My Job, My Life, Frustration, Etc.
Jan. 21st, 2009 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
exhilarationI guess because of the election my work was really busy. It was a really hectic day all day and didn't let up until the very end of the night. I spent almost nine hours taking names and calling names, being the coordinator. It's kind of monotonous - I just stand behind the podium and tell people how long the wait is (and they argue with me nine out of ten times. It's rare that I say a time and they just say, okay) and I listen over the headset for what tables are open and call names accordingly, and then call for other hosts over the headset to come take people to their seats.
And I get so much shit - like I said, people argue with me non-stop. I say the wait is forty-five minutes, and sure enough the person I'm talking to says to me "oh it's not really that long, it'll be shorter than that, won't it?" Well, no, it won't, or I would have said so, but, see, they're trying to trick me, they're trying to get me to say, well, maybe it will be shorter, so then they can say that it took too long for them to be seated and they want to eat for free. Or I get people who say, well, what about the smoking section? Is that a shorter wait? (There is no smoking in the whole building...) Well, we'll take a table, what's the wait for a table? (As opposed to what, exactly? The floor?) Well, I have children. (Okay, here are some crayons... seriously, you think because you're out with your kids and they're hard to control, you don't have to wait in line?) Well, I'm here with my elderly parents, they don't really have to wait, do they? My father can't stand here in the lobby, he's old, blah blah blah - SORRY, BUT, you STILL HAVE TO WAIT. I don't CARE what your story is. I cannot just snap my fingers and produce a vacant table for you, and I certainly am not bumping you in front of every other person who has been sitting here staring me down from the minute I told THEM how long the wait is.
When it isn't busy I have to just stand up there and make stupid random conversation with the other hosts, and I'm like five years older than all of them and am of the opinion that they're all idiots anyway. Except the girl Kimmy, who I've mentioned before, but even she is only eighteen. It's not like we've really got anything in common other than that she and I do the same job and don't suck at it.
So... some of these host coworkers of mine, well, one in particular, who is kind of new, as in, has only worked there for a few months, and I've been there maybe a year and a half now, is really grating on my nerves and has ever since I met her. We've kind of got a system worked out, all the hosts, where we choose which part of the job each one of us wants to do at the beginning of the night. I always choose coordinator, because I hate seating people, and besides, I'm a better coordinator than pretty much anyone else anyway. I get to choose first cause I've been there the longest - if ever I'm working with someone else with more seniority than me (which isn't often) then they get to choose first. Sometimes someone will ask if it's okay with me if they choose my spot, and, depending on my mood/if I like them/if they've got a valid reason, we do switch.
This girl? Since she's newest she is always stuck with the last spot, so she gets told what she'll be doing every night. She could ask to do something else, but she never does. She just DOESNT DO whatever she's been assigned, and every time I've brought this up to her she says she IS doing her job and nobody has any business yelling at her or telling her what to do. Unless a manager tells her what she's doing before each shift, she basically... won't work as part of the team, she just does her own thing all night. Meaning, of course, that whatever she's been assigned to do doesn't get done.
She has been known to stand at the podium with me and repeat what I say/talk over me when people come in, like she's doing MY job while I'm already doing it, like she's trying to push me out or something. So I've tried ignoring her, which doesn't really work because I'm not good at ignoring annoying people. I've tried telling her what to do, like telling her to seat certain tables (which is what I'm supposed to do, tell everyone who to seat where), but she won't, and will keep right on trying to take names while I'm taking names. I've tried just leaving her up there to go ahead and do my job and figured well, if she's doing my job, then I'll start doing hers, and then at least everything will keep running smoothly. Except, of course, she sucks at my job, everything starts to fall apart, and then, when a manager has to intervene, I'm the one who gets blamed.
