I Got a New Job!

Yep, I got a new job and I didn't even leave my current employer. You see, we've finally stepped into the 21st century with an updated POS system. For those of you not in the hospitality industry, that does NOT mean Piece Of Shit. No, this is what's known in the modern day as Point Of Sale. And I readily admit that this blog may only be of interest to those of you actually employed in the restaurant business. (Both of you)!!! So read on if you aren't in the business if you'd like, but accept my apologies if it bores you.

My restaurant has been doing a fantastic job of serving customers in our old fashion way for decades upon decades. The place has entertained(I bet)millions of diners in our old way of doing things, and truth be told, it ran like a well oiled machine for most of those decades. But time marches on, and we were overdue for this upgrade. And so with much grumbling, we have implemented modern technology to our pack of old dogs who don't want to learn these new tricks. I think most of the staff feels like the management put an invisible electric fence around our yard.

I confess that when the business consultant came in and asked our opinions a few months ago, I heartily begged for POS. I do not regret saying it then, nor am I disappointed that it has finally arrived to our little corner of the world. Having said that, let me tell you, it has caused great confusion and some pretty bad service to our stellar customers. Thankfully, we had plenty of support staff on during the first week of using the new system, which was a stroke of brilliance by management. We are dealing with the omissions that we knew would surface as we began to actually use the computers. A programmer can only foresee so much when putting together such an extensive system. We are handling the training of those who don't use computers in their personal lives. Wow. To my "online boys" I say thank you for teaching me so much about computers so that I have the understanding of what our new system can and cannot do. Then there's the glitchy shenanigans of a system that doesn't allow for some of the actions we wish it would carry out for us. It's been a ride.

Let me give you some examples of the fun times we've had with our new POS. We learned the hard way what happens when someone accidentally bumps a printer off. Salads will print in the chef area where salads aren't made and entree orders will print in the bar! If you try to punch in a salad dressing on the side, it will probably be understandable to the salad girls, but if you have TWO dressing, both of which need to be on the side, it will probably prompt the girls to make TWO salads with one dressing on the side and another with the salad directly on the lettuce. Yeah. Few salad orders are actually correct these days, and it's not the salad makers' faults. The kitchen has had to relearn orders because our old system of writing up tickets is a lot different that what the computer printout gives them these days. And I think our bartenders will be blind by the end of the year with the tiny writing they have to decipher in the dim lights.

We've found that we actually have to hit "exit" from some screens to get to the potato choice, the desired garnish, the tiny modification the customer has asked for on his meal. But we are learning, and things are getting easier. I admit the first time I completed an order on the screen, it immediately jumped into my head that I needed to get back to the kitchen to write up that order. When I realized I didn't have to do that, I really couldn't figure out what I needed to be doing. All of us servers have had this feeling of confusion. The most surprising consequence of having this slick program for all of the waitresses has been the way it has completely thrown off our sense of timing. That probably doesn't make sense to anyone who doesn't do this work, but there's a very intricate alarm clock in our heads that tells us when we need to be doing certain tasks. It probably looks like your server is just cruising along taking care of your needs as you dine without a thought to anything else. Kudos to your server if you think that because it's really a finely tuned symphony that plays each note in our head in a very specific timing pattern. Making the job look easy is the sign of a great waiter. Without going off on the tangent we've all heard about the validity of serving food as a "real" job, I can tell you that it's a demanding job, and one that the bubbble-headed blonde will not be able to carry out. Finding our timing has been the biggest challenge with the POS system. Who knew? The great benefit there is that we realize we actually DO have more time to spend with our customers now that we aren't doing paperwork in the kitchen. It rocks!

One other totally awesome side to our POS is that there's no longer any room for error in not adding a bar tab or an appetizer onto the bill. We used to pay for these mistakes out of pocket. We can't punch out until all of our tables are closed, so we will never miss a tip because we forgot to finalize a credit card bill. I can only imagine how easy the bookwork in the morning for the office has become! Inventory is practically done on the machine. Everyone in the building punches in on the POS, and managers can send out messages to all employees on the punch in screen. This has streamlined so many things for us. It's a wonderful tool, and I can see my coworkers beginning to enjoy the benefits.

About a week after we started the POS, we started wearing our new uniforms. 2007 is a brand new world for our restaurant. We look sharp, tickets are perfect... We're finding our rhythm. By the time our summer crunch is upon us, these old dogs will have that computer stuff down to a science. It was a stressful few weeks as we all learned to march in this new direction, but the gang is starting to see how much time this will save us all. I'm pumped about the modernizing we are exchanging for the pen and paper methods that served that place so well for so many years. We've had to work as a team to learn the new system. I hope that newfound teamwork stays as we all become proficient with our big scary changes.