Why do people go to restaurants? To eat, drink, and socialize. Or to do business, if it's a business lunch or dinner. To not cook at home, could be another reason. To have a wide variety of choices, well done by a professional cook or a... chef. To not deal with dishes before or afterwards. And to pay accordingly, let's not forget that.
Today I was in town with things to do. In my path through town, I also went by my sister's office. She is usually very busy during work hours, but today she was unexpectedly free.
So. we thought to do something we haven't had time to do either of us for quite a while: eat lunch at a restaurant during "work hours" (hers in particular, since she has a regular schedule) and catch up a bit.
I'm not sure if this is just my impression over time or if there is some truth to it, but I seem to attract some sort of bad luck when it comes to employees I need to deal with at various businesses. They're very often the new guys, who don't know anything and need to be handheld.
When I went into banks (since there are online services I rarely do), I was the lucky one who got the new girl who didn't know the system yet and I had to wait for at least half an hour until usually someone more experienced came over to help.
Same thing in other offices...
In restaurants... you guessed. The new guys. But in this case, I kind of understand, jobs are often on a temporary basis, and employees rarely stick around.
What I don't understand is screwing up time and time again and never seeming to care you do it. Or apologize!
So, the establishment we went to is not a cheap one, quite the opposite because it is in the center of the town (closer to my sister's office). And more expensive than the one next to it because my sister wanted something the other one didn't have on menu (in the end, she didn't order that at this place either).
So, we had a young boy as our waiter. Probably in high school working over summer, which is a great thing, I'd say.
Given that he probably works over summer when others take life the easy way, I may be too harsh on him.
Some of these things probably would have been more useful if they were told to his face, but I wasn't in a mood to teach, and he certainly didn't seem very... receptive.
I don't know the inner workings of their job and what they should learn first when they get hired, but when they interact with the customers, they'd better know the menu offered. He didn't. Or not entirely. When we ordered, he had to check the menu to understand what we were ordering and the type of food it was so that he entered it into the tablet... You'll see that didn't work out quite as expected...
You might think that's a minor thing, but you will see it's not. He ended messing up both the drinks and the food in our order. We looked away at his screw up on the drinks part and accepted it, even if it was an awful drink (I only tasted it), and I don't know how people can drink these artificial very sweet drinks.
He also spilled them over when he brought them. Not much, but enough... If I hadn't moved my leg, I'd probably have to wash my trousers now.
But when the food order came in and one of the dishes was totally wrong, we didn't accept it anymore and wanted what we ordered. This will probably be imputed on him when the payday comes, but he has to be more attentive next time.
There were others things we noticed where he seemed with his head in the clouds, something that won't help him with this (probably temporary) job.
Maybe he'll learn. The way he is now, he sucks... at waiting! Maybe he doesn't want to learn and this is just something he has to do until he can do something he really wants to do. I doubt many want to be waiters for their entire lives. But some are good at it, others suck. And customers have an immediate perspective which most likely diverge from the long term perspective of a temporary waiter, if he or she has one.
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He clearly doesn't have his head in what he's doing, perhaps, much of him isn't there yet. For me, the main reason for going to restaurants is always socializing with friends, it can be a cool meeting spot to just talk and observe.
Sometimes I love to observe too. There are these restaurants from where you can easily see people walk by. Sometimes I like watching them as they pass and try to imagine what's on their mind or the kind of person they are by the way they walk. 😀
Yeah, I do that sometimes. I even go as far as seeing them in a different facial expression like a smile when they put up a frown or a more pleasant lifestyle.
I never tried that. It'll be a good exercise for the future.
It sure will.
Lol, it's mostly the same for me too! It's amusing to observe how people behave and then find potential reasons why they do what they do :)
And this is why we usually request the waiter to repeat our orders at the end. I've seen other waiters repeat the order on their own as well to make sure everything is right. I can understand not knowing the menu inside out, especially if they're just a few days in.
Yep, good waiters always do that. It's in their best interest. It's true, we should've asked him to repeat the order. Something to consider for the next time.
All that trouble and your sis didn't even order what that special thing she came for😳😳😳 man sorry about that... It happens a lot of times with new employees...
Yep, she didn't like what they have, after all. She works too much, at least this way she got some time off. Eventful, but still, time off.
Yes she really does deserve the time off... And I hope you start getting top notch treatment from restaurants in the future
She does...
Well, that doesn't happen, usually.
Here's some !LUV BROTHER
There are so many times when waiters or waitresses make mistakes like this and the money will surely be deducted from their account. It’s sad that they are not earning enough and money will still be deducted from their account. That’s why one has to be smart, careful and also listen to customers very well
... and also learn to apologize when they make mistakes. After all the screw ups, we haven't heard an "I'm sorry" from him. In general, even if they are right, waiters have to be smart not to contradict the customers.
I don't hang in restaurants so often, but I've seen very good waiters and waitresses in my life.
I've also seen experienced waiters or waitresses screw up badly. In one case, a waitress spilled drinks on the same person at my table twice in the same night. I can say that person took it very well, especially the second time it happened. 🤣
Maybe waiting tables just isn't for him. If you can't get things right your tips will stink, so either he was poorly trained or just didn't care it which case I'm sure he'll be gone pretty soon. There's not excuse to mess up on orders. When I was a teenager I worked in food service, it's not that hard a job! Sorry to hear about your lousy dining experience, I hope the manager stepped in and fixed things for you.
I had the same thoughts. He seemed rather absent, with his head in the clouds. Who knows, teenage problems...
We were outside because we preferred to stay in open air, and didn't make too much fuss about it so the manager didn't need to intervene (at least not visibly). We just gave him the wrong dish back and he came back with the right one after a while. How he fixed things in the back or what kind of a shaking he might've gotten there, I don't know. At least this thing he did right.
It sucks to hear that things went wrong but I hope that person learns. People do make mistakes but the amount of mistakes that person made does make it seem like he was careless.
It's up to him if he learns or not. I'm sure this is not his ideal job, but being so young probably some tips can help for whatever he wants to do next (even if that's just money for vacation).
It's sad that many don't take the job they are doing too seriously because it's temporal— for me a mindset of doing anything you find worth your time to engage in ‘well’ is ideal.
He's young. He might think of this more like a chore he needs to do to get some pocket money. But it's true, I always thought if I had my mind and knowledge from today as a teenager and in my 20ies, I would have wasted much less precious time.
Facts