Blog Thread, yesterday I worked for 12 and a half hours straight yesterday. Sunday is probably the busiest day of the week for us, and we normally get a bit stressed by the end of the shift (I worked a double, so I got to be doubly stressed! Woo!) because the actual waitstaff are having to do three things at once because the owner who works is pretty shit. We had an extra person on the floor, though, so we thought it would be ok!
During the day we ran out of:
*Forks
*Spoons for the coffees
*Water glasses and water bottles
*All coffee cups (including the cappuccino cups, latte glasses and hot chocolate/mocha/large latte glasses)
It was really busy, and the normal head chef wasn't working, so the kitchen hand was helping with the food instead of washing dishes. The owner who was working got yelled at by both the chef and the barista/manager within five minutes of each other, and the barista ended up going into the kitchen to wash cups and told him we would have to close the store until we got some. He started washing the cups slowly. She yelled at him again. That was just the morning!
In the afternoon, the other owner took two hours to write the roster, while having a very serious conversation with the kitchen staff (now everyone who works here is telling him they need to hire more people, including the kitchen), so the girl behind the bar had to do everything while I looked after the floor and he... ate curry? I am not sure. It wasn't too busy, but because she was stressing out about trying to do too much at once, as well as family stuff she accidentally knocked things over and the boss looked at her like she was an idiot and wouldn't help her do anything and so on. At one point she looked like she was about to burst into tears and I told her to go have a cigarette and get away from him. While we were cleaning behind the bar he seemed annoyed that I hadn't given customers cutlery (that is because I had taken their order then cut the cakes they wanted while in the middle of cleaning. I didn't have a chance to just wander out and give them forks). We were closed and a customer asked if we had a certain cake, which we didn't have in the fridge. The owner went and found a whole one in the cool room, while the customer paid his bill, then asked us if the guy wanted a slice. He then proceeded to just leave the cake in its box on the bar, in the way.
After all that I got to clean to front of the cafe! And the bathroom! And bring all the tables in from out the front! The other girl's girlfriend came to visit and take her home, and the girlfriend helped me clean more than the boss. By the end of the night both of us were just shaking with anger and stress. The kicker is I have to work tonight, too.