So hey How'd that closing shift work out for you?

As you may recall, about 6 months ago I was scheduled my first closing shift at the restaurant. Closing shifts are a large part of "where the money's at" when you're a server, so it's a desirable thing to move into doing regularly. It carries a bit of responsibility, but also pays well because you will (generally speaking) receive more and larger tables (and therefore more tip income) than others on the same shift, as I've detailed previously.

On Guy's Work Blog.

It's also a bit political because of the money involved, and in my case did not go unchallenged, albeit subtly.

I arrive maybe 15 minutes early to look over the restaurant and see what needs to be done before the lunch servers clock out. That's the first thing the closer does.. In order to make sure that the night shift runs smoothly, they need to make sure everything's stocked, prepped and maybe cleaned before others leave, and the closer is left on their own for awhile, before the later-scheduled night servers show up. The closer is in at 4pm where I work, while most other night servers come in at either 5 or 5:30pm - with some variance based on the "season" we're in, and the scheduled reservations for the evening.

I've worked pee-lenty of lunch shifts here by now, and have had many a "closer" come in at 4ish and tell me what all I must do before I'm allowed to leave, so I'm quite familiar with the process. The closer is likely to spend 5 minutes saying things like "We need more lemons cut; There's not enough silver rolled; We're going to need more napkins folded; These ice bins need to be filled up and more to-go cups and straws in these stations...." Just stuff like that. Oh, and our most hated duty.. Butters. More on that one later perhaps.

I've also noticed that most closers try to arrive 10 or 15 minutes earlier than their 4pm schedule says. This is because 1) The lunch people are tired of being there, and will be willing to give up tables seated at 3:55pm if the 4pm closer will ("pleeeeeeeeze") go ahead and take it, so therefore more bank for being early, and 2) Once you start taking tables at 4ish, you're going to be too busy to look around and point out everything that needs to be done, so your co-workers from the daytime are going to "skate out" without doing it all if they can, and then you're going to be stuck under-prepared and with the rest of the PM staff griping at you when they show up because you "let" everyone leave without getting it all done.

So that's what I do beginning around 3:50pm on this day - looking around and seeing what needs to be done, and finding out who I need to politely ask to do it before they leave for the day.

It's not unusual to be met with replies like "I already did xyz and abc - I'm not doing anything else" and "Well So-and-So hasn't done crap all day.  Make them do it..." or perhaps "Really?? You don't think we have enough __________ done already? What kind of Nazi are you?" Then there's the more congenial "Yeh, I know. Been busy. I'll do it before I leave."

That's what *I* usually said anyways, if there was stuff to do that I or another server hadn't already done before the closer arrived. (Same stuff every day, so no surprises here!) But given the above typical responses, you can see the Catch-22 in being like that... the ones who complain the least are generally going to be asked to do the most, because the closer (or manager, depending upon how the restaurant operates) is going to seek that person out just to avoid arguing with the slackers about it.

Those were the things I kind of expected to hear, coming in and looking around.

But no.

What I got this time - and 1 or 2 more times that followed - was

"You're the closer?"

"You're the closer?" and

"You're the closer?"

Upon replying affirmatively, a couple of times the question (stated almost like a challenge) evolved to "Have you ever closed before?" To which I reply "This is my third close, but I switched into the other two. This is my first scheduled one."

"Oh" Pistachio says, trailing off with "Luigi (the manager who makes the schedule) must really like you."

Well, yeh, he kinda does I guess.

Maybe it's because I generally DO what I'm asked to DO without complaining about it.

Now with the preliminaries out of the way, can we get this stuff done people? Geez. I don't want to seem like a jerk who lets a little power go to his head tho, and I start doing portions of the duties I've politely asked these other kind folks to do. Pistachio and Betty (Crocker) are closers sometimes too, just not today. They know the routine tho, and aren't unwilling to do what needs to be done. It's not like I ever gave them much flack for telling me what to do when they've come in at 4pm to close.

It's just that there's maybe the slightest amount of shock they're dealing with. There are only 7 closing shifts per week, and around a dozen servers qualified and sometimes scheduled to do it, off and on. Not everyone gets one per week, and the more "closers" there are, the less closing shifts there are to go around. I know to their minds, the fact that I got this one - and will probably be getting more in the future - means they might be making just a tad less money in the future, based on the newer division of labor they now see unfolding. With that in mind, I'm sympathetic to what they're going through. This ain't my first rodeo, and I've gone through this very scenario a few times already in my career, experiencing it from both sides in fact.

Whether they despise me, or embrace and "Welcome me" to their ranks remains to be seen. I'm just trying to make the choice a little easier for them. If we were busy at 4pm, I might have a table or two to wait on already. But we're not busy, I don't have a table yet, and so I start polishing the silverware they haven't gotten around to yet.

So yeh, that's how the first 15 minutes went...