Life Through Story A Stewardess
4 Ugly Experiences Working In A Fine Dining Restaurant
“Lissa…Remember to bring along your heart with you if you ever return home to XXX restaurant…” said Father B.
For a moment, my heart felt lost. I felt void. I had no absolute idea where I buried my heart.
“I lost my heart…I don’t know where I buried it…” I replied to the father.
I thought over it for some time. I considered a few factors which influenced the hopeless decision unwillingly.
- Resign or take up full time?
- Give up or carry on fighting the days?
In another month, I would have been a year and a half with them as a permanent part timer.
A few acquaintances said,“That’s nearly 2 years! That’s long! Are you sure it won’t be a waste to give up? Do they have some office admin support for you to do? …”
A lot of early batches of Part Timers ghosted the place. They didn’t resign.
Just in case they decided to come back one day…
A few experienced full timers already left, quietly. It was unexpected to me because I thought they were due for better positions too.
But all these turnover rates taught me many lessons. Good and bad.
“Find your heart, Lissa…Don’t bury it too early. The Lord has so much more for you, through you, and from you. You are His vessel…” said Father B.
Well, I thought…I should list down those struggles and ugly experiences I encountered. I might have buried my heart among these with disappointment.
Quiet Quitting
Quiet quitting became a major trend. It is an idea of doing the minimal, slowly in a relax vacation manner.
A few of my colleagues started with the idea that someone else will do the rest of the job.
So, why not intentionally take our own sweet time doing one thing? Right? And why not we act like we are always lost or behave like being on the 1st day at the workplace, every single day.
Why not? Isn’t that smart? Because someone else will have to clear the rest of the job anyway.
Now, it grows to a snowball that everyone needs extra hands for help. From the full timers to the part timers.
My thoughts?
There is only so much I can do… I can’t possibly speed up every task for every person who comes to work with this mindset. What are they paid equal or higher to/than me for?
Sarcasm As Power
I saw that from the beginning of working in the restaurant. To enforce power, sarcasm would be a helpful tool.
Once, I saw a small bottle of garlic with white wine paste at my workstation for many days. Nobody claimed it. So, I asked someone. Let’s name him Jasper*.
He answered me with a sarcastic tone, “Anything that is here does not belong to me. It belongs to the restaurant…”
His tone wasn’t friendly or approachable.
A younger part timer who hadn’t been coming for a year, overheard Jasper. She was shocked too.
It was as though I asked him a damn stupid question.
My thoughts?
Wouldn’t that mean everyone’s belongings like our bags belong to the restaurant too?
Then, I believed Jasper could use my sanitary pad. *Read my sarcasm*
Perhaps sarcasm would be the number one power for demanding respect these days.
When The Envy Speak Evil To Trigger Unhappiness
Perhaps spiritual persons can detect the devil’s whisper and acts.
Once, the part timers were given an increment of a dollar. It didn’t matter who does more or less. People who did nothing much receive the increment and were joyful about it.
Then came a day I was at the container doing some spring cleaning. One of my colleagues joined me so as not to be seen doing nothing.
Right there, she asked me… “Hey Lissa… I thought you were given the highest rate among all of us part timers…you did a lot of things you know…”
I knew that came from the flesh and not from the spirit.
The sneaky evil whispering how stupid I was to do a lot, and how smart she was for doing lesser. And we both had the same increment.
It happened when a manager sent the deployment without erasing the pay rate. Even a manager made mistakes right? Dumb dumb, you would say.
“If you want to know why Jasper* had more than me, it’s because he’s under Bar section. In F&B, if you want higher rate, go join the kitchen or bar…Understand?” I said.
My thoughts?
If she meant well, she would have spoken for her colleagues then.
When evil whisper lurked, it wanted us to be unhappy with the bosses. It just needed one weed to grow, the others got infected. Often this happened through whispering of words.
Like in the case of this person, she knew if she had spoken up for me, another increment for myself would be unfair to her.
All I wished was for her to have some sense of humility or shame. None.
Vulgarities As Common Lingo
When I first joined the restaurant, I heard vulgarities a lot. It became a common lingo. Regardless a person was happy, angry, or sad, everything was followed by a word of profanity.
In less than 6 months, I spoke vulgarities fluently.
For the many years I served in a monastery, I didn’t like hearing vulgarities. What’s more to say it? But in the restaurant, I learned vulgarities in less than a year.
If only school exams could be this simple!
I could understand why people had the tendencies of blurting profane words.
- It released the frustration and anger contained within us.
- It relieved us immediately after because the surge of energy was double.
And the aftermath? That surge of energy could break us in character.
Well, following sarcasm as power, one of my promoted bosses said to me sarcastically, “Okay the next time I speak vulgarities, I’ll say I learned from Lissa…”
There were a few of us gathered at my back station when it happened. I ignored her. Because most of us knew she had her common word of profanity used.
My thoughts:
To cultivate a good habit takes a longer time. To adopt a bad habit takes no less than a minute.
Sometimes, bad habit became a common lingo in our daily lifestyle. And down the road, it would be normalized as harmless.
The GM, the French guy who I had loved dearly as my own, thought I was angry with him.
He didn’t know I had buried my heart somewhere I couldn’t find it. And that made me draw a strict boundary with certain people at work.
If you asked me where I had lost my heart to work, it would be among the quiet quitters.
It wasn’t ok to leverage on me for emergencies and excusing the others making a person looked foolish.
I still hadn’t gone back to the same restaurant till today. The job was fine and I loved it. But not the weeds grown among the people.
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