Terrible Waitress

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I have taken a part time job in a restaurant. I'm supposed to be a waitress. On the 2 very busy nights I choose to stay in the kitchen and do all the washing up. I start at 7pm and start washing up and taking out some of the food right away. Then it becomes very full on at about 9pm and goes on till 11pm.

Midweek (when it tends to be quite quiet) I do front of house. I only have about 5 to 7 tables to attend to, but I manage to make so many mistakes and I start to feel like I'm in a fog. Despite being there for 9 or 10 weeks now I still make mistakes on the till, forget to take people the drinks or sauces they have asked for, forget to add things to customers order slips when they have had an extra drink or whatever! The other waitresses can deal with 80 to 90 people - why do I have such a struggle with 10?! It really feels very difficult when it shouldn't be. I hate to feel so hopless and inefficient. I feel angry and upset with myself

I think it's amazing you became a waitress! A job where you have to act friendly and smile and make good eye contact with your customers, even if they are unbelievably rude and nasty or don't give tips, and rush around serving food during hours when it's really crowded. I probably wouldn't last a day with that kind of job, but then again, I would fail at almost any job.

Been there! I would assume that you enjoy the job at least some? The actual job- not just feeling like you can't keep up. I know I did. For me it was scripted interaction- and I did fairly good at it.

Now, to be fair, my boss didn't think I was great at it, but I enjoyed it and I got good comments, so I'm gonna say I was good at it. ha.

I think the most important thing you can do is relax! If you forget the drinks, appoligize and make up for it later (most restaurants have some sort of freebie/cheap item you can put "on the house" by just handing it out, and people tend to enjoy these. Yes, due to memory issues and whatnot you will most likely absolutely need to write things down. I'd start buying those 3 dollar pads at walmart, or a small-sized notbook and write down what time the table came in, their orders, drinks, names, anything and everything so that you have a "cheat sheet" (although this is most certainly NOT cheating. You aren't (or shouldn't) be expected to remember all their orders. After the orders are rang up, put a check mark next to them or cross them out with a line- something to tell yourself "I did that already" Then, when the table leaves scribble through their information so you know you dont' have to check that list and can go on to another. You'd be suprised how much stress/problems are alleviated when you just write things down. Other people don't do it? So what? You aren't them, and if it works for you that's what is important!

Second of all- and I touched on it up there- Don't compare! Just enjoy doing your job and don't think about the 10 other tables that Suzie has, you can handle 3- so handle those three excellently.

Don't beat yourself up when you make a mistake. Appoligize to the customer, give your boss a heads-up so he can give them coupons or a discount, and pick up with that table right where you left off. You are human, and in a fast paced environment mistakes are bound to happen. The worst thing you can do is to avoid that table/situation as that will only make it worse. And a happy waitress who is appoligetic can usually be forgiven.

Stay in the now, not in the "i need to get to do ...." Your tables will still be there, and often aren't in as much of a hurry (after they get their drinks and appetizers) as you and your boss is. That's not to say people don't stop in on a busy schedule, just by and large they are there to have a good time. Think about what you are doing at that moment- "I'm getting drinks for table 7" get the drinks, and when you cross that off your list, then "what do I need to do now?" O- table 9 got sat, I should say hi to them" The restaurant world is a fast faces place, so you want to get from a to b quickly, but thinking about b or c when doing A is just going to set you up for failure.

And most importantly- I sucked at this one- if you are feeling overwhelmed- ASK FOR HELP. The waitress sitting at the bar relaxing for the sec- good time to say "Hey, I can't handle all this, can you run drinks to my table for me" or even asking your manager.

I hope that helps! I'd love to be waitressing but right now I can't be out of the house much at all without meltdowns and all my energy being sucked away. I loved the job when I was there though.

