My "amazing" first day working in an Italian restaurant. So many things went wrong that its almost funny..... I will never be able to view Vapiano in the same light ever again.
1. I was assigned into the "service" session, even though I wanted to do something else... i.e. either pasta, pizza or salad. Nevertheless, I embarked on my first task with gusto, only to realize that "service" was basically a nicer name for "maid" or shd I say "free labour" since I wasn´t paid on my "Schnupper Tag" or "probation day". I was doing stuff like cleaning tables, repotting plants, refilling bottles, clearing tables with dishes, drying dishes etc.....
==> Why I was pissed off? Cos the guy who interviewed me placed me in a different department without explaining to me why! I went to ask the personnel why I wasn´t placed in the cooking department even though I signed up for it and they said that ALL newcomers start with service. With is self-explanatory, cos nobody would want to do the mundane stuff like cleaning toilets! I went on to ask, how long must one work in the "service" area before he can make the switch to other areas. Answer: That depends, there´s no fixed duration. If we see that you are motivated, initiative etc... then we can start training you. Aka...I could end up being in the service area for the longest time.
2. Spent 20€ unnecessarily. I wasn´t told that they provide white shirts as uniforms and ended up buying my own white shirt instead.
==> Why the heck did the guy ask me to get my own my white clothes when he jolly well knew that I could get clothes from the restaurant?
3. I didn´t even know that it was my probation day today.
==> Same guy didn´t make it clear to me that Schnupper Tag is the same as probation day. I was under the impression that Schnupper Tag is for me to figure out if I like the life of working in a restaurant. My goodness, I didn´t even know that I had to work! I thought I could simply be shown around the restaurant to see what different people did as part of their jobs and perhaps help out for simple tasks. On the contrary, I ended up being exploited like a full-blown employed assistant.
4. I didn´t have the correct shoes on
==> Same guy only told me that I needed to wear fully black-coloured shoes. Thinking that the colour is of utmost importance, I wore my only black shoes which was the Mary Janes, i.e. comfortable summer shoes, but not comfortable enough to carry loads of dishes up and down from one storey to the next. When I looked at the shoes of the other people, everybody was wearing sportshoes! I mean, hello? Why couldn´t he simply have told me? I ended up having such pain on the soles of my feet that at some point, I hid myself in the kitchen just so that I didn´t have to keep carrying dishes up and down the flight of stairs.
5. So much for me wanting to work in a restaurant, cos I wanted to pick up a skill, have more people contact etc......
==> Everybody keeps to their own business and nobody talks to anybody. So when I´m like drying the utensils in the kitchen, I don´t talk to the dishwasher etc. I spent most of the time asking "Why God? Why?" and the "Why on earth was I complaining about PwC?" The kitchen atmosphere is so hectic and there´s like no time to breathe! I´m having aches in my back, legs, arms and wrist muscles now. At least in an office job, I only have pain in my back, which will leave as soon as I can afford to go to the gym.
==> I´m not being racist here. But the other people doing the mundane tasks in the kitchen were people from Iraq, South Africa etc. And I´m asking myself, hmmm.... why am I here? Nobody can speak any proper english there and I´m simply so handicapped with the language. Somehow understanding instructions in a foreign language and working in a foreign language environment makes working even more intimidating than it already is.
**** A silver lining in the clouds: I got to have a free meal on the house since I wasn´t paid. I ordered myself pasta with prawns, Tiramisu and a drink before leaving the restaurant at 1500 after having worked for 6 hrs without a break*****
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10 comments:
Hey Pris! I am really proud of you for taking a bold step to try out working there! Am sorry to hear about the bad/funny experience on your first day of work. Backaches, I think it is something that will go off after some time if you are used to using certain muscles in your body for long hours.
I hoped that you have still enjoyed your 'first time' waitressing experience there in Germany.
Take care dearie!
Dear Cory! How r u? Thanks for yr encouragement! Means so much to me! Ahhh..... I really don´t mind working in that restaurant if it means that I can learn how to cook, but it seems like it´d be a long way there! Plus I do not intend to stay there long. Maybe I really should try looking for a REAL waitressing job...so got tips mah!
Discuss tactfully with the HR or the person who is hiring you on the terms of the working contract. Have it written about the probabtion period, job scope, and the specific career path. It may be the same contact for the rest of the aliens but you could show them that you are different since you have cooking talents. You do not join them as an rookie but someone with quite a skillful cooks, abit of fusion between Asian, Western and European. Well, normally aliens are not treated the same unfortunately but you could make it a different if you could point it out with evidence and conviction. Most of the locals have not travelled far and wide, otherwise they would marvel the advances in the developing countries with the rich aromatic varieties of food ingredients that could set a new standard to the European world...May want to invite the hirers or HR to your home to try your cooking..They will be surprisingly amazed with your unique international cooking skills, I think...Have fun...
