One thing I have noticed among "the fresh meat" at my serving establishment is that they do the bare minimum. I do not know if they are still struggling with keeping up with their tables, menu knowledge, and the standards we have for our restaurant, but they certainly are lacking. I am, most days, disappointed in them, but I am trying to be patient with them and give them constructive criticism as I work with them. I do try give them the best "buddy system" when we are in sections side-by-side, but some are needing too much help.
For example:
A new game that my management team has placed in effect is a score of who runs the most food to the tables. Whoever takes more trays of food to the tables each night gets a free meal at the end of the night. One such new server asked everyone in the sections around him to fill up his drinks, take salad and bread to his tables, and check on them while he ran food (where it counted.) Once people caught on to what he was doing, the managers were notified and he was not eligible for that night. This is clear abuse of the Buddy System (a system in place to have a server accountable to helping his fellow server when in need).
The other night I was in a section with one who I have noticed gets behind in her tables. We had neighboring sections, so it was up to me to help her out. We both had the same amount of tables, but I noticed as I walked through hers to get to the kitchen, all of her tables had piles of unwanted plates. One table looked uncomfortable as they were eating because they had very little room on the table. As I walked by, I grabbed some plates from them and made a small comment, "Now you have some room to eat. Enjoy!" As I walked away I saw that almost all the drinks were low at her tables too. I enter the kitchen to find that she is in the middle of gathering food for one of her tables, so I drop off the dishes, grab a tray, and return to her section to collect more unwanted dishes from all the tables. When I finished with that, I saw she was still very busy gathering stuff for her tables, so I started refilling her drinks. After getting her up to speed, I gave attention to my tables, but when I had a moment to look back at her section, she had dropped off take-out boxes at a table, but had not come back to collect the unwanted dishes again. So I again, walked up to the table and gathered those dishes. I almost ran into her this time as she was in the middle of some other task, so I said very quickly, "You must pre-bus your tables. Every time you stop by, grab some unwanted dish off the table." She said ok and we kept going our separate ways. As her first table got up to leave, they came up to me and slipped me $10. All I did was take plates and fill drinks, she did the main work for the table...but that goes to show what they really appreciated. They wanted that extra attention-the attention that showed that someone cared. This is a prime example of not only pre-bussing (taking off unwanted plates before the table leaves), but also giving attention to the tables.
Another server seems to struggle with the computer. It seems that every time I run her food to her tables, it is either the wrong table, or only half of her food came up. I snapped at her the first day that it happened twice. I was a bit annoyed because I was being made to look like a fool to her tables, but after cooling down I apologized. Last night, I saw that her food was up for a table. I was a little wary to take it, but I told myself that it had been a couple weeks and maybe she was better at it. No, I was wrong. When I reached the table, I saw three young girls. One young girl had her appetizer that was supposed to be a meal. Also the plate I had was just for one of the other girls. I asked the one who was left out if I had forgotten anything, she replied that it was a soup that she needed. So I went back to the kitchen and grabbed the soup. I then found the server and explained the situation. I asked her if she knew how to ring up each one of those entrees properly, but she replied that she was a little overwhelmed considering she had five tables at the moment (I hardly believe that. The managers only give more than three tables on rare occasions-and to seasoned servers, not new ones.) This is a great example of the necessity of learning how to use the computer.
Same night, same server:
She was too busy to greet a table, so she had someone else greet it and take the order. When the food was delivered, it was not what the table wanted, the server she had gotten to help wrote down the wrong items. But she was still too busy to get it right, so the new random server who delivered the food had to take down the proper order and fix the problem. THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN!!!! This is a good example of STUPIDITY!!!
These new servers are slow, and easily overwhelmed. If I had my way, they would only be allowed two tables at max, and require more training. Then, if they did not improve in two weeks time, they would be let go.
Maybe that's harsh...but I would rather work with 20 skilled, hardworking servers every night of the week, than 50 differing skilled servers any night of the week.
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