I have applied to Vet school and did get in to do my post graduate degree at Edinburgh University. Sad thing is the tuition is 98,000.00 GBP which obviously I don't have. So of course off I go to find the money from the UK and Canada. No luck..........
So there sort of goes my dream which I've been working towards for about half my life. I'm pretty gutted, but at the same time I think I can reapply all over again and hopefully get in as a funded student which means the government would pay for me to go, and I'd accrue a debt of about
10, 000.00 GBP as that would be my living allowance.
I'm really hoping the second time around I'll get in as it's not a guarantee, but I'm willing to take the chance as this is what I want, and I can't afford the crazy graduate fee.
There is hope, I'm still a little upset about it. Dream was right there and the possibility of it has now diminished. What a horrible week!
26/07/2008
08/07/2008
Lazyness and the monkey on my back
At the moment, I'm not feeling that positive about work to the point where I wonder should I stay. Pretty much started last Saturday night with a wedding and last night too, let's go back in time....
Saturday night I had a wedding to bartend, not a problem at all. I'm used to being very busy as I used to work in night clubs, so I was looking forward to it. The guy I was working with was said to be lazy, so I was prepared for it, or at least I thought I was.
I get in to work and start by running around doing the small things that are usually done before I come in, such as white wine on ice. So off I go to get ice, and what not to try to 'open' the bar before people start coming up.
The guy, let's call him Frank wasn't starting till a few hours later, and he came by to get himself a drink of something on the dash gun. "Hmm... look's like there is something wrong with the gas" so off he goes to check it while I continue to cut the fruit etc. He comes back up and says "the gas is empty" and off he goes. So I think to myself, "he's gone to get someone to change it, excellent." So 5 minutes pass, 10 minutes pass obviously he hasn't gone to get someone to change it. So I call up the duty manager who we'll call Fred, and told him the situation. So he comes to show me how it's done (the only thing I don't know how to do in the entire bar by the way) and we get to the cellar and he says "You need to turn it on, that's your problem there." Excellent, I look like a right stupid blonde git because I trusted Frank! So I make my appologies for being so dumb, and off Fred goes.
So finally it's time for Frank to start his shift with me, and we're pretty busy which is nice. Every so often Frank just decides to go for a walk and leaves me with the bar of people to serve. Or better yet, he goes to have x fags while I'm still trying to serve people. A few points during the evening the functions manager asks me where Frank is and all I can say is "I don't know" and off she goes in search of him.
He's also lazy, and I mean lazy just like everyone warned me about. He won't do the glasses (put them in the dishwasher, take them out, put them away), he leaves his empty bottles all around the bar simply making a mess, he doesn't wash out the measures so before I can serve my customer I have to wash it out, then pour the drink, then wash the measure again for him (I'm considerate, and above his childish behaviour). He had too much drink in one glass and he pours it over the fresh ice I just ran to get (which he wasn't doing either). We ran out of martini twice, and he refused to call Fred because Fred hates him (I can see why now!)
Now I was putting the 20 pound notes into piles of 100, to make it easier at the end of the night and to free up some space in the till as they were popping out like mad. Now I know one of the piles wasn't completed because a customer came by. I was going to fix it at the end of the night when I counted the till. Frank decides he's going to count the till, assumes they are in piles of 100, and messes up the count. We also had a number of room charges which needed to be written down on the bar sheet, he refused to do that because he's lazy!
At one point during the night I had rung up two drinks, the customer called me back to order two more. So when I turned around Frank was messing with the till and tells me he 'thinks' he put his order onto mine. By this time he had already subtotalled it which you can cancel!!! ARGGGGGGHHHHHHH. So I say "let's cash it off and we'll void it later" so off I cash it and then go to make sure it was recorded on the till roll, and low and behold no till roll!! So off he goes to get it, and again I'm left with customers. He comes back with it, and can't put it in. I have a go and I can't do it myself as there are customers waiting etc etc, and ahhh! He tell's me we'll just do it later, fair enough he's been here months he knows what he's doing. Or does he????
In the back of my mind I keep thinking I should put that till roll in, but a queue of customers puts a stop to that thought, and I don't think about it again.
So end of the night, he's counted the till, Fred comes to count it, it's wrong. He asks me did I get 800 in 20s I say "no Frank counted the till" so he talks to Frank and asks Frank "did you get 800 in 20s" and Frank says "she put them in piles of 100 so I counted them like that" Fred says "she who?" and Frank points at me and says " She---Shera." Little bugger was blaming me for his lazyness in not actually counting the till properly. Couldn't believe it!
