Third day of work and boy, did I get a lot of shit from the manager. She found out that I took orders and messed it up by forgetting to ask what kind of pasta the customer wanted. And then the scolding began. I wouldn't call it scolding per se, because it wasn't. The conversation was basically like this:
Joey : Jasmine told me you took orders from a customer on Tuesday and you forgot to ask them what pasta they wanted.
Me: Err... Umm... actually it wasn't pasta, it was the sauce...
Joey: So do you think you know the menu well? Did you go through it thoroughly?
Me: Err... Yeah, I think so.
Joey: Okay, let me test you. How many kinds of vegetarian dishes do we have?
Me: I'm... I'm not sure. I don't know.
Joey: Okay, then what if the customer wants to order pasta? What's the first thing you'll ask them?
Me: Um... Ask what kinda sauce/pasta/ingredients they want?
Joey: Okay never mind. What if the customer asks how many people one pasta dish is for?
Me: Umm... tell them it's recommended for one person but it's possible for two?
Joey: You see we're not an American-style restaurant... blah blah blah. What about recommendations? If the customer asks you "Does the extra virgin olive oil sauce pasta have wine in it?
Me: No.
Joey: Wrong. Extra virgin olive oil pasta is cooked with white wine.
Thank god the grilling session stopped because a customer called her over. GOD! I SWEAR IT'S SO HORRIBLE!
Oh, and I also forgot to mention a huge fiasco which happened on Tuesday. The customer I took an order for had ordered 3 pasta and 2 kids meal so they're actually entitled to get 3 free glasses of white wine. Me, not thinking went and asked the father "So that'll be 5 glasses of white wine?" only to have him look at me with huge eyes filled with shock. You see, his kids are at the oldest, 7. I'm actually glad that they boss wasn't in that day, because even sending orders to the wrong table would entitle you to a scolding session.
Anyway, I messed up again today when answering the phone. What happened was that the supervisor (Don't know what position she's in) was busy and everyone else was gone so I had to pick up the phone, which is all fine and dandy, except that my mind just went completely blank and I went:
Me: H-Hello? *Long silence* Erm... Dave's? *Spoken in a really hesitant and unsure voice*
Owner: Hello? Sher Ru? Is that you?
Me: Um.. no, Sher Ru isn't in today.
Owner: Who is this then?
Me: Err... Ruth.
Owner: Ah... Ruth, YOU CAN'T ANSWER THE PHONE LIKE THAT! WHAT HAPPENS IF THE CUSTOMER CALLS AND YOU ANSWER LIKE THAT? HAH?!
Me: *Doesn't know what to say* Erm... sorry? *I actually said sorry with the question mark behind!!! Like OMG! Shit!!!*
Owner: DON'T APOLOGIZE, I DON'T WANT YOU TO APOLOGIZE. DON'T DO THIS EVER AGAIN!
Me: Okay, alright.
Owner: Didn't I provide you with a manual on how to answer the phone?!
Me: Erm... yeah you did.
Owner: Then??? Just don't do it again. CAN YOU PLEASE CALL JASMINE NOW? *Super irritated voice*
Me: Okay, just hang on a sec.
So basically I just got screwed over the phone by the owner. Which you know, usually I won't make a huge deal over, but he DOES have a record of making the female staff cry more than once and I do NOT want to start bawling before my first fucking week is over. I started stressing about it, and talked to the supervisor (Jasmine) about it and asked her what I should do. She said that if he remembers he would start yelling at me the next day but if he forgets then he won't. But the chances of him forgetting is too slim. Great. So she told me that if I'm busy tomorrow he won't scold me about it, but then now I have to start pretending to be busy just so he won't start screaming his head at me for answering the phone wrongly. Jasmine then told me why don't I tell Joey (manager) so she can scold me instead of the owner because the owner would tell her about the incident (since he told Jasmine after speaking to her on the phone) which I don't know is a good idea or not because she needs to pass on the message that I was reprimanded for answering the phone wrongly. But well... what I'm hoping is that the owner will tell Joey, and then say that he needs to scream at me, and Joey will say "No need la, I already scold her" and he would forget about it. Hopefully that will happen!
What's worse is that I told Joey, explained that my mind was completely blank so I just kinda stumbled over my words, and she didn't seem angry, kinda laughed a little, and told me "Do you know the one thing Darren (owner) is most particular about? Phone calls. He actually fired one guy because he answered the phone wrongly." Wonderful.
[By the way, I'm serious about the fact that he makes all the female staff cry more than once. My colleague told me point blank that everyone here has cried more than once after being shouted at by the owner. Can you just say "Shit"?]
emotional
7:07 AM