The first day I met her I nearly killed her (with my brain, of course) but I restrained myself. I think I shouldn't have. She had been hired while I hadn't been at work in like a week, and the first day I worked with her she kept bossing me around, telling me what to do and stuff and I was just like, wtf, why is the new girl acting like she's in charge of me? I figured if I just acted like I wasn't pissed off, eventually, as the shift went on, she would cut it out, once she realized I knew what I was doing about ten times better than she did. No. Not at all. Obviously I gave her too much credit.
And she's not stupid - she's very smart, I can tell when I talk to her. She is not an airhead like the majority of the other hosts. She's just... FUCKING INFURIATING.
Also, she played with my crutches the first time I met her. She saw them, picked them up, started walking around the lobby on them, and I was like, "you'd better put those back" and she was like, why, and I was like, "cause they're mine, leave them where they were." Anyone else would have been hideously embarrassed, and I would have cackled with amusement, and that would have been that. This girl didn't even apologize, and was just like, whatever. I yelled at her really bad, right in the lobby, in front of all kinds of people. I was in a shit mood anyway, and her attitude had been irritating me all night, and it was kind of like the last straw. So... I should have just killed her (with my brain) but instead I stupidly apologized for yelling at her and causing a disruption at work.
I also yelled at her in the lobby one other time, when she was being completely useless at her job like normal, and people were mobbing the podium and there was general confusion (cause she wasn't doing her job so things were getting screwed up) and I just snapped and told a customer that the reason he had been waiting so long after being called was because this girl (and I pointed to her, and she was standing right next to me) was refusing to take him to his table. She got really upset and went and cried and I got a talking to by my least favorite manager ever about how I can't freak out on anyone like that no matter what they do.
So... she's my #1 enemy at work. Everyone else thinks she's so great and that she works so hard and that she's so wonderful and blah blah blah - I can't have a civil conversation or interaction with the girl if my life depends on it. So working with her is always awkward at best and at worst, extremely frustrating and stressful.
So, anyway, yesterday at work I felt like shit to begin with. I dunno, I was playing in the snow on Monday - we got a real deal snowstorm Monday, snow that actually stuck around and amounted to more than an inch or so. And yes, I know I'm not a kid, but whatever. Ryan called me telling me I was coming over to the Ps and he and I were going brown-boxing - it sounded like a good idea at the time. There is a lake near the Ps' house that used to freeze every winter - I dunno, it used to be colder or something I guess, cause as far as I know that lake hasn't frozen solid in ages - and when we were kids we used to go play on it. Taking a sled out on a frozen pond is a blast - they just fly! Anyway, we were "sledding" down the slight incline next to the parkway overpass, lol. There aren't any hills around here, and sleds with metal runners on them don't go fast over snow anyway. That's why the sled was such a blast on the ice, see? For snow, cardboard is really better :P
Anyway, I had a really good time playing in the snow with Ryan and some other random people. It was fun, and I felt like shit after. I should really just stay out of the snow - when I was in college it snowed and I went out playing in it with my friends and I ended up getting really hurt. Of course, this is because I was being a daredevil, more or less, and I'd like to think I've since grown out of shit like that. But freezing temperatures have a tendency to just wreak havoc on me, and I should know that by now. I didn't feel much better today, either.
But I went to work. I worked. I did a good job. I even put up with Tara The Terrible. Didn't yell at anyone. Didn't snap at anyone. It was fine.
Except SOME FUCKER, at some point during the shift, moved my crutches.
Since it's my job to just stand at the podium, and I'm not supposed to walk away from it for any reason anyway, I really don't need them. Sometimes I'll use just one, especially if my shoulder hurts - then I just use the opposite one and leave the other crutch by the wall.
Ok, so, I don't need them just to stand there at the podium but I DO NEED THEM TO DO ANYTHING ELSE AND WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT ANYWAY?
And as much as I can't stand her I don't think it was Tara The Terrible who moved them, cause why would she do that? She's not downright evil, we just clash over everything. And besides, if she really was trying to be evil, she would have stuck around to see what happened when I noticed they weren't where I left them, and she didn't. In fact, well, by the time things had calmed down enough, and I had calmed down, organized and put away the wait sheets, made the floor chart for the next day, put all the headsets away, folded up the kids menus and all... not many people were around at all.
