Starting Work

2005-05-22 at 1:47 a.m.

Today was my first week at work. Monday and Tuesday I had to go to induction for the hotel company which mostly involved sitting in a conference room discussing licensing laws, food hygiene, the company ideals, that sort of thing. Wasn't terribly interesting though I have discovered that if you want a career in the hotel trade then Thistle Hotels are obviously the way to go as they are VERY keen on training their staff, giving them qualifications etc. First day we all got quite excited because they took us to Chez Gerard for lunch but the second day saw us in the staff canteen which wasn't nearly so nice, sadly. I met a couple of people who were to work at the same hotel as me - Kostas and Stacey.

My first day I started at 6:30am which was quite a change from my normal waking-up-at-4-pm day! I had to get up at quarter to five and get the tube to work which was strangely busy at that time in the morning. I met my two supervisors, Ravi and Jacek, both of whom are quite nice. They showed me and Stacey how to do the breakfast things but fortunately I'd done this before at a hotel in Edinburgh so it wasn't completely strange. The first person I met was Jacek who showed me round a bit, Stacey was late and Ravi started slightly later. I think they were both on duty because we were starting to be honest. It was quite busy but I didn't make any heinous mistakes. We had to stay until 3pm that day, which was tiring. The worst part was that my feet were AGONY and have been all week though I'm assured I will get used to it and it won't hurt so much soon. We had to set up for lunch and then serve, and some businessmen immediately made themselves pariahs by staying an hour later than they were supposed to and stopping the staff from taking their breaks.

The second and third day I was on a split shift 6:30-11:30am and then 6:00-10:00pm which was surprisingly good actually. It meant I did the breakfast and then got to go home before the pain in my feet got to being more than a scream, and sleep for a few hours. Evening shift I thought would be difficult but it wasn't really, very quiet. I wound up polishing cutlery for hours and hours though. I got to have a good chat with Jacek my supervisor though, and he seems nice, and is good about remembering to say when I get things right (something Ravi forgets) as well as telling me when I've done something wrong. Only problem is that he sometimes seems a bit abrupt or hostile, and I think it is because his native language isn't English and the translation comes across badly. Speaking of which I'm going to have to be careful about what words I use, because I talked about a "bun" the other day and the chef hadn't the faintest what I was talking about, because he only knows the term "bread rolls". He said that the staff can understand one another well because they are all speaking broken or simplified English to each other but as a native speaker I speak too quickly and use unfamiliar words (and it doesn't help that I'm from the North and occasionally use dialect words).

Still, its been okay, and will be better once my feet stop hurting so much. I've knackered my shoes and need to buy some more but can't seem to find the shop, and also need more shirts and more black trousers. I've been thinking about buying a waistcoat as well, so I have a pocket, otherwise I have to stick a pen through the buttonholes of my shirt.

Today I went up to town to look at waistcoats - none of them fit - then to look for new shoes. Unfortunately I hurt my feet on brand-new-last-week shoes I had not worn before and now I have blisters. I couldn't find any new shirts or trousers either so the day was a bit of a washout. I did find two new books though and came home to change my shoes and then went to a new pub (it was cup final you see) and drank many lagers (about seven) before coming home. I quite enjoyed that.

However my physics exam is on monday so I have to revise tomorrow while the parents are away.


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