I may just be too old for this. It’s 3:30 a.m. and I just walked in from day two of my new job. Damn. I’m. Tired. And that’s the understatement of the century.

My work day started out just as frustrating as the others. Samantha was no where to be found when I got there, all though she did arrive about 30 minutes later. They had no idea who was training me. I still don’t have a complete uniform, although I’ll be tested on what exactly that is on Monday. I’m still not in the computer system so who knows whether I’m actually going to get paid for this or not. And of course no one did anything about any of this until the last minute and then they all ran around like chickens with their heads cut off. And just for the record. Samantha has the personality of a rock. And that’s being kind.

I finally got a schedule out of her. I’ve been trying for the past three days to find out what days I’m working, what time I’m working and how long I have to train. So I finally cornered her tonight and made her decide. She explained that I had to do six training sessions and that even though I was an old employee I still had to do it all. She said she was as stickler for every employee going through the full training schedule. This is kind of funny, because it’s the third time I’ve trained with this company, and as of yet I’ve never done the full training sessions. So I ask if I could do it over the next six days. Straight through no breaks so I could get trained and put on the floor making money. She hesitated but finally said okay.

And my shift started. The woman Connie training me is quite good.

There are no hard and steadfast rules when you are dealing with the public. You get about 6 seconds when you walk up to the table to figure out what they are going to be like. Are they bitchy. Fun. Angry. Easy Going. It’s impossible to tell until you get there and start to talk to them. Unfortunately she believes that every table should be treated the same. And so I tried to do that, knowing that in a week when I’m on my own it won’t be that way at all. That being said, she knows her stuff. And I learned a lot tonight. I actually handled her entire station for most of the night. I only needed help a couple of times for the most part.

At the beginning of the shift she had me set goals as to what I was going to accomplish for the night. How many desserts could I sell? How many side items? How many this? How many that? I thought it was kind of silly, so I chose high. I added about 15 to what I really thought I could get. She was a little annoyed with me, and told me to be more reasonable. I then replied with a “why not shoot high. What’s the worst that could happen.” When it was all said and done I met every goal by several items except for one. And in that case I was short one dessert. She was more than impressed with my abilities.

At the end of the night, I had to meet with Samantha. She sat down with me, and proceeded to tell me what a wonderful job I was doing. So much so that she’s changed her mind and I WON’T have to do the fulling training schedule. I guess that makes me three for three. Yippee!

So I’ll be done on Monday, and if I pass the test I can start working on Tuesday. Which will be great since I’ve had no income since July. I’m starting to get a little poor.

We have 23 seats at the bar.

It’s horseshoe shaped.

When I started, seating the bar was kind of a free for all. Reservations all over the place. People just showing up.

I implemented change when I started.

We reserve all the stools. We seat them in pairs. Odd numbers first. 1, 2. 3, 4. 5, 6.

We don’t take reservations for more than 4 people. And I try to push them to tables.

We’ve gone from about 30 or so reservations a night to most weekends night this time of year around 50.

Most of these reservations are made day of.

The system we’ve implemented is that we only release 7 pairs of stools each shift. The others can only be reserved by me.

So when someone calls, even day of I can usually get people in.

So along the way the bartenders have realized they are busier. They also know why.

And.

They started telling people the secret to bar reservations. Just call Jeff. Leave a message. He’ll call you back. And just like that you have seats for the night.

But.

What scares me.

Is they’ve told people this. Lots and lots of people this. Since last summer.

We are approaching busy season. And I’m starting to get worried that I’m going to get a 100 phone calls a day.

I’ll keep you posted.

But I really hope that I don’t spend the summer disappointing people.