My Story

I am a closer at a restaurant. I have been for 8 years. That is the longest time a closer has worked for this particular restaurant. It is not because I have wanted to. It is a living. I determined a long time ago after quitting several restaurant jobs and starting this restaurant job that if I couldn’t be in a job in the field of my choice (art + desktop publishing) that I would stick it out because I have to have a job to live in “our society” as I used to call it. I have suggested things to make my job easier at times but that only seemed to make the management and owner search for ways to make my job harder. Since we can’t seem to keep a back line closer I am constantly in dish mode but my regular job has been in the dining room which includes all kinds of cleaning such as toilets, tables, trays and on and on. Not a glamorous job by any means. When I stand around talking to my favorite customers I am pulled back to do chores in the back line of the restaurant. You may ask why I am not in management by now. It was my choice. I was in management in another restaurant and was made to feel inefficient and not wanted. I was caught between the higher management, management on my level, crew members and customers. Not a nice place to be. In this restaurant I would feel the same. I see it all of the time in the newest members of management that are brought up from the ranks of the crew. Sometimes they are made to feel very unwanted and as if they do not do their job well. I know what I want to be in my lifetime. I have known since a child. My workplace now is just a stop on that way to what I want to do. “You have to have money to make money.” This is true. I found that out several years ago when I tried to start an ad paper just to have a place to put an ad that didn’t cost a fortune. I had a good time creating this paper each month. I didn’t enjoy running around trying to get ads to put in that paper but if I had had the right help and backing at that time it would have worked. Things fell apart when the car did. Will try to do what I can with numbers in the place I am at but they seem to have all the number answers they want from themselves. They don’t like advice too well or they would have been able to keep closers longer than they have. They, like most businesses are out for the profits first and that usually takes less workers, using some of those workers less time. They use a lot of school age kids for just a few hours a day because the kids have to be off the job by a certain time of night. They have school the next day. This opens up those positions and leaves them vacant for several hours before the restaurant closes unless the actual closers fill those positions taking them away from their closing duties. They are good enough to me to let me fill another job (dish washing) after I close the dining room so I have the extra hours. This place of work has it’s good points and it’s bad points. Have tried to help get rid of the bad points before by complaining or speaking my opinions to no avail. I am so glad to get home to anything that is based on art that I look forward to it while at work sometimes. Sorry this is so long and it probably sounds like a complaint of some sort but I just thought I would fill in a little background on myself to see if writing things down would help me. Rayma