5 Years

August 1st made my 5 years at Olive Garden. This is the longest I've ever held a job. I've wanted to quit several times, but I hung in there. I received an OG pin with a diamond chip in it, and oh yeah, THREE WEEKS OF ANNIVERSARY PAY! That my friends is a bonus to look forward to, yee-haw!
The manager I had a problem with, she has since transferred to another Olive Garden, Thank You God! We have lost several staff and still are loosing more, but have just recently hired more replacements,Thank You God again! The few of us that are left, were working 7-9 shifts a week. I was going on 7 weeks of working 6 to 7 days a week. Talk about getting burnt out, that was hard. I've made it through, and I am a much stronger person because of it. I now have a sense of accomplishment. I have reached a goal, may be a small goal, but yet a goal has been met, and I feel good about it. To all of those who read this, it is good to set small goals and achieve them, it helps you build confidence in achieving long term goals.

Bad Behavior

Today I picked up a shift from a co-worker. The manager was going to change my station, because she didn't feel I was a strong enough server for that station. In deed, she is wrong about me for sure. I can handle any station. While she stayed in the office, she had employees with radios walking around telling her my every move. She made sure that I stayed extremely busy, trying to make me screw up. When a guest got up to leave the table, the busser was there within 30 - 60 seconds, while I watched my service partners tables sit for 8 - 10 minutes. As soon as it was set, I had another table. So, at one point in time, I have 5 tables in two different sections. Because I was about to put two checks down, haven't completely closed them out, I technically only have three tables. I talked to other servers, and they have only had three or four tables while I was on my eighth, and our clock in times were only 30 minutes apart. Matter of fact, they were already taking tables before we got busy. My manager set out to teach me a lesson. I know where I stand now, with her anyways. I just can't believe she would set me up to fail. I am not a failure, and I refuse to let this get me down, it will only make me stronger. I can do all things through Jesus Christ of Nazareth who strengthens me! I can accomplish any task set before me, I am more than a conqueror.

Why Don't They Tip

It really upsets me when a person gets excellent service in a tipping establishment, and doesn't tip accordingly. It really gripes my ass when I know they can afford it and still don't tip right. You know how much I would love to tell my electric company, "Hey, great service this month, here you go, 10% of my bill should do, thank you for everything, oh, what did you say, oh, 10% isn't enough? Well that's all that's given to me when I give excellent service, why isn't it good enough for the electric company? or water company or landlord? If you don't want to tip, go to a workaurant, not a restaurant, ever heard of McDonald's? If I am running my ass off while you are resting, pay me for it! I make $4.65 an hour! To Go Servers only make minimum wage, tip them! This is in Florida, I've heard about other states like New York and California, and Canada, they make like $8 -9 an hour plus tips. I was told that Florida is one the lowest paid in the country.

Oprah pissed me off when she told America not to tip to go's. Are you kidding me! You are a billionaire, and you want people who make minimum wage not get tipped. Can Oprah live off of minimum wage? Would she like some icon coming along and say don't help out the little guys, they already make to much money. Oprah is dead wrong for doing that! Who does she think she is! She ain't God, She ain't the Government, Who is she to tell Americans how to spend their money, and who you can tip, and who you don't tip, who is she?

I tell you we work our butts off in a restaurant. We sweat, like I literally have an undershirt that gets soaking wet from sweat. We run, bend, stoop, lift, and put up with constant neediness from our customers. I don't mind, I love my job, I don't like the unappreciation shown for my efforts at the end. If you can't afford to tip correctly, go out to a non tipping establishment. If you didn't get excellent service then tip according to service you feel you've gotten. I will give you a table that can help guide you.

Poor service - talk to a manager and leave no tip
Fair service - talk to a manager and leave 5 - 10% tip
Good service - 15 to 18%
Excellent service - 20% or better

And, when you do the survey, it helps us know where we stand in our mission to give you better service.

I had a table the other night, corporate table, he was president or owner of the company. I gave excellent service, I was tipped 30%. I ran my butt off, and was compensated for it. That's what I call appreciation. Where I work, we can't be good or great, we have to be excellent. We strive for excellence on every table, some of us are better than others, but we all are working hard and striving for 100% guest satisfaction.

If you happen to stumble across this post, please forward it to everyone you know. This could help out a lot of lives.