This is why I write it down

'the customer is always right'

This is the golden rule while working in the food industry, or even other industries such as retail but this golden rule makes any server want to rip his/her hair out in the middle of the rush. 

So there are some servers who don't write anything down and just remember everything. Literally everything. My friend served a party of 15 the other night with no notepad. I on the other hand need to write everything down, including water. Embarrassing I know but during the rush I get so stressed out I can't remember the last 2 minutes because my brain is in survival mode and my memory shuts down. It's a thing. Look it up if you don't believe it.

I'm getting sidetracked here..

So I was pretty busy and had a handful of needy/cranky tables. This always makes me feel weeded as I start over-trying to please my guests (because I can't deal with conflict). I had a woman (who I knew  wouldn't tip well) order a wrap with a side salad. I wrote it down and actually remember the conversation. The food comes out and she pipes up "I ordered fries with my wrap"

**Cue the eye roll that makes my eyeballs fall out.**

 I knew she didn't and I politely said "oh really? I was so sure you had a salad with it". The wrap comes with fries as a default so when someone orders it I say "would you like fries as the side?" and she flat out said no, she wanted a garden salad.

She said "why would I order salad with it when the meals came with unlimited salad"

** eye roll eye roll eye roll**

... maybe because your meal is the cheapest and doesn't include the all you can eat salad so you ate the unlimited salads from the others at your table even though that's not allowed.

She started getting worked up about it and I had other tables I needed to deal with so I decided that this was not worth pursuing.

But my god did it eat me up inside that I knew I was right and I let her get away with thinking I made the mistake. I brought out the side of fries and apologized. 

She tipped 8%.

xoxo

- A

Just not cut out for it

So I've been back at my summer place for a week now and I must say, I'm not getting back into the swing of things.

I've been getting extremely overwhelmed and stressed out and tonight I actually had a breakdown in the middle of the rush and started crying in the middle of the kitchen/main side stand in front of all of the staff.

I'm just so frustrated. I have been serving since first year.. which means I've been serving for 4 years now. Mind you, I've served on and off and at a bunch of different places because I move away for school and home for the summers. But I'm still a weak server. At this point I think I've come to terms with the idea that I just suck at serving. Some people can do it and others can't. I'm one that can't. My friend has been serving for maybe two years now and she handles so many tables and gives good service and keeps a cool head. I get 4 tables and I start panicking.

While I know that I don't plan on turning serving into a career, I don't know if I should just walk away from it all-together. Serving is a career for many people and they can make more money than people sitting behind a desk. I'm not blind to the stigma around serving as a career. I commend you if you do this for a living. It takes a strong, smart, collected and quick-thinking person to be able to handle this profession.

I need the money desperately for school but if I'm a weak server, I know I'm a burden for the rest of the staff and that makes me feel shitty. I know how annoying it is to have a weak link and in this case, I'm the weak link.

I hope I figure it out I guess. Thanks for the read. I needed to flush it out because I've been tossing and turning for the last hour going over the stress of tonight's shift.

Hopefully now I can get some sleep and prepare to do it all again tomorrow.

xoxo

- A