August Long, The Last 8 Weeks
Summer, slow to start, and just as well, we're never up to speed on staff. The weather - rainy, by and large, scattered nice days, the rain keeps the smoke from the fires down so there's no complaining.
The owner's son, he's working, by which I mean he's on the schedule, he's come home for 2 months to "help his parents out" - he's got a wife, 2 kids, he's the only one working and he only works 2 months of the year - the rest of the year he's in school - yet he doesn't want to take tables. He puts himself on call and goes to the hotsprings and tells us to call us if we need him. He excuses himself to go upstairs for hours on end to visit with his Mother, his Father, his wife and his children, his friends from the area...
It's making me crazy. His being on the schedule is making us seem less short staffed than we are, but he's never there. And how does he afford this? His parents, they know, they don't want to talk about it but you know he's still costing them a fortune, never was money more poorly spent...
We've been short staffed all summer. The Kitchen starts to come together around the August Long, but the front of house we're always a couple of servers down. I'm doing 100+ hours every 2 weeks, too much. And every other day I'm training someone new...
Carmen, crazy lady who walked in off the street, car broke down up the road, claims to have served before but - very shortly in you figure that she hasn't. She stands and talks to tables, ignoring the dirty plates in front of them, the empty water glasses, wine glasses, beer mugs, then comes back and tells the other waitress that everyone wants to fuck her. She's my age, crazy, nobody wants to fuck her, you want to gently tell her that's she's safe from all male - and female - attention - but you live with it, anyone is better than no one. Filling the Katsups at the end of the night, fill them up, clean them up, put 'em away, she comes up and tells me she needs a brand new one. She has a table, it's they're anniversary, they should get a brand new Katsup. I just look at her. She's fucking crazy.
She lasts one weekend, her roomate in staff housing couldn't deal with her. The owner drives her into Nelson and drops her at a shelter.
Then there's Julie, who works one shift, calls in sick the next, then quits the following one because she disagrees with our house policies. There's Jessica, who works a couple of shifts then calls in to say she can't start until September. There's Krystal, who works about 3 weeks, knows what she's doing but then quits because of personal issues. There's Krystal 2, who's come here with her chef boyfriend, moves into the basement, and then they skip out 3 days later. "Family Emergency in Ontario". They call back a couple of weeks later looking for their jobs back, apparently the family emergency led them to a camp up north and they didn't like the work. There's Krysta, another chef boyfriend, they do a midnight move after 2 days and hitchhike out of town. At midnight. We're in the middle of fucking nowhere, that's how much they hated it.
August, the long weekend, raining, and now summer really begins, the restaurant becomes the indoor daycare for unhappy campers, dozens of children running, playing underfoot - it's all hell broken loose, but - survive it and there's one long weekend left.
And there are more, that came and left without my meeting them, forever training halfwits, the summer grows longer and longer. The mishap with the car, the staying past September through monsoons in the Hammock, the Ferry Strike, everything together makes this the worst summer on record. I'm finally let go the last week of September, I'm done, and they are apologizing to me - there just isn't the business, but they owe me no apologies, I'm fucking grateful as all out, it's overdue, I'm outta here...
The Kootenays, the greatest place on earth if you don't have to work or find a place to live.
There's the news of Sarah, the server who walked out just before I returned, made her way to Calgary to be with her boyfriend, she'd been filing for workmans comp over an incident at work that defies reasonable explanation, she'd filed, been declined, filed again, was declined again, then - finally - appeals and gets accepted. The reason? PTSD from the restaurant. I'm not making this up. This girl has just won the Kootenay jackpot...
But - finally it's over and I'm home - after sorts, and can breathe after a fashion.
Now, nearly, almost all caught up. There's a shit tonne of pictures to be posted - I'll get to it, and scraps and other tidbits but by and large we're almost all caught up. Phew.
- Details
- Category: Miscellany
The long long weekend
The July one, After this, 2 to go... the season should be kicking off. A new waitress has started, no experience, but great with drawing a happy face and writing a little personal message on each bill.
Americans, dickering with me on the exchange rate, I'm offering 25%, I'm the only guy in the Kootenay's other than the Currency exchange that even does an exchange rate, everyone else takes it at par, yet they're arguing, say they can get better in town and I'm thinking where - where in the USA can I go and have them accept Canadian Currency? And if they did, and I had the audacity to dicker over the exchange rate I'd probably be shot. Justly so. But this is the entitled American abroad, most are pleasant, but there's always a few...
And then there's the Plants. Older couple, always good for a toonie no matter how large the bill, and I've drawn the short straw, they're my table. I'm like Jesus on the fucking cross, taking all the hits so the new girl doesn't quit. They're in with guests, another couple, and - fortunately, a rare thing, the guests grab the bill. 20%. Phew, dodged a bullet there. And just as I'm celebrating my good fortune the other lady comes up and presses another $40 in my hand - I assure her, her husband tipped me well, but she'll have none of it - she tells me in a low voice "We know how they tip...".
And summer's officially started.
- Details
- Category: People
Capital Punishment, Rebranded
Canada did away with Capital Punishment in 1976 with Bill C-84. Prior to that Capital Punishment was reserved for planned murders and the killing of Police and Prison Guards.
It seems, when you think about it, fair enough - we have an obligation to protect those who protect us.
But - the myth is that we did away with Capital Punishment. What we did away with was the right to a fair and unbiased trial. Canadian Police - and Calgary Police especially, have executed far more people in the decades following the suspension of Capital Punishment than every were executed with it. Seldom have they been offered the kind of lethal force that justifies it, and never have they been so well prepared with less violent means - with Kevlar Vests, tasers, pepper spray, etc, yet they continue to kill people at a rate that make the most generous implementation of capital punishment seem civilized by comparison.
It's overdue that we re-imagine policing in our country - things are safer than ever they've been, yet police are executing more people than ever for comparatively trivial offences. Without the benefit of judge or trial. It's a myth that we've done away with Capital Punishment. What's true is that we've made probably the least qualified people in our population both judges and executioners.
- Details
- Category: Rants
Page 308 of 997