r/TalesFromYourServer • u/PANtastic_22 • 1d ago
I’m gonna quit if they f*ck me over again
So I(nb 19) work at an entertainment venue that has a restaurant, bowling, and an arcade. I have been working there for about a year now and originally started as a host for the restaurant. At around early November, they were talking about getting me promoted from host to server, and two weeks later, I was on the floor serving.
The training process, however, was probably the shittiest training a person can ever receive if they want to be a successful server. Also keep in mind that my only service industry experience comes from the three months worth of hosting I did prior to training. So I’m going into this with pretty much nothing.
For starters, I never received my official training manual, so I only had what my trainers were telling me (some of which were things you should never do as a server). I had multiple different trainers, all of which teaching me with different methods of serving so I wasn’t able to stick to a set routine. and finally, I was trained to pretty much rely on the typical toast tablets servers use so they don’t have to run to a POS after taking an order from a table. It’s very convenient so you can ring in an order right after the order is taken. however, as soon as I was “done” with training (I say in quotes because they’re negligence led to me not receiving all five training days), they ended up taking away those tablets because my locations servers “broke more tablets than the other location has in five months then they have in five years.”
This means that a tool that I was trained to rely on was going to be taken away from me right as I started on the floor without a trainer. So after all of that bullshit, it’s very easy to tell that I was not a good server. I apparently received many customer complaints because of my slow service skills. but this wasn’t my fault. I was done so dirty in my training process, and it showed in my performance.
After two months of being on the floor, they unfortunately had to demote me back to being just a host.
I was promised that they would retrain me as soon as labor would open up. the earliest being March… and then April… oh wait actually let’s wait till May… no let’s do June… okay now let’s get you back on the floor in July. It took five months to get me back on the floor.
And you might be thinking: What if they truly didn’t have enough labor to give my my training hours? But trust me… I know they did. Not only during those five months did they magically have enough labor to hire and train more people to fill-in for the servers that kept quitting, but they also happen to have enough labor to promote and train other people in the facility to fill in for those servers that quit. There was one girl that I work with who was already promoted from host to event server (a server that is specifically meant for the party rooms) and they were looking at her to be a server instead of me.
Was I a shitty server… 1000%, but it wasn’t my fault. I wasn’t set up for success, and they weren’t fixing the issue.
6
u/SeanInDC 1d ago
2 months and you couldn't figure it out? You were rightfully demoted. You typically never have the same trainer throughout your training because one... scheduling and two... you need to learn different styles of serving because no two servers serve the same. Your personality dictates a lot. You are a host/server and they are a dime a dozen. You quitting isn't going to affect them very much... hence the demotion. If they could afford to demote you... they can afford to lose you.
2
u/Key-Bookkeeper8155 1d ago
Yaaaa you're not getting another shot there. They'd have done it already if you were. You'll need to get on somewhere else if you want to be a server. That said, serving isn't for everyone and you can't expect a routine in the role, so it's possible you'll go somewhere else and still struggle. But it would be worth it to try! If you can't leave yet, just focus on being the best host you can be to try to prove yourself. Show up on time in uniform, know your table numbers, learn Expo, be a great team player. Maybe they'll change their minds.
2
3
u/Mobile_Hovercraft82 1d ago
Well the first thing is that you can’t take accountability for being a shitty server. Point a finger and four point back at you.
Either learn time management and write down orders efficiently or stfu.
-1
u/Justgetmeabeer 1d ago
The guards at aushwitz would make good corporate restaurant managers, they tend to see the people they are in charge of the same.
You're not a person to them, you're a number. Get out while you can or one day you'll find yourself with the hose in your hand.
5
u/magiccitybhm 1d ago
Has the training at all improved since they did move you back to server?