I then proceed to tell Fred about the void that has to be done and the story behind it. He asks for the receipt, I tell him that is when we discovered we had no till roll, and we couldn't put it in. So he says he can't void it off, and that there might be an investigation into the fact that we had no till roll. Frank at this point is saying how busy it was etc etc etc. At this point, I just give up because I fell like I'm being marked as a right idiot.
Fred asks where the room charges are as they aren't written down, so off I got to put them all in one by one cause Frank was too lazy. Everything that could have pretty much gone wrong did. But it get's better!
Now I've had most of my customer service skills taught to me in Canada, so in all honesty my standard service is above most British people's standard because in North America "the customer is always right" and you take any blame even though the customer was wrong etc etc. So I'm working my customer service, remember rounds, banter, friendly, smiling etc etc. So I come away with 14 quid (they don't know how to tip in this country either!), 4 of which I gave to two people because they were bar backing because Frank was lazy with the glasses, and they deserved it. The rest I had to split between Frank and myself. Talk about angry! He made like 50p and ended up with a fiver even though he was lazy, bad customer service (did I forget to mention he had an argument with a customer which the functions manager saw???), he said some shocking things, pointed the finger at me a few times, and in the end he gets rewarded for doing this by getting half of my money.
Now I'm not the best pleased about this because I feel like I was taken advantage of and my good customer skills were exploited for someone else's gain. So I'll be talking to another duty manager that is on when I get in as he's totally sound and very approachable unlike Fred who thinks I'm an idiot, which comes from Saturday and last night.
Skip forward to last night. The shift started at 3pm which is an odd time usually it's 10am or 5/6pm depending on what's going on at night. So at 3pm I start and my favourite bar staff who is also new and really young is on. He's cashing up his till, and I'm dealing with a customer that he's put onto me while he's doing the till. So I have to put the drink through the till and he says to go ahead. So I do, and take it over to the restaurant as that is only half the bill. I record the bill onto my till sheet!
So nothing is going on over the course of the night other than a little rush of a tour bus group. So at the end of the night, I count my till and apparently I'm 6.60 over. Hmmm I know I haven't made any mistakes, so I can't figure it out.
Now be aware that Fred must think I'm stupid because of Saturday, and now because I knew he was on I was extra careful not to make mistakes. So where did this mistake come from?? So he's going on in a tone of voice and saying things that subtlely are telling me he thinks I'm stupid. So I've given up at this point yet again. Once I'm out of there I realise what I did: firstly the customer's charge on my sheet should have only been for the drink, not the sanwhich so there goes about 4 quid off my 6.60. Then I realise that when my favourite staff member was cashing up, the then duty manager took the till slip, so my record was on there and not on my till slip. So the morning till would have been down the rest of the 2.60 where as mine was up. AHA! I'm not that stupid!!!
Having a monkey on my back isn't helping, and lazy people do not help in anything but making me look stupid! So I'm going into work early to discuss this with the best duty manager and see what he suggests me to do about all of this crap!
Saturday night I had a wedding to bartend, not a problem at all. I'm used to being very busy as I used to work in night clubs, so I was looking forward to it. The guy I was working with was said to be lazy, so I was prepared for it, or at least I thought I was.
I get in to work and start by running around doing the small things that are usually done before I come in, such as white wine on ice. So off I go to get ice, and what not to try to 'open' the bar before people start coming up.
The guy, let's call him Frank wasn't starting till a few hours later, and he came by to get himself a drink of something on the dash gun. "Hmm... look's like there is something wrong with the gas" so off he goes to check it while I continue to cut the fruit etc. He comes back up and says "the gas is empty" and off he goes. So I think to myself, "he's gone to get someone to change it, excellent." So 5 minutes pass, 10 minutes pass obviously he hasn't gone to get someone to change it. So I call up the duty manager who we'll call Fred, and told him the situation. So he comes to show me how it's done (the only thing I don't know how to do in the entire bar by the way) and we get to the cellar and he says "You need to turn it on, that's your problem there." Excellent, I look like a right stupid blonde git because I trusted Frank! So I make my appologies for being so dumb, and off Fred goes.
So finally it's time for Frank to start his shift with me, and we're pretty busy which is nice. Every so often Frank just decides to go for a walk and leaves me with the bar of people to serve. Or better yet, he goes to have x fags while I'm still trying to serve people. A few points during the evening the functions manager asks me where Frank is and all I can say is "I don't know" and off she goes in search of him.
He's also lazy, and I mean lazy just like everyone warned me about. He won't do the glasses (put them in the dishwasher, take them out, put them away), he leaves his empty bottles all around the bar simply making a mess, he doesn't wash out the measures so before I can serve my customer I have to wash it out, then pour the drink, then wash the measure again for him (I'm considerate, and above his childish behaviour). He had too much drink in one glass and he pours it over the fresh ice I just ran to get (which he wasn't doing either). We ran out of martini twice, and he refused to call Fred because Fred hates him (I can see why now!)
