My feet hurt. I’m sore. I’m exhausted and so out of it today. This weekend was brutal. You would think waitressing for the best catering company in the world would be awesome, think again. It takes a lot of hard work and effort much more than you think. I mean, it was fine to waitress it wasn’t a hard job at all. It was just the cleaning at the end that was absolutely tiring. All I really had to do was drinks service and the men took care of the food. Since everything was already prepaid, we didn`t have to handle cash which was great but at the same time sucked because that meant there was a rare chance we would get tipped. Luckily, we did end up getting a bonus at the end from the CEO’s wife who reserved the entire lounge for the Future Electonics company. On a side note, I find it hilarious that I was assigned to be one of the girls working in that section because I used to work there for a month .. until they laid me off. The funny part was I even served the sales director who interviewed me about two years ago (he didn’t recognize me though I probably just looked like any other asian).
Anyways, the girls I was working with were all very friendly. The area manager and assistant managers were also nice … when they were not stressed or busy. The moment they were stressed, they turned into douchebags which put more pressure on us. The majority who were hired to work with the company around the world were basically all from Europe and man were most of them rude. We are more accustomed here to treat employees who work in the service industry with respect and courtesy (there are exceptions of course) but over there, they don’t seem to work the same way. The way they spoke to you was very condescending and extremely disrespectful. Many of the other girls (we were called `the locals`) felt the same way and a few of them ended up not showing up to work the second day. I considered not coming the second day either but I forced myself so I can make a little extra money but one thing is for sure. I would never ever do this again. Even if I had the opportunity to travel the world with them and have everything paid for, no thanks. Worst part of all was that the managers were younger than me by like 3 or 4 years and they were ordering me around.
That’s not even the worst part. I thought I had signed up for just a waitressing job but it turned out I had to be bus girl too. So basically we all had to polish dishes, glasses and cutlery which took us forever (everything had to be perfect, no fingerprints or marks) and a few of the unlucky ones like myself were forced to clean ovens and the buffet area. CLEAN OVENS. I thought that was the kitchen’s job not ours. But apparently in the chefs’ contracts, they are not obligated to clean anything. All they do is prepare the food and bounce. Then we are left with all the dirty work.
Overall, there was a lot of back and forth between this and that. People telling me to do this but then other people telling me to do that not this. It was annoying. For example, one of the company’s waitresses told me we don’t clean the food bins only the outside and that it was the kitchen’s job. So I went to put the food bin of mashed potatoes in the kitchen. The kitchen manager (super rude and unprofessional) told me I had to put it in Kitchen 3 which was all the way at the end of the aisle. I’m like okay. When I arrived to kitchen 3, the guy in there told me not to give it to them. I was told him that the other kitchen manager told me to bring it here. He said clean it first and then find a rack somewhere else to put it away but I was specifically told that it wasn’t our job but he insisted he had a lot of stuff to do and to take it all off with my gloves. WTF. So ya that’s just one of the most irritating moments during my time there.
As you can see, it was not a pleasant job at all. It really didn’t help also when I saw the garbage bags (yes GARBAGE BAGS) full of fresh fruits and milk cartons being thrown out instead of given to the poor who are starving out there with no food or water … but yes I would never do this again. I don’t regret having this experience though regardless of everything. It reminded me of how much I needed to do something better with my life and finalized how much I really dread working in the food industry and working labour jobs. Finally, I know how it is now to work with an entirely different culture of people. It’s very different but at the same time, interesting. Definitely not at all how I had imagined it to be when I was hired haha. I am just glad that I ended up getting a bonus at the end which made it a little more worthwhile but I had to buy new black shoes worth $70 just to be able to work. In calculation, it just turns out to be kind of like I worked another 24 hours with the same salary as my regular weekday job.
Oh well, extra money to make up for the unexpected expenses incurred last week.
Still staying strong, now time for my next venture. Stay tuned 😉
X.O.X.O.
​- Fifster
