Where I Am All Day

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am working at a restaurant while in school/stop gap employment. It's pretty exhausting, but in many ways I'm happy I'm doing it.

Upside: I'm experiencing a little liberation from the mindset of a wage slave (I don't actually have the cynicism that that term implies, btw). It's an interesting experience going into a shift and not knowing how much you're going to get. Of course as a waiter you don't drum up the business but are dependent on the reputation of your restaurant to determine how many patrons you serve, but how you handle that traffic depends on you. If you want to improve your income, you have to learn from better and more experienced servers, learn the menu better, improve your system for getting everything done, etc. It makes it hard but it feels kinda, well, empowering. I'm learning the value of a dollar.

I like the population that I work with. Among my coworkers there are entrepeneurs doing it for temporary cash flow, bartenders with multiple Master's degress, MBA students, other general students, a journalist, a financial planner, pre-med and pre-law students, and on and on. It's great to pick their brains sometimes. It's also a lively, young population, so it's all very playful and it's easy to feel a part of something fun. The social aspects of it all are great.

Downsides: This blog suffers. A minor downside, but it's representative of less hobby/free time. I'm at work a lot, and until late, and I don't have the opportunity to hop online and bang out a post during slow times.

As a function of the time thing, and this is easily the biggest downside, I also don't see girlfriend as much as I'd like to. :(

I'm seeing some shifty sales tactics among my co-workers. It's a little disturbing.

It's a damn hard way to support yourself. I worked a 14-hour day yesterday - on my feet the whole time. But in a way that's an upside. It's pretty satisfying going to bed at night that tired.

It's also mentally exhausting to have to be cheerful and deferential to strangers all day and all night. I'm not a natural salesperson, so it takes a lot out of me. But I manage.

All in all, I'm happy I did this. Sure, it's not my dream situation, but it's kinda cool. Life takes on a cool tone when instead of direct deposit, your bank account grows by way of cash wad that you hand over to a teller. It's satisfying.

Aak, how's school going? Any updates on your work life that you'd like to share with the class?