The first day back at work after a five-day
vacation can be pretty brutal for some I suppose. I, on the other hand, was happy to come back
to work. I don’t get ‘Cases of the
Mondays.’ I don’t think most people in
the service industry do. Our schedules don’t
even come close to how the “real world” operates. Our Monday can be our Friday and a Thursday
can be our Monday (and it still doesn’t have that same feel). We’re all over the place. And most of us in the industry prefer it
that way.
I was excited to be back at work and was
hoping to make some serious money.
Unfortunately, it was a slow night.
While I was hanging out in the side station hoping for the rush to
happen at any moment, I noticed an older gentleman walk up to the greeter stand
while pointing over at my station. His
mannerisms seemed a bit high maintenance as he followed the greeter over to my
tables. I saw him leave his card with
the greeters then leave the restaurant.
I walked over to both greeters. “Sooo… what’s up with that guy?” One of greeters said, “Oh you’re going to
love him!” Is she being sarcastic? She
continued, “He just gave Jackie and I $100 bucks for getting him that
table!” Oh hell yes. Bring it on.
About an hour later, his party of ten showed
up. I could tell they were movers and
shakers. The men were dressed in slacks
and nice shirts and the women in beautiful dresses. It was a formal business meeting of sorts and
I knew I had to be on my A-Game.
Their party was demanding but extremely
polite and considerate. That’s the key to getting impeccable
service. You can be high maintenance;
just don’t be rude about it. Practically all of their food orders required
special preparation (normally a pain the ass, but again, because they were
courteous about it, I couldn’t allow myself to be frustrated). I treated them like royalty the best I could,
especially because I figured the reward would be great.
And it
was.
At the end of the meal, the host of the party
handed me a black American Express card (the one with no credit limit) and told
me to add a 35% tip. Score!
I only
had a couple of other tables that night, but it didn’t matter. Sometimes all you really need is one large
party - and one really great tipper - to make your first shift back from
vacation totally worth coming back for.
No
case of the Mondays for me. Serving
humanity is so much more fun. ~ HK ~
