Reputation

Where my reputation has really come through and that I've noticeably worked on and retained would have to be at the restaurant I work at in downtown Champaign.  Me and my boyfriend actually work there and we have been known as the couple that gets things done and works really well together. We will always stay really late to make sure that the restaurant is in perfect condition and that our boss is happy.

My reputation was not always like that though.  It started off as me being the hardest working server on my own before I got my boyfriend a job there.  Some might say that he is "stealing my thunder" or whatever but I do not see it that way at all.  We are a team and we piggy back off each other when it comes to working.  He is more of the meticulous type, meaning he always needs everything to be perfect and takes his time.  I am the type that likes things done quickly and efficiently.  So as you might have guessed, this combination works perfectly.

When it comes to my reputation at work, at this point I like where it is and would like to keep it that way.  I have worked very hard to get where I am at that restaurant to create great personal relationships with all of my co-workers and my boss.  Which is good because a lot of people are let go due to the owner simply not liking them.  Politics of the restaurant play a huge role in keeping this job or being promoted.

I do not think there has ever been an instance where I strayed away from my reputation.  I am pretty much always aware of what I am doing and what image I am giving off because as a server, we are contently being judged by customers, the owner and managers of the restaurant, and other servers and chefs.  I have seen instances where other servers have abandoned their reputation or went in the wrong way with their reputation.  For instance, one of the servers has a very inappropriate relationship with the owner, so you can say she has a bad reputation amongst the rest of the restaurant.

All in all, I can say that I like where I fit at my job and wouldn't want to change anything.

Happy Thanksgiving!!  

Triangle Relationship

I know I keep going back to my work, being a waiter at a restaurant, but it is always the first thing that comes to mind.  There are many situations where I work that have a triangle-type dynamic.  The first example that comes to mind is my manager and how she has the dynamic between overseeing the kitchen and the servers in the front of the house. 

There are many times when the two principles (being the servers and the kitchen staff) do not see eye to eye and it is the agent's responsibility to resolve this issue.  For example, when the kitchen sends out a order that isn't necessarily correct, the servers usually get upset because they are the ones that have to deal with annoyed customers, usually resulting in a lower tip.  The manager's job is to check on both the kitchen and servers to see what was wrong and then go and talk to the table that had the wrong order sent out.  This usually resolves the issue because the customer then sees that it was just a minor mistake because it is from someone other than their server. 

Is there more than one way to solve this issue? Maybe.  Another way would be for the manager to talk to the customers first, and maybe offer a free dessert of comp something on their bill.  This is probably what I would do because this shows the customer that the restaurant really cares for the customer by giving something extra in return for a mistake. 

Other than just focusing on the customer and their needs, the manager also has to make sure that the kitchen staff and the serving staff are okay so that no further conflict arises.  Sometimes, one of the parties are not completely satisfied.  For example, like I said when the manager gives a free dessert, the kitchen suffers because on top of the orders that they already have, they need to make this free dessert.  On the other hand, this helps the server because it makes them look like they really cared because they are the messenger who brings out the free dessert.  

So I'd say, when it comes to running a restaurant, the manager has tons of decisions that need to be made and the results aren't always favorable to every party.  The difference between a good manager and a mediocre manager is that a good manager can apologize to the party that was hurt in the process and keep the operation moving along without any further confrontation. 

Work Conflict

The conflict that comes to my mind was actually a recent one at work.  As you may already know from my older posts, I work as a server at a restaurant and with this job comes tons of different conflicts every shift.  These conflicts range from something as simple as servers arguing over who can take the next table or much larger conflicts such as arguments between my boss and some of the chefs.

I was actually not in this conflict but I was there the whole time to watch it unfold.  The sad part is that this conflict started with a computer glitch, which cause us humans to start getting mad at each other.  There are two restaurants where I work that share a kitchen and Dublin's, the restaurant next door, had a glitch in the POS (point of sale) system where all the tickets (orders of food) did not get sent to the kitchen for about ten minutes and after that ten minutes, they all came in at once.

This might've been okay on a slow weekday, but this was during the dinner rush on a Saturday night. As you might've already guessed, the servers were not very happy because now all this food was behind and their tables were starting to get antsy.  So when it came to the entire restaurant, it was the severs against the kitchen.  Aside from those conflicts, the main one that I remember was between my boss and the head chef.  Since everyone was stressing out, my boss went in the back to work the window (pretty much the guys who reads off the tickets and organizes everything so it is easier for the kitchen).  It was going good at the beginning, but once more tickets started to come in on top of all the tickets that had been backed up, my boss started to panic and get flustered.  Sadly, he took out his frustration on the head chef.  From my point of view, the head chef was doing a kick ass job (excuse my language) but apparently this was not fast enough for my boss.

He started yelling the orders to them, saying things like "Come on guys! We are at a 25 minute wait time for food to come out, we have to move faster!" From my point of view, it looked like they were going as fast as they possibly could.  It seemed like everyone was on the same page except my boss.  He has it in his head that the chefs just weren't moving fast enough and after a while of them getting screamed at, the head chef told me boss to calm down and that yelling isn't going to make them move any faster, it would actually stress them out more and cause more mistakes and delay, which I totally agreed with.

After he said that to my boss, he actually started to calm down.  But then the head chef got flustered and grabbed a hot pan out of the oven with no oven mitts.  He then dropped this pan full of some sort of sauce all over the kitchen floor.  That is when my boss lost it, he screamed, and excuse my language this is a direct quote, "Come on!! This is the bullshit I was talking about! We do not have time to for these stupid mistakes!!"

Mind you he was screaming this directly after the head chef burned his had from the hot pan and at this point, the head chef got pissed, said "piss off dude" and walked out of the kitchen because he did not appreciate being screamed at by his boss.

After a short while, the head chef came back and continued to work and finished all the orders with ease.  I thought it was a good idea that he walked out of the kitchen because it avoided any further conflict.  I actually also think that my boss knew it was a good idea too because he didn't get mad at the head chef for leaving.  By the end of the night, my boss apologized, saying he acted unethical and should not have gotten mad at the chefs because it only created more chaos.

The source of this conflict, I believe was the POS system but the way my boss handled it created another conflict that was unnecessary.  The reactions of everyone else, especially when my boss decided to scream at the head chef was mostly shocked and embarrassment because our customers could actually hear him screaming.

Could the situation been avoided? No, but the conflict could've definitely been avoided.  My boss was out of line for yelling at the head chef.  He could have handled the situation much better by not losing his cool and keeping the kitchen at a good pace.