The Most Lucrative Workday Ever!

I wake up at 8:30 and shower and shave while I’m still half asleep.
Didn’t sleep worth a fuck last night because I’m staying with a good
friend until I can afford to get on my own feet, and that means I
sleep on a hardwood floor each night. I rush out the door with soaking
wet hair into the 14-degree weather. Five minutes waiting at the bus
stop and my ponytail is already frozen hard, literally. Get to work at
my scheduled time of 9:30, not a second late, because I’m obsessive
about being a punctual person. No one’s there. The restaurant opens in
an hour and a half, and there is absolutely no one inside right now.
Lights off, doors locked, it’s freezing out here, where is the
cleaning crew? Where is the chef? Where is the dishwasher, the host,
WHERE THE FUCK IS MANAGEMENT?? Nice to see they appreciate punctual
employees. After waiting in the cold for half an hour (because I don’t
have enough money for bus fare back home) I call the floor manager,
who was asleep, and he calls the owner. Owner is inside the building
and opens the doors for me, thank god I’m not out in that cold
anymore. (What the hell was he doing for half an hour with the lights
off and the doors locked when he knows we’re supposed to be opening
the restaurant?) I set the stations up and wait for customers…..and
wait for customers…..and wait for customers. Get one table, one guy,
orders a sandwich and a coke. Leaves me one dollar and fifty cents for
a tip. No one else shows up for the rest of my shift, so the floor
manager says I can go home. Awesome, except a dollar-fifty won’t cover
my bus fare home. So I clock out and run my checkout, and as I’m
signing it a four-top walks in. The bartender gets the one that just
barely got away from me. Fuck it, I’m working this evening, I’ll make
up for it then. Walk for 40 minutes to get home (did I mention it’s 14
degrees outside?) and grab some food, take a nap. Get a ride from my
roomie back to work at 6, and sit around for another two
hours….with….not….one….table. Management says, “Go ahead and
clock out, we’re not getting any business tonight. Sorry about the
deadbeat day.”

I worked for 8 hours today and made $1.50. What the fuck am I waiting
for again?

- Broke As Hell

Tagged as: restaurant, table