Bad Night at Work

Bad! Terrible! Really, really bad! No, really, bad!

I got to work at 6 pm today, not the best time to start a shift, the middle of supper rush but that's when I start most Saturdays. I had a couple tables; nobody really left anything outstanding tip wise but still okay. I think I had 4 tables and then I was told I had a reservation of 20 people, a kids' baseball team. A server's worst nightmare; most of the time these kids make an enourmous mess, are loud, vulgar and you don't get tips.

We made seating arrangements for 20 people and slowly but surely 20 people turned into 45. Needless to say my section wasn't big enough to seat that many people so I had tables every where, parents here, kids there and chaos everywhere. Sheesh. The kids were loud, sucking back pop like it was going out of style and demanding refills as the last drop hit their lips. The parents were demanding, for example demanding to know what was taking so long to get their appetizers when they had just ordered them 4 minutes earlier and complaining that they couldn't all sit together yet, they kept thanking me for my services. Every family was paying separately and kids and parents were scattered all over the place so organizing this free for all was strenuous. I have to admit that these people drove me to the edge and nudged me to the bottom of the pit. For the first time EVER my co-workers heard me lose it and I heard a couple mention that as I was walking away, "Wow, I've never heard Ang say a mean thing about anyone before."

When all was said and done and everyone had their food, was full and had the correct bill, I got $17 dollars of tips on a $450-$500 dollar deal. I paid $22 into tip pool for kitchen staff and hosts/esses because of these people so...I paid to work today. If I would have had to pay for my supper tonight I would have owed the company money. The only reason I didn't have to pay for my supper was because the manager that was on felt so badly about the way these people treated me that he discounted my meal 100% instead of 50%. I went on my break as soon as they left so frustrated and so completely ready to cry. My stress level was way too high for me to feel like a could do a good job for anyone else.

I went on my break, sat down with my drink and prayed. I had to; there was no way I could function in that place I was that stressed out by these wonderful, wonderful people. I felt a peace wash over me and I thought "You know I can go back out there and be really happy about it. The people I serve next don't deserve my stress because of these people. God, just take this stress from me and help me to have a good night." Well, the rest of my night consisted of 1 more table, a bunch of teenagers...not great tippers teenagers so I couldn't expect to make up any lost money. I felt that same choking feeling when I did my cash out and realized how close I came to having to pay to be there tonight.

So, some days you win, some days you lose and oh, boy did I lose tonight. The host asked me, after this table left, how I could still have a smile on my face and sound so pleasant to these people as they were "screwing me over" (his words). "What can you do I?", I asked him. "It's not in my nature to treat people like that and it wouldn't do a darn thing to change it. There's no point."

So, do I have some big glorious ending to this? No. I would love to get on my soapbox and remind you all to tip your servers or they end up paying to serve you but, what's the point? I just had a bad day and I need to get it off my chest so I can go to sleep. It's 2 AM so everyone else in this house is sleeping so you, my blog reading friends, get to be the recipients of one frustrated, tired mama's grumbling. Thanks for listening and goodnight.