Hi Pris,
I think by staying positive and treating every new experience as a good learning opportunity and attitude to have. It will also help in making you enjoy every 'learning opportunity' there.
My two cents worth of advice though.
Dear Dad! =) I´m not even officially employed.I had one trial day - that was it. Thing is, it doesn´t matter what I say, cos they only take into account "Professional" training, like an internship or education in cooking. It doesn´t matter if I can cook at home a not, cos I got nothing to back it up. Germany is all about paper qualifications, even for part-time work. Plus its not a "real" italian restaurant, its more like a "fast food italian restaurant". I´ve applied in other areas too. Thks 4 yr advice anyways. U got our email about Belgium already?
Dear Cory, that´s what I try to tell myself too. Just that sometimes it does get frustrating, with all that waiting and somehow applying for smth but not getting it. I´m expanding my search anyways...if I´m gonna work part-time, it shouldn´t be too difficult.
Dear sis,
having worked in a very busy wine bar in London myself I can tell you that the pain in the legs, arms etc. goes away quickly. After two years of waitressing I actually had problems doing 'desk work' as I simply didn't manage to sit for that long - you experience the same sort of pain the other way round. :)
Unfortunately it is the same over here. The better you speak the language the more likely it is to have contact with the customers. We used to have plenty of Polish guys that hardly spoke any English whatsoever and they were used for cleaning and polishing glasses, stocking up fridges etc. Same in the kitchen, the guys that didn't speak proper English had to do the sandwiches as they weren't able to communicate effectively with the head chef during busy service. However most of them progressed over the time and studied a lot to improve their language skills and one of my friends (Brazilian) went on to become the waiter that managed to win every sell task and actually became an assistant manager at one of the bars.
Do not give up hope, waitressing is a lot of fun and I actually miss it a lot. Sorry to hear that a lot of things went wrong and that things weren't explained to you properly in the first place.
Also wanted to say that cooking skills probably won't count at all in that sort of environment as you are simply putting the ingredients together that someone else has dictated before. When the menu gets changed they will teach everyone briefly how to do the new things and that's it about cooking. If you are interested in learning how to cook you would probably have to do a proper internship over a couple of years.
Great to hear though that you are so enthusiastic and willing to learn new things. It simply means that you are happy to broaden your horizon and to take in new things - especially how things in Germany are working. Don't despair, it won't be easy but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. It took me 6 years to get to where I am now (and now I'm not even sure if I did the right thing but that's a different story) and I'm definitely not where I want to be just yet!
Thinking of you and missing you and Stephan a lot,
jie jie xxx
Dear jie jie
WOW! I´m just so amazed and so encouraged by what you said. I don´t even know how to reply in such a way that would suffice the depth of insight your comment has given to me. Its always great to know someone who has gone through a similar boat. Maybe if anything, your move to London was simply a stepping stone for people like me to be encouraged and motivated to stay in the fight.
Re: Vapiano, I don´t work there. Ich war nicht übernommen nach dem SchnupperTag, which I´m actually happy about. About the customers, it wasn´t a language barrier thing as it was a "do everything fast" thing. So nobody has time to talk to any customers. Plus the restaurant is a self-service place, so there are no waitresses there. I wasn´t doing waitressing at all. I was a servant girl.
Thanks for your advice about cooking. Actually, I wasn´t intending to really "learn" cooking. I was simply looking at something to occupy my time from now until May when I go back to Singapore. Like a Nebenjob, so that when my dad visits in May, I can go travelling with him too. And I thought that of all Nebenjobs, I can do well with one that I learn a skill, instead of simply be a cashier, or a helper at a supermarket etc, esp. since I´d only intend to work say 2.5 mths max? So Vapiano seemed like a good idea, until now.....My plan was Nebenjob from now to May, full-time job in July. That´s why.
I guess my second year in Germany wasn´t getting any easier as I hoped it would be after all. Maybe its easier with the homesickness and all, but its like a totally different set of challenges now, with the job market there is. Admire you for toughing it out in the London market for so long!
Love you and appreciate you SO MUCH. Miss you lots too.
Hugs and kisses,
Mei Mei
Well Pris, at least now I know that you've gotten hooked on cooking and were hoping to make something out of it :-)
It is not an easy line of work anyway - cooking - and I've always read that you always get the shittest jobs when you start out, so you've got to be really motivated and patient. But it's wonderful and courageous of you to want to give it a try, especially in a foreign land.
And you are not an Iraqi or whatever, you're a special intelligent girl and they'll see that for themselves soon enough! I wonder what you get to eat when they actually pay you to do the hardbreaking work LOL
Dear serene! I´m not working there. It was only a try-out day. Anyways, I´m happy that I can try out cooking at home without the hecticness of a busy kitchen...so different man! Plus just watched the show "no reservations! with catherine Zeta Jones n realized its not a piece of cake! Cooking I mean! Oh, I found out from the others who work there, they have to buy food themselves on other days. No food on the hse...so kiam3 xiap4...stingy in dialect.
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