Kristin Hollifield
Mr. Cook
English 1102
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Walking Through Something New
As I round the corner, being careful not to slip I hear: “Hands! Hot! Coming up in five!” I instantly look to where the noise is coming from seeing the chef as he hands the steaming plates to several different people as they pass it down a line, filling the plate with intricately placed foods. When it reaches the end you hear “HANDS!” yet again, filling the room as the server runs through with just enough time to grab and keep going, balancing multiple plates on their arms or a tray. A kitchen has its own language and characteristics that go hand and hand with the restaurant that the kitchen is in. The styles of the restaurant affect the foods that the kitchen produce. When you have a group of knowledgeable peers who share ideas that are shaped by what one another know, speak, and think you have a discourse community. When thinking about what jobs I wanted to have in college, being a part of the restaurant business was always the last option that I had. After being in college and seeing how hard it was to find a job when offered the job to be a host; I jumped at the offer.
Coming in to a restaurant and eating there shows only the smallest portion of what is going on behind the scenes. You hear the lingo and see the food, but do not see the bigger picture. This paper is the outline to being a part of the restaurant community and the role of a restaurant host. Managers that hire hosts look for a variety of things in a prospective new employee when thinking of hiring. They look for: an outgoing personality, someone well mannered, a person who can handle situations where you must make an executive decision and stick with it as well as handle the consequences of these choices. They expect you to be able to handle when people are unhappy and to put the customer first. A host must be able to think about the restaurant as a whole before making any executive decisions. One wrong decision in a restaurant can mess the whole flow up.
First day, walking in, dressed in my host outfit I have no idea exactly what to expect. Do I just seat people? Will I be busy the whole time or inactive and bored? Many questions are running through my mind about how I am about to adjust to this new environment. Walking in my manager automatically looks down and says, “Those shoes are cute, but you will want new ones by your next shift.” I quickly learned after a long day of seating guests, walking through puddles of water in the kitchen and maintaining a constant standing position that those shoes were not going to work, the “non-slip” shoes that I saw so many other employees wearing were my next buy.
Duties can go from making sure the bathrooms are clean, seating customers, opening doors, judging the wait based off of what tables are ready and when they were sat and mostly having patience and manners with each customer you interact with. A host is under the manager; the manager manages the host’s and servers. All have varying responsibilities, but the common goal is to please the customer and maintain a good outlook for their business. When asking my manager Chip Ladigo “What would you say are the primary skills or attributes that are necessary for membership?” He responded: “Communication skills, an outgoing personality, bubbly, friendly and personable. We look for these skills in ALL our employees not just host positions.”
I have seven customers come in, one six top table with a two top beside it and the table is waiting to be bussed. The customers are put on the wait list while the table is bussed, the two “top” is pushed against the six top and the customers now have a table big enough to accommodate the party. A “top” is the reference for a table and you say how many people you can seat at that table. Once the tables are seated you must keep up what tables are on check, bus or done. It could be on the patio, on the “long side”, “short side” or bar. On check means they are waiting to pay; if a guest is unhappy with their meal or there is something wrong with the food the manager might choose to “comp” there check, or take a percentage off or completely take care of their check. When they are on bus they are waiting to be cleaned and ready for the next guest. Done or ready means you can seat there again. We not only have lingo but other ways of communication outside of the interior of work. I asked my manager, Chip how we as a community communicate he said “the main way that we communicate is through Hot Schedules, an internet site that uses an online schedule to show the employees schedule, communicate messages, and request days off.” Not all restaurants use this specific system for their main form of communication. All have a main system used to communicate. The lingo used is not that complex nor is our communication system, but within the community the words and internet site are used like everyday language because it is just a secondary discourse; something not primary or first learned from a young age, but secondary because it is something you learn and add to the foundation of what a person already knows.
Any restaurant can be successful but to be successful, one needs to fully grasp every aspect of what you are a part of, from the smallest things of rolling silverware to knowing all your table numbers. Fully grasping a restaurant does not mean knowing table numbers and the pattern you follow while on the clock. It means knowing your place, how your actions affect the others you work with and taking responsibility for those actions. I was skeptical to become a part of this community but with the training and the knowledge I have gained I have seen that the bigger picture is what makes life work. With the world you have a chain of who is in charge and what order it goes in, just like domino’s. Every decision follows with a repercussion. Without it fitting together it could work for a little while but has more of an expectancy that it will only crash and burn. Through my new job I not only learned about a new discourse community but put what I have observed from that community in to play with my other communities. Being apart of this community has showed me how to be courteous, quick to hold my tongue and has improved my problem solving skills. These can all be applied to my primary discourse in my home, as well as my secondary discourses in playing volleyball, school and my social life.