I have been a waitress too (briefly) and sucked at it too. I forgot order details and sucked at taking orders: heard things incorrectly, confused orders, forgot things, stuffed up whenever there were sudden changes and extra tasks being shouted from the kitchen (often), and I found it hard to keep balance with the things too. On top of all that I was supposed to smile and be interactive with the customers. I could have done many of the tasks well each separately, but I couldn't keep all these 'balls in the air' at once and stuffed up all the time, so I lost the job rather quickly.

I can see clearly now why I was so bad at it. A waitress job requires:

1. Extremely strong multitasking skills (keep many things going at once and process a multitude of inputs simultaneously)
2. Strong working memory (good at processing and keeping track of temporary information, like orders)
3. Social adaptability (ability to quickly engage in an out of friendly contact with people on a superficial level)

If you have 'Executive Dysfunction' you'll suck at 1 and 2, and won't be able to do 3 while you do other things. I am 99.99% certain I have that. Your description suggest that you might have it as well. In that case you will never be good at the waitress job, and it will just undermine your self confidence.

Thank you for the replies and the advice

AWD - What is 'Executive Dysfunction' I've never heard of that?

shaybugz - I have tried various techniques including notes but I still manage to get lost. I try not to beat myself up but I can't help it cause I hate to be inefficient!!

lostonearth35 - wrote - I think it's amazing you became a waitress!
Thank you lostonearth35 - once I found out I'd been given the job I thought 'what the hell was I thinking?'

The way I understand executive function is its a term used to describe a persons ability to plan and co-ordinate and carry out the tasks required to put that plan into action.

Up date:

Started the job taking place of someone who worked Wednesday, Friday & Saturday evenings.
She decided she didn't want to do Saturday evenings but was told you do all the shifts or none of the shifts!
She left and so I took her place.

So I started doing Wednesday, friday & Saturday evenings. Then I started to just be given Wednesday and Friday evenings! (just what the other girl wanted to do but lost her job instead)

Then they stopped giving me Wednesday evening and just had me come in on a Friday or a Saturday evening.

Last week I had a call asking if I could do Friday and Saturday evening - I said that I was going out saturday evening so couldn't do that shift. I wasn't put down for Friday either and haven't heard anything since! I don't even know if I still have a job there?! !

I was a waitress for about a week. I hated it because it was so chaotic and I couldn't remember to ask what kind of bread for their sandwich, what kind of dressing on the salad, etc.. When I got fired, I said, "Thank you!"

I was going to tough it out because I knew I couldn't keep taking jobs and quitting when the going got rough.

Fortunately, I managed to find a job in a bookstore. While I still had to chitchat with customers, there was a script to go by, and I could do something I was really good at, like finding a book even if they couldn't remember the title quite right, or the author's name. I worked there for several years.

When I was a waiter, I found it very helpful to have reference cards with a routine.

That sucks. I don't know, but maybe they did just decide to stop putting you on the schedule without saying anything - I lost a job that way once.

I was also a waitress once, but got fired after a few days because I didn't "have what it takes". I'm still not sure what that meant because as far as I know I didn't mess up.

I believe I'm not a waitress anymore. When they stopped giving me Wednesdays I stopped being a waitress really cause on Fridays I mainly had the role of washing up and taking food orders out (but not getting orders or drinks or setting up desserts etc)

It doesn't feel good to have been given the elbow from washing dishes!! They employ lots of people who don't turn up for their first shift or who come 2 or 3 times then don't come back again! I always showed up and I always worked hard!

Never mind - I won't miss it, just makes me feel like more of a social reject though. I failed to 'fit in' as always rather than failed at the job

Mindsigh I love that you said 'thank you' for being sacked

I tried being a waitress several times and it was very difficult. I got suspended once for a week because I delivered some food and got yelled at by the customer. I didn't take the order and I told the customer that it was another waitress's mistake, and the owner didn't like that I guess. I didn't think it was fair that I got yelled at for someone else's mistake. I would have admitted it if it was my own mistake. I prefer not to deal with customers at all when it comes to selling things.

Do you have a job now?