Who here's a waiter? I am a waiter at a local Japanese-Vietnamese restaurant (i.e. a Japanese restaurnt run by Vietnamese). I think I do alright there, because I'm usually good with the customers. With the customers, I just adopt a nice tone while saying things like, "Welcome to our restaurant," "Would you like anything to drink?" etc. One problem that comes up is that when it's busy I get stressed. Say, for example, if I have two large tables that are just starting out, I find it difficult to keep up at the pace that the cashier (who is also the hiring/scheduling manager) wants me to. (She's also Vietnamese, btw, and her English is about half-decent, but not much more.) I do my best to bring my tables first their drinks, then their soups (after they order), then their salads (and sauces if they're not a cooking table).
If I have one table I can do the task well, but I find that if I have to do two large tables, that I have to make two trips each time. I prefer to keep the tables together at the same pace, I bring out soup for one, then the other, then I bring out salad for first, then second, etc. If one of those tables isn't a cooking table, then the cashier will get mad if she has to bring out the main course. She then tells me, "You're supposed to remember to take care of your table," and that I work too slow. (Though I think I move too fast in too much haste, as others at work tell me.) I'm trying to tell her that it's busy and that I also have another large table to take care of, but to no avail. She continues telling me the same thing, and she calls me lazy because I didn't bring out the main course right when it was finished. If it gets very busy (when fifteen minutes ago it wasn't busy), I wouldn't even have brought the salads out by the time the main course is ready. I prefer to take out the soups, salads, sauces, and rice out first, but I guess that's an impossibility during impossibly busy moments. Are there any other waiters with tips on this?
One of the hardest parts of this job is the communication, made harder by the fact that none of my bosses (who are all Vietnamese) speaks English very well. Since things that are obvious to most people aren't very obvious to me, this causes lots of problems. Nevertheless, one boss now says that he would provide the instructions explicitly, and so I think I can do better now. I think I need to make sure that I remember to slow down when I work, so I don't make as many mistakes. Other than that, I think I'm half-decent, and they give me about 5 days a week of work (of 5 hours each day).
Does anyone else have this kind of job?
11 May 2005, 12:50 pm
