My Employer: A Rave

[haltz]

There are a bunch of reasons that I love my meaningless job. My lunch shift today lasted from 11:15 to 2:45, my schedule kicks ass, I'm never there much past 10 PM at night, it's obscenely expensive, I can drink on the clock, everyone's really good at what they do, there's an awesome full bar and I get a free meal every shift, it's small, all 12 of us in the front and back of the house get along pretty well, my hourly wage is just too high for someone making tips, we're only open from Tuesday to Friday and Saturday dinner, two train stops from me, etc.

The rave is really about my boss. The place is small enough (like 20-70 covers a shift), that there is no manager, the owner just runs the day to day. Seats people, answers the phone, helps on the floor if the two servers on a random Wednesday get popped with walk-ins, takes out the trash, hangs out in his office, leaves for hours at a time (leaving the Chef in charge I guess, but that guy's world ends at the line).

Us four servers also rotate bartending shifts when it's busy or make our own drinks, and we're all quite qualified -- whatever that means for a cake job like bringing people their food. He gets to be selective about who he hires I guess. What this entails, and also because he's a really cool guy (he looks like a 50-year-old Patton Oswalt, but he used to teach Special Forces hand-to-hand combat and toured in Vietnam), is that he never tells us what to do.

I was thinking about it today, and I literally can't remember the last time he said, "Phil, do [whatever]". I just can't. There's no "take out the trash". He knows we'll get to it, or we're about to do it if it needs to be done, or he'll just do it himself. Last week he asked us to wait to do shots until it died down, "if we didn't mind".

It's not that he doesn't communicate either. He's great at schmoozing, handling a rush, and making sure we know if we've been sat or if someone at a table asked for something while he's making the rounds.

Today I came in, talked to him and the other server about the large reservation coming in, made sure everything was setup properly, made an espresso, took care of the 41 people that came through the door, ate lunch and told him that I was gonna take off.

"See ya Thursday, thanks for coming in today, everyone seemed very pleased with lunch," he says.

Uh, OK. Why are you this cool? I don't know how it goes in the land of TPS reports, but I've never been in any restaurant where orders aren't being barked regularly.

[thrill]

I like my job too.

It's unbelievable how much better life is when you like your job. Night and day.

[docellis]

I liked mine a lot for the first year. The last 6 months have gotten progessively worse and worse.

[G. Keenan]

Haltz, tell me where you work so I can come in and make trouble. Send food back, demand to see the manager, find a pube on my plate, and then dine and dash.

[haltz]

Haltz, tell me where you work so I can come in and make trouble.

Give me about a month. We're stockpiling pubes right now.

[G. Keenan]

Haltz, tell me where you work so I can come in and make trouble.

Give me about a month. We're stockpiling pubes right now.

Delicious.

[stlouie_lipp]

My job....meh.