Halloween is surprisingly busy at work. I mean, I know there are better parties out there, but nobody seems to be finding them.
We're now almost 50% overstaffed - 3 waiters per side of the restaurant, a hostess and expediter, and still things aren't going smoothly.
These new people, they have to be told what to do. "Clear this table", "Offer them dessert", "Bring bread and bruschetta", "have they been offered drinks?". There's no initiative, nothing gets done unless you tell them specifically what needs to be done. And don't think to try and suggest two things at once, like "Clear the table and bring dessert menu's" because that will just fuck things up. We've never had so many staff and yet, oddly, I've never been so busy.
Gypsy has taken over the position of hostess, I try and convince her to arrange the tags in some sort of numerical order, say from 1-100, she doesn't understand, I explain that it helps to find the coat when the customer is done their meal, she interrupts "I know where all the coats are". I point out that seldom is she actually at the door when customers are arriving or leaving, and so it would be a courtesy to the rest of the staff who have to help them with their coats. Eventually she begrudgingly acquiesces and arranges them in order, this to appease me, later, when the customers are arriving, she still stuffs the coats in wherever and all numerical order is lost....
It's true she's never at the front door, whenever customers arrive or go to leave she takes it as her cue to go hide in the bathroom, send a text from some dark corner of the restaurant, go find something to eat in the kitchen. She winds me up, several passes through the restaurant putting away glasses and cutlery and I stumble across her again and again texting, eating, talking, never, ever working.
"Guess what I was for Halloween" she tells me, lifting her shirt to show me some fake-blood scars: "A rape victim". She's not joking.
I get annoyed with her. "You're picking on me" she says "I'm a hard worker....".
People who tell you their hard workers never are. Just like people who tell you how much money they have are invariably poor.
Even the newest girl, her second night, she doesn't yet know what she's doing but she seems to be able to figure things out pretty good, she tells me she has a hard time not going off on the hostess, she would but she's new, I'd tell her to go right ahead but she's still too new, in a week or two...
There's some gossip, one of our regulars, an Asian fellow with gang ties, has been reported missing by family and friends, we all know who he is, the outcome is probably not going to be so good.
The hot water heater is broken and we have our handyman come in to fix it. And from 7:00 to 9:00 he huddles in a corner while the owner goes through his fits and tantrums, throwing things, yelling, the handyman says to me "Is he always like this? I've never seen him like this before...." and I assure him that every night when we're busy he's like this, just wait and it will pass, he's a look of terror on his face and I think now he understands why there's so seldom the same faces in here twice....