Something To Drink

As a senior at Red Cloud High School, I’m a member of National Honor Society, captain of the cheer squad, lifeguard, swimming instructor, and part-time employee at the local grocery store. I’ve come to learn from a young age that money doesn’t grow on trees. When growing up, it was just my mother and I. While living on her single parent income, I learned money doesn’t grow on trees. My mother worked a minimum wage job, facing financial struggles at times. Her willpower drove her to get the job she has today. My mother married, and I have a little brother now. As his big sister, I always wanted to be someone he could look up to. At the age of fifteen I became a lifeguard at the community pool. The next year I took classes to be a certified Water Safety Instructor, so I could teach swimming lessons to local children. That same year I applied at the local grocery store, to have a job during the school year.

The most obvious being that the server must be friendly. Mirabelli explains how the servers must be able to do this on the unconscious level. Also Mirabelli states, knowing what the customer wants is an example of a good waiter or waitress. Emotional labor is also a huge part of being a waiter/waitress, being able to connect with the customer is a must in this line of work. Emotional labor is defined as, “Requiring one to induce or suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others” (Mirabelli 204). This means that waiters and waitresses have to be able to hide bad emotions and always have a friendly face in order to keep customers happy.

The way in which you respond to people is linked to what you believe in, what you consider important and what interests you. You may find you react positively to people who share your values and less warmly to people who have different priorities. When you develop friendships, it is natural to spend time with people who share your interests and values. However, the professional relationships you develop with people you support are another matter. As a

I dropped out of high school my senior year. If you asked me what was going through my mind at the time I would have answered with a sarcastic response along the lines of, “I don’t plan to be alive past 25 anyway.” Here I am, at 28, alive and well. Looking backwards through time, I can easily pinpoint what moments and decisions in my life have become cemented as pivotal in my development. Dropping out of high school was one of those moments. I spent the entire senior year wasting time, and when it got towards May, I realized I had no chance of passing. I dropped out and did what you would imagine any high school drop out would do, I partied a lot. It set me down a path that I would later call my personal “Dark ages.” It was here that I found out that life is nothing like the movies and my career in high school did little to prepare to for this world. I earned my GED and would work jobs I wasn’t proud of just to make some cash. I wasn’t great at everything, but I discovered a passion of mine. I was accepted as a shift manager at a pop-up Toys R’ Us, and I was good at selling. I’d learn everything about every item in our store so I could answer any question at any moment. The key to a good sale, was investing, and investing into the person you are dealing with. If you are interested in the person, then you aren’t just handing off a product, but you are taking care of their need. I could outsell anyone in the store, on any occasion. So much so they kept me on past seasonal work

Throughout my high school career, I had an obligation to help this family business to support my family financially. On weekends and majority of the weekdays, I spend my time aiding my parents while juggling numerous amounts of school work. Senior year proved to be the hardest, with five advancement placement classes that I take and while still helping out at the restaurant. Such environment that I was raised in, has shaped me to become a disciplined and responsible individual.

I may be wrong but that’s just how I am seeing it from my point of view. Not all my co-workers treat me like that, just some of them. I keep reminding me that I’m working at a restaurant right now because I need the money, not to make any friends. A lot of people feel the same way and they prefer not to say anything.

Even though I do not adore every coworker, I do not let personal issues interfere with my job. I aim to be as professional as I can with everyone I interact with at work. Most importantly, my coworkers can depend on me to come in on time every day or find coverage when needed. They also can rely on me to help cover their

The nit pickers. The attitude ‘they are working for me’ is deep-seated with this customer. Standard comments are “Is my food supposed to look like that?” or “Don’t we get free bread?” Performance reviewers can be very high maintenance, but if given endless attention and infinite witty banter, can tip surprisingly well. ( So if asked for ranch, only to have a request for extra straws as soon as the ranch is set down on table, and to have yet another request for a bowl of lemons as soon as the straws are set down, simply say, “I’ll be right back with that.” ) On the downside, if disgruntled, by either forgetting said ranch or taking too long to bring it to table, tips can be dearth. They feel they can justify giving a small tip because of the “lack of service”. The songbird of customers, voicing their opinion is what they do best. This is the cluster that is voted most likely to complain or compliment to management.

Those who had the opportunity and go to college can end up working higher paid jobs and are able to be more “successful”. Although that is the dream for most people, some are not able to afford college or higher education and are forced to enter the workforce with barely any extra smarts about their job. All of the knowledge they know is what their jobs teach them and with that they can move up in their place of work and even though they went in with zero knowledge, they become a physical genius in their field of work. As Rose states, “To be a good waitress, my mother says emphatically, ‘you have to be one hell of a good memory.’” (279) Many people take waitressing for granted and say that waitressing is one of those jobs that you just hop into with no experience.

When life gives you the opportunity to be successful, you take it. So, out of every let down or every time you ever ask yourself, “was it worth it?”…, you say “definitely”, persevere, and continue seeking greatness. When I got that opportunity, I hit the ground running. I was hungry to become successful, hungry to graduate from college, hungry to even hear my dad say, “I’m proud of you”. Maybe I could have taken a different route but hey, growing up in a small town like Mullins SC with a high unemployment rate, don’t get you too far. I couldn’t find myself falling into that statistic. Working temp jobs, wondering how I would pay for college…, it was rough, definitely some humble beginnings. This by no means is a message for sympathy.

The waiters and waitresses were trying their best to provide great service, but it was easy to tell how inexperienced they were. Our waitress pushily asked for our drink order and without a pause to get our drinks she wanted to know our food order. We were in no particular hurry, but it seemed like she was. When she came back for our food order, another server interrupted her about information about a type of wing sauce. Our waitress then proceeded to walk off with the other server in the middle of us ordering. We felt disrespected and

If employees are not happy with how the company treats them, that negative energy will be transferred to customers. The company will not always have control over customers, and their reactions to mistakes (which are inevitable), but does have control over how employees deal with mistakes and with the customers. Many fast food employees are reduce their quality to the point of feeling defensive when a manager address them or when a customer challenges them. The strategy is to treat employees as owners, and help them make decisions that benefit

Being an employee at Dairy Queen is quite an adventure. Our customers can be divided into three different categories. We get the stupid questioner, the obnoxious person, and the one everybody loves- the regulars. The stupid questioners are the ones that are hard to answer without sounding judgmental. For example, some questions that we are asked are, “Does your Reese’s blizzard have Reese’s in it?” or “How long is your six inch hot dog?” Another type of customer are the obnoxious ones. These are the ones that are extremely picky about how they want everything they order. For instance, we have been told to put someone’s ice-cream in a paper bag with napkins around it to keep it insolated. Another time that someone was picky was when we were

It’s not a bad job, but the customer service can make my day a living Hell. Most people are not mindful that I am human, and that mistakes can be made, and I often get yelled at if things don’t always go the customer’s way. By the time I get off, my feet are burning and my back is aching, so I take some Tylenol and power through it. Once I am off, I grab something quick and easy to eat for dinner, and head to my second job at IHOP, where I work from 5 until 10 at night, mostly because that’s when it’s the busiest, so the time goes faster and I get great tips. It’s a pretty good job, but sometimes customers will complain to my manager about nothing to get free food, and when I get home I always smell like maple syrup.

Being stuck in an office all day with the same people help creating strong connections. A recent study, found that 38% of people have dated a co-worker in their career (Brandon), this number is not negligible. Work environment promotes interpersonal relationships because of