The Inevitable RANT of Work
I've been working for about two weeks now. It is indeed boring to listen to another person gripe about their job, so I will try to sort this into the "good" and the "bad" aspects. More obvious is that the "bad" aspect will be much, much, MUCH longer.
Good:
- Free food. From people who know how to cook. And as much as you'd ever want. (It's a buffet, after all.) Probably makes it balance out the 15-minute break to eat during a shift.
- Kinda brainless tasks with some variety. Normally, I would jump at brainless paying tasks like that "primo" thing from a few months ago, but who wants to work at a place full time where all you do is stand and greet?
- Tips! The minimum wage job is enhanced when we get gratuities that make it seem like you get more per hour. Last weekend, it was enough to pay for almost a whole gas tank... (at these prices anyway)
- Work is nearby... in a way. A ten minute drive. Unfortunately there is no bus that goes there directly, nor often enough, so I still get lifts from my mum or brother.
- Decent learning experience. Everyone knows I have never worked a day in my life before at a real job with regular hours and regular pay. I am grateful for a chance to get some work experience, especially to be written into my CV, to indicate that I ain't no longer no freaking stupid student no more.
Bad:
- More stupid injuries than you could bump your head against. I have so far cut myself a few times on the most innocent of implements, like a pair of tongs. I hit my head constantly on the lamps and window of the buffet tables from cleaning them. I burn my fingers every day from lifting pans and vats out of the steaming tables. I have mysterious bruises from mysterious sources. And just recently, I seem to have sprained my right hand, and I have a blister on my blister on my pinky toe. I never even heard of a blister on a blister until today. Hurts like hell though.
- People are cheapskates. Around St-Jean, we had a boatload of people coming in and gorging themselves like mad, and I made less gratuities than if you would have went out on the street and knocked over a parade of small children and senior citizens.
- People are pigs. Buffets are designed so that you want to keep eating and eating, since there's so much food sitting around that you get hungry looking at it. (They make money from drinks, like most restaurants.) It's got to the point where I don't even notice the fat people anymore, just the odd skinny ones.
- Coworkers are crazy. Now, I don't want to generalize about people who work in restaurants. Considering that my parents worked in them for their entire lives, my friends' parents and my friends work/ed in them, and I've known countless of students who work in restaurants to put themselves through school, I can't generalize. So I'm just going to say that people who don't get past high school will end up working at these places. ***
- Stupid shifts. The scheduling boss is nuts. Today, I worked starting from 8:30 am. Now listen through here; I don't complain about working in the morning. No, I don't. Unless I usually work in the evening shifts until midnight. Which is what I did last night. I probably looked like a zombie because Mrs. Lim (Kathy's mum) looked at limpy me and decided I shouldn't be working until whenever she finished, which is usually late, and I was relieved of my shift early. (Yay?)
- Haven't been paid yet... According to the payroll boss, I missed the last pay day by giving my voided cheque to the bosses by one freaking day. I am supposed to be paid this week, but we'll see.
- No one understands a damn thing I say! Despite being almost functionally trilingual, at this workplace anyway, no one will ever be able to understand what I say. The waiters/waitresses, busboys, dishwashers, and buffeteers are all french speaking, the kitchen staff are all either chinese and speak english, or francophone, and the bosses are also english speaking. So why the crap do I have to repeat something thirteen times before I get my freaking vat of soup?
I think the only thing I look forward to task-wise is cleaning the buffet tables at the evening shifts. It keeps me from going into the kitchen to deal with crazy staff there, and also, I know that I can go home afterwards with a pocket full of tips.
*** I was thinking about papa yesterday night while I was limping from kitchen to buffet. I guess this is what he meant when he said to study well in school. Yes, people: if you don't study well in school you will end up working as a dishwasher, buffet girl, busboy, cleaner, or a crazy chef.
