Sooooo Now I'm mad.

Hi.
As most of you know I've been trying all month to land a job, preferably at a restaurant as either a bartender or waiter. I got a call back a week and a half ago from a place downtown near 14th street by the name of Doma Cafe. Apparently it's famous and a lot of Italian tourists come in because some author took a picture of it and put it on the cover of his book. Anyway, it's a very quaint, cute place which functions as coffee shop during the day and restaurant at night. The cappuccinos are amazing and the food is just as good... It's also a wine bar and the bar shift is easy because you don't need to make cordials. It's only wine and an expansive list of non-mainstream beers.

So I came in 3 times last week, and worked twice, receiving training pay. The kitchen staff loved me and the owner/manager only came in once for about fifteen minutes on Tuesday, the day I came in for an hour just to get acquainted. She originally only scheduled me to work Saturday morning, but then emailed me Wednesday morning and asked me to work Thursday morning as well. As I wanted to leave as a good an impression as possible, I said yes, and I only missed one morning class... the most useless one, because I knew we weren't doing anything important anyway.

So both days I worked with 2 different Czech girls, both of whom have worked that for a few years in their respective morning shifts. I learned how to make the coffees their way and I really enjoyed myself while I was there. The mornings are great because all you really do is make coffees, ring in the orders, give breakfast orders to the kitchen and bring them out and bus the tables afterwards... which most of the customers do anyway 'cause they're all very nice. The best part is the whole place is busy the entire time, so time really goes buy rather quickly. Needless to say, the boss told me she would email me after Saturday to figure out how things go from there. She emailed me yesterday asking for references from places I've actually worked (which is listed on my resume... she apparently had better things to do than read it), and I gave her the information. Today I get an email at 4:16 with the following message:

Hi, Peter.  I want to thank you for coming in.  I wasn't able to reach your
references but either way we decided we don't really have a spot for you.
The bartender has to be able to run the place alone, and though you seem
like a great guy and a hard worker, you are still a bit young to be running
the place alone at night, so we need to find a better fit.

Thanks and best of luck.

- E

 I know, right? First of all, she never showed up the two days I actually worked and got paid for, so she only had my reviews from the girls to go off of, and they all loved me and told me I was doing great and gave her good reviews. Even the guy in the kitchen, Edgar, told me I was doing great... he also called me Papi... but that's a story for another day. Also, it's not like there's an entire bar to run at night. I take orders, bring out food, make coffee, pour wine or beer and clean up. I can do that with my eyes closed.... Age should have nothing to do with it. If she tried calling back my references she would see that... Working behind the bar at an actual Italian restaurant with an a la carte menu while there is a party going on AND tables to wait is a lot more work than working at this place... that's why I was so looking forward to it.

Here's the kicker! On Saturday we needed to deposit money at the bank and get more change, so the girl sent me to the Chase bank which the restaurant uses to do that. So she gave me $2,000 to deposit and $450 to get change from. I was really excited then that I had actually gotten the job because they trusted me enough on my second day working (first with this girl) to have me walk about 7 blocks with $2,500 of the restaurant's money to deposit it... granted the owner wasn't there, but still.... Also, when I left on Saturday the girl told me to take the menus home to memorize the prices... 'cause during the day you really have to know everything quickly when you're typing it in. I'm assuming she thought I did well enough to get hired if she had me do those two things... Well, what can you do?

So, looks like I'm back on the job market and I missed a week of craigslist opportunities because I was so sure I had this... And now I'm stuck with two menus from the restaurant. Wonder what I should do with those? Ah, just remembered! When she emailed me Wednesday she had said I'd get $6/hour training rate on Thursday with no tips and then $6/hour training rate and 30% tips on Saturday and if I got hired I'd get $8/hour plus regular tips from then on (that's actually very nice because the menu is pretty expensive and the customers are nice so you make good tips). Thursday the girl paid me $8/hour, and I told her I was only supposed to make 6, but she said no, that's what the owner told her. So I didn't argue.... Saturday me and the other one made 67 dollars tip by the time I was supposed to leave (2:00), so I got $20. It was still busy when I was leaving (and I actually left at like 2:45 because I stayed to help her 'cause I didn't wanna leave her all alone) and she said that normally the hourly pay you get every two weeks, so she didn't give me the hourly one. So I was there from 9:00 til 2:00 and made 20 bucks because we both assumed I was getting hired. And I really don't feel like emailing the boss and saying I need the other 30 bucks, 'cause I'm not a dick like she is. Plus I technically made a little more already on Thursday... but it's a nice place and I'll most likely come in there to eat some time... Whatever, just another day in the life....