3:45am, the alarm goes off. He drags his still-sleeping body outta the bed and slumps into the shower. A quick shave and his uniform is on and he's pulling his car out of the parking spot down the block. Now he's off to work for his 6:00am coffee break on this quiet Tuesday morning. Carlo arrives at the hotel at 5:00am, grabs the BEO that I left for him last night, and heads to the coffee machine. You see, any good coffee break waiter will always start making the coffee first then go on to gather-up the other items he needs for the break.
BEO says 14 people continental breakfast, 6:00am start until 8:00am. Meeting starts at 8:00am until 12 noon then they're gone. By 5:45am all is setup. Carlo is the best one I have. He's never late and can setup a coffee station quicker than anyone I've ever worked with. He can do magic in 45 minutes. This is why I scheduled him on my day off...I know he will take care of it with no issues.
Now it's 6:30am and no one has arrived. Carlo thinks maybe the time on the BEO is wrong and maybe it's not supposed to start until 6:30am. He knew this was an early start but for a half-day meeting it sometimes happens. He's a little pissed off but can't do anything now but wait.
At 7:00am still no one. Carlo goes to see the infamous Sales Chick to see if she knows anything about the group. She's not in her office. That's strange. Sales chick is a major dingbat but she's is always here at least by 7:00am, especially when she has a group inhouse.
My best coffee break waiter now heads back to the room to see if anyone has finally arrived. Nothing, just an empty room. 7:30am passes, then 8:00am and still nothing. Carlo has been up from 3:45am for this shit?
Then finally around 8:15am he sees the Director of Sales walking in with her usual Duncan Donuts coffee cup and her hair all a mess (that's another story). Carlo fills in the DOS (Director of Sales) about his problem and wants to know if this group is coming in.
The DOS says "I don't know anything about this group". "Well, where is Sales Chick" Carlo says. "She's off today" the DOS says. "But I guess I can call Sales Chick later to see what she knows about this". Now Carlo is about to flip out but he's too nice to do that. But he does get his point across to the DOS that she better call up the Sales Chick now and wake her ass up to find out what the hell is going on with this group.
Now for the best part of this story...
When the DOS gets in touch with dopey Sales Chick (around 8:40am), she has the balls to say that the group was only tentative and that they never sent back the signed contract. The event is not going to happen.
Not going to happen? Apparently Carlo almost jumped through the phone to kick the crap outta Sales Chick. That bitch is still home in her pajamas and fuzzy slippers but Carlo had to wake his ass up at 3:45am just for a 14 person coffee break that is "not going to happen".
The DOS now says the usual apologies and says that she will get to the bottom of this, but we all know better. This is the same crap that happens all the time with the Sales Department. They can screw things up time after time but the operational staff must always pay the price.
Now Carlo must breakdown this never-gonna-happen coffee break and head back home. And what did he get for this? Less than minimum wage and lots of heartburn.
So you wanna be a coffee break waiter?
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5 comments:
Oh geez. Shouldn't she have called and confirmed the day before? Poor Carlo.
Usualy that what happen when you work with unproffessional sales chicks, (to much ass, not so much brain, and the other times is at 8:00AM insted of 6:00AM, and 41 pax insted of 14 pax, and fuck up the rest of the day for the rest of the waiter staff...
What a life....
It is the same crap every where, just different faces. I have had the the opposite happen where I used to be Bqt. Mgr.
A group of 40 showed up and the sales chick forgot to create and route the BEO, She said it was a pop up, we all know it was a F-up.
Mean while we scramble to set the meeting up within 30 mins, while
the sales girl goes to get her cup of coffee and then returns when we are done and says to the client "see no biggee we pulled it off for you. Then she wonders why we dont join her when she invites to go out for drinks.
How about when sales waits for you to leave and then slides a revised BEO under your office door for you
to trip on and deal with 5am iun the morning.
That is why at my properties, the second I get the sale, the contract is generated by the catering office and front desk manager, the details are entered by each department and all further contact is made to each respective office. The reason it was done was because if something went wrong, it was always my fault. I got so tired of being accused of entering something wrong, not telling them something, etc, that it got to the point that I refused to give any details that wasn't backed up by an email. I'd tell them an event cancelled, and they'd never cancel it. Then they'd come back and blame me all haughty that they need to know what so and so is doing. I told them months ago to cancel it from the system.
So, it does work both ways. So many want control of everything. I gave it to them. I'm not sure they like it in hindisight. When they go to the GM to bitch about me, I invariably pull out an email they obviously didn't pay attention to.
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