Once I had determined that no, they didn't fall down, and no, they weren't on the other side of the podium or anywhere that would make sense... I had to holler for Jenna the bartender, and she was totally not interested in responding to me. She can kind of be a bitch, and I hardly ever talk to her. I used to try, but she's always been totally unresponsive to me. I get along with nearly everyone I work with to varying degrees, and it's not that I don't get along with her. She's just not one of my favorite people, and I'm not one of hers. So... me standing in the lobby and hollering for her to come here... kinda made her all bwa?
She just kind of looked at me like, what do you want?
And I was like, can you just come here?
And she was like, what do you want?
And I was like, look, I'm not going to holler it across the restaurant, okay, can you please just come here?
And she was incredibly put upon to have to stop washing glasses and cleaning her bar and all to walk twenty feet to the host stand... and I was all, can you look on the other side of that wall over there and tell me if someone stuck my crutches where I can't see them?
At that point, of course, Jenna dropped the "I'm a bitch" attitude, looked, said they weren't there, and then took a stroll around the restaurant quickly looking for them and found them IN THE FUCKING VESTIBULE and was like, "how the fuck did they get there, who did you piss off?"
I am loathe to conclude that someone actually did that deliberately. People can do some really thoughtless things simply because... they don't think (that's what makes it thoughtless) but SERIOUSLY. What a fucking end to a fucking shitty night.
And I'm so sick of that job anyway I just want to scream.
And I get so much shit - like I said, people argue with me non-stop. I say the wait is forty-five minutes, and sure enough the person I'm talking to says to me "oh it's not really that long, it'll be shorter than that, won't it?" Well, no, it won't, or I would have said so, but, see, they're trying to trick me, they're trying to get me to say, well, maybe it will be shorter, so then they can say that it took too long for them to be seated and they want to eat for free. Or I get people who say, well, what about the smoking section? Is that a shorter wait? (There is no smoking in the whole building...) Well, we'll take a table, what's the wait for a table? (As opposed to what, exactly? The floor?) Well, I have children. (Okay, here are some crayons... seriously, you think because you're out with your kids and they're hard to control, you don't have to wait in line?) Well, I'm here with my elderly parents, they don't really have to wait, do they? My father can't stand here in the lobby, he's old, blah blah blah - SORRY, BUT, you STILL HAVE TO WAIT. I don't CARE what your story is. I cannot just snap my fingers and produce a vacant table for you, and I certainly am not bumping you in front of every other person who has been sitting here staring me down from the minute I told THEM how long the wait is.
When it isn't busy I have to just stand up there and make stupid random conversation with the other hosts, and I'm like five years older than all of them and am of the opinion that they're all idiots anyway. Except the girl Kimmy, who I've mentioned before, but even she is only eighteen. It's not like we've really got anything in common other than that she and I do the same job and don't suck at it.
So... some of these host coworkers of mine, well, one in particular, who is kind of new, as in, has only worked there for a few months, and I've been there maybe a year and a half now, is really grating on my nerves and has ever since I met her. We've kind of got a system worked out, all the hosts, where we choose which part of the job each one of us wants to do at the beginning of the night. I always choose coordinator, because I hate seating people, and besides, I'm a better coordinator than pretty much anyone else anyway. I get to choose first cause I've been there the longest - if ever I'm working with someone else with more seniority than me (which isn't often) then they get to choose first. Sometimes someone will ask if it's okay with me if they choose my spot, and, depending on my mood/if I like them/if they've got a valid reason, we do switch.
This girl? Since she's newest she is always stuck with the last spot, so she gets told what she'll be doing every night. She could ask to do something else, but she never does. She just DOESNT DO whatever she's been assigned, and every time I've brought this up to her she says she IS doing her job and nobody has any business yelling at her or telling her what to do. Unless a manager tells her what she's doing before each shift, she basically... won't work as part of the team, she just does her own thing all night. Meaning, of course, that whatever she's been assigned to do doesn't get done.
