I confess, and I know this is going to sound very arrogant but I don't know what to do when confronted by the traits of persevering stupidity that so often rears its dreaded and very ugly head. Knowingly stupid people I can get along with because the line has been drawn and we both know the limits of each other. Well at least I know what the limit is with the other person.But when someone really is so desperate for another dollop of common sense that it renders them stupid in most simple situations...it drives me to drink - that is a damn good excuse actually when you read some of my postings lately.
You can only do so much for some people. You can only train staff members so far before you put them in a customer facing role and they have to deal with it. The vast majority of staff just get on with it and learn quickly on the job. The vast majority will feed off their colleagues if they are stuck for what to do. The vast majority will have some life experience, they would have eaten in a restaurant, opened a bottle of wine for their mom, snuck a sneaky underage vodka and mix when no one was looking. So they would have had some life experience. Simple stuff but experience never the less. With me? Not this one particular person who I am talking about.
At eighteen I understand that he is just starting out in life, I am patient, I have coached him but there are some things like putting a piece of lime - yes a wedge of the fruit that grows on a tree - into a lager when a customer asked for a lager and lime that I could not have predicted. That lime cordial would not have come into his head is beyond me. And the handing of two wrapped humbug sweets to a customer today when the customer came to the bar to order sweets.Oh yes he did. I promise. I would never have been able to make that up. Or the constant crossed arms or hands in the pocket when I have spoken to him a zillion times about body language etc.
Joys of joys is the hospitality trade sometimes. The upside though is that people like these are quite few and far between and most people pick up bar work quite quickly (which is no surprise because really its not that difficult!) But there is always one. And he shall, following our chat today, be a rarity behind that bar from now on. He has been redeployed, in the nicest possible way of course because I am a nice guy, to pot washing in the kitchen and one quiet shift on the bar. I don't have the babysitting patience now that I am getting older and I shall reward him with more bar shifts once he demonstrates a little more oomph!
On a more positive note, weekend #3 is now being put to bed and again a successful one it was. The sale of Sunday roast dinners with all the trimmings is steadily growing each week, the noise of this music'less pub is deafening with the chatter of people. Its a good place to be right now.
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