Holidays... A Kick to the Chest

Sunday.  Mother's Day.  4:00 AM.  The alarm bells chime on my iPhone with a vengeance.  I hit snooze immediately and dread the day to come.  I drove into work in the pitch black darkness.  The freeway was dead.  I couldn't help but to think about how much I hated these early morning shifts.  I thought back to a previous early morning holiday shift and thought, "I hope to God it's not as bad as it was on Christmas Day."  I pulled into the parking structure at work.  I felt like the parking garage attendant and I were the only ones awake in San Diego (aside from maybe a few fisherman).  I parked, walked to the basement of the hotel's locker room, put my shirt on, my apron and name tag.  I walked back upstairs and clocked in at 4:55 AM.

The dreaded holiday breakfast buffet day had arrived.  Not only is it the 4:00 AM wake up time that's beyond ridiculous, it's also the fact that it's a holiday.  This makes it much easier to have a pity party for myself.  Yes, I can hear the world's tiniest violin playing in my head as I write this, but honestly, I can't think of any worse shifts than the painful early morning holiday shifts.   It's hard enough to wake up at an arduous time, but to have to do it on a holiday just makes it that much more atrocious.  All I can think about is how my entire family will be together (much later in the day of course), enjoying their day, laughing, eating and snapping photos, while I'm dealing with a bunch of grumpy and unappreciative people on vacation.  Why is it that most of the diners on holidays tend to be more irritable?  Shouldn't it be the opposite?  Shouldn't they be happy it's a holiday and they've got time off to relax?  It drives us crazy as hospitality industry staff when guests are rude and short with us during a holiday event.  If guests only knew the hours we put into creating an event for them and the hard work it entailed, maybe they'd appreciate us more.  In all honestly, most of the people on Mother's Day, weren't too bad.  But it reminded me of working on Christmas Day last year. 

Working last Christmas Day was one of the worst serving experiences of my life.  It was mobbed with hungry and stressed out people.  Most of them had to wait for their brunch tables (which would probably irritate me too).  But out of the 75 people or so I served, only one table thanked me for working Christmas Day.  One table!  And this was the general viewpoint from all of the servers I worked with that day.  People were impolite, curt and snappy with the entire staff.   I realize Christmas (and the holidays as a whole) are a stressful time for everyone, but can't the general public put that aside for a few hours on Christmas morning, especially with the people who are serving you?  The kick to the chest in all of this is that the guests generally don't even tip well on holidays.  This is most likely because they've been spending all of their money on too many gifts and travel expenses, not to mention spending way too much time with each other.  Either way, between the time it takes to set up the restaurant for a special event (sometimes weeks in preparation), waking up early,  the stress of a busy restaurant, the mentally challenges that come from working on a holiday, all wrapped up in a pathetic tipping environment, it's just not worth it.  

It's too bad the holidays can bring out the worst in people.  I could go on and on with specific examples of the horrible displays of mankind on these treacherous days, but honestly, it makes me so frustrated and angry that I don't even want to spend any more energy on it.  I have had a hard time writing this post because of that reason.

Okay, that tiny violin that was playing in the background can now begin to fade away... as I switch gears and think about the upcoming holiday season.  I think I know what to ask Santa for Christmas ... the day off.