PULLING YOUR WEIGHT WITH YOUR TRAY

Many restaurants and private clubs have been facing a crisis with this H1N1 Virus. No one in our industry can afford to get sick. We make our money by being at work one table at a time. Unlike other professions though, that have sick days that are allotted and paid for at times. So what does all this mean to you?

Let me tell you what it means to me. Being a server and bartender in an exclusive business creme De la creme club, it will require more work on everyone's part... even mine. We are going to be required to pick up the slack of those sick and even the pretending to be sick fakers. We will get called in earlier on every shift, asked to do a few extra things to "help out the team" and not overly stress out our managers.

Some things I am assessing, observing, evaluating and eventually doing deal with pulling more weight both physically and figuratively speaking. So how do you do this and maintain a good morale amongst your co-workers? Here is what I have found:

• If you are in one location of the facility and others elsewhere... see what their responsibilities for the shift will be and help. We are not all busy at the same time. All of our "business" comes sporadically. So in your down town... help get glassware, silverware collected and polished for your team members set up.
• If you see one of your teammates in another location not doing anything, say waiting for a party to arrive... ask for some help to consolidate your steps. Utilize the extra hands.
• If you all are going to be needing to accomplish the same things at the end of the shift: re -cloth tables, place set, glassware, polish silver, fold napkins, fill salt and sugar caddies... break it down as a team. Person A regardless of the location will do all the sugar/salt and pepper, Person B cloths all the tables, Person C polishes all the spoons, Polish D the knives and forks. By breaking it down... you uniform and sweep the restaurant. It gets set faster, everyone has a responsibility of doing their part of the whole. If at the end, the manager sees there is something awry, that one person responsible for that action will be held accountable.

As simple as those steps are, many of you don't think to do it. I always like to think of locusts over a field. They do it in one fail swoop and demolish a crop. OR in restaurant terminology, happy hour with free appetizers. Those 9-5 business lushes come in and act as if they have never seen food before... they have a plate for every sampling course and destroy the buffet in less than 2.2 seconds.

Turn your resets into a positive manner. Get to know your teammates, do your task to the best of your ability and find... dependability will soon follow. As a co-worker, I am always interested in knowing who can I depend on when I really need help. Will they jump in and help me do a reset without asking? I'm finding the answer to be "yes." My night's reset is my co-workers' party tomorrow. Set those people up for success. Have fun with it.

I'm not sure who said this but here I go trying to slaughter the quote:

[One man doing the task of many accomplishes very little. Many men doing the task of one accomplishes the world.]

Try this out. I guarantee you will be out of your shift faster, with the jobs behind done more efficiently, set ups look sharper and the team morale good b/c EVERYONE had their responsible part.