2 Broke Girls (Season 5)

I know you will find this boring, always talking about work and waiters and stuff. I suspect it won’t last long since I am getting more and more frustrated with the job and the people but basically the conditions are not improving at all. I don’t know whether this will be the last season or not, maybe I will do one last to close the series when it is done.

We are facing the summer holidays, which means lots of people here, tourists that come for the sun and sea and fun. The last couple of weeks have been manic, an dit won’t get any better. If it weren’t for the shortage of staff I would understand people, the owner, being happy with it. The issue is we are overwhelmed by work and we have no help. Last summer we had some crazy busy days, but it was something uncommon. Here we have had days like that, everyday for the last week or so. Plus we have been warned that the worst is to come for the second half of July and first of August. My question is whether I will make it or not.

In a world were we are used to wait for our turn at the doctors, at the grocery store, or at the butcher, why is everyone so impatient at the restaurant? Why do we get harassed by clients that would never allow that to happen in their own places of work? Do they forget how it is to be on this side of the game?

We had clients crying, literally, at the door because we told them they waiting queue to be served was of half an hour, they wanted to eat now as in right now. Some people understood that food and drinks just don’t pop out of thin air, they booked tables for later or went away, but others didn’t. Worst thing is they complain about it. Perhaps they expect it to be like in the TV commercials, as you all know some have even complained there were too many Spanish people in Spain while they were on holidays, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all.

We are facing a heat wave here and customers, with children, are asking to eat outdoors, even if it has been recommended not to. They even complain they can’t sit outside when the terrace is fully booked. First of all they refuse to book a table, they expect to be availability no matter when they come, and then they don’t understand it can be dangerous to be out with this heat. Same for those lunatics that go for a run after 10am or before 10pm just because it is «healthy» to do sports. No it’s not. You may have an accident, this is not the UK or Norway or wherever you come from. You can get hurt because of the heat.

Let’s go back to the restaurant. As I said on my previous post, after 3 weeks of getting a cold, and I know it was just a cold. I got the infamous covid. De Repente Covid. Here in Spain it is not an issue anymore. I mean I called the doctor all scared and they said to me unless I had the bad symptoms I could have a normal life, meaning go to work, go out and do as usual. A year ago I would have been banned to my house and forbid to go out no matter what, now they tell you to go to work, even if you are a waiter and a potential hazard for the customers.

Of course I had to go to work, basically because we are short of staff so me not going meant my other colleagues had and extra amount of work to do. Unfortunately I was not feeling well enough to do so, hence they had to cope with it. I got messages every day telling me how hrs work was, how busy they were, and more things to make me feel guilty for not going to help. Honestly I didn’t feel like doing it, I could have gone with headache and fever, but I came to realise not so long ago, that health comes first. Aside from all the ethical stuff about carrying a contagious desease to the workplace. Colds, flu or covid are not an excuse for not working. Things have changed a lot in a year, and it seems we forgot everything we learned.

I know we need to start living again, and include all the new knowledge we have since the pandemic, like the antigen tests and how annoying they are, it feels like you are going to reset your brain, or wearing masks if you need to, because of allergies, flu, cold or anything you don’t want others to get, basically remember that we can infect others that may get very sick if they do. We have been in lost of trouble because of selfish people who don’t care about others and still we seem to forget about it. This is why I was very pleased to have mild symptoms that I could use to get out of work for a couple of days.

As I said, we have lots of clients at the moment. We do more or less 65 clients a day, but normally it is way more. As usual they tend to come all at the same time, so you can imagine how busy and stressful it can get. I mean like 10/15 at once not the whole amount of people. Still it would be fine if we had good conditions but we haven’t, we have to run all over the place. Which means that by 9, we are knackered,and we still have at least two more hours to go. This if no one comes just before closing time or decides to stay at the table just chatting for hours while we just wait for them to go home.

I know I have said this already in previous episodes, but you can’t imagine how annoying and disrespectful it is when you are about to close the restaurant and you have customers coming in, ignoring completely whether you had a long shift or not, they just want food and don’t care about you. Same for all those who see you cleaning up, and they still keep sitting and having their conversations while you wait for them to pay and go. Don’t get me wrong, I know it is my job, but once they have finished their dinners and have had their desserts and just stay there idle, it is annoying. You have had a long shift, you are tired and still they don’t care. People are selfish.

Then of course, you have to be grateful because you have a job, and money at the end of the month to pay your mortgage. Still some people should think about why it is so hard to find staff lately. It is not only in Spain, where we can’t find waiters or bartenders, in France and Switzerland they have the same problem, and wages are way better there, but people got fed up with the way they are treated. The working conditions have improved but not enough and now more and more workers have decided to stand up for their rights.

Long shifts, long weeks, bad pay and even worse tips, with customers that can be even rude, no wonder why no one wants to be a waiter. Aside from all the adjacent jobs you have to perform, like cleaning the toilets, or the windows, floors and other facilities you may have at the restaurant. We had a fourth colleague that left two weeks ago because of those weird conditions. He didn’t like all this and neither did he the working six days in a row. To be fair it is illegal in Spain but who cares? According to the law we are entitled to 2 days off and getting paid the extra hours we do if the shift gets longer. This doesn’t happen where I work. Shifts are paid the same no matter how many hours you do, we have only one day off, all this because you know, we are facing difficulties and we don’t know if the restaurant will survive for another month, so you need to understand and make an effort for me (the owner), or else you won’t have a job. Also we got told yesterday that we should be happy he didn’t lowered our wages because of the increased cost of food and products for the menu. All this very nice when you get home at 1am after working and you have no time to see your partner or family or friends. Or when you are sick and they ask you to be fast healing because they need you to work.

I know I knew where I was going into when I accepted the job, but also I thought it would last less than this and now I am just keeping it for as long as I can manage without breaking up. It won’t be long because I am already fed up, as you can read. Honestly I haven’t because of my co-workers, it would be putting more stress and effort on them, but at some point it will be too much for me and I will be selfish. After all everybody is.

Julio 2022