8%. All I can think is, it's not even worth it. All the exhaustion I'm putting my body through, all of the time that I'm spending out of the house, the social life that I'm not having... it's just not worth it.

So work has been going well. I've been getting more and more used to the menu and the way everything works, and I've been getting more and more familliar with the people I work with, which is really important to me.

Unfortunatly, I got my first stiff last night. It had to happen sometime. I just wish it wasn't while I'm trying to save up for an apartment.

Two typical Westfield house wives came in at around 5:00 with their two kids. I love it when I get kids at my tables, because after working with kids for so many years, I actually feel more comfortable talking to them then I do to adults. I was very nice, they asked a lot of questions and did a bunch of substitutions, so I was overly helpful, and they were my only table, and one of only three in the whole restaurant, so their service was very quick. Their check came to about $73, so I figured Ok, even if they tip on the pre-tax ammount, that should still be at least $12. Even if their my only table for the night, It'll be worth coming in tonight.

They left me a $5 tip.

That's barely 7%

Even if for some random reason they weren't including the four glasses of wine they drank in the total that they were tipping on, that's still not even a 12% tip.

I bet those bitches have never had to work a day in their lives. 

And they were my only table for the night.

I noticed something odd today

I have to re-train myself to say "You're welcome" when people say thank you to me.
I know this sounds like common curtsy that you get taught when you're three, but I'm actually serious.

When you work at Starbucks, one of the fist things you get told in training is to not say "you're welcome" when the customer says "thank you". Instead you're supposed to say "thank you" back to them, as though you were saying "No, thank you for coming in today". I worked there for two years, and ever since then, it's just become a habit to answer "thank you" with "thank you". Either that or when I realize that I'm about to say "thank you" I just kind of nod and say "mmm hmm".

So, it sounds really weird, but I'm actively practicing saying "you're welcome"

I did it!

You are looking at the first tip I've ever made. Yup, that's right, I'm an official waitress. I got through my last few nights of training, and I passed my test with flying colors (which is good because I was so nervous about it that I actually called in sick when I was supposed to take it yesterday. I don't know what I would have done if I had failed.) I got my first table, a nice older couple, and I told them that they were my first table ever as a waitress, and they were so sweet. They kept telling me what a good job I was doing, and to tell the boss that they said that, and that they never would have known it was my first night if I hadn't told them. They tipped me 25%, but most importantly, they enjoyed their meal and left happy.

I am so excited. Even if for the first few weeks I only get a few tables a night, even if I'm only leaving the restaurant with $10 or $20 at the end of the night, it's just that much more money than I had when I came in. I'm working my way up from the bottom. And I'm gonna make it to the top!

So my second night of training was much better than my first. Christian seemed like he was actually excited about training me, as opposed to Mike, who seemed more like he was annoyed by it. Christian explained what he was doing to me, while Mike just told me to watch him. Christian showed me how to put orders in on the computer, wrote up a fake order and hand me put it in, and even had me put in some of his orders. He also called me his padawan, which made me love him.
My third night I was back with Mike, but since Christian had shown me a lot of stuff I was more comfortable. It was a slow night, so the assistant manager had me sit down Mike and one of the other guys and pretend to serve them. I told them that I still wasn't really good with the menu, and they still insisted on asking me questions about what the food was, which made me not only embarrassed, but annoyed. It seemed like they were doing it on purpose. I also learned that apparently not everything that's on the pos is on the menu, which is weird.
Tonight started out awfully. The manager was back from vacation, and apparently had some critiques for Mike on how he was training me, because all of a sudden he started getting really hard on me. He asked me if I knew all the table numbers and sections, and when I said not really, he said "Well you should by now." Why should I? You mentioned them maybe once on my first day. He took me around and told me what each section started with, and then made me count them out loud, and when I miscounted, he got annoyed and condescending. Then he asked me about the menu, and I said that I still didn't have it memorized. He had me pull out the papers and look them over, and then the manager came past and said "Go over it with her". Apparently in his mind that meant "test her on it", because he took the papers and started testing me. When I couldn't answer any of the questions, he got annoyed, and told me to look over each section separately and he would quiz me on them. He then spent each minute for the next five minutes asking me if I was ready to be tested yet. It got to the point where I was to busy telling myself not to cry to memorize the ingredients in all of the salads. I felt like I was going to throw up, so I excused myself to the bathroom.
After I splashed some water on my face, I told myself that I wasn't going to let a guy who was younger than me make me feel like a little kid again. So I came back out, flash memorized each of the things he was going to quiz me on, and decided to spend the morning at the Y actually memorizing everything.
Once it got busier and we had tables to check on he forgot about quizzing me, so I felt like I could relax. I am determined to remember all of the things he did while training me so that I don't do them to someone I may train. Like when he asked me if I could carry out three plates, and I started to attempt to balance one plate in my hand and one on my forearm like I had seen others do, and he said "Eh, no." And instead of showing me the proper way to do it, he just took them himself. How am I supposed to learn from that?

Tomorrow I am actually going to be taking some tables. I think I'll do fine with that. I have customer service down perfectly, it's just the menu that I'm worried about. We'll see how memorizing tomorrow morning goes.

First Day on the Job

Last night was my first night of training at The Office. It was a lot tougher than I expected. I was only there for 3 and a half hours, but when I left, I went straight to Walgreens and bought Dr. Scholl's pads for my shoes, and IcyHot for my feet and legs. It's been a while since I've worked a job where I'm on my feet the whole time. And the guy training me never stopped moving.
The guy who was training me wasn't so much training me as having me follow him around and explaining a few things on the POS. And I understand that he has to work his shifts and serve his customers and that's his first priority, but maybe when we had a lull in customers, instead of having me fold napkins and roll up silver wear, he could have taken me over to the POS and showed me how it works, how I clock in and out, how I finish up a check and add a tip, instead of just having me watch him do it. I think that's going to be the thing I need the most training on. Just finding all of the different menu items and making sure I put them in correctly. But I eventually got used to the one at Starbucks, so I guess it will just come with doing it over and over.
I also realized about twenty minutes in, after we'd served about three beers, that I need to bring a drink with me. Between how good the food smells, how hot the kitchen gets, and how much running around there is, you start to get thirsty.
As excited as I am to have the job, I'm so used to working in the morning and then having the rest of the day to do whatever. Now at about 3:00, I get that feeling of "Ugh I have to go to work". I hope that once I'm actually working and earning tips that feeling will go away.
Well, I have tonight, and then I get tomorrow and Monday off, and Monday I'll be spending the day at the Renaissance Faire :D That will be the last day for a while that I allow myself to spend money. After that, it's all about saving up for the new apartment.