Sunday, November 9, 2008

The Waiting Chronicles: Yea...We're gonna need you to come in on friday too...mmmkk...yea that would be great.

I hate it when people don't do their jobs correctly. This complicates mine greatly. ..

So I am usually very proficient about remembering my schedule and coming to work when I'm supposed to and not going when I don't have too. Well on Friday I was excited because I had looked on my schedule and saw that I didn't even have to go into work at all. So I am just being lazy and having a great time doing it.

Around 12:00 all of that changed...I get a call from not just a manager but the general manager of our store. He says me "Hey Doug! Where are you?" "At home." I replied. "Well you were supposed to be here over an hour ago." As my heart stops I hear myself say "I could have sworn that I wasn't on the schedule today." He continues by telling me " No, I have you written in right here." Now what am I supposed to say," Uh...no...I think your wrong." or "Wow I apologize and will be there as soon as I possibly can." I went with the later.

Twenty minutes later I was showered, had a freshly starched shirt, and had driven ten minutes to work. All this time all I could think was "I'm going to be fired for this. ..Yep I'm going to be fired for this." So I walk in and can see that the place is packed and that there is a lonely four table section with nobody in it. I immediately concluded which section was supposed to be mine. As I walk into the back with my head down in shame I pass by my fellow waiters and find that none of them are speaking to me( a bad sign). I am in the process clocking in and can see my manager coming towards me( a worse sign). I gather up all of my strength and prepare for the onslaught. He then greets me with " Hey man I figured out what happened." Not exactly the verbal abuse I was expecting. He continues to tell me that on their big manager key, they had me down to work. On my schedule, however, there was a blank because whoever wrote it up had forgotten to put that little piece of information in. The manager then asks me if I would stay on because he could really use my help. So I stay and helped until we were not on wait anymore. Once I was off the manager buys me lunch for helping him out in a jam.

So I went on a roller-coaster ride of emotions on Friday all to get a free meal and a lousy 22 dollars. All I can say is this...Come Monday there are going to be three people that defiantly hear from me.

2 comments:

Doyle Srader said...

Pretty frustrating all right. Only thing I'll say, and I say this from experience, is that when people know I've got them dead to rights, that they screwed up in a bad and embarrassing way, and I let them off the hook, that turns out to be a really powerful long-term investment in goodwill. I've never yet regretted letting something like that go, especially after the damage is done and there's no way to undo it.

p-melt said...

Surely the holiday season hath brought forth many a tale from thine days of servanthood worth blogging about.

I believe it is time for you to post again.



I miss you so darn much, it hurts.