I can’t do this anymore. I may sound dramatic, but this job is taking a toll on me. I keep getting told things and then told the opposite. It’s driving me crazy. I feel bad for complaining because I know some people who have been there longer than me and have had the same stuff happen to them. I got zero hours last week, so on Thursday when everyone else gets paid, I’m probably gonna be begging my mom for gas money. Maybe I’m sensitive, but honestly, I don’t care anymore. This weekend was terrible, and I’m half tempted to put my two weeks in now, but I’ll wait until after the holidays maybe it won’t be as bad. I don’t know anymore.
Since this weekend was my first time working in a week I knew it would probably be a little harder than usual, but this was absurd. It started out fine but got worse so fast. To-go orders were so backed up because our to-go server that day couldn’t do her job. She won’t communicate with us, she won’t bring orders up, and then we have people angry with us because she isn’t doing what she’s supposed to. If she would’ve been doing her job we wouldn’t have gotten so backed up. There were tons of people around the cash stand all waiting on their to-go orders. Me and one other girl were working retail, so while she stayed up front I was running back and forth from the cash stand to the kitchen because the to-go server took off her headset for whatever reason. I was already angry and sweating, but I kept doing my job and hers. Multiple orders were messed up because she didn’t check them before telling me they were ready. A man was missing an entire pie and made a smart comment, saying “Is my food gonna be cold by the time you get that?” as I ran back to the kitchen to check on it. Someone was missing their sweet potato, and by the time the to-go server finally got it to me they were gone and didn’t come back. Lastly, someone had only ordered a vegetable plate, which is four of any sides. They had two sides of broccoli in the order, we got one side but we ran out of broccoli after that. It wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if she had told me that we were out and we could ask for a replacement, but I didn’t know we were out until these people had already been waiting for forty minutes on their very simple order. She didn’t tell anyone upfront. We don’t know when we run out of stuff because we don’t hear when they call out to 86 an item. These people were upset and when I went to get the manager he was in the back with his headset off and talking on the phone with someone. He had no clue what was going on. I tried to explain to him that we didn’t know we were out of broccoli and he looked at me and said “By the way, we’re out of broccoli,” in any other situation I would’ve laughed, but I was already upset, and exhausted and that only made me more upset.
After the to-go orders got situated I was coming back to the cash stand when my co-worker told me a ticket wasn’t ringing up. I told her I’d figure it out since I was already in the kitchen. I found where the ticket was still pulled up on a computer in the back. I don’t know how to work the computers in the kitchen because I don’t work back there. I went back to where the servers were and said “Hey I don’t know who’s on this computer, but can someone get it off the screen because we can’t pull it up in the front until you do.” They all stared at me for a few seconds and then turned back to what they were doing as if I wasn’t even there. I was annoyed and upset. I was tired and wanted to go home. I stared at them until one of them huffed and put her stuff down to help me. She pressed some buttons and got it off the screen. When she turned around she very sarcastically said “There, problem solved.” At this point, I wanted to go home so bad.
I was closing that night so I had to wait until all the servers got their tips and all the guests left. Thirty minutes before we closed a party of seven people walked in. They stayed until thirty minutes after closing. I was so tired. When they finally left I was practically begging people to come get their tips so I could leave. One of the servers decided that he was going to buy stuff. I told him no, I told him to hurry and get his money because I wanted to go home. He is in the same grade as me and has the same college class as me, he knew I lived twenty minutes from work, and yet he still spent his time looking around. He could’ve done this while the seven top was still there, he could’ve done this forever ago, but instead, he waited. He came up to the cash stand with 137 dollars worth of stuff. I had to wait for him to count his money. He paid with three 20 dollar bills, a 10 dollar bill, and everything else was in 5’s and 1’s. I didn’t clock out and leave until 10:44 that night. We close at 10.
To say I didn’t want to come in on Sunday was an understatement. I didn’t want to go anywhere near that building on Sunday. I was originally scheduled to work from 1:00-7:00 that day, but a coworker of mine had a meeting at her other job and couldn’t stay her whole shift so my manager asked me to cover it. I had said yes days before my Saturday shift. So now I was back on Sunday working 1:00-8:30. As soon as I came in to-go orders were backed up. It wasn’t the server’s fault that day because there were just so many orders. Enough orders that they had to turn the phone off after a while because it was just too much. Sunday wasn’t as bad as Saturday though. People were rude, but I’m used to that by now. The only thing that bothered me on Sunday was finding out about my PAR level.
The stars on our aprons are our PAR level. You take online courses and PAR up. You get a raise when you PAR up. A few months ago I found out that many people who have a lower PAR than me and have been there for way less time, make way more money than I do. I brought this up with my manager. She went over my evaluation point by point with me. My evaluation was the last thing I needed before I could PAR up. I scored above 95 which is the required score for PAR 4. She told me she couldn’t do pay match requests right now because of something in the system messing up. She even showed me the email from corporate. I had assumed I was PARed up in the system. On Sunday, I found out I was still PAR 3 in the system and have been this entire time. I talked to someone about it again, and she hasn’t gotten back to me yet. I just feel like I’m being taken advantage of.
I don’t say all this to be dramatic, but I gotta get a new job. They treat me poorly, and it feels like no one cares. I’m just angry and upset. I have worked every single holiday except for Father’s Day, and I just feel like it’s not fair for me to be getting paid less when I barely request off. I only request off when I have to. It’s just frustrating. I’m so tired of feeling used. I don’t know, I just know that I need a new job.