Now I was putting the 20 pound notes into piles of 100, to make it easier at the end of the night and to free up some space in the till as they were popping out like mad. Now I know one of the piles wasn't completed because a customer came by. I was going to fix it at the end of the night when I counted the till. Frank decides he's going to count the till, assumes they are in piles of 100, and messes up the count. We also had a number of room charges which needed to be written down on the bar sheet, he refused to do that because he's lazy!
At one point during the night I had rung up two drinks, the customer called me back to order two more. So when I turned around Frank was messing with the till and tells me he 'thinks' he put his order onto mine. By this time he had already subtotalled it which you can cancel!!! ARGGGGGGHHHHHHH. So I say "let's cash it off and we'll void it later" so off I cash it and then go to make sure it was recorded on the till roll, and low and behold no till roll!! So off he goes to get it, and again I'm left with customers. He comes back with it, and can't put it in. I have a go and I can't do it myself as there are customers waiting etc etc, and ahhh! He tell's me we'll just do it later, fair enough he's been here months he knows what he's doing. Or does he????
In the back of my mind I keep thinking I should put that till roll in, but a queue of customers puts a stop to that thought, and I don't think about it again.
So end of the night, he's counted the till, Fred comes to count it, it's wrong. He asks me did I get 800 in 20s I say "no Frank counted the till" so he talks to Frank and asks Frank "did you get 800 in 20s" and Frank says "she put them in piles of 100 so I counted them like that" Fred says "she who?" and Frank points at me and says " She---Shera." Little bugger was blaming me for his lazyness in not actually counting the till properly. Couldn't believe it!
I then proceed to tell Fred about the void that has to be done and the story behind it. He asks for the receipt, I tell him that is when we discovered we had no till roll, and we couldn't put it in. So he says he can't void it off, and that there might be an investigation into the fact that we had no till roll. Frank at this point is saying how busy it was etc etc etc. At this point, I just give up because I fell like I'm being marked as a right idiot.
Fred asks where the room charges are as they aren't written down, so off I got to put them all in one by one cause Frank was too lazy. Everything that could have pretty much gone wrong did. But it get's better!
Now I've had most of my customer service skills taught to me in Canada, so in all honesty my standard service is above most British people's standard because in North America "the customer is always right" and you take any blame even though the customer was wrong etc etc. So I'm working my customer service, remember rounds, banter, friendly, smiling etc etc. So I come away with 14 quid (they don't know how to tip in this country either!), 4 of which I gave to two people because they were bar backing because Frank was lazy with the glasses, and they deserved it. The rest I had to split between Frank and myself. Talk about angry! He made like 50p and ended up with a fiver even though he was lazy, bad customer service (did I forget to mention he had an argument with a customer which the functions manager saw???), he said some shocking things, pointed the finger at me a few times, and in the end he gets rewarded for doing this by getting half of my money.
Now I'm not the best pleased about this because I feel like I was taken advantage of and my good customer skills were exploited for someone else's gain. So I'll be talking to another duty manager that is on when I get in as he's totally sound and very approachable unlike Fred who thinks I'm an idiot, which comes from Saturday and last night.
Skip forward to last night. The shift started at 3pm which is an odd time usually it's 10am or 5/6pm depending on what's going on at night. So at 3pm I start and my favourite bar staff who is also new and really young is on. He's cashing up his till, and I'm dealing with a customer that he's put onto me while he's doing the till. So I have to put the drink through the till and he says to go ahead. So I do, and take it over to the restaurant as that is only half the bill. I record the bill onto my till sheet!
So nothing is going on over the course of the night other than a little rush of a tour bus group. So at the end of the night, I count my till and apparently I'm 6.60 over. Hmmm I know I haven't made any mistakes, so I can't figure it out.
Now be aware that Fred must think I'm stupid because of Saturday, and now because I knew he was on I was extra careful not to make mistakes. So where did this mistake come from?? So he's going on in a tone of voice and saying things that subtlely are telling me he thinks I'm stupid. So I've given up at this point yet again. Once I'm out of there I realise what I did: firstly the customer's charge on my sheet should have only been for the drink, not the sanwhich so there goes about 4 quid off my 6.60. Then I realise that when my favourite staff member was cashing up, the then duty manager took the till slip, so my record was on there and not on my till slip. So the morning till would have been down the rest of the 2.60 where as mine was up. AHA! I'm not that stupid!!!
Having a monkey on my back isn't helping, and lazy people do not help in anything but making me look stupid! So I'm going into work early to discuss this with the best duty manager and see what he suggests me to do about all of this crap!
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