Waitor-Waitressing

[Ziroteus]

How do the rest of the INTP's fare as waitors/waitresses? I was horrible, and what sucked even more is that so much pressure was mounted on me because one of the co-workers were leaving. I was only a trainee, and they gave me a week when usually they give regular trainees a month to adjust and to memorize every single tiny minuscule detail. The enviroment and the pressure of the deadline just didn't cut out for me. It was good experience, though, experience telling me to avoid waitressing at all possible costs. Over and out.

[kendoiwan]

you wanna talk with meshou on this one

[PenguinHunter]

Here you go:

http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?t=6270

[eyebyte_atWork]

I am waiting for Meshou to swoop in and tell us all how it is.

[coffeezombie]

I am waiting for Meshou to swoop in and tell us all how it is.
She's probably putting up with irate customers and bad tips at the moment.

[Madrigal]

I've never done it, but it's one of those jobs that I would like to do out of pure curiosity.

[Wiki]

Its been a while. I hope I never have to do it again, but at least I would be adequate.
Ive faired better at the not so full service places, at least thats where I had the most fun with the crew of other w/w's. Man the old Sizzler crew was some fun times.

I would like to try bartending though, just for shits and grins. I think I have an ear and personality for that, and they make much better cash, at least in the states.

[meshou]

It sucks.

I've been playing Katamari Damacy, so that's all I'm going to say.

[waxwing]

I've done it. 24-hour trendy diner in DC area. I think I did fairly well, or at least didn't receive any real complaints, but found I much preferred working the late shifts. Daytime lunch rush put me in a bad mood. I had busboys who took my tips, and I had a boss who sexually harassed all the girls. Things I like: working for the tip (and staying focused on why I was there), being both real as a person and efficient as a worker, learning about people's strange food preferences, and visiting with the regulars. And, I actually got a mild high from working well under pressure. Buzzing around the diner was no problem for me, but maybe that's cause I was going through a very energetic time of my life. I'd do it again if I really needed a job. Oh, wait, I do.

*edit* Good way for me to combat ADD -- to be forced to focus and find a way to order things in my mind so that rude customers didn't come after me. I had to learn to use the fact that I'm a visual/nonverbal learner to my advantage, maybe not the easiest to do in a restaurant.

[s'box]

I spent a summer as a cabana boy, where getting food was a part of my job for the day. Awful job and I eventually got fired simply cause the people there didn't like me much. Effectively being a waiter kicked in between about 11 - 3 or so, starting while I still had to carry chairs to the beach (I counted 40 one day) and eventually sort of consuming the day, though depending on where I was, it was alternated with filling up kiddie pools and taking out trash and various other odd jobs with that, "get something from my car" "my kid lost his ball on the roof " etc

Generally speaking I forgot huge chunks of orders, didn't know what people would expect and within about half the orders I had to guess at least one detail or another, and with the people there, about half of those I would guess wrong and have to go back, and just as often I would have to go all the way back to the kitchen for something like sugar or ketchup or the like. Hauling your ass across the beach in the blazing sun with 3 little cups of ketchup when you still have to go back and put in 3 or more orders while 2 or 3 people were still waiting for theres and would invariably complain about how long it took for me to deliver them their food while they sat on the beach is simply no fun at all.

At least in a restaurant, you generally know the context of time that people want to eat that they want to eat at all. I had to go up to the people and ask, constantly.

At the end of the day I even got complaints I was slow and lazy.

Well that turned into a bit of a tangent, but I was a quasi waitor regardless that job was awful. That one was purely a job made for ESTPs, a type I couldn't really fake it at all.

[waxwing]

I just remembered the complaints against me. My boss said, "Don't kneel/squat with the customers. It's unprofessional." I tried to comply, but I found that getting down to their eye level was one of the best ways for me to actually remember what they were asking for. Plus, I think it helped me in the tip area.

[kuranes]

One of my first jobs was as a bus-boy. We used to have contests to see who could carry the most garbage containers at once stacked up on top of one another. I forget how many I got once as da winnah. 4 ? 7 ? And they were good sized plastic containers. The dumpster would often get full so that you had to jump into it to mash the stuff down, or there'd be no room for more. You jumped up and down like a guy on a trampoline or a person crushing grapes for a winery. Sometimes the warm pop would leak into your shoes if you didn't watch yourself.

We were not allowed any portion of the tips.

Just saw a funny movie about waiting tables called "Waiting." See my thread "A Night At Da Movies."

