My first day of work

The dictionary defines work as "an activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result." I had to look the word up before I went into my first day at Bostons The Gourmet Pizza. I wanted to make sure I still understood what work was after having 2 months off.

When I went in, there were only about 7 other people there for training. I was surprised because there are about 43 other servers that will be working there, and I believe there are only 2 training classes a day. However, it was nice to be in a smaller group.

The trainers or "corporate trainers" as they call themselves are all from Texas, so they combine the words you and all kind of a lot, but other than that they seem pretty cool. They started out by telling us how the company started. It's an interesting story really. Basically this guy named Gus, was in the U.S. military, and one day he was out at sea...I believe involved in whatever war was going on in the 1960's...when he decided "I've had enough of this". Then he jumped ship and swam to Canada. What can I say...he was a brave man. When he was in Canada he started the restaurant.

After I heard the story, all I could think was "after all that, he had the nerve to bring his restaurant to the U.S.?" Well, he didn't. He had sold the restaurant, which is why it is now a franchise. There are currently 55 stores including the one where I will be working.

We proceeded by taking a tour of the rest of the restaurant. It was kind of intimidating seeing all of the clean appliances...I'm pretty sure they are going to be on our asses constantly to keep it squeaky clean. However, you will be happy to know that the employees have their own bathroom. I personally am very happy about this because it's kind of annoying when you go to the bathroom on your break, and ten people tell you that there's no paper towels or something. It's not that I don't sympathize ...but I'm on my break...which means I don't want to deal with it, and I probably won't.

The rest of the day was just normal restaurant stuff, which I'm not going to get into because if you've never worked in a restaurant, you probably wouldn't understand. If you feel hurt by me saying that, don't, its a good thing if you've never had to serve people. All in all I enjoyed my first day of work. I'm looking forward to being a part of a new restaurant. I'm also sucking up big time...I don't need another Cheesecake Factory type incident.

Finally, I would like to leave all of you some advice on tipping. First of all, servers are usually pissed if they don't get twenty percent. If you think we are greedy then you are a hypocrite, everyone is greedy. I'm not saying we always deserve it, that is for you to decide. Also, doubling the tax is only about 15%, so please throw that method out the door. Here's how I figure out the tip: lets say you're bill is $48.36...everything went well, and you were very satisfied with the service. Based on that I would leave 20% if not more (I am a server, and tend to overtip). What I would do is double the first number of the bill...4 x 2, which is 8, however, because the bill is closer to 50 dollars, I would round up, making it $9. See, that wasn't hard, was it? You don't need a calculator, just basic math skills. Then there is one final, and crucial step. ADD the tip to the total CORRECTLY. DON'T TAKE BOTH COPIES OF THE RECEIPT! IF YOU DO WE GET NOTHING. Ok that was three crucial final steps, but whatever.