Waitress

I think the best part of my job is that I get to talk. I love talking, and I think that’s also the best thing I can offer to the customers. My motivation everyday is to make sure, or try my best to get a regular – I don’t have to see them every day, but at least maybe weekly or fortnightly? I guess I also get my sense of satisfaction from work from them. Many customers tell me my service is good, and the way some of them say it – it’s so sincere it really makes me warm and fuzzy inside.  Sometimes it gets tough when my regulars come down because all I just want to keep talking to them, heh. I love talking to my regulars because they’d tell me about a lot of things. Because I work near town and CBD area, a lot of my customers are well-travelled foreigners and working adults, and they often like to share with me their views and I love hearing it too! I have a regular who is a CEO and he told me the kind of people that preferred working for him, and generally what increases the workability of people for big companies. Useful information, hor? I feel like by talking to people I get to hear and know a lot just from my little outlet.

I also really like serving families! Parents would be happy as long as their children are kept happy and that is a very simple job – sometimes I just get them orange juice, for example, and for the whole night they might just keep looking at me, expecting a second glass of juice (laughs) but I can’t give it lah, sometimes the parents might not want their kids to have too much cold drinks. But it’s nice to see what you are doing is being appreciated. I think another reason why I like serving families is because there are a lot of things to do for them to make them feel comfortable, in the sense that they actually need more help. I mean, like for a group of after-work colleagues, all they want is probably just beer, beer, and more beer. There is nothing else much that I can do for them but for families, because of small children, they tend to need more consideration on our part for them to enjoy their dining experience. Things like stacking chairs for children too young to be sitting at a table but too old for baby chairs, and be mindful of spicy ingredients in whatever they have ordered for their kids…and also like in my outlet, our Fish and Chips are served with some spices, and parents are always happy when I offer to get the chef to not put the spices, or when I offer to get the chef to cut their burgers into smaller pieces, things like that.

I can’t really think of what’s bad about my job right now – talking about the happy things made me forget! (laughs) I’m pretty sure there is something bad about it, life is not so good.

But I guess one bad thing about working in general is that – I’ve been working since I was 15, doing part-time jobs, but back then because it was just part-time, and I was a full-time student, my priorities were different. Actually it wasn’t that my priorities were different, but rather as only working part-time, I don’t see the need to prioritise and I try to do everything. I needed time to work, time with my friends, time with my family, time to run, pick up drawing, learn muay thai, taekwando…so every day I try to fit all these things and I think I tired myself out frequently. It got to a point where I formed a routine for myself and felt like I was ticking off a mental checklist, such that when I got an injury, like a sprained ankle or something, then I wouldn’t be able to run and suddenly my life is messed up because I didn’t know what to do. Some people think it is a good break but not for me, I just think that it is like shit because I am not doing all the things I used to. 

But now I’m working full time so I only have one off-day a week. Not just that, but my working hours are quite strange, like here we are talking at 3AM in the morning – when I’m awake, my friends and family are all asleep or working, and when I’m sleeping, that’s when they’re awake, but also usually at school, lah (laughs). Now I only have one off day that I have to split for family, friends, relationship, myself, and other random things to do. After a few years of working I’ve finally realized the need to prioritize, so right now my life is mainly about myself, my career, and a small group of friends. Some people think it’s bad that I don’t include my family inside, but that’s just how I am, I’m someone who…as long as my family is safe and intact and they have their own lives – I am okay. Now, as long as I can still work and meet up with my friends and boyfriend, nothing is changed for me. I no longer have a routine and I’ve learnt to let go. Who was it that said something along the lines of growing up is learning to sacrifice the things you love?

Hmm, I guess right now, I’ve figured out what I want to do already. After A levels, I got my results, my initial plan was to take a gap year to figure out what I really want to do, listen to what other people – like my friends – say about their courses. But then in that one year, I got used to working and didn’t want to go back to school immediately. Then the practical side of me surfaced and I thought, if I don’t go back to school, as much as I want to believe that I would be able to climb up and go far with experience and passion, society and everyone else has been telling me otherwise, so in my second year working full time, I went to apply for schools actively. But I couldn’t do full time. I wanted to be a part-time student, but I hadn’t realized you have to be at least 21 years old to study part-time. So I decided I’m just going to wait, lor. 

But then one day I was at McDonald’s where I used to work part-time, and I looked at the crew. I roughly know their ages because I used to work together with them. Then I thought to myself – do I still want to be a server? In the future, when my kids have to fill in forms about their parents’ occupation, do I want them to write ‘waitress’? Then I decided: I don’t want to be a waitress.

Ah, so you know, the bad thing about my job? I cannot speak for all the jobs but at least for F&B, hierarchy is a very real thing, and it is something I struggle with a lot due to my personality. I am naturally a very outspoken and straightforward person. But sometimes because of the position I’m in, certain things I have no say in, and it is best that I don’t say anything or it would lead to misunderstandings – like you know, appearing overly ambitious and threatening my management or something, I don’t know, but I’ve been reprimanded for that. But you know how, like sometimes, there is obviously a better or faster way to do things but I can’t say it. In my point of view, I am just trying to make it easier to work and for operations to run faster and smoother but in the opinion of my manager, this is something between them and the upper-level management. It can get very frustrating. So I’ve learnt to get very self-conscious about where I stand.

Also, I was quite naïve lah, I used to think that scheming and cunning people only appear in dramas but now that I am actually working I see people pushing other people down through underhand means and getting up through connections…I won’t say working has changed me a lot, but it has definitely made me love and protect myself more. Don’t believe what everyone says and don’t share everything. 

But yeah, I asked myself, “so now I’m 20. Where do I want to be when I’m 30?” I want to be in F&B, still, but I feel like I need some kind of plan, some goals to achieve every year or I would lose track of time. Back when I was 19 going on 20, and just a server, I still knew I needed to push myself up so I switched companies as my previous company was quite bad. So I came to Harry’s, and I was diligent. The first two weeks I memorized all the table numbers and the entire menu. I was also outspoken and confident so if I didn’t know anything I was not shy to ask and that worked that well to my advantage. My manager was impressed, and she actually suggested promoting me and the feeling is so good. So I thought to myself, I need some kind of promotion every year, so that when I am 30 I would be where I want to be. And just like that, I was nominated to be a trainer. Now I’m a certified trainer and they picked me to go along to Myanmar to start the first outlet there. I know that I also have age on my side – when people see someone young working, they don’t expect a lot and it’s easier to exceed their expectations. So I know that things won’t always be smooth-sailing but I feel a bit safer that I have a plan.

But another thing about working I think is that it gets dangerous when you get good at something – you need to step out of your comfort zone. Just that day my bartender was suddenly on MC and it was a super busy night. I’ve never stepped into the bar before but I told my manager I wanted to be in it anyway. It was a hell of a hectic night, that night, but in that one night I learnt everything. Pumping two beers at a time, prioritise which drinks to make, and making a combination of drinks in the quickest and most efficient way, wash glasses at an insane speed…there is simply no best time to learn, sometimes you just need to jump into situations and when you come out of it, there is nothing too difficult for you!

Right now I think I’m just going to stick to my plan but at the same time be open to whatever that may come. That’s easy to say (laughs) but I’d keep trying.

Singapore, 2015