She has been known to stand at the podium with me and repeat what I say/talk over me when people come in, like she's doing MY job while I'm already doing it, like she's trying to push me out or something. So I've tried ignoring her, which doesn't really work because I'm not good at ignoring annoying people. I've tried telling her what to do, like telling her to seat certain tables (which is what I'm supposed to do, tell everyone who to seat where), but she won't, and will keep right on trying to take names while I'm taking names. I've tried just leaving her up there to go ahead and do my job and figured well, if she's doing my job, then I'll start doing hers, and then at least everything will keep running smoothly. Except, of course, she sucks at my job, everything starts to fall apart, and then, when a manager has to intervene, I'm the one who gets blamed.
The first day I met her I nearly killed her (with my brain, of course) but I restrained myself. I think I shouldn't have. She had been hired while I hadn't been at work in like a week, and the first day I worked with her she kept bossing me around, telling me what to do and stuff and I was just like, wtf, why is the new girl acting like she's in charge of me? I figured if I just acted like I wasn't pissed off, eventually, as the shift went on, she would cut it out, once she realized I knew what I was doing about ten times better than she did. No. Not at all. Obviously I gave her too much credit.
And she's not stupid - she's very smart, I can tell when I talk to her. She is not an airhead like the majority of the other hosts. She's just... FUCKING INFURIATING.
Also, she played with my crutches the first time I met her. She saw them, picked them up, started walking around the lobby on them, and I was like, "you'd better put those back" and she was like, why, and I was like, "cause they're mine, leave them where they were." Anyone else would have been hideously embarrassed, and I would have cackled with amusement, and that would have been that. This girl didn't even apologize, and was just like, whatever. I yelled at her really bad, right in the lobby, in front of all kinds of people. I was in a shit mood anyway, and her attitude had been irritating me all night, and it was kind of like the last straw. So... I should have just killed her (with my brain) but instead I stupidly apologized for yelling at her and causing a disruption at work.
I also yelled at her in the lobby one other time, when she was being completely useless at her job like normal, and people were mobbing the podium and there was general confusion (cause she wasn't doing her job so things were getting screwed up) and I just snapped and told a customer that the reason he had been waiting so long after being called was because this girl (and I pointed to her, and she was standing right next to me) was refusing to take him to his table. She got really upset and went and cried and I got a talking to by my least favorite manager ever about how I can't freak out on anyone like that no matter what they do.
So... she's my #1 enemy at work. Everyone else thinks she's so great and that she works so hard and that she's so wonderful and blah blah blah - I can't have a civil conversation or interaction with the girl if my life depends on it. So working with her is always awkward at best and at worst, extremely frustrating and stressful.
So, anyway, yesterday at work I felt like shit to begin with. I dunno, I was playing in the snow on Monday - we got a real deal snowstorm Monday, snow that actually stuck around and amounted to more than an inch or so. And yes, I know I'm not a kid, but whatever. Ryan called me telling me I was coming over to the Ps and he and I were going brown-boxing - it sounded like a good idea at the time. There is a lake near the Ps' house that used to freeze every winter - I dunno, it used to be colder or something I guess, cause as far as I know that lake hasn't frozen solid in ages - and when we were kids we used to go play on it. Taking a sled out on a frozen pond is a blast - they just fly! Anyway, we were "sledding" down the slight incline next to the parkway overpass, lol. There aren't any hills around here, and sleds with metal runners on them don't go fast over snow anyway. That's why the sled was such a blast on the ice, see? For snow, cardboard is really better :P
Anyway, I had a really good time playing in the snow with Ryan and some other random people. It was fun, and I felt like shit after. I should really just stay out of the snow - when I was in college it snowed and I went out playing in it with my friends and I ended up getting really hurt. Of course, this is because I was being a daredevil, more or less, and I'd like to think I've since grown out of shit like that. But freezing temperatures have a tendency to just wreak havoc on me, and I should know that by now. I didn't feel much better today, either.
