going out of my mind

Restaurant work is tiring, but more in a mental way. I hate incompetence, whether it lies in the workers here, or the customers. Dealing with people everyday from 11 to 10… It’s enough to drive a man crazy.

I’m there right now, and I can feel my anger rising with each phone call coming in.

First of all, ANSWER MY QUESTIONS. When I ask “You want a delivery? Ok, what’s your address?”, it does NOT mean you can just ignore me and go for your order. Minor annoyance, but please people, this isn’t rocket science. I ask the questions, you answer the questions, I get you your food.

Second… What the hell is “H9”?? I know that we do put letters and numbers on the menu (which is a retarded idea because it leads to this), but please don’t order your food like that. I can write down Fried Rice and also automatically know the price (once you’ve been at it a while, the prices become more familiar than family), but with “H9”, I have to take a moment to hunt it down. Jesus, why do you think I say “H9? The fried rice?” every time you use that stupid letter-number combo!? Because I’m trying to hint at you to STOP. I can’t be expected to memorize about 200 letter-number combos, the meal associated with it, and the price too. Sheesh… Just say fried rice.

Third, be direct with what you want. “I want a shrimp egg foo young”. But whenever I ask “Large or small”, they say small. Dude, if you want a small, say it. You’re just lucky I’m nice and I didn’t leave it at that, or else I would have charged you for a large. The customers around here are cheap as hell, so I know they mostly want smalls…

There’s also the “Can I have some more soy sauce?” question.. I don’t mind giving extra, but goddamn, if you want extra soy sauce, sweet and sour sauce, another fork, AND a plate, TELL ME ALL AT ONCE. I don’t want to walk back and forth a billion times for such small things. Grrr…

Stupid stupid chefs. I’m in charge of answering the phones, taking orders from whoever comes in here, AND getting the food packed up. When business is slow, that’s fine. But as soon as people start calling, the system breaks down. All of a sudden, you got people at the front ready to pick up their food, but their food isn’t ready yet because I’m answering phones. As soon as I’m done with the phone, it rings again. One person can’t do all of this. The chefs also idle around when this is happening, because they don’t speak English and so can’t contribute to it. Maybe they pack up the food (one of them knows how to), but they can’t work the register because they didn’t bother learning that. So again, we’ve stopped progressing. It’s annoying to the customers, and it’s annoying to me.

Other stupid things:
Them: “Where’s the shrimp egg foo young on the menu?”
Me: *points at the exact spot, its under “Egg Foo Young”* “It’s right here.”
Them: “And which one is it? The combination?”
Me: “…No, it’s the one the says shrimp.”

Them: “What comes in the lunch special?”
Me: *thinks to myself ‘READ THE GODDAMN MENU. IT SAYS IT RIGHT UNDER LUNCH SPECIAL’* and says “Shrimp fried rice, an eggroll, and a soda. After 3, no soda and add $1.25 to the price”.

Them: “I want a small pan fried noodle.”
Me: “Ok, what kind of meat?”
Them: “Meat, I don’t want no meat.”
Me: “Ok… but you need meat. Beef, chicken, shrimp.. it’s on the menu.”
Them: “No.. I want the side order of it.” (sounds really frustrated)
Me: “Ohh.. Sorry, you threw me off when you said ‘small’. The side order doesn’t come in a large or small. Just one size.” (feeling really frustrated)
Them: “Oh, ok. I want a small pan fried noodle.”

Them: “How much is the large orange chicken?”
Me: *I tell him*
Them: “Well, I don’t want a large. I’m just eating by myself, that’s too much.”
Me: “There’s also a small..”
Them: “Oh, how much is that?”

Them: “The lunch special comes with shrimp fried rice, how about the normal one?”
Me: “It comes with white rice.”
Them: “So just the chicken and sweet and sour rice?” (what on earth is sweet and sour rice?)
Me: “No, white rice.”
Them: “Sweet and sour and rice?”
Me: “White rice.” 

I can not stand incompetence! And I see it all the time.. Sad face here. All this is just the stuff I can remember in a few minutes. There’s a bunch more where this came from. I hate it, it’s making me crazy. So mad. But I do it every week because it gives my mom a break. And she still has the audacity to yell at me for tiny things.. To demand it of me (yesterday, she asked me to work and I said I’d think about it and she kept asking over and over. God, I said I’d think about it), and to say it is my duty.

I don’t get paid for this.. Jessica did, and that is bullshit. She’s family, (uncle’s daughter and my uncle owns half of this) and I’m family, so what’s the difference? Eh, I’ll talk about that another time. Point is, I hate this stuff, AND I get lectured on top of that.