For 10 years, I worked as a waiter, and during that time, I experienced a mix of tragic and funny moments while serving customers and interacting with my colleagues and new employees at my former workplace. Just like in any profession, waiters often share stories about the places they work, and we all have some incredible tales to tell. Inspired by these experiences, I have decided to create a new series of posts featuring some of these stories.
Of course, the stories I will be sharing have been slightly altered. I may not remember every detail, or I might want to enhance the narrative to make it more engaging. So, while these are real stories, they will have a touch of fiction to spice things up. (Sauce
The tale of John the pastry job.
( next time I will have a better picture to use )
A few years ago, during the summer, John was searching for work to collect money. He came into contact with a well-known chain of "good" pastry shops for a sales position. The work required six days and seven hours due to the special hours followed by the shop. Red flags started to appear when John received the response, "around the beginning of the month," to his question about the payroll schedule. Moreover, the person in charge told him, "you know, you'll need to trim your beard until you don't have any at all," even though he didn't even have a beard. John agreed, saying it wasn't a problem. He also informed them about fixed holidays towards the end of August, hoping they would be able to discuss them together.
The next red flags didn't take long to emerge. Despite it being summer, everyone else started falling sick one after another, and they were all forced to work overtime, often adding an extra two hours a day. John told himself to be patient, thinking the money was good and he would eventually be happy. However, the relentless demand for longer hours continued. Every week, on his only day off, he was called back to work, leaving him with no personal life. The salary payments were consistently delayed, and despite making 5-6 calls a day to the elusive "accounting office," it was even harder to reach them than the prime minister.
Amidst all this, there was a shift manager who worked according to her own schedule. On weekdays, she also had a second job, which went unnoticed since nobody had seen her at this supposed second job she rushed off to. As a result, she only worked mornings on weekdays and a few hours on Saturday mornings. There was no reason given for her absence on Sundays. In general, she left most of her weekends open, leaving the rest of the staff to work full-time on the busiest days. It was only when the employees voiced their dissatisfaction, expressing that it was unfair for them to work so hard for her, that the employer paid any attention. However, every Sunday that followed remained unpleasant.
As the summer days passed, more and more issues arose. People came and went, and they kept hearing empty promises of more appropriate hiring to give them a break, or bringing in temporary staff from other stores. These promises seemed to be written in invisible ink, as they never materialized. Additionally, the "responsible" individuals who visited all the stores were informally labeled as sellers, despite having different roles than the regular employees. Wages were irregularly paid, often only after begging. Overall, there was a glaring lack of consistency, and when the boss visited the store for the first time while John was working, he didn't even acknowledge or greet him. The only comment he made about John was instructing the shift manager to clean up a small sweet that had fallen on the sidewalk in front of the store.
Meanwhile, John repeatedly inquired about the days he had requested for vacation, which coincided with the schedules of others. The response he received was, "I don't care. We didn't say we would give it to you or discuss it." John had already informed the management that if it wasn't possible to take those days off, they should inform him in advance to avoid starting work in vain. However, it was evident that the management had their own reasons.
Eventually, one day during his shift, John decided to leave abruptly and go on his vacation without informing anyone. Admittedly, it was a mistake on his part. Instead of confronting the situation, he left because he felt sick. As karma would have it, when he went to sign the severance papers, it was classified as a voluntary resignation, and he only received half of his owed.
