A little disillusioned...

I spent yesterday morning swabbing the decks of a sinking ship.  Because there were no guests, I decided to clean some stuff.  I made $2 in my first hour of work.  Add that to my $2.13 and then pray for minimum wage.  The business isn't good; it's not just summer, either (for those of you who are  unaware, summer is a bad time for restaurant business all around).

I disapprove of openly defacing my employer, so I'm not going to mention any names.  Few of you know where I just started working anyway.  I don't think this job is going to last for me, unfortunately.  In fact, I have an interview tomorrow (not at a restaurant!).  If the interview doesn't go well, I have plans to apply somewhere else (or somewheres elses if need be...I have to get out of where I am).

Sooo, why do I feel so negatively about a job I've only been working for five days?

Well, first of all, when I quit the best serving job in our area last year, I vowed to stay out of the restaurant business.  However, jobs aren't easy to come by right now, and I realized that with my final semester of my bachelor's degree approaching and my internship on the horizon, I should probably find something flexible where I can still make money if I have to cut my hours to two days a week.

I also desperately wanted to get a schedule that would work out so that I could a) let Fisher go to daycare because he missed his friends very badly, b) allow me to still spend time with Fisher, and c) allow me to still spend time with Nick.  Seems simple, right?  It's kinda not...so I took what I could get.

I'm starting to realize I'm going to have to make some sacrifices somewhere.  We'll see what happens.

But firstly, I have to jump ship.  Quickly.  There are some standards I cannot compromise.  Here are some of the reasons:

I heard that if business doesn't improve quickly, my store is shutting down.

It took me four days to make what I made in one day at my old job.

At that rate, It would take me two whole weeks just to make my car payment.  And it's only $168.

There is a meanness in the store.  I got yelled at today for filling ice because it was "too damn loud."  Excuse me, but if you find a way to dump frozen water onto frozen water inside a stainless steel vat without making noise...please enlighten me.  I hear my superiors talking about things they think I'm doing wrong (such as said example or stopping to grab dishes on the way back to fix some drinks) and NEVER praising my hard work and pleased guests.  Hell, they don't even say the things to my face, and that's disappointing also.  I would have liked to walk out after hearing that I was working the way I've been taught.  I don't STOP working while I'm on the clock except for short bathroom and drink/eat moments just to keep myself from getting sick because...

Nobody has ever offered me a break.  Even on today's 8 hour shift.

I swear they are stuck in the '50s.  I have witnessed blatant sexism and racism.  This particular "chain" seems to focus more on taking people down and treating them like they are stupid and they can't do any better than building them up and making them proud of themselves and where they work.  If you kick people when they are down, they'll never leave you, right?  Not all of them (me lol).  I've also heard that this happens in relationships.  Oh wait, that's happened to me too ;)  I think this is my least favorite thing of all.  Yeah, it is.

It's unclean.  I have a high standard of cleanliness and I love to take pride in my workplace.  I once quit a job after working for only an hour because my feet were sticking to the carpet when I walked.  I hate when a health department inspection has more than one critical violation (5) and even more non-critical violations.  I am not proud of that.  And I see it this way:  No, we don't get paid well enough to clean like crazy, but it is in our best interest to clean when we are not busy.  It will show our guests (and the health inspector) that we have a clean store and therefore, they will return and they will tell their friends.  This means more money for the business, which also means more money for me.  Also, it just helps pass the time, but I guess a lot of people are happy to just stand there or go smoke (again).

How are we supposed to wash our hands without hot water?  They have disconnected the hot water to the front, including guest bathrooms.  I don't know the reason.  I was told not to ask.  But I know that I don't like it.  Oh, hand sanitizer...that's right.  I'm excited now!!

Plus, my poor body is in an uproar because I refuse to poop in the public restroom where the people who eat food I serve to them also have to potty.  I don't want to hear/see/smell my waitstaff shitting, do you?  Gross.  Really I don't want to do that with anyone, and I prefer a private bathroom anywhere.  (I know where the private/locked restrooms are on campus for such a reason...2nd floor library, 2nd floor student union). Sadly, we have an employee restroom in the back, but the day they removed the padlock to allow us to peacefully release our body waste, someone childishly smoked in there.  Now it's padlocked again.  It makes me feel like a child.  Really, everyone gets enough smoke breaks if you ask me.  I know I quit smoking, but everywhere else I have worked gives smoke breaks maybe once a shift.  Some of these people are unhappy to take two or three per shift?  Piss on that.  But don't shit on it because your turds have hidden themselves deep in your body for days now and will only release little machine gun rabbit pellets once a day.  
I have more to complain about, but I'll just leave it at that.  It's really just not for me.


I didn't even really have any good jokes for this one, then I thought of a couple and went back and added them.  It just pisses me off.  I did like the metaphor at the beginning, and that is how it feels.

I opt not to drown.

Peace.