I'll never forget when I was still somewhat new at my last waitressing job. It was an upscale restaurant that was a level above other places I'd worked in the industry. I was trying hard but struggling. I couldn't keep up with the other servers and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. So I asked one of the more senior staff if they had any advice for me. They told me that I should focus on my steps of service.
At other establishments I'd been employed, "steps of service" wasn't a thing. I guess when you have "free wing Fridays," it's not imperative to worry about the order in which things get done- I mean, people aren't even paying for their food. But when you break it down, all steps of service really is, is time management. A struggle for most people in the real world.
When you're serving in a restaurant, you will inevitably be unable to meet all of the demands placed upon you. There is simply no way you can be in five places at once, no matter how hard you try. Honestly, I think this holds true whether you're in the service industry or not. On a daily basis most people have the potential to end up in a situation where they will be letting someone down. This means that as human beings, it's important to be able to prioritize, quickly. If you don't know what your priorities are then it's impossible to meet anyone's needs, let alone everyone's, regardless of the time frame or the setting.
For people who haven't worked in the restaurant industry and aren't sure what I'm talking about- think back to a time in your life when you've had to juggle numerous things and saying no, rain-checking, or explaining why what was being asked of you was literally impossible, wasn't an option. Like, you have a deadline in two hours, meanwhile, your kid is sick and needs to be picked up from school but your partner has the car and you can't get in touch with them because their phone is off and you have a meeting in fifteen minutes that you just found out got rescheduled..to five minutes from now, and you won't have the opportunity to explain this to anyone, let alone everyone, and honestly, they probably wouldn't care anyways. It seems unfair, and I think it is. I think we could be doing all of this better.
Believe it or not, the "real life" scenario I just described, and serving are actually the same thing. Because situations arise all of the time where you have to prioritize. You need to decide whether you should greet table 12 first, get the drinks for 37, or write an allergy ticket for 24. Then you find out that table 15 just told your manager they don't like their food and want to look at the menu again, but the menus are downstairs. Table 18 needs to add another chair and place setting to their booth and their new guest needs to order immediately- or they'll miss their flight to somewhere international. Meanwhile, table 55 wants you to describe, in great detail, the differences between the fourteen varieties of oysters you have on the menu. And if you don't get table 5 a tea, with low-fat milk and Splenda, they will literally die. At least that's what they told you, so which do you do first?
I think there is an answer to this, even though for the longest time I didn't believe there was any practical way to handle impractical people and situations. The answer, I believe, is communication. Because that is typically the only line of defense you will have left, when everything else being asked of you is physically impossible.
I think that if we all communicated more, society as a whole would improve. The amount of time spent pontificating on what could be going on, could be time spent actually making things happen- but you have to speak before you can act. Don't waste your time wondering what may, or may not be happening. Spend your time making it happen.