Lobsterboy at Red Lobster Blog has a post up that got me thinking. Restaurants these days are full of managers who lack backbone. They give in to the tiniest complaint that a customer gives, worried that corporate will find out about it and they might not get a bonus. God forbid a manager tell a guest they can’t have that discount, or they have to pay for that drink they sucked down and “didn’t like”.
I think part of the problem lies with the dreaded “Corporate Big-Wig” that comes to visit any time sales slip, customers complain, or too many employees quit. Any of these things happen and Mr. District manager or Mr. Regional Ops. Manager comes around making his threats and barking orders about the way things should be done. They don’t give managers the authority to act as they need to act, and the servers suffer from it. OUR authority suffers. We do our jobs correctly by telling the guest we can’t do something for them, the guest gets pissed off that we can’t do something, and the manager comes over and tells them the exact opposite.
This is a big thing when it comes to drinking. Guests come in with cracked ID’s, no ID at all, or have had too much to drink as it is, and managers have the nerve to tell us to continue serving them at risk of our jobs. We get stuck in a lose lose situation. Insubordination or lawsuit are our only two choices in that situation. Managers don’t care if we put our futures in peril as long as the guest is happy. I’ve had managers at my current job and managers when I worked at O’charleys, T.G.I. Fridays, and Applebees all tell me to keep serving a guest that is already intoxicated. I had managers at all of the above tell me to serve a guest with an inappropriate or illegal ID. They’re not the ones who are putting their liquor licenses on the line, we are. As long as the guest doesn’t complain, they can tell us to do whatever they want us to do. Lobsterboy is right, the good managers of the old days are fading fast. They must be finding jobs in the privately owned market…
Then we have the guests that the managers cater to. These are the guests that come up with the most fake complaints any of us have ever heard:
“This restaurant sucks, you don’t have baked potatoes with your steak. Dat mean a discoun right?”
“Why dis spaghetti sauce ain’ got no meat? Dat mean a discoun right?”
They get pissed off because they don’t read the menu properly:
“Where my salad is?” when the guest doesn’t order one, but orders a steak that doesn’t come with it. “Ma’am, I can get you a salad, but it’s going to be 3.99.” Then they bitch and complain because the last time they were here, the salad came with their steak despite the fact that the salad has NEVER come with their steak. “Dat mean a discoun right?”
I long for the days when a corporate restaurant gets real managers again. We have 3 managers at my job out of like 9 that do what they are supposed to do. The other 6 cave to anything a guest wants. “Take that tip bucket off the bar, we don’t want those bartenders to get anything more than the gratuity they’re already getting.” “Yes ma’am, right away ma’am.”
Envision if you will, a bowl of pasta with steam coming off of it. The bowl is hot to the touch, leaving burns on the servers hand as he delivers it. “Dis spaghetti be cole. Dat mean a discoun right?” “Ma’am, there is steam coming off of it, and you haven’t even taken a bite yet.” “Where yo managa?” Manager comes: “What seems to be the problem ma’am?” “Dis spaghetti be cole. Dat mean a discoun right?” “Right away ma’am, we’ll take that right off for you. Let me get you a fresh plate right out.” Manager goes to the kitchen to get the cooks started, leaving server to scald hands again. Server goes to the kitchen, replates the food, and takes it back out. Food is fine, and server eats the fresh food the cooks are making.
“Ya’ll got some drank special?” asked on a weekend when there is no Happy Hour. “No, sir, that’s only during the week.” “Dat mean a discoun right?” It’s illegal in TN to actually discount liquor, so instead, the manager comes and takes half off of the food so the guest wouldn’t complain about missing happy hour a day before.
“Dis steak was nasty, I ain payin fo it.” “Ma’am, you ate it all, I can’t have it taken off your bill if you ate the entire thing. The most I can do is offer you a free dessert for your displeasure.” “Why you ain gonna take it off da bill?” “Because you ate the whole thing.” “Brang yo managa ovah.” Manager comps off 18 dollar steak, and gives free dessert, then berates the server for telling the guest we couldn’t do it.
My favorite people to strike down though, and managers actually back us up on these, are the entitlement junkies who come in and the first thing out of their mouths are one of the following:
“Do ya’ll do a military discount?” No
“Is there a senior citizen discount?” It’s not Shoney’s, they’re going bankrupt because of your old asses.
“Is there a police/firefighter discount?” No.
“Is der a burfday discount? What about a burfday dessert?” No, and No.
“What do you do for anniversaries?” We say happy anniversary, and congratulations.
“Do you give a discount to travelers?” No, just because you have a passport doesn’t give you the right to anything free.
I love telling these people no, even though most of the time when I do tell them no I don’t get tipped on it. I’ve come to expect stiffing from people who are denied discounts for one of the above reasons, or bad tips from those people, so it doesn’t bother me as much anymore. What I don’t understand is why other places offer these discounts on a daily basis. Offering discounts for every thing known to man is the quickest way to make a race of entitlement junkies, and we’ve succeeded at it admirably. Yes, you fight in the armed forces. Does that mean you deserve to pay less for your food? No. We all work, but we don’t get discounts on our food when we take our families out to eat. We get a discount when we’re on the clock only.
Discounts for getting old? Senior citizens, I know you lived through this, that and the other, but does that entitle you to get a discount on your food? No, it does not. Whoever invented the senior citizen discount should be drug out in the street and shot. Now old people all over America go to restaurants expecting to get a percentage off of their bill.
I really hate it if I’ve offended you…no, no I don’t. You all need to stop trying to get discounts. Pay full price, just like everyone else. Michael Moore needs to make a new movie….”Discount Nation”. It would be a big hit with his audiences. Exposing the general public for what it is: a discount whore.
Discount hunters annoy me if you couldn’t tell. I’ve had people who come in trying to get us to price match steaks. It’s not often, maybe 4 or so in the 11 years I’ve been serving, but it has happened. One of those 4 cases actually got a discount on it. The other three were laughed at. They had real managers they had to deal with.
We now have a group of annoying people who come in who are related to one of our dining room servers. Miss J’s cousin on her dads side comes in with a group of redneck trash every couple of nights. They run us for a couple of hours, bitch about everything. The first words out of their mouth when they come in? “Where’s Miss J’s section? She’s family, and we wanna get her discount.” “I’m sorry, but not even Miss J gets a discount when she comes in to eat, only when she’s eating while at work.” “But we’re family!” “Once again, I’m sorry.”
After we tell them they can’t have her employee discount, they find things to bitch about. “This tea isn’t sweet.” No, of course not. It’s only got a triple portion of sugar in it. “This steak isn’t well done enough,” as they’re eating the last bite, with grill shit from being burnt to a crisp. They get another steak. One of our managers almost lost it with them last week and came very close to telling them not to come back. I would have loved it had they not come back and I now refuse to wait on them. I’ve been run by them already. Not even Miss J will serve them, she hides when they come in. She won’t even say hi to them.
Discount hunters, you suck ass.
Ribeye
My right cheek and jaw are swollen right now due to what I believe is an abscessed tooth. It hurts. It hurts really bad. It hurts bad and there’s not any weekend or 24 hour dentists that I’ve found. I’m taking penicillin and pain medicine. Neither are having much of an effect and I’m hurting. I look like Alvin storing up for winter…
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