Value in a very social work environment if you can hack it

Post Reply New Topic

Just wanted to make a thread & share a bit about this.

My main job is working at a bar/restaurant in several different support staff roles, depending on what's needed of me in the moment. In the past, I bartended for ~5 years, but at this place I work as: busser, food runner, expo, maintenance, & once in a blue moon as a dishwasher.. and I spent a shift covering as a doorman. I may eventually be able to work myself into a more lucrative position bartending and/or serving, but I'm not overly concerned with that at the moment as the main value I get out of working there isn't monetary. I could quit my job and work a more lucrative job quite easily.

The other work I do is in construction/renovations, usually working for others - but I'm slowly shifting gears into subcontracting to others as well as doing my own contracting on small projects I know I can handle. I could leave the bar and go this full time plus and make more money in the short run.

However, I stay at the bar for several reasons. The owners are all highly successful businessmen in various fields. I absolutely love "being a fly on the wall," around them for the things I learn about who they are and how they act/what they do etc. But the main value is from the management. They're all VERY good at what they do and have managed some of the best restaurants in the city. They can be very... challenging - BUT - even if their criticism is harsh at times; I strip away the delivery and process the information as constructive criticism that helps me improve myself and everything I do. This is the true value of working in an extremely social environment under management who are masters of the social realm. Their feedback lets me know when my brain isn't firing properly and ASD symptoms are interfering with my work. I use it to adjust the natural treatment methods I use to keep myself in check, as well as to consciously adjust my behaviour as best I can via intellectual processing of things I didn't realize I was falling short on. If you can handle working in a place like this with tons of people around & very firm, critical, management staff that correct your shortcomings w/o holding back anything - then I highly recommend it. It's making me a much better person for it in many ways.

Professionally, if I were to leave and work for a "lower calibre" bar or restaurant I'd be an absolute all star bartender/server. I think back to places I used to work and if I returned to them I'd just absolutely kill it. It also makes me better at other things I do in work/life as my interactions with others are improved.. better sales/service capabilities, as well as social interaction with others etc etc.

I have an Aspie friend who forces himself to work a service job simply because it's difficult for him to do.. to put himself out there and be social like that - and he knows it makes him better at those things, and that nothing worth doing is easy, and so makes himself do it for the value he gets out of it. It's a bit more of a chill place vs. the rigid management style I'm working under so his improvements are more self initiated vs. imposed by firm management, but still, similar. I'm sure there must be others out there doing similar things for similar reasons. Anyways, if you can hack it & are borderline social already vs. in "avoid people at all costs" mode, I highly recommend working in a very social environment under management who are masters of the hospitality industry as it's like a paid education in the how to's of social interaction.

_________________
No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.