Now that I have already given a little background to My Career Path, let me ask you if you have ever experienced working in a food industry? What were your main tasks? Was it the job that you wanted? How much was your salary? Have you ever encountered some difficult guests? What happened? Can you share the story about it? How have you handled it and how do you handle situations like that? Was there ever a time that you wanted to quit?
That's a lot of questions for an introductory don't you think? Over the years I was asked about some of the questions above numerous times during a job interview and I myself have also asked myself those questions especially if I feel like giving up.
Obviously you already know the answers to someof the questions but if I were to answer it one by one, yes I have worked in a food industry for about 14. My main tasks as a service crew was to take orders, do suggestive selling, serve the guests, engage small talks, thank them and ask for a repeat business. I also did some inventory of the stocks. These are also my tasks when I was a barista and as an addition to my tasks was to make coffee or non-coffee beverages. Being a kitchen staff was very simple. Do inventory and cook. I have enjoyed my time when I was in the kitchen because it wasn't as toxic as being in front-of-the-house.
Then when I was promoted to a management trainee to supervisor or manager, my tasks have also leveled up by doing daily reports, overseeing the day to day operations of the store, scheduling of the staffs, supervises or manages my people if they are following the company's rules, regulations and standard operating procedures, receives deliveries, checks the quality of the products, asking the guest for feedbacks, reporting about the flow of the restaurant to the upper management and most importantly was also the one who handles any customer complaints. But even if I was already in the management team, I am not the type of person who just sits in their office and make reports. I liked it when I work with my staffs but it isn't really the general task of being in the management team.
I know some people may have noticed that there are some supervisors or managers that doesn't even lift a finger in bussing out tables. Precisely because we have already passed that level of doing those tasks. Yes we can help but not to the fact that we will be doing all the tasks of a staff because we also have other work to do and we also have our deadlines. But if the company is cutting costs then he or she has no choice but to multi-task.
I have experienced being in a company that was trying to save some costs so they had to cut down their employees. Then I have also experienced being in a company that is full with manpower. I did liked it when we weren't short staff because I get to work on my reports and I can butt in the front-of-the-house whenever I want. But if it's peak hours, automatically I need to be on floor. In my last job when our general manager visited the store, she noticed that I was still helping with the bussing out of the tables and order taking. She called for my attention and told me that I need not to do any of those tasks because I was already a manager. She told me that I should be talking to guests, asking for feedbacks and if possible to make a deal by promoting our function rooms for future events. Personally, I'm not that confident in showing in front of their table and disturb them while eating and to ask some stuffs. Let me ask you, do you want the manager of the restaurant to visit you on your table and ask about the food while you are busy eating and chit chatting with family or friends? Why or why not?
Whenever my family and I eat outside, there are actually a few supervisors or managers who does this. I have also noticed that some of them are too shy to do table visits. I remember during my first job my manager asked me to do table visits so I can suggest if they wanted to have dessert. I did said excuse me because they were in the middle of their conversation but I saw the look on their faces like "WTF!". Then there were also some guests who would reply "We will just call you if we needed anything." in a serious tone and fierce look. Having experienced that, it hasbeen very hard for me to do table visits because you just really don't know if they would like you to be in front of their table doing auggestive selling or asking for feedbacks.
But there are also some guests who has that positive aura, guests that wants to have long conversations, guests that is willing to listen, guests that felt your welcome and sincerity and guests that appreciates that someone wants their feedback. I can say that my family and I are like that. Whenever a staff or a manager approaches our table, we don't snob them. We listen and we respond to them with respect. I think even if I wasn't working in the food industry, my family will still have that kind of attitude. Well you can exclude my mom because sometimes she has those days when she's really not in the mood especially when the service is bad. Ooohhhh! I can talk about bad service and complains next time.
With all the jobs that I had, I can say that I have enjoyed all of them but my top picks would be being in the kitchen and a barista. I have my own world when I was in the kitchen. It was then I that I realized that I can work under pressure and probably my first time to do muti-tasking. Being a barista is somehow similar with being a kitchen staff. The only difference is that you are exposed while making beverages. The company that I have stayed the longest was when I was a supervisor. I really enjoyed the time I had there plus my workmates. We treated each other as family that even most of our trainees wanted to extend their on-the-job training because of the cool working environment that we had. It is so nice to reminisce about our past jobs. Got any work experiences you want to share even if not related to the food industry? Feel free to share it with me.
