Harsh Treatment

I found out working as a lone waiter is really tiring, so I figured out a way to lessen my fatigue during work. The answer is nothing but glucose, our emergency energy supply when we ran out of food. I add in two table spoons of glucose into my water supply before I go to work. Whenever I felt tire or dizzy, I drank it and the result was very good! I got my energy back and soar muscle is not that bad anymore.

Secondly I also found out another way to kick away drowsiness, caffeine.

If you sweat too much, try drinking mild salt water, it helps.

Energy boast? Vitamin B.

When you mix glucose and salt, you've got isotonic drink! Add in CO2 then you can have a soft drink.

When you mix glucose, vitamin B, and caffeine, you'll get an addictive energy boaster! Something like Red Bull or Livita. Those are the main ingredients for energy boaster, vitamin B to increase your metabolism towards glucose and starch while glucose provides the fuel to burn. Caffeine, is used to increase your concentration temporary. Not to forget salt as additive or used as an antioxidant.

Ok, now is the story.

I was the only waiter to serve today(as always), the manager tried to lessen my burden by asking Onel, one of the worker who used to worked in the kitchen to help and learn from me. Wow, to learn from me... I had only been working for 5 days and I already can teach others how to do things and how things should be done. I thought it would be a light day for me as I will have my apprentice to do the dirty and heavy job(who wouldn't?).

The scope of a waiter in Sugarbun according to my view:

1. Keep the premise clean and spotless.
2. It is your duty to serve the customers.
3. Good coordination with other workers.

The work prospect of a waiter in Sugarbun (spring) according to my view:

Opening shift (Morning)

1. Come early to wipe all the tables, chairs and benches
2. Sweep the floor.
3. Mop the floor after sweeping it.
4. Greet the customers when they come to the premise.
5. Deliver food to customers when the bell is rang.
6. Clean up the table after customer leaves.
7. Thank customer for coming.
8. Pile up the dishes and utensils, carry them to the kitchen to be washed.
9. Collect waste water from unfinished drinks.
10. Collect garbage from food crumbs, bones, spilled drinks/ice-cream, barely touched food.
11. Move the waste water and garbage to the kitchen and keep them temporary before other worker remove them from the premise.
12. Sweeping and moping the floor if there is not many customers around.
13. If there a stream of customers, repeat procedure 4 till 11 until they leave or the premise close.
14. If there is not, repeat procedure 12 till the manager is satisfied.

Continuing and closing shfit (night)

1. Greet the customers when they come to the premise.
2. Deliver food to customers when the bell is rang.
3. Clean up the table after customer leaves.
4. Thank customer for coming.
5. Pile up the dishes and utensils, carry them to the kitchen to be washed.
6. Collect waste water from unfinished drinks.
7. Collect garbage from food crumbs, bones, spilled drinks/ice-cream, barely touched food.
8. Move the waste water and garbage to the kitchen and keep them temporary before other worker remove them from the premise.
9. Sweeping and moping the floor if there is not many customers around.
10. If there a stream of customers, repeat procedure 4 till 11 until they leave or the premise close.
11. If there is not, repeat procedure 12 till the manager is satisfied.
12. Upon closing time, wash the table cloth, dish trolley, and procedure 1-3 in opening shift.
13. If you can't finish it by 10pm, continue doing it without pay till you finish it.

Remember, those work belongs to one waiter only. The manager will only send someone from the kicthen to help if he saw the pitty waiter is diehard working there. Then if the one that is supposed to be in the kitchen came out to help the poor waiter, then the work in the kitchen will be in a mess.

Today, there are only 3 cooks, 3 cashiers, 1 waiter, 1 waiter apprentice and a slave driver manger. One of the cook only works till 5pm so the apprentice was needed inside to help in dish washing. This is the poor waiter was left alone again.

An important fact: Always respond to the bell and leave your work behind.

So the poor waiter was delivering food, cleaning table and throwing garbage at the same time. Imagine how dirty it is... No one else could lend a hand.

Wonder why? Because the slaves workers here are sold paid RM2.30/hr with an overtime rate of RM3.45/hr. I was told to be paid on double rate during worked overtime... But then when I was working overtime and I ask again, the manager told me it's 1.5 of normal rate. Wadthe? Yea, we're giving a subsidized meal if we work 8 hours and 2 subsizied meals if we work full day.

Guess what I can't survive by working only 8 hours a day, because that way I would only have RM441.60 a month. Deducted by petrol (RM60), Prepaid(RM30), food out of work (RM80), tithes (RM41.16), I only got RM190.44 left. Remember I still need to divide the money into 14 weeks + 1 week sem break + 2 weeks final exam, so I can only spend RM11.20 per week. Now do you see what I mean?

Well, we accept the fact that we're being paid low, we still take the job and do our best. Sometimes, although we're doing our best the slave driver manager still complain that we aren't doing our job. It's really insane, the poor waiter can be forced to mop the floor until it is spotless. It is still understood that a quick service restaurant need a clean environment.

The problem arise when a pair of customers dine in till very late, the poor waiter was trying his best to mop the whole premise and there wasn't enough time. He tried to ask the manager if he can leave and come back later tomorrow as he will do the same thing again tomorrow but the manager declined hard. The sad thing is that the poor waiter aren't paid after 10pm, in fact none of the wokers are paid after 10pm. If he continue to finish it then he might not have time to rest well for tomorrow.

Some times people just never believe in What You Pay Is What You Get. Well, to the customer yes, but to their workers, he can just treat them like they owed him a lot of money and are working hard to pay them back. Don't they understand? Workers are their money generator, they are willing to work under very bad conditions although their pay are less. Like everyone else, workers work to pay bills, not to be tortured by the employer.

Too much of a thing is not a good thing. When nuclear power plants are pushed to the limit, nuclear melt down will occur causing explosion and spreading of deadly radiation throughout the region. When you push your workers to much, one day they will all stand together and quit the job. Imagine the losses to the company.

The restaurant is already having problem hiring new recruits as very few people are inretested in it due to the low salary offered, if the very few workers leave, they won't have a new one easily. The poor waiter for example is working hard to save money for himself to spend during the semester, if he is pushed too hard, with his ability, he can simply get another job that has better salary. He works to learn how to make money from there. If he is mistreated, he might quit. The same goes to others who are pushed over the limit.