The New Girl

My general manager has developed a lovely habit of starting new people on Friday or Saturday nights.  Now, if you've ever worked in a restaurant, you'll know that Friday and Saturday nights are the busiest nights of the week.  If you were a logical and rational person, you would never, EVER start a new girl who doesn't know what the hell she's doing on a Friday night. Once again, my GM has proven that he is neither logical nor rational.

I walked in to work this afternoon expecting to see only familiar faces. That hope was lost the second I made it through the entrance.  Standing at the counter was the dreaded bane of my existence: a new girl. Fuck.

She looks like she's no more than 16 (turns out she's 19, but the girl's got a long way to go. Oh, and the first thing she asked me was if I have kids. Nice). She has no idea what she's doing. She had me in the weeds all night because I had to keep coming over and fixing her screw-ups. And trust me, they were numerous. She didn't even know how to correctly put an order into the POS system. And here's the kicker: this was her THIRD DAY. She should at least be able to hang on her own right now. Half the time she forgets to put her table's orders into the computer after she takes them.

Of course I'm sure the GM loves her. She always answers the phone before the third ring. I actually witnessed her tell an in-store to hold on a minute while she answered the phone. Instead of putting the phone call on hold to take care of the much more important store customer, SHE STAYS ON THE PHONE AND TAKES THE ENTIRE ORDER. The poor guy looked utterly befuddled and put-off, as I would expect him to. And instead of wrapping most (meaning more than half) of the silverware before she left (as she was asked to do), she did a few pairs and decided that was enough. AND LEFT ME WITH MORE THAN 100 PAIRS TO ROLL. I'm the closer. I was there for an extra hour.

She probably thinks I'm a bitch. Hell, if I were her I probably would too. However, it's not my fault that she can't handle her shit. If she can't hang on she needs to jump ship,and she needs to jump it now. I know what I'm doing. I do my job and I do it well. I even do my manager's job most of the time. The point is, I can handle it. I've run the floor completely by myself more times than I can remember, and every single time it was a success. While it's nice to have help, I can handle the place on my own without a problem.

I only say these things and behave in such a cynical manner because I've been through all of this before. I don't have the time or patience to deal with most of the new people that are hired. I can tell within 10 minutes whether or not they'll be able to make it. This girl? I'll be surprised if she lasts two weeks. If she has me in the weeds again Sunday she won't make it past two weeks. She'll run away crying. Trust me, I'll make sure of it.