Changes

When you get into the any industry, you get the job and apply the skills you have been taught in the education system. Since most people don't go to school when learning the Hospitality Industry, they tend to learn on the job. Usually starting out in diners or family owned places, or even some corporations where they are willing to hire inexperienced servers, taking the attitude that skills can be taught but attitude can't be, you might get a job there.

Many people outside the biz think that anyone can be a server. So this is what happened last week at work. (I work very part time while I work on Remake 4 Water) One of the girls who is training to be a waitress, served glasses of water to her table by setting the tray down on an empty table then took the glasses off the tray (she has bussed tables for months as a hostess so she can carry a tray-with 2 hands). When I mentioned to her that she wouldn't be able to do that if the restaurant was full and she really needed to learn how to balance glasses on a tray, she said she couldn't do that.

Another waitress was working that same week and asked me to help her serve 4 cups of coffee. She complained that she kept spilling the coffee on the under liners. Sure! I love to help people learn, so I showed her how to stack them and keep the cups on the tray so if spillage occurs, it's on the tray. Then you put the cups on the under liners when you get to the table. "Oh that's too much work!" was her reply.

Honest.

Is this piddly stuff? Of course it is! But what it points to is the fact that there's trouble brewing. Are these the only examples? No and I bet that anyone who has worked in the industry sees it. Training has to be an important part of the process. Would you want to be paying $28 for a dinner and have a server who can't serve? I wouldn't! We won't even get into the soft skills or some other finer points.

I know there are loads of  blogs out there that complain about customers, but we need to look out from the inside now and then too! We have to teach people how to be good servers or the industry will continue to be seen as unprofessional, full of transients and people who don't care. I made "Did I Say Thousand Island?" with the intention of showing servers in a positive light and there are many in that light-- people who love their jobs and care about their customers.

It's not all from only one side of the table--and neither is the movie. By the way, the entire movie is available to watch right on that page. Later. I want to go and enjoy riding my horse before I go to work!