This one has been a long time coming.22:57 Jun 20 2012
Times Read: 586
Work, as they say sucks.
Last year was not a good year for me. I was stressed about the bathroom reno, so I wanted to make sure I had as many hours in at work as I could get. Since it was golf season, I assumed this wouldn't be a problem.
I was wrong. I worked the least amount of days last summer than I have in 4 years. So I questioned why.
I got slapped down.
Then, I had Kristy's brother (nepotism at its best) get up in my face and try to pick a fight while I was working, WHILE Kristy was there. So I went to the head chef, who is in charge of just about everything, and emailed him, telling him I needed to speak to him about something. I waited a couple of days until I calmed down, and this is what I sent:
Chef,
I think it would be a good idea if we all sat down and worked out some procedures as far as the restaurant area vs. the banquet area. It would be prudent to work out some guidelines so that we don't have a repeat of the problems on Sunday, and so that everybody can work together without any problems.
Luanne
I received this in return:
Hi Luanne,
I'll do my homework first, and see where we can take care of the 'problem'. Thanks for pointing out to me.
Brendan
So I had hopes that I could sit down with somebody impartial and put a stop to this before it got any worse. One night after I had finished working a wedding, Heather (one of the servers in the restaurant) came upstairs, and asked me what was going on, what had happened. I will admit that I went off the deep end, telling her what Justin had done and what I would do if it happened again, but still. I knew Heather wasn't going to rat me out, so it was just healthy venting as far as I was concerned. She said she wondered where the email form Chef had come from and I asked her "what email?"
Yeah. I got home that night, and THIS is what I got:
Hi Luanne,
Thanks for your e-mail. Funny enough, nobody sees it as a problem, except you. Having said that I like to think I am a person who listens to everyone and has time for all my staff, and I appreciate you taking the time to tell me your concerns. As I replied to you earlier, I wanted to do some homework and give the 'problems' some thought, before I reply.
One of the main challenges is the way the bar is set up in relation to the Rogues Restaurant and the Gallery banquet room. The history behind Gallery room is that it was a fine dining restaurant before and Rogues was the golf proshop (if you did not know already) Unfortunately there's nothing we can do there. However, I have spend some time thinking about what we can do and these are the few things that I will be implementing to improve the distinction between Rogues Restaurant and the Gallery Special events room.
1. Ensure there's patio tables and chairs in the Gallery patio.............if the organiser doesn't want the golfers/wedding guests to sit down before the reception begins. (Already done)
2. Put a physical barrier in front of the bar to separate Rogues and Gallery bar. ( plan do get it done by next week)
3. Improve the barrier between Rogues and Gallery patio. Currently there's a metal fence that doesn't quite cover the width of the opening. I am going to Home Depo to buy 4 evergreens to close that gap. (Done by next week)
4. Signs will be put up in strategic locations that says " Restaurant Patrons Only" , " Banquet Guests Only" , "Restaurant patrons (with arrow)" , " Banquet Guets (with arrow). This is to help direct guests and also let the guests know which area is for which.
5. If some guests decide that they want to sit in the restaurant patio on a sunny day, Rogues team members will be instructed to say " If you are here for the wedding or golf tournament, your bartender, seating area and banquet room is over there (to help direct them to the correct place)". "If they say, no, its too early, we just want to have a drink or appys in the Rogues restaurant or patio, then we tell them, please have a seat and a server will come by and serve you" . The reasoning behind this is that, we are not in the business of forcing people where they have to go before the start of their event. We are here to take care of our guests whether they are in Rogues or Banquets. We are there to give them the fastest, and most efficient service possible, even if that means the banquet bartender gets help from Rogues staff, if there's 70 guests waiting in line for service. That also means if some banquet guests get served by Rogues team members. I want the guests to receive the best of what we can offer, and not let our internal politics come in between that.
Hopefully all those measures will take care of your concerns. As you can tell I am putting a lot of time and energy into this. I think it is a worthwhile effort, but by no means will it be perfect. We are not in the business where everything is going to go our way perfectly all the time, but rather give ourselves the best chance to come up with the best result possible. That is what I pledge to do for my team.
Cheers, Brendan.
Might I add, he sent this to everybody who works at the clubhouse, so not only did he STILL not know what actually happened in his "research" he embarrassed me in front of people I had to work with. I had already explained to Tristan why I didn't want to be around Justin anymore, so he knew up front what the problem was.
A few weeks later, I worked another wedding. The way th bride and groom had it set up, there were tickets that were only to be used for specific products (i.e. certain beers, etc.) So after getting all my ducks in a row, I went to work. Everytime someone walked up to the bar to order, this woman came running at me, throwing tickets at me (yes, literally throwing them at me) and telling me here, here, take tickets.
Five times I explained to this woman very patiently that the tickets were not good for what the guest was ordering. And yet she kept on throwing tickets at me. So I just kept the tickets, and when she walked off, i explained it to the guest, they paid, all was right with the world, and nobody was upset about it.
A week later, I was "invited" to come in early to talk to Tristan and Kat. I was asked what happened at the wedding, and I said to the best of my knowledge, everything had gone along just fine.
Tristan looks at me and tell me the groom's mother had said I was rude to her. I told him that I wasn't rude to anybody, but that I had had a problem with a woman throwing tickets at me, and what I did specifically to adress the problem.
