Monday, November 06, 2006

Baby sitting

So I have been in the new place for almost two months. Working in "hellsee"(aka hell C) is really no different other than now instead of being a waiter or bartender I have gone over to the dark side. Being a manager doesn't necessarily present an entirely different perspective. It DOES however offer a different view of the same perspective at least. In the past at other jobs, I had been offered a management position on a number of different occasions. One of the main reasons I turned those offers down (besides the pay cut), is that I generally enjoyed waiting/bartending more often than not. Mostly though, in my mind managers were/are for all intents and purposes nothing more than ‘baby sitters’. Two months or so into it,I have to say my original feeling was not too far off.

Mind you, baby sitting can be fun. Baby sitting can be great. I love kids so make no mistake I have nothing whatsoever against the idea of baby sitting. What I DO have a problem with is the idea of baby sitting fully grown adults which is what restaurant management boils down to. Some examples:

Things you are not surprised to hear as a babysitter/parent:

‘I don’t want to go to school because the dog ate my homework’

Things you are not surprised to hear as a manager:

‘I didn’t come to work yesterday because I lost my schedule.”

As a parent:
“I can’t go to school today because I have a cold.”

As a manager:
“I can’t come to work today because I have the ‘Corona flu.’

As a parent:
“Mom, I will be home late all this week because I got detention.”

As a manager:
“Good news, I am over the corona flu. Bad news, I slept it off in
A jail cell after getting a DUI,,,,oh by the way I won’t be in for
A few days.”


Baby sitter/parent:
“Billy didn’t clean his room like you told him to do”


Manager:
“Wendy didn’t do her side work like you told her to do”

As a parent:

Trying to make a 6 year old understand why he can’t wear
His underwear on the outside of his pants to school his
Useless.

As a manager:
Trying to make some servers understand why they can’t wear
Nose rings, dog collars, and a tattoo that says ‘Fu*k you’
Is equally pointless.

As a parent:
You tell your son or daughter to ‘quit throwing their clothes on
The floor’ 7 million times.

As a manager:
You tell servers to quit wiping food from dirty tables on the
Floor 7 million times.

As a parent:
You sit patiently teaching your child to put the star shaped plastic
Piece into the star shaped hole on the red and blue octagonal shaped
Preschool toy you bought them.

As a manager:
You stand by patiently and tell servers to stack the 10 inch plates on
Top of the OTHER 10 inch plates in the dish pit.

As a parent:
You watch as your child tries stubbornly to fit the star shaped piece
Into the round shaped hole.

As a manager:
You watch as servers continue to stubbornly stack 10 inch plates on top of
The 4 inch ones.

As a parent:
You celebrate and take pride when you see them figure out the star really
DOES go into the star shaped hole.

As a manager:
You order more dishes to replace the 12 plates that finally toppled over
And crashed to the floor from being stacked on top of a four inch one.




In fairness, I must say that I don’t have any children so most of the child references were to me. Mom really WAS proud of me for getting that star shaped thing down, even if it was only last week that I did so.

See? Managing/ Babysitting

Not all that different.

Until next time, take care

BD


tags:,,,,,
tags:,,,

9 comments:

LaLa said...

Bah. It used to drive me crazy when people could not stack plates properly.

Morons.

Anonymous said...

I think I prefer teaching (or baby sitting, whatever you want to call it) the littlies, than the "big kids" any day of the week.

And apologies for the crazyness at the blog. I promise in four or so days, I will be MUCH less of a drama queen. I think. I hope.

Michael Thomas said...

Sometimes I think the 3 - 5 year olds have more brains these days than a lot of teenage employees in ANY business. We've managed to raise several crops full of what amounts to teenage pincushions with all of their piercings, tattoos, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against piercings or tattoos, I have both, but I was well into adulthood before I started using my body as an art canvas. Kids, and they are just that - kids - these days don't understand the meaning of long term, and what that stuff is going to look like down the road. But we gave them that attitude.

Michael

briliantdonkey said...

Lala: at least 'crazy' IS still a drive away. For yours truly it is just a short walk.

Aly: No apologies necessary. Funny stuff! Funny laughing WITH you that is not AT you.....Aly what are youd doing? put down that knife! I was joki........Ummmphhhhhh!

Michael: I am sure it is pretty much the same in almost any biz. I am guessing those that came before us felt the same way about us as well.

Normiekins:

::::it gets really old telling grown women to wear a bra.::::

reminds me of the old "guy sees doctor and tells him 'doc it hurts when I move my arm like this' doc says okay 'don't move your arm like that anymore'" joke....

On behalf of men everywhere, You know if telling them that over and over gets old, you could always stop telling them that.

BD

christine said...

hehe love the analogies! Well look at the bright side and think of it as boot camp for when you do have your own children. Glad to hear your new workplace is still as colorful as the old ones. :)

Michael Thomas said...

BD,
Don't know if its just me, but your rss feed is really screwy right now. It is showing entries from a month ago above this one like they're more recent. Is it happening to anyone else?

briliantdonkey said...

Michael:

Thanks for the heads up. I have seen the term RSS feed all over the place before. However, how that works or even what the HELL it is, and certainly anything about how to fix it,,,,,,I HAVE NO IDEA. I am way way WAY BEYOND clueless. Could you tell me what posts seem to be screwy? I know I went back the other night and made some minor edits to several posts and then republished them. I also know that I recently switched over to the blogger beta thingy. I don't know if either of those things have anything to do with it but if that isn't it I have NO idea. Anyone that has any suggestions I am all ears.

BD

Michael Thomas said...

Nope, that explains it. When you went back and made the minor corrections, and then republished them, it sent them out to the RSS feed as if they were new entries. The RSS feed basically sends a message to anyone that is subscribed to your blog that you've posted a new entry. That way they don't have to check 5 times a day to see if you've had a new post.

Michael

Kim G. said...

BD - I think I will send "Super Nanny" to your lovely hellsee and help you with implementing your very own "naughty chair" for your kids -er - I mean employees.