The fun of starting a new job. Or not.

I started this blog with the idea of posting something new every day for the month of July. I thought they would be whimsical musings about every day life with smatterings of wit and insight cropping up on a regular basis. I thought I would sit on mountain tops and ponder the meaning of life while staring at the sun going down on another beautiful day and riff on the obvious metaphorical comparisons of the sun rising and setting each day and that of the life of a human being. Well for today, screw that.

The scene of the crime.

Today I want to write about an experience I had recently with the fine people of Eden Bar & Grill on South William Street. I wandered in there the other week with c.v's in hand and a smile on my face. To my surprise I was granted a quick interview with the manager as they happened to be looking for new staff. An uneventful interview followed wherein I answered standard interview questions with standard interview answers coupled with the usual amount of truth embellishment. The woman conducting the interview was professional and to the point, without being particularly friendly. (This was in stark contrast to another interviewer later in the day who seemed to be a bit too fond of me and at one point touched my knee with his hand, yes it was a man). Anyway, the charmless woman invited me back in to work a shift later in the week. There was no mention of money. No big deal I thought, just get your foot in the door, don't come across as crass and pushy by mentioning money straight away. She'll bring that up when you come in for your first day I'm sure.

A few days later I came back with another smile on my face and a crisp white shirt in place of the handful of c.v's. (As a quick aside, the decor and atmosphere of the place seemed lovely and the food certainly looked pretty good but as should be clear by now I didnt set out to write a particularly positive piece.) I got to work almost immediately by hauling bottles of wine from the cellar to the bar and then spent the majority of the evening making coffees, pouring glasses of wine, cleaning glasses etc. As I got to know the girl who was training me in I eventually realised I was on trial and I would not be receiving any payment. Now, I've started new jobs before, plenty of them in fact and there is always a trial period of some sort. However, it usually consists of more than one 8 hour shift and is also usually compensated by payment. Eden Bar & Grill do things differently.

Heartless manager not pictured 

As the night began to quiet down the 'woman devoid of personality' otherwise known as the manager approached and quickly told me I could leave and that she would call me the next day. No thank you. No mention of how I did, or indeed of how I had found my first night. About a half an hour before this I saw her having a  clandestine meeting in the corner with the girl I had worked with. At one stage there was a glance my way and suffice to say I didnt think things were going to end with a full time contract and pension benefits.

Now the thing is, I might not have been the greatest barman/cocktail waiter/glass cleaner they had ever seen as I just dont have the experience. I also made some rookie mistakes such as serving a chardonnay instead of a merlot (to a waiter I might add so no real disaster), forgetting to place a cooler with a bottle of white wine and just generally being a bit slow. So if they didnt feel like committing the time to train somebody then I suppose I cant really argue with that. (Although the girl who I worked with did mention she received two months training in cocktail making etc. before she started).

My point is that I did a night's work. I provided a service, a tangible effect on their business, a minuscule one of course but I didn't just stand behind somebody watching them work. I created value for them in my small way, by completing tasks that someone had to complete for the night to run smoothly. This deserves a certain degree of respect, of which I feel I was not the recipient of. I left that evening wondering whether I would receive a phone call asking me to come back the next day and I didnt feel too optimistic about my chances. Well, I'm still wondering. And that's bullshit.

Ok I'm not still wondering at all. They never called. They obviously decided they didn't want to hire me and couldn't be bothered to pick up the phone to extend me even the smallest degree of courtesy. Is that laziness?  Forgetfulness? Or just a general lack of respect shown by an employer to a potential employee? Was the fact that they got a free nights work from me not enough, did they feel the need to leave me waiting on a phone call for a few days as well? This whole 'trial' stuff is crap anyway, if somebody works, they deserve to get paid but that's not my main grievance. If you say you're gonna call somebody to let them know if they got the job. Just call them. Dont be a chicken shit. The first day in a new job is awkward enough and it doesn't need to be compounded by no pay and a complete lack of respect.

It feels good to have gotten that off my chest, however, this whole post could be summed up in a neat sentence. Eden Bar & Grill, Fuck You.


Thought of the day - Don't walk for over an hour and a half in suit shoes that you havent properly broken in, it will result in multiple blisters.