Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Until you drink from the silver cup
Well, I can officially charge you $4 for a cup of coffee now! I started at Starbucks/Barnes and Noble today, which was... interesting. I'm picking up on the drinks and the different service-related jobs pretty quickly, but it's still a very strange thing.How to explain... I think that the strangest part is the fact that I've just come from a job that's very similar. Different product, same process. Food service is food service is food service. The procedures and protocol are very similar to Quiznos which, in some ways, makes it easier, but in other ways, makes me very aware of just how much I don't know. When I started at Q, I didn't know all the little nuances of a job like that, so as I learned them, I was just... learning them. I wasn't waiting to learn the specifics of something I already knew the basics of. Which is what now feels like. I know how it works; it's just a matter of knowing how this particular context works.
Also, coming from the top of the food chain at Quiznos to the bottom of it here... it's strange to be beneath everyone. At Q, I was very much either an equal or superior to everyone but Blair and Becky. And then that, well, it wasn't exactly the most typical employer/employee relationship ever.
Although, the cafe manager is leaving soon, and several people (including managers) have mentioned that I'm a good hire because I might be qualified to take over as a cafe lead/manager, because I have so much supervisory experience. Which would be a good thing if I was planning for this to be a long-term/full-time job. As that's not the case, I don't think that I could, in good conscience, even imply that I wanted something like that. Still, it's nice to know that they think my experience suggests that I could handle it.
Anyways. I've trained enough people to know exactly what the process is like, but I also have trained enough people to know which parts are a pain, and what I want to skip to. I want to skip the intermediate steps and go straight to the place where I know exactly what needs to be done at any given time. Today, I felt like Aileen (bonus points if you know what I'm talking about!). The only difference is that it was my first day, and she was still Aileen after 6 months.
The heart and soul of running a store, though, is in everything except the actual orders and recipes. Those are pretty basic. It's more in knowing what needs to be prepped, cleaned, organized, laid out, updated at any given time. It's knowing exactly what needs to be done for any given day or time of the week. What the customer load is going to be like. What can be done ahead of time. What needs to be stayed on top of. Those things. I have no idea yet, and I want to. It lets me be self-motivated and prioritize what I'm going to do with my time. You know?
But still, it was just the first day, and things will get better. I can hardly remember my first Quiznos day, and even that was so different, because everyone was new. It's been a very, very long time since I was just... new. The new girl, as opposed to one of "all the new people."
It'll be fine, though. Plus, I get my discount at every B&N, so that means that if I can get my Starbucks fix at a store, instead of just a S*bux, I'll never pay $4 for a coffee. Hahahaha... suckers! ;o)
Oh! The other weird thing will be not having people I know come in every day. At Q, there was always someone I knew. It was almost guaranteed that at some point every day, someone from church or RMC or family or someone else would come in. And here... well, let's just say that I never run into people I know on the street or in the mall. Obviously.
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