I was never tempted to put crap in people's food because I sure wouldn't want anyone to do that to me. There were some customers who were jerks, but most were not going out of their way to be disagreeable. The people who came 2 minutes before before closing were the worst. And they'd sometimes ask "It's not a problem is it?"

"What do you think?" I felt like saying.

I liked my fellow workers for the most part. We'd be in the break room and I would learn about things from people who were majoring in making movies etc. and other interests that were unusual. I was just starting to discover unusual bands too. Me and a friend who worked across the walkway tripped earlier in/on the day of the big end-of-summer party and arrived crashing a little from that. We'd had a run-in with a cop, too. At the party I became close with a kitchen girl who had always been friendly towards me. A friend of mine drove us/her home and she and I made out in the back seat all the way there. I never called her after though, because I was so embarassed about not having a car of my own to do anything with. Most of the guys I knew had cars that were as good as theirs, that they'd gotten as cast-offs from their parents. Soon enough it was back to college. Things you regret. She was very special in retrospect. 20/20 hindsight.

[Ziroteus]

I spent a summer as a cabana boy, where getting food was a part of my job for the day. Awful job and I eventually got fired simply cause the people there didn't like me much. Effectively being a waiter kicked in between about 11 - 3 or so, starting while I still had to carry chairs to the beach (I counted 40 one day) and eventually sort of consuming the day, though depending on where I was, it was alternated with filling up kiddie pools and taking out trash and various other odd jobs with that, "get something from my car" "my kid lost his ball on the roof " etc

Generally speaking I forgot huge chunks of orders, didn't know what people would expect and within about half the orders I had to guess at least one detail or another, and with the people there, about half of those I would guess wrong and have to go back, and just as often I would have to go all the way back to the kitchen for something like sugar or ketchup or the like. Hauling your ass across the beach in the blazing sun with 3 little cups of ketchup when you still have to go back and put in 3 or more orders while 2 or 3 people were still waiting for theres and would invariably complain about how long it took for me to deliver them their food while they sat on the beach is simply no fun at all.

At least in a restaurant, you generally know the context of time that people want to eat that they want to eat at all. I had to go up to the people and ask, constantly.

At the end of the day I even got complaints I was slow and lazy.

Well that turned into a bit of a tangent, but I was a quasi waitor regardless that job was awful. That one was purely a job made for ESTPs, a type I couldn't really fake it at all.

I had the same problem, Somnus. They expected me to know every single damn thing on their menu within 4-5 days. Which is difficult considering it consisted of sushi rolls, baked rolls, plain sushi, dinner, appetizers, tempura rolls, noodles, combinations, etc...... and in each specific department it consisted of at least 20 different kinds of it. But I was on time with orders, drinks, and being curteous to the wishes of each customer. I think it just all political when it came down to it, because my co-workers were all family with one another. 2 waitresses/waitors were siblings and another a room-mate with one of the siblings. I was the odd ball out. Another, the male chef's developed a crush on me and deliberately ignored any sort of attentiveness to the other women waitresses. You can see where I'm going with this. In conclusion, never working in a family-oriented 'business'...

[Elizabeth B]

I can't even carry one plate and one glass very well, and I've given up trying to carry more than that, so I could never be a waitress, let alone all that other junk that goes along with the job.

However, if you had to be a waiter/waitress, Germany is the place to go as an INTP.

We were stationed in Germany for 4 years and loved eating out over there.

First of all, there were tons of family owned restaurants with good Italian and good schnitzel. (Chicken fried veal/pork, basically, but really yummy, with many sauce choices, for those of you who haven't had the opportunity to try schnitzel.)

Now, for the best part--the waiters and waitresses don't bug you unless you wave them over! It's considered poor manners to interupt your meal and your conversation. You have to find your waiter/waitress (they hang out unobtrusively somewhere, usually up at the bar or the front of the restaurant), catch their eye, and wave them over.

You also could sit there all night if you wanted, even if you never ordered another drink or more food. It's considered impolite to rush you out. Of course, most people get another drink or dessert, but you don't have to.

It was best in the summer in outside cafes in a walkplatz (a big walking/shopping area in the center of a town, usually all brick or cobblestone streets with no cars around.) You could people watch walk by as you ate, with no fear of a waitress bugging you. Very relaxing.

After 4 years of being in Germany, the first time we ate out back in the States was very shocking. We ate at a big chain restaurant during a very slow time, and our waitress came back almost every minute, it was horrible. We just wanted to tell her to go away, but we couldn't bring ourselves to do it. The last five times she bugged us it actually got funny instead of annoying.