From The Ashes ...

I'm Healed!

Well, I'm infinitely better, at least. My temp still reads 100 degrees but I don't feel the least bit warm. I worked my shift as scheduled, and even though it was a shorter night, I felt OK for the first time in days and days. Work is going well. I've been receiving lots of praise from the senior management. I'm not going to bullshit you with false modesty and say I'm not aware that I am light years ahead on the learning curve versus the manager that started two days before me. Granted, I worked with the computer system they use at the job before my last one. But that was as a bartender. I had very little exposure to the management side. The thing is, it's just a system. Every bar or nightclub has one and they all share the same qualities. Tally the registers, reset the banks and theoretically, what's left over should equal your sales. That's an oversimplification but that's pretty much it. The only difference is the particular accounting system each establishment uses to achieve that goal. So you just learn it. Some people can't seem to grasp that what is on the surface a daunting task is actually quite simple and logical. You just have to properly prepare your materials and learn to do each cash-out the same way every time, time after time. It very quickly becomes automatic. If you can't or won't learn that simple fact, you're fucked and you'll remain fucked.

The two biggest problems I'm having at the moment involve the waitstaff and one of the managers. A few of the bartenders and some of the waitstaff have remarked to me how stunned they are at what I'm able to take care of for them and how I seem so relaxed and confident. I mean, I did hang back the first couple of weeks as I re-familiarized myself with the computer system. And I am *ahem* "intuitive" enough to quickly have realized that while everything I was learning had various degrees of importance, it was essential that I learn how to shut the place down (meaning accounting for many many many thousands of dollars in cash and credit charges), as well as physically securing a pretty large restaurant/nightclub. So that became my primary focus. By the end of my second week I pretty much accomplished my goal. Not so my co-worker. He's disorganized, unfocused and clearly not in control of the staff. They are running him instead of the other way around. The problem is, the general consensus is that my co-worker is the normal end product of the fast track training they put us through. So the staff is used to some dithering, ill-informed, tentative pile of useless. That is so not The Dutchess. So every time they come to me with a situation and I instantly make a decision and tell them how to handle it, I get another question. Or the same question rephrased. Or expanded upon.

"They don't like their food."

"Are they eating it?"

"No."

" OK. Take it off the table, offer to get them something else and I'll comp it off."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Do you want to talk to them?"

"Why? I can see from here their plates are practically untouched."

"Shouldn't it be a void?"

"No. It was made."

"We usually void it."

"Well, that's wrong and now I must stab you repeatedly with this butter knife until you die."

The other problem is with the manager that was hired a month or two before me. Technically, according to a meeting I attended Friday he has seniority over me. We'll call him The Doughy Israeli. He seems to be around 30, pear- shaped, with a fat ass and a horrific wardrobe. He's not a nasty person per se, but he's none too bright. He seems to be interested in collecting a paycheck doing as little real work as possible. Well, that's all well and good if a senior manager is on, he can just lumber around in the background like a Hebraic Pillsbury Doughboy bouncing off the banquets until it's time to close. Last night, we closed together and at the end of the night I discovered that the entire credit card transactions for the day were not transmitted. He at first didn't even know what I was talking about, and then insisted it was no big deal. I knew better. Fortunately my boss was still around and after conferring with her, she confirmed my discovery, admonished The Doughy Israeli for not remembering and showed me how to fix it. So because I had to technically defer to TDI on a number of issues tonight, and because he started the shift by showing up a half-hour late, almost nothing happened a) the way I prefer it to happen and b) the way I know to be correct. I was frustrated on a number of issues and finally took to walking away shaking my head. The maddening thing is if you talk to him, he'll let you know pretty quickly that in his mind at least, he Da Man. Two years ago, I would suffer this situation. Ten years ago, I would have left sneaker prints on the back of his suit jacket as I sliced the tendons in his heel. I'm feeling I can find the middle path.