Hi bloggers,
It's me, Clara, again. Today, I would like to share with you my working life as a waitress/duty manager in New Zealand.
I love the job of sharing and making people happy. I love the feeling when I share my knowledge, make people happy from my joke, and share my experience and people feel happy with me. By working in the restaurant, I achieve all of them. But you know, everything has two sides. I would like to share both sides based on my experience.
What's stress?
Many people might think that this job is taking orders, sending them to the kitchen, and serving food. That's kinda true but let look at it in more detail. This is not an easy job. When taking orders, we need to make sure we understand what the customers want and need. When the customers order the wrong thing, we take it back and make it right even though it was not our false.
Little stories:
Customers: Hi, do you have a table for 5 people?
Me: Hi there, I am sorry, tonight, we are fully booked.
Customers: Can I use the lonely table at the front here?
Me: I am sorry, we are fully booked tonight, please come back after an hour, we can have your detail and ring you when we have one.
Customers: oh, no, we don't want to wait.
Me with my thought: "Am I busy with the full restaurant and at least 30 customers (around 3-4 tables on Saturday night) who are waiting to be served? Yes. Am I speaking English here? Yes! Did I say we were fully booked? Yes. So why do you ask?"
Another story:
Phone rings.
Me: Hi It's KJ Buffet Restaurant. Clara's speaking, how can I help?
Customer: Hi, do you do the lunch buffet menu at dinner time?
Me: Sorry, we don't do that menu at dinner time.
**Me again with my thought: **"what was that question, the lunch menu at dinner time, I mean seriously, LUNCH MENU, we use lunch menu as the name for a reason, it is for lunchtime".🤣
One last story:
The phone rings on a busy Friday night.
Me: Hi It's KJ Buffet Restaurant. Clara's speaking, how can I help?
Customer: Hi, do you do a buffet there?
Me: 😳 Yes, we are a buffet restaurant. How can I help?
Customer: Does that mean "all you can eat"?
Me: Yes, there is no limit at our restaurant.
Customer: how much?
Me: We have $57 for the premium menu and $37 for the tasting menu. You can have a look at our website.
Customer: what is your food on the menu?
Me: 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱, Please have a look at our website, we have our menu there.
Customer: OH, ok. bye.
Me again alone with my thought: What is that 😱😱😱😱😱😱? Seriously. We have a large number of dishes on both menus, how could I tell you each dish while I have mentioned that we had the menu on our website.
By reading every single story when you have a good mood is very easy, and you might think it is ok, it is not a big deal. But I have to deal with these phone calls, keep an eye on the service, follow the alcohol law, give direction to staff at the same time to maintain the operation, and smile at everyone on a busy night. It is not easy but stressful.
Source: Instagram (2021), Midnight Shanghai
What's funny and happy?
Many of you might think of why do I choose this topic? Well, most people have known that Hospitality and service industries are most affected by the pandemic since 2020. Many workers lost their job, their income, and is suffering around the world. I am lucky to be in New Zealand where the government has done its best part to keep the economy moving. So, the Hospitality Industry in New Zealand is keeping moving and developing.
Some stories:
Chef: Clara, are you still in vegan period?
Me: Yes I am, please give me a vegan meal.
Venue manager: guys, you don't need to cook, we have plenty of plants. She can have them.
Me: WHATTTTTTT?
Another story:
Me: I am sorry for the service today, we were lack of staff.
Customers: It's ok. We were chill and enjoy everything
Other customers: We can see, don't worry, you did a great job.
The last one:
Me: Hi, would you like to pay? Are you happy with everything?
Customers: No, not at all.
Me: 😭😱 I am so sorry, what was happened?
Customers: 😆😆😆😆😆😆😆, we did not happy but we enjoyed and finished all the food. You and the chef have done a great job. We are happy with your service. Thank you.
Me: 🙏🏻😭😍😍😍😍❤️❤️❤️❤️
Me with my thought: OMG, I just have a heart attack.
So, you can see both sides of this job. But this is not everything yet. Despite the stress, this job is giving me more lessons day by day. I just hope people can be more understanding of the waiters and waitresses after reading my post. I am going to write more about this job in my upcoming posts.
Thank you for reading <3
haha, I can picture your face as you're saying this. How can't you survive there without killing customers? 🤣🤣🤣
LOL, that calls patient mate :D LOL
You'd better be a customer @sunnyvo! You do a great job @clarahuynh!
Hahaaa, from your reactions on the phone calls, I can tell: that's noone else but Clara :)))). Please write more and more! I'd love to hear those stories! :D. If you're too busy, just set the goal 1 post a week!
You know me very well 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
These stories helps one to be able to understand the pros and cons that might be experienced in the restaurant business and hospitality as a whole...
Thanks, i will share more on my next post 😁
Omg I intended to quit my chef job to be a waitress. Thanks for sharing the other side of your job. Life is too much colorful 😂
LOL 😂. Everything has good and bad. Just do what we happy to do 😁😁
As someone with experience in the hospitality industry, I understand how stressful it can be.
The last 2 feedbacks are so cute :) Keep trying and learning girl!! I know you're doing great :)
Ha ha so i will have part 2 and maybe part 3 then 😁😁😁
Thabk you for sharing your experiences with us, Clara. It is so good to know these things so we can understand for staffs in restaurants e.g. if they make mistakes with our orders, slow to bring our foods... Just last week, we went for dinner in a place and it took so long to get our food. I started feeling grumpy but when I saw the kitchen staff working non-stop to make our food ready, I feel normal again. I can see they are doing their best so all I need to do is being patient.
Also, I think it is really nice of you to let customers know you are busy and you are lack of staff. I remember one time I met a great waitress who explained everything for me from the very beginning. Like if we order this dish, how long we have to wait and if we are hungry we should order somethibg light to share. She was doing a great job looking after us the whole meal
That person had done great job. And that is one of the upselling skills as well. By caring more, the customers would like to pay more 😁😁😁.
yes agree, willing to pay more and tips more with happiness
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