Job Post
Restaurant Worker
The role I had was called “FOH Worker”, which is restaurant lingo for “Front-of-House” worker. This means working in the space that the customers can see. This could be anything that is not the back of the kitchen: the dining area, cash register, order-prepping area, bathrooms, the soda/utensil station. Every day, I would clock in at 9:00 AM and clock out at 8:00 PM. If I was “closing”, I would leave at 11:00 PM, or whenever I finished cleaning the kitchen. I had many roles and tasks to play at once.
Three roles help sum up what I did in my job as a restaurant worker:
- Interacting with customers
- Preparing and packaging orders
- Cleaning the front and back of the restaurant
I will end with some things that I have learned from this job.
Interacting with customers
Every day, I would spend a lot of time at the cash register, taking orders and payments from customers and sending them to the kitchen. Oftentimes, I would give discounts to new customers or police officers. The cash register had a very simple ordering system, but took a while to get used to. I was also often responsible for bringing food to customers at their table/pickup location. I would often interact with them and give special treats if they have a child or if a customer was new to our restaurant (basic customer relationship management).
Preparing and packaging orders
I learned how to prepare and make hot and cold food and beverages according to standards and procedures. For example, I learned how to make macaroni and cheese, potato salad, corn pudding, roasted chickens and other kinds of meats, banana pudding, among many other things on our vast menu (all from scratch). This was very important, especially for preparing for the day in the morning by restocking food, desserts, drinks, sauces, and the salad bar. I had to help predict how much food to make depending on the day of the week, time and hours, or if it was a holiday.
I also helped package sides and put them into to-go containers or trays for dine-in customers. This part got very stressful on nights where we were very busy because tracking what large orders needed/already had could be hard to remember without a good tracking system.
I even took, managed, and packaged large catering orders and equipment and coordinated delivery to the event.
Cleaning the front and back of the restaurant
Before, during, and after the day, I cleaned all areas of the restaurant, including the kitchen, dining area, patio, and even the bathrooms. This process was the most thorough at the end of the day when I was closing for the night.
Balancing and prioritizing these roles, especially under time pressure and constraints, could get very stressful, especially when emotions are high when angry customers or bosses are yelling at you.
What have I learned from working in this restaurant?
First, humility and patience. Working in a restaurant can be hard, stressful, and emotionally taxing. I have learned how to talk to customers and angry people in times of stress and pressure. I have also become much more cognizant of how I speak to and interact with service workers. It can be very challenging to work in a restaurant that is understaffed or does not have all the resources at all times.
Also, it is important to make friends with people on the job. The ages of my coworkers ranged from 17 to around 60, but I made friends with everyone. Since you spend upwards of 8 hours a day with these people. In a lull in business, it is nice to be able to talk to your coworkers about anything. I learned a lot about different kinds of people, and it forces you to work with people who you have absolutely nothing in common with. It is also funny how during the summer, these restaurants are staffed and run almost entirely by high school and college students, and it is a complete mess and everything is understaffed.
My employees also hazed me. In the first couple of weeks, I got the jobs no one wanted to do because they knew I would just do it. I cleaned lots of toilets, baby vomit, and trashcans. I spent hours making and packaging sauces, and would always have to stay after to “close” at the end of the night because that was the worst job of all: cleaning the entire restaurant, floor, bathrooms, kitchen, at the end of the night. They would just pawn all the horrible jobs to me and I would do them because I had no other choice.
Ultimately, working in this restaurant was a fun and stressful experience, and I learned a lot.
Hi Claire, I like that you included the main roles and other important aspects of being a restaurant worker in your post. Also, including a lot of examples of how many responsibilities you had as a “FOH” worker and working with customers showed how stressful the job was. The portion about what you learned was a great way to end your post.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your use of examples in this post. It made for a more interesting and engaging read. I also liked that you specifically stated what you learned from this position.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed how you walked us through your roles from beginning to end. I not only know about your role at the restaurant, but how you feel about them and what they entailed. It sucks that so many people were so rude to you, but I guess that's just part of the culture as you said.
ReplyDeleteClaire, first off I love the aesthetics of your blog! Also, the way you formatted the assignment made it easy to follow and wasn't overwhelming. I worked at a restaurant for a year and i definitely agree with you that it teaches you humility and patience but at the same time it taught me how to handle all different types of personalities.
ReplyDeleteI completely relate to everything you described about this job. I also worked as a front person at a Japanese restaurant and I fully empathize with the bits where you talked about dealing with angry customers. I think every teenager should work in the restaurant business at some point because it really teaches you to treat service workers with respect.
ReplyDeleteHi Claire, thanks for sharing this experience with us! I liked the way that you clearly described the three things you learned from the job. Dealing with difficult customers seems like a real pain, but it sounds like you handled it well. Also, getting hazed by doing all the worst jobs available since you are a new hire seems horrible. I would be pretty mad at my co-workers. It's great to see your perseverance and determination come out in this job.
ReplyDeleteWow, I knew that there are many tasks at hand to manage a restaurant front and back but it still surprised me to find you wearing so many hats during your time working there! It was insightful to hear about what you learned from being a restaurant worker (also sucks to hear that you got hazed by other fellow employees).
ReplyDeleteI think its so cool that you got to learn how to make all the different foods from scratch. Hopefully you remember some of the recipes to impress friends for dinner! It was also interesting that you worked with a wide age range of coworkers.
ReplyDeleteI also think it's very cool that you learned how to make different food! Your structure and they way you described the job made it really easy for the reader to learn about all the different components about a job at a restaurant.
ReplyDeleteClaire I really enjoyed reading your post about your time as a restaurant worker. It sounds like you had many different responsibilities during your time there. I really liked how you mentioned that it is important to make friends with anyone regardless of age.
ReplyDeleteI love how you shared your main learnings from this job! Working face-to-face with customers is so difficult, especially in a fast-paced environment like a restaurant, but can also be really rewarding. Your description of how you learned to cook reminds me of your first blog post and how you said you wanted to be a chef. I think you already accomplished this goal!!
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