Mr. Cook
English 1102
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Walking Through Something New
As I round the corner, being careful not to slip I hear: “Hands! Hot! Coming up in five!” I instantly look to where the noise is coming from seeing the chef as he hands the steaming plates to several different people as they pass it down a line, filling the plate with intricately placed foods. When it reaches the end you hear “HANDS!” yet again, filling the room as the server runs through with just enough time to grab and keep going, balancing multiple plates on their arms or a tray. A kitchen has its own language and characteristics that go hand and hand with the restaurant that the kitchen is in. The styles of the restaurant affect the foods that the kitchen produce. When you have a group of knowledgeable peers who share ideas that are shaped by what one another know, speak, and think you have a discourse community. When thinking about what jobs I wanted to have in college, being a part of the restaurant business was always the last option that I had. After being in college and seeing how hard it was to find a job when offered the job to be a host; I jumped at the offer.
Coming in to a restaurant and eating there shows only the smallest portion of what is going on behind the scenes. You hear the lingo and see the food, but do not see the bigger picture. This paper is the outline to being a part of the restaurant community and the role of a restaurant host. Managers that hire hosts look for a variety of things in a prospective new employee when thinking of hiring. They look for: an outgoing personality, someone well mannered, a person who can handle situations where you must make an executive decision and stick with it as well as handle the consequences of these choices. They expect you to be able to handle when people are unhappy and to put the customer first. A host must be able to think about the restaurant as a whole before making any executive decisions. One wrong decision in a restaurant can mess the whole flow up.
First day, walking in, dressed in my host outfit I have no idea exactly what to expect. Do I just seat people? Will I be busy the whole time or inactive and bored? Many questions are running through my mind about how I am about to adjust to this new environment. Walking in my manager automatically looks down and says, “Those shoes are cute, but you will want new ones by your next shift.” I quickly learned after a long day of seating guests, walking through puddles of water in the kitchen and maintaining a constant standing position that those shoes were not going to work, the “non-slip” shoes that I saw so many other employees wearing were my next buy.
Duties can go from making sure the bathrooms are clean, seating customers, opening doors, judging the wait based off of what tables are ready and when they were sat and mostly having patience and manners with each customer you interact with. A host is under the manager; the manager manages the host’s and servers. All have varying responsibilities, but the common goal is to please the customer and maintain a good outlook for their business. When asking my manager Chip Ladigo “What would you say are the primary skills or attributes that are necessary for membership?” He responded: “Communication skills, an outgoing personality, bubbly, friendly and personable. We look for these skills in ALL our employees not just host positions.”
I have seven customers come in, one six top table with a two top beside it and the table is waiting to be bussed. The customers are put on the wait list while the table is bussed, the two “top” is pushed against the six top and the customers now have a table big enough to accommodate the party. A “top” is the reference for a table and you say how many people you can seat at that table. Once the tables are seated you must keep up what tables are on check, bus or done. It could be on the patio, on the “long side”, “short side” or bar. On check means they are waiting to pay; if a guest is unhappy with their meal or there is something wrong with the food the manager might choose to “comp” there check, or take a percentage off or completely take care of their check. When they are on bus they are waiting to be cleaned and ready for the next guest. Done or ready means you can seat there again. We not only have lingo but other ways of communication outside of the interior of work. I asked my manager, Chip how we as a community communicate he said “the main way that we communicate is through Hot Schedules, an internet site that uses an online schedule to show the employees schedule, communicate messages, and request days off.” Not all restaurants use this specific system for their main form of communication. All have a main system used to communicate. The lingo used is not that complex nor is our communication system, but within the community the words and internet site are used like everyday language because it is just a secondary discourse; something not primary or first learned from a young age, but secondary because it is something you learn and add to the foundation of what a person already knows.
Any restaurant can be successful but to be successful, one needs to fully grasp every aspect of what you are a part of, from the smallest things of rolling silverware to knowing all your table numbers. Fully grasping a restaurant does not mean knowing table numbers and the pattern you follow while on the clock. It means knowing your place, how your actions affect the others you work with and taking responsibility for those actions. I was skeptical to become a part of this community but with the training and the knowledge I have gained I have seen that the bigger picture is what makes life work. With the world you have a chain of who is in charge and what order it goes in, just like domino’s. Every decision follows with a repercussion. Without it fitting together it could work for a little while but has more of an expectancy that it will only crash and burn. Through my new job I not only learned about a new discourse community but put what I have observed from that community in to play with my other communities. Being apart of this community has showed me how to be courteous, quick to hold my tongue and has improved my problem solving skills. These can all be applied to my primary discourse in my home, as well as my secondary discourses in playing volleyball, school and my social life.