But I went to work. I worked. I did a good job. I even put up with Tara The Terrible. Didn't yell at anyone. Didn't snap at anyone. It was fine.
Except SOME FUCKER, at some point during the shift, moved my crutches.
Since it's my job to just stand at the podium, and I'm not supposed to walk away from it for any reason anyway, I really don't need them. Sometimes I'll use just one, especially if my shoulder hurts - then I just use the opposite one and leave the other crutch by the wall.
Ok, so, I don't need them just to stand there at the podium but I DO NEED THEM TO DO ANYTHING ELSE AND WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT ANYWAY?
And as much as I can't stand her I don't think it was Tara The Terrible who moved them, cause why would she do that? She's not downright evil, we just clash over everything. And besides, if she really was trying to be evil, she would have stuck around to see what happened when I noticed they weren't where I left them, and she didn't. In fact, well, by the time things had calmed down enough, and I had calmed down, organized and put away the wait sheets, made the floor chart for the next day, put all the headsets away, folded up the kids menus and all... not many people were around at all.
Once I had determined that no, they didn't fall down, and no, they weren't on the other side of the podium or anywhere that would make sense... I had to holler for Jenna the bartender, and she was totally not interested in responding to me. She can kind of be a bitch, and I hardly ever talk to her. I used to try, but she's always been totally unresponsive to me. I get along with nearly everyone I work with to varying degrees, and it's not that I don't get along with her. She's just not one of my favorite people, and I'm not one of hers. So... me standing in the lobby and hollering for her to come here... kinda made her all bwa?
She just kind of looked at me like, what do you want?
And I was like, can you just come here?
And she was like, what do you want?
And I was like, look, I'm not going to holler it across the restaurant, okay, can you please just come here?
And she was incredibly put upon to have to stop washing glasses and cleaning her bar and all to walk twenty feet to the host stand... and I was all, can you look on the other side of that wall over there and tell me if someone stuck my crutches where I can't see them?
At that point, of course, Jenna dropped the "I'm a bitch" attitude, looked, said they weren't there, and then took a stroll around the restaurant quickly looking for them and found them IN THE FUCKING VESTIBULE and was like, "how the fuck did they get there, who did you piss off?"
I am loathe to conclude that someone actually did that deliberately. People can do some really thoughtless things simply because... they don't think (that's what makes it thoughtless) but SERIOUSLY. What a fucking end to a fucking shitty night.
And I'm so sick of that job anyway I just want to scream.
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crutches
Date: 2009-01-22 05:55 pm (UTC)Finally the principal had to make some dumbass rule about people not being allowed to have canes in school unless they're medically necessary. Turns out, there was an incident with a couple guys "fencing" with the canes. Idiots.
Anyway, enough of my trauma. I can't believe the other girls are ok with this Tara person.
Any chance you could look for another job? Just doing something to possibly get yourself out of there would make you feel better.
Take care,
Ivy
Re: crutches
Date: 2009-01-22 06:25 pm (UTC)As for Tara... I dunno, she doesn't grate on anyone else's nerves but mine. Everyone else thinks she's a great worker and really smart and blah blah blah - and I really DONT think she's the one who moved my sticks. She's not deliberately nasty like that - she's kind kind of innately horrible, or something, I don't know.
I have been thinking about another job for a long while - like my Lotion Potion job, for example, that job was fine except for that it paid minimum wage, like most retail jobs do... with the economy being the way it is, and given where I live (very unpopulated area where jobs aren't very available) it's pretty hard. This is why I really need to just move away from here, to somewhere where there ARE jobs and ARE people and ARE options - but of course my health insurance comes from my job (and my job pays VERY decently for something so easy, too) which I really do need, because crazy as it sounds, I don't qualify for public assistance anymore.
Whew. Okay, didn't mean to write so much there. Thanks for listening/reading, anyway!
Lara