7/13/10

Post of Complaints

I've been having a hard time keeping a positive outlook on everything right at the moment. Work is especially stressful now that we've been cut down to a total of five servers--yes, five, that's really it--and we've been busier than ever. Pizza Hut rolled out some really spectacular specials and coupons in the last few months, and it's dropped the guest check totals down sometimes by as much as an extra fifteen to twenty dollars for a party of five. And that brings a tip that might have been seven or eight down to three or four.
My hours are nuts this week, since WaitressK2 (who only works four days a week here anyway) requests off every other weekend, and WaitressD has family obligations. This drops server count to three for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I work six days this week, and I go seven days straight before I get my day off. Matt has another cook training, and he just hired a waitress, but I don't know how he expects me to be able to train her when I'm working by myself all day handling the front half of the store. Matt is especially useless around the lunch rush most days, and with the lunch buffet costing only $5, one person can come in, get a water, and walk away with a $5.35 bill at the end of an hour. I might get $1 from these people. So in the end, I feel like I'm working myself to exhaustion for free.
Friday I work all day by myself, until 4 when the next server comes in. I am supposed to leave at 4, but I don't think I will get out until 5. Normally there's an hour's overlap, so that the server going off has time to wrap up any customers who might still be in their name and get their side work done. I do not have any overlap this week except for Saturday, when I work an 8-hour shift where I AM the overlap, for the morning and night shifts.
My only attempts at optimism this week are that maybe it'll make up for the abysmal rest of the month I've been suffering through.
I am not making enough money to pay my half of the rent.

When we first moved in together, Patrick and I split the rent in half. He pays the electric and the cable/internet bills, and I pay for the groceries. By the end of the month, they pretty much balance out. Two months running now I have had to lean on Patrick for the rent, and we've been skimping on groceries so that my bank account doesn't run below $50 (I keep that as emergency money). We've come to an agreement where I pay about $100 less in rent, since I do just about all of the cooking and cleaning. The idea being that Patrick pays to keep the place, and I keep the place worth paying for.
My strong Wood Woman Pride is aching as I type this, and I know Patrick will walk into the room shortly and ask me if I'm okay. I will reprise my statement of, "Just worrying about the usual," and he'll lay down for bed.

Life is tough right now, and I'm having a hard time keeping my head up.

3 comments:

Rose L said...

I know the feeling...my husband has been disabled for 5 yrs., lost his job just before, and last Oct. he was diagnosed with another medical problem--frontal lobe dementia. He is 54. In my job I was cut back to 20 hrs. a week. We struggle. I worry, cry, pray, and sometimes want to run screaming into the night. But I seek what will help calm me, cheer me, give me peace. Friends, photography and poetry are my relief...and God.

Donna Lee said...

This breaks my heart to read. I don't want to hear you going without food. Don't let that Wood Woman pride stand in the way of asking for help if you need it.

I can also mugg customers in the parking lot for you and scare some extra tips out of the. I am a grizzly bear (and a mama bear at that)

roxie said...

Oh,sweetie, that just sucks. I want you to get a job that actually pays a living wage. It's indecent that you have to work so hard for so little. You probably qualify for food stamps.