link to original reddit post by /u/longburnaccount117
Telling this on a burner account because of some details I don’t want to share on my main.
Anyways recently I’ve started to work as a host at a chain restaurant, it’s a good gig for a part time job. 10 dollars an hour, half off food, etc. However soon into my job I’ve stumbled upon some problems.
Before I get into it I feel like I should better explain my role. I was hired to greet people, take them to their table, and give them menus. That’s the main reason why I was hired. I was also told that I should also help out with other people’s jobs when it’s busy and I do. (Also I was directly told that I didn’t have to help clean tables, it’s purely optional.) So when it gets busy or a customer wants something more sought after (a booth for example) and its dirty, I’ll clean it even though that’s the waiters role.( no bus boys) Win win, I seated a customer doing my job and that waiter gets a a customer.
Further more when I don’t have anything to do (no one up front, no menus to clean) and it’s not busy I take a break,(it’s allowed in the back) drink some water, relax and wait until someone comes in etc. However sometimes when I do this there’s some dirty tables. (here’s one story) Four things to take notice before I tell it. 1. It’s not busy and therefore the waiters wouldn’t need anyone to clean their tables 2. There is plenty of tables in every section, so even if I sit a family in every section there would still be plenty of room. 3. Many of the waiters exploit other people such as bossing around other employees to clean tables. 4. Also they talk in the back while they have a shit ton of tables to clean leaving other employees to clean it when someone wants one of their tables. So it was easy for me to come to the conclusion that they obviously use people to do less work so they can vape or some shit.
Anyways back on track. I continue waiting until a family comes in. Then a person who isn’t a host or waiter comes up to me and goes “Hey why don’t you clean any of the tables?”
“I do but it’s not busy at the moment so there’s no need to, and also it’s not my job to do so.”
“Yeah but you’re expected to, when I’m a host if there’s a dirty table, that table would be cleaned in 3 minutes.”
“It’s not my job to clean whenever there’s a dirty table, but which waiter has a problem so I can talk to them about it.”
“It doesn’t matter, and still you’re expected to, whatever.” And then he left.
So not only did the server who had a problem with me not come to me directly to solve the problem, but NONE OF THE WAITERS EVEN ASKED FOR MY HELP. They just sat around expecting me to clean their tables because I’m “expected to” (even when it’s not busy) and getting pissed because I’m not cleaning their tables. Now If one of them asked nicely for help? Yeah of course I’ll help, but fucking hell you can’t get pissed at someone not doing something (that isn’t even their job) without even asking that someone to do it.
Sorry for the long story and grammar mistakes but overall what I’m trying to say is to be weary of people preaching collectivism or welfare, as even if some of them mean good, some may simply exploit it. And trust me I’ve learned that the hard way in the service industry that people WILL exploit you even if it’s your “fellow” comrade in arms.
Also this was half a rant and half a story. also this wasn’t the only instance to happen at my work to push me to be more individualist it’s not like it was a paradigm shift. Thank you for reading!