Oy, you name something that guests do that gets on my nerves and it probably happened today (except self-seating, I don't think anyone did that...).
The oldest toilet in the building needed unclogging because some jerk decides that she needed to use a whole roll of toilet paper. So that took about twenty minutes before it was flushing normally. Luckily, and there was something good about it, it didn't happen while we were busy, it was almost time to close actually, so it wasn't like I was desperately needed during the twenty minutes I was fighting grossness.
People weren't satisfied with the seat I gave them to begin with, even though we ask a bazillion questions about their seating preference, and either moved themselves or asked to be moved.
Large parties did not call ahead.
People go in the wrong door.
People think they're funny with a joke I hear at least twice every time we go on a wait.
People call and hang up before I'm done my schpeal because they've dialed the wrong number. (lol, I think the phone ran like 10 times before I got to it one time tonight, and before I'd even said my name the person had hung up)
We had one party of 10 come in, without calling ahead of course, and after I tell the first guy in the party how long it's going to be (30-45 minutes), this other foreign one comes up to me and starts saying stuff like, "I know you'll do it in less time Baby Girl", "I know how you feel", "I know you trying to do your job", "I know it won't be that long", "I know something will blow up and we can sit down" (I kid you not, he said "blow up"!), and being all flirty or something while he was saying all that. It was almost got to the point where I wanted to say something to him! I wanted to step back (away from him) and say, "Excuse me, I don't know you and you don't know me, please do not call me by any pet names and keep this professional". Except the way I wanted to say it would have not sounded quite so polite.
After waiting about ten or fifteen minutes, they decide that it's going to be too long of a wait for them and they hand me their pager and leave. Five minutes later, back in comes Mr. Flirtateous, and starts asking if he decides to stay, can he have the same number. I had no idea what he was talking about when he was saying "the same number" and he mentioned something about eating alone and then everybody was waiting outside, finally, the other hostess figured out that he was talking about his pager number. He must have thought that the number on it meant when he was going to be sat, not that it was just some random number we page (which would actually make sense, but not very practical with the pagers we have).
When we paged the party, I had one of the other hostesses escort them to the table while I was putting information on the wait list (other people's names and stuff like that), when I feel the foreign guy bump into me! He had to have done it on purpose because there was plenty of room between me and the nearest wall for him to walk between. He acutally bumped into me, not just brushed me as he walked by, he actually messed up what I was writing! Thankfully, after we got them seated (in about twenty minutes thank-you-very-much), I didn't hear anything from any of them again. I asked their server later if they were okay and she said they were, except for that one guy..."he was kinda wierd"...
hehe, "kinda" is putting it lightly...he was downright creepy. he had to have been at least twice my age!
It never fails, when the restaurant is closing down for the night, people think that the entire restaurant is still open to be sat in. I suppose that they think it all gets cleaned after everybody leaves. Anyway, everyone always asks to sit in the closed section on the same night! I'll go weeks without more than one person a night asking me if they can sit "over there", then, like today, I'll get five or six requests to sit in closed sections. I can usually tell when that night is coming too, I'm not sure how, but if I were to give into everyone who asked, the closing server would have no tables in their own section, then, when people come in and want to sit down (in non-smoking) and I say it's full, they're like "huh? Doesn't look full to me". It's harder to explain to people that sections are closed and there's only one server on when tables are spread out over the entire restaurant.
I want a new job, but I think sometimes that I might miss it. I don't know. I found my summer job so boring, the only interesting customers were the ones yelling at you. Call me crazy, but I think I would miss the chaos sometimes when I'm bored. I think I thrive on chaos, pressure, and stress. I don't think so at the time, but when I look back on it, I kinda like it. Maybe it's because it's all I've ever really known for a job, maybe it's because I just don't want to leave my comfort zone, I don't know. I'm just rambling now so I'll end this post...
