Learning to carry a tray

I remember when I first learned how to carry a tray. It's one of those special moments in life that I'll never forget. ha. I really like the added music...it really resonated with me and made the video that much better. ha. ha.

I really empathize with this waitress

This article was in the University of Georgia newspaper and I definitely had to share it with you! I feel for this girl and totally understand where she's coming from. Good advice for all to read! I have, of course for your enjoyment, put in bold some of my favorite parts!

Opinions
Advice from the abused waitress
Published , October 11, 2006, 06:00:01 AM EDT

Welcome to Hell. After I seat you, I’d be happy to bring you some menus.

Forgive me if that sounds harsh. While the rest of you were out partying for/during/after the game against the Big Orange, I spent all of my weekend downtown, with a 10-hour shift on Friday night and an 18-hour shift on Gameday, sober, dealing with some really ridiculous people.

And for the sake of myself and my fellow servers and bartenders in Athens, before the next game, I must pass along a list of appropriate restaurant behavior because if I have another experience like the one on Saturday, the men in white coats are going to have to come take me away.

Early on Sunday morning, when my fellow servers and I were still cleaning, I started thinking of an appropriate way to tell people how to behave in restaurants. I settled on a column. So here are my helpful hints, or things every server wishes they could say, to restaurant patrons.

Your servers are NOT responsible for every disaster. Seriously, there’s not some huge server conspiracy to make your lives miserable.

Friday night, I had a woman who went from zero to bitch in the blink of an eye. I don’t care that she was three sheets to the wind; there’s no reason to make your servers cry profusely because there’s no chili for one’s fries. Do I look like I control the cooking of chili in bulk?

You are paying for the privilege of not having to cook your own dinner and clean up after yourself. However, if you were eating at your grandmother’s house and she ran out of mashed potatoes, you wouldn’t berate her until she was sobbing in the kitchen.

Same principle — servers are humans and we make mistakes. Deal with it.

The HOSTESS will seat you. If there is a sign that says “The Hostess Will Seat You,” it wasn’t put up just to give the restaurant an authentic look. There is a method to the madness of seating, so don’t think you know better than we do.

Also, if you MUST go out to eat on a game day, please understand that no matter where you go downtown, you are going to have to wait. Do not complain about how long you’ve been waiting. We already know. At least you get to drink beer while you wait and sit down eventually. Your staff doesn’t have that luxury.

Your actions always affect someone. Just because you don’t have to clean up after yourself and your friends on gameday does not give you permission to treat a restaurant or bar like your own personal frat party.

I and my fellow servers spent close to three hours after the bars closed Saturday/Sunday cleaning up a disaster area of food (left in the strangest places), mini bottles of liquor (which we don’t serve), team tattoos and pompoms.

The piles of broken glass on the floor and vomit in the bathroom had me asking my manager if we could just set the place on fire and collect the insurance. It was that bad.

There is a special place in Hell for people who skip out on their tabs, whether they are for food or alcohol.

You and your friends might think it’s cute or an adrenaline rush or whatever. What it is is illegal and cruel.

You dip out on a $100 check and someone is going to have to cover the resources you used. That money comes out of the pocket of your server or bartender, thus cutting into their already-meager profits.

Don’t be THAT table. All people in food service know what I mean. Let me explain to you who don’t. Don’t keep your server from their other tables all night with 75 ridiculous requests for more lemons and 87 drink refills.

Whether you’re in a bar or a restaurant, don’t shake your empty glass at whoever is waiting on you. We see you and your empty glass, but obviously we cannot take care of just you; we will get to you as soon as we can. We’re not dogs, don’t shake things at us and expect us to come on command.

As to the issue of tipping, food service workers agree: Just leave what you would appreciate if you work as hard as the servers/bartenders in Athens do.

At the end of the day, don’t be jerks. If you want service that will make that will make you 100 percent happy, eat at home and pour your own drinks. If you want to go out, we will try our hardest to make sure you have an awesome meal or happy hour, but things can go wrong.

Don’t make your servers’ lives miserable; just go with the flow, order another round and I guarantee you won’t remember what made you mad in the first place.

(source)

Disney CEO is my new BFF...

Quietly Keeping the Spotlight on Disney
CEO Robert Iger has kept a low profile while mending fences broken under his predecessor and forging key deals with Pixar and iTunes.
By Joseph Menn, Times Staff Writer


Even to those who have worked closely with Robert Iger, the Walt Disney Co. chief executive is something of an enigma — "easy to like but hard to get to know," in the words of one former senior officer.

Since ascending to the top a year ago last week, Iger has kept an unusually low profile, a relatively tricky task at an entertainment icon whose leaders have been household names for nearly all of its 83 years.

In his short tenure, Iger has amassed goodwill by patching up feuds he inherited from his predecessor, Michael Eisner.

Yet he has limited his public exposure to carefully selected events, such as being honored last week at UCLA's Millennium Ball. He has turned down most interview requests, including one for this story, and in June canceled on 24 hours' notice without explanation a speech to the power elite of Los Angeles that was to have been his local coming-out party.

Contrast that to Eisner, who was easy to know, harder to like. He penned two autobiographies, hosted Disney television shows and became a fixture on such TV programs as "Charlie Rose." At the same time, Eisner's abrasive micromanagement polarized investors and left him unpopular with a large swath of his own company.

"Bob is very modest about his abilities and instincts — which in fact are very, very good," said DreamWorks Animation Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of many Disney leaders who departed after disagreements with Eisner. "He is way less engaged in the trappings and public persona than he is in really providing leadership."

Such reluctance to take center stage is rare among CEOs, especially in Hollywood, where many get caught up in their celebrity. And Iger has a lot to crow about, having overseen a dramatic turnaround in the company's financial and stock performance. But Iger is determined to avoid Eisner's fate as a big target for company critics.

"He's just smartly decided that people should focus on the company and not on him," said Rich Frank, a former top Disney executive and now co-chairman of the Firm, a management company.

As Disney's president, Iger was Eisner's second in command for five years and had the best seat in the house to view the downside of being a CEO whose name is synonymous with the company's.

Eisner's persona served Disney well after he took over a troubled operation in 1984, putting a public face on the company and sending a message that he was the fun-loving leader of a creative team that would restore the kingdom's magic.

But as investor discontent grew toward the end of Eisner's reign, he became a lightning rod. In 2004, Eisner endured a humiliating 45% no-confidence vote from shareholders — an unprecedented rebuke in U.S. corporate history — and was stripped of the chairmanship by directors. Instead of enjoying a victory lap of plaudits, Eisner hastened his departure.

According to people who have discussed the issue with directors, they are thrilled that Iger has mended fences while keeping his head down.

He can still turn on the charm when it counts. At a Disneyland premiere of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," Iger moved like a seasoned politician, greeting a new acquaintance with the same warmth as he did Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. A quintessential company man, Iger has the public poise and good looks of a TV weatherman, which he once was.

"Bob is a nice guy," said Comcast Corp. Chief Operating Officer Stephen Burke, who was president of ABC Broadcasting under Iger. "There's an old business bromide that if you're interviewing a guy for a job and he treats the waitress poorly, you shouldn't hire him. Bob would never treat a waitress poorly."

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