Another post about my job in hospitality. This time a bit more informational, as in what I do and learn at work. In my first job in a restaurant, I was hired as a waitress. However, I can say I was much more than that. I also worked in the kitchen. Got the responsibility to ‘train’ new employees. I did not have an official title, but I was kind of the assistant of my boss. 

At this first job, I learned all the basics of the hospitality. I learned how to walk with a serving tray, how to walk with plates, how to tap beers, how to interact with guests and so on. That is a phase in which you learn a lot and you learn it really fast. 

There are also other things I learned, that took a bit more time to get used to. This would be for example, to keep the overview of all what is going on in the restaurant. If it is quiet, then the overview is easy to control. When it gets busy, it takes some more experience to be able to control. At the time that I got used to control the situation, I got the responsibility to also ‘manage’ other newer colleagues at work. You need a ‘helicopter view’ to do that. It means that you control all tables, see which work can be done and how it can be done efficiently. If you are the one that is in control of the whole situation on the terrace and within the restaurant, you have to outsource some tasks to the colleagues.  You learn to give them small tasks and to put them in the right role at that moment. In the smaller restaurant I worked at that went perfectly fine most of the time.

After working there for more than a year, my boss asked me to follow a course in social hygiëne. This means that you learn to deal with certain situations in the restaurant. For example, how to deal with drunk guests, how to deal with someone who is smoking inside or doing drugs, what to do when you have to turn a guests request down. When you learned to solve situation such as this, you can take the social hygiene test. I passed the first time! When you own this certificate, that means that you can be in the restaurant alone, when alcohol is sold. If no one is around with that certificate, alcohol can not be sold. 

After two and a half year, I thought it would be time for a new challenge. Therefore, I applied to De Walrus, a big grand café in the centre of Leeuwarden. I wanted to quit my other job, but it did not work out. Thus, at that moment I had two jobs. This was a lot to handle next to school. Every week I worked four or five days a week next to school. That can easily be weeks of 30 to 50 hours of work a week. That is a full time job next to school! However, I did not feel like I could quit any of the jobs. Moreover, I enjoyed work but did not have any personal time left. 

My new job was of a whole different level. It was a huge restaurant with many employees. For only serving, there were already more than five times more employees than at my other job. Just because it is bigger, you already need way more overview over the whole situation. Even if it is just as quiet. This job felt way more professional in a sense. At this job I do not have any lead, which I think is good for now. I still feel competitive because I want to be the best but I know that now I can’t at the moment and I have to much going on to invest more time. Still every day, I learn a lot. To make my work more efficient, to be more fun with guest and improve all my skills. 

My first hospitality job was in a small lunchroom/restaurant. What really got my interest while working here was working with professional coffee machines. I got three barista workshops in that time and I loved it all. I loved trying latte art, although it wouldn’t work out more often than would. Ever since I got the job, I have been dreaming of a small-scaled coffeebar. A lot of times, I doubted that I might rather wanted to study International Hospitality Management. However, I decided not to. How big my love for coffee and cakes is, that is not the only thing that I am interested in. First, I want to broaden my horizons and gain experience in different workfields. Afterwards, when I am settled I would love to go for it and get old with my cute little coffeecorner with some habitués.  The first year that I worked in hospitality, I worked from 20 to 40 hours per week. That was easily douable as the first year I had a gap-year and this was my only daily activity. When I started studying it became a lot harder to keep these hours next to school. I did not want to completely quit my job because I needed the money, but sometimes it seemed like there was no in between. Either the full 25 hours or no hours at all. I couldn’t handle it anymore. Many times I’ve thought about quitting but I never did. This was for multiple reasons. The first reason was that I felt responsible for the business. For some reason, I felt like I was irreplaceable. Now I know that I am not, but then I felt too responsible. On the one hand I am proud that I can lift that weight on my shoulders and people can count on me in any situation. On the other hand, it brought me to a mental breakdown multiple times, luckily I did not burn out. This again brought me a lot of learning moments. Some of them, which I only realize since a very short time. 

It has only the past year that I really started to care for myself and take some responsibility for myself. That has been a tough lesson. It is still something that I struggle with, although it has already gotten much better.

For almost four years I have been working in the hospitality branche. Although, this has always been a side job, I have never seen it that way. Hospitality is a branche too and needs to be taken seriously. However, I feel like many people think that this is not the case, that it is not a real job. In my point of view, the contrary, to start working in hospitality has changed my life in a very positive way. 

I remember it well, the day I went for my job interview for my first job in hospitality. I was nervous, but knew well how to hide it. After I told that I was interested in theatre and had a gap-year and told a few more things about myself, I was actually hired already. What my new boss did not know is that I was not as spontaneous as I acted like and that the behind-the-scenes of theatre were what I was interested in. This means that I maybe was not so suitable for the job. But, oh well, that was when I still thought I was applying for I side job. I would never knew by then, that it would mean much more to me. 

On my first they of work it was the opening day of the restaurant I applied at. I was again nervous. All I had to do that night was constantly walk around with snacks and appetizers. I was shy to go to people or to bother them. I remember feeling awkward and not wanting to do it. At one moment, almost all people started rejecting the food as they had enough. I did not dare to say that to my boss and she kept sending me walking around with the food, but luckily I did not quit. 

My boss had a whole lot of confidence in that somehow at some point I would get a feel in the job. That took me almost half a year. The first half a year I did not want to go to people to take their orders because I thought that I was annoying them. People go to restaurant to order things, but still the idea that I bothered them could not leave my head. Some days I could work in the kitchen, that were my favorite days. I only had to cut vegetables and make food. It was calming and above all I did not have to talk to anyone. With the time it went better, little by little. However, not enough. At one evening I closed off the restaurant with my boss and she offered me a glass of wine. Often, we sat down afterwards to have a drink and talk about the day. But this time it was different, she told me that I needed to change something, that I shouldn’t be afraid of the guests. She said, ‘when I hired you, you said you liked theatre. I thought you would be outgoing, spontaneous and develop yourself into the job, but it needs some work’. She suggested that I would see the job as kind of a theatre play. When you interact with guests, you don’t have to be 100% yourself, you’re on stage. Act like you would want the waitresses to interact with you.  That was a lesson that I keep in mind forever. From that moment, a switch turned around and it went high up with me.