This turned into me getting written up for being rude. That's right, I do what I am told per my function, but because she didn't like it, I'm being rude.
Then Tristan tells me I can't go around telling people I am going to slap the shit out of another employee. Seems one of the servers had overheard what I said to Heather, and ratted me out. Never did find out who, but it doesn't matter. I looked at him and told him that I never said I would slap him, I said if he got in my face again, I would lay him out on the floor. BIG difference. And he (Tristan) knew why.
Kat is looking at me like I have lost my mind. So I asked her did she know what was going on.
Amazingly enough, Tristan hadn't mentioned to either her or Kristy after I had told him what happened. So I told her what had happened.
So now that's 2 people who knew.
So a month or so later, I am talking to Kat about some things that I needed to be addressed, because she had said to me that sine she was in charge of banquests, I could ocme to her anytime, and vent.
And believe me, she knew exactly what vent meant.
Especially where I am concerned.
So I did just exactly that. We started in the kitchen, then moved out to the hall. I told her where I was having problems with the other bartenders, and that I needed her help. She agreed, said she would see what needed to be done, and let me know.
Then she went crying to Tristan. Said I yelled at her, scared her, and what was she supposed to do.
A few weeks later, I spent my day off, cleaning out the coolers in Gallery, straightening everything out, resetting for the Christmas season, and basically spending my entire day making things easier for other people. By 5, I was done, and heading out. Tristan wanted to sit down and discuss what was going on, how things were with the other bartenders, etc. After 3 hours of going over things that were of concern, I finally felt that someone was listening to me about what was going on, what needed to be fixed, etc. So after all that, I got up to leave.
“Um, there is one more thing we need to talk about.”
Kat had not only gone crying to Tristan, she had whined at the next supervisor meeting, and now he was telling me he was writing me up. Despite the fact that I tried to tell him that Kat had told me to come to her, suddenly I am the bad guy, and I was being written up for yelling at a supervisor.
Suffice it to say, I don’t talk to Kat any more than I absolutely have to.
Then we got new supervisors, not just people who had gotten promoted. And I expect them to make mistakes, especially with the complete lack of training they get for that bunch. But when you start fucking with my money, I have a problem, especially when I explain to you how things are done, and you choose to keep telling me that that isn’t the way it was explained to you, but that this is how we did it at another restaurant.
I could care LESS how you did it there. THIS is how we do it here. But her bullshit still cost me $20 that night, which was Friday the 8th. So I got the usual bullshit about getting a due back. And since the LAST time I had been due one of those it took me over 3 months to get my $50 with Tristan constantly telling me “Well, I can’t guarantee that you’ll get your money, because accounting already has it, so you may not…etc etc etc”
That shouldn’t even have been a consideration. I earned that money, somebody else fucked up, I should have gotten my money no matter what. Instead, I had to fight every step of the way to get what was owed me, and it eventually came down to Chef writing me a check to get what was due me.
That ain’t right. So naturally I was skeptical about getting this money back. So every day, I stopped by the office and asked about my money. And everyday, I got the same thing. Tristan didn’t do this yet, accounting hasn’t done that yet.
So on Thursday, while I was talking to the girls in the restaurant one of them mentioned she needed to go check on her due backs, so I went too.
There were six people in the office besides Tristan and myself, and when I asked him if my money was there, he said no. I cleared my throat to say something, and this is what I got:
I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE, ROLLING YOUR EYES AND HUMPHING AT ME. I AM DOING THE BEST I CAN, AND YOU WILL GET YOU MONEY WHEN I SAY YOU WILL GET YOUR MONEY. WHEN YOU MAKE THAT NOISE I JUST WANT TO STRANGLE YOU. YOU DON’T HAVE TO COME IN HERE EVERY DAY AND ASK ABOUT YOUR MONEY. IT WILL GET HERE WHEN IT GETS HERE.
Excuse me, Tristan, but you KNOW why I am checking on my money.
I DON’T CARE ABOUT THAT. THAT WAS LAST YEAR, AND THIS IS A WHOLE NEW SEASON.
Tristan, I was trying to ask you something, I didn’t roll my eyes at you and make any noise. And as far as being a problem, I haven’t given you anything but hard work since I started….
HUNH. YOU ARE NOTHING BUT TROUBLE, EVER SINCE LAST YEAR AND YOU KNOW IT.
As you can tell, he was yelling at me at top voice, and everybody in the office heard him. Kat is now avoiding me like the plague, not that I care, but so are some of the others. He embarrassed the living shit out of me, and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it, and no one there bothered to do anything about it. It took me an hour of staying in the kitchen with Diane before I could calm down and go back upstairs and go to work. Thankfully, the golf tournament was late coming in, but everybody kept showing up in the kitchen, looking for me but not saying anything. Then, on Saturday, I show up, and Tristan is training Dawar (one of the promoted supers) and was in my way for half the function I was working, talking to me like nothing had happened, despite the fact that I avoided him every chance I got.
I can’t wait to get to work today, after having two days off.
I don't trust anybody in management at all. The very people I should be able to go to when there is a problem are the very people who are causing the problems. They spend more time back stabbing each other and cutting each other's throat and trying to get out of there as soon as they can than they do actually working. I'm turning 50 next month, and the last thing I wanted to do is start over at another job, and that is if I can get another job.
COMMENTS
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xxEmaeraldxx
22:37 Jun 22 2012
Heh.. Fun!