June 12, 2009

Last Call


I've mentioned in the past my dislike of spineless managers. One's that cower at the sign of slightest discontent, and cave at every mention of dissatisfaction, in order to avoid unpleasant confrontation.
But then there are my managers.
Tonight was a weird night, where several miscommunications with the "teenage hostess" ended up in a reservation for 15 people at 9:45pm. This normally would be fine, but seeing as we close at 10pm, there were several annoyed servers, and one furious closer.
To me, this seemed like an easy fix. Call them up, let them know of the miscommunication, apologize sweetly, and suggest they come in at 9pm instead. But this would have been much to simple for my spineless manager. For fear of either rejection, or having to actually face someone in a situation that might result in conflict, my spineless manager decided to avoid the situation completely.
So the group started trickling in around 9:35. I had hoped that they would all arrive together and punctual, but that would have been much to simple, and stress free.
At 10pm the party was still waiting on 8 people, so I asked my manager what she wanted me to do. Do I remind them that we are now closed, do I suggest they order for their friends as the kitchen is shutting down, or do I wait.
And so.....I waited.

And waited.

And to make matters worse, my manager decided that since she was keeping two kitchen guys, a waitress, a dishwasher and a busser all on for an extra hour after closing for just one table, we might as well let anyone else in that happens to stop by.

So I had a full blown second rush of the night, and when the initial assclowns finally showed up it was almost 11pm. I should have already been home, showered, fed, and blogging by then.

I guess I just don't understand something. Why have rules if they aren't enforced? Why have a close time if its optional. Why let people walk all over you, and never stand up for yourself because you to much of a chicken shit to say something. How did you climb your way into management when you clearly have no administrative authority.

My advice to the spineless manager...Grow a pair, or get the hell out.

5 comments:

¸.•*´)ღ¸.•*´Chris said...

I feel your pain today as I write this. I gave away 6 rounds of golf, losing $120 because of my managers stupidity last night. He needs to get his head out of the clouds and focus more on his job than the fact he gets to play free golf, which is a perk of his job.

I would have called these people and told them about the issue and apologized. What you went through last night was screwed up, to say the least. You manager obviously went to the same school as mine when it comes to managerial skills.

Anonymous said...

Working under a young manager is one of the worst things a person can do, especially in the hospitality business. I should know...
So You Want To Be a Banquet Manager
P.S. I really like the background image of this blog.

brit said...

That is ridiculous. I hope at least that you made decent tips! My absolute favorite is when you get the asshole type who is going to complain about everything, does, and ends up getting comped something. They're rewarding bad behavior.

SkippyMom said...

I just wish you had made better tips - it would've been a nice night. Sorry.

Jessica said...

Huh. It's kind of funny--I work at an Irish bar, so a week night closing shift means I'll be out at 1:30am and a weekend closing shift means I'll be out at 3:30am. I'm also in the downtown area of a city that gets quite hot in summer and so most of the population has cleared out and it's sloooooooow. And you know just like I do that slow=no money.

Long story short, I read this and thought to myself, "Oh man, that sounds awesome. A late night pop all to myself!"

Not trying to hate--I used to work at a mid-level steakhouse with those hours and would have thought the same thing--but I figured I'd offer a little perspective. Hope you made lots of money, at least!

PS As for intro: just stumbled upon your blog from... I think a comment you made at cakewrecks. Anyhoo, great blog. :) I'm very much enjoying it!