Sunday, October 15, 2006

Quitter or no Quitter?--PART 1

On Friday, I've decided it was the last day to work part-time at the Thai restaurant on the south side of Indianapolis (and will start at another one.) As much as I hate the idea of being a quitter, I just cannot stand an attitude of those Thais I worked with. Now the reason I said 'Thais' is because there are some other nationalities in there as well, but they are not the 'problem.' See the thing is: I've made it clear on my first day that I've already have my full-time job going on and that the two reasons I wanted to do are because: 1) To help a friend out. 2) To get some experiences in the kitchen. Now, here are some problems: (which I take it as lessons to not make them happen when I own a restaurant, if ever.)
1) I am new. So if you decide that walking me around, introducing me to where is where, and fully training me are not important, then what do you expect? My first day: here I asked:

ME: "So do you wanna show me around so I know what I am supposed to do?"
OTHERS: "Oh! that won't be necessary. You will be learning by doing?"
ME: "But I don't wanna have to ask someone when you guys are busy?"
OTHERS: "Oh! that's okay to ask. You don't need to be trained. We can explain later."
ME: "Are you sure? What about the appertizers? Aren't you supposed to show me how to?"
OTHERS: "I will show you when there is an order."

Two days later, I was still learning by doing on my own, but only God knows, how many fish cake I am supposed to make per order. My job there was supposed to be an appertizer lady, but hell, nobody trained me so let me guess, 5?

OTHERS: "Hey! this is not enough? Who tell you 5?"
ME: "Er...nobody"
OTHERS: "Why didn't you ask?"
ME: "I did, but everybody is busy, so nobody said anything to me."
OTHERS: "Why din't you keep asking?"
ME: "I did, but they keep telling me to ask others, and everybody does the same?"
OTHERS: "Can't you even guess? Five are too little. It's supposed to be six. Gosh!"
ME: "I am not a creator of the menu, remember?"

Now you imgine, there are total of 15 appetizers on the menue and every time a customer orders one of those, here we go again. I was there for 5 hours that evening, and I'm telling you, I just can't wait to get back to the newspaper. The following day my boss (who knows about my secret operation after work) has asked me if I wanted to discuss a story idea about 'a day in life in a restaurant' with our columnist. I told him I wanted to think about it. Yes, I want to. BUT I can see myself being murdered a few days after the column is published.

LESSON LEARNED: Organization is a key. Bitchy (and retarded) Thai employeee (and owner) deserve to be deployed to a war zone. Okay...Part 2 will follow.

No comments: