I enjoy working [for the most part!]. After spending most of my adult life being literally held hostage in my own home, it's refreshing to have a productive reason to get out of the house 5-7 days of the week. I like having my own money; money that I earn, and money that I get to decide how to spend. It's nice not having to own up to anyone when, where and how I decide to spend the money that I earn by my own hard work!
Unfortunately, my current job is a menial one. Hostessing in a restaurant, I make very little money. It's not enough to cover rent in my area on my own. Around here, a 2-bedroom apartment will easily run you $1100-1400/month. To me, that's very expensive!! My first apartment when I moved out after high school was $600/month for a spacious 2-bedroom. I've even lived in a moderately sized, 3-bedroom home with a very large yard in a nice neighborhood for just $885/month.
Also, because I have such a crappy job, fellow employees are constantly coming and going. There must be a 75% turnover rate, if not more. And at this point, where there used to be 6 or 7 of us, now there are 3! My job has been working me to the bone lately. I believe I've had 2 days off this entire month. Now, I typically work 4-7 hours a day, so working 7 days a week at such low hours isn't as taxing as 7 8-hour days in a week would be, but it is still tiresome to be there every single day. Nothing can beat a good, old-fashioned day off from work!
I seriously bust ass at my job. I am the hardest working, and I believe I'm the most committed to being a reliable employee. I don't call in "sick" because I want to go out or because I went out and caught myself a hangover the night before; I only ask for days off that I honestly NEED to take [i.e. court dates, important appointments for my daughter, etc.]; I don't ask to go home 2 hours into a shift because of silly little problems... I do everything I'm asked, and I genuinely CARE about doing my job well. I would love to be "promoted" to a waitressing position. It's a fairly nice restaurant, and I could make enough money by waiting on tables to cover my expenses comfortably. Unfortunately, because we are so short on hostesses, and because there are already plenty of other servers, my managers won't give me a chance at waiting tables.
I've done everything in my power to set myself up for a promotion. I work hard, I show up on time for every shift, I pick up everyone else's slack, and I come in on my days off to cover unreliable employees. At this point, I feel unappreciated. I get the occasional "thank you" for covering missing employee's shifts, but nothing more. Last night, when I was covering for someone else, a regular asked the manager on duty why he hadn't promoted me to waitressing yet. I did the suck-up thing to do and said that they couldn't possibly let me wait on tables right now while we're so understaffed for hostesses. My manager then said that he wouldn't want me waiting on tables anyway when I can't remember simple tasks like hanging up the closing sign [which in his defense I actually had forgotten to do 20 minutes earlier]. But really? Really?! Nit-picking over a stupid ass sign that nobody pays any mind to anyway, was that really necessary? For all I do for the restaurant, I'd like a little nicer treatment. Everything else I'm responsible for was done, and then some. I've been going the extra mile at work for months, and for what? So I can work 7 days a week, getting paid $4/hour plus mediocre tips and be nit-picked over by management?
I realize that I'm in the wrong industry to be expecting any real sort of opportunity, but a little bit of appreciation here and there would be nice. I wish I could rewrite my past and go to school, not get married, not get pregnant, not get divorced and not get stuck at home for 7 years while I earn zero job history so I could have a better job right now. I'm doing everything I can now to rewrite my past and make my future into something bearable, but there's nothing I can do to make up for lost time. I could have been so much more by now, but I let someone take it all away from me, and I squandered my opportunities.
If I could get into waiting tables for a few months, it would open up so many more doors for me. With that on my resume, I'd be able to show enough experience with customer relations and handling money to apply for a job in a bank. That alone would be a job I could see happily working at with a comfortable income, something I could picture myself doing indefinitely until something even better became available. I'll just have to keep looking... Hopefully someday I will manage to work my way into a better job..........................
No comments:
Post a Comment