just to follow up

Yesterday I mentioned that when we are shorthanded at the restaurant,
we are guaranteed to be busy...as we were Friday night. Well, last night
we had enough help, and of course, not busy at all other than a couple
of minor pops before and after the circus at the arena. oh well. It did
give me a little time to chit chat with Michelle and Fran, who made an
appearance last night. I had to break to them the bad news about their
fave waitress Shaniqua, who is no longer working at the restaurant.
She was the waitress who did not show up on this past chaotic Friday.
As it was the 3rd incident with her either not showing up, or leaving
early without a manager's OK, her days at the restaurant are over. I
am a bit upset about this, as she did a bang up job, at least the nights
I worked with her. But a no call - no show on a Friday night is simply
unacceptable; I just can't believe that during the 9 and 1/2 hours that
I was there she could not find the time to call me with whatever issue
she had. I was able to convince the other manager to give Shaniqua a
2nd chance the previous time there was an incident with her, but I am
not going to do that again for her, no matter how much I will miss her.
Even sadder will be the regular customers who will miss her, such as
Fran and Michelle, the Thompsons, and maybe most of all, Whistler
Tom and his wife Marion. They came in a couple of times this weekend;
poor Marion was not having one of her better days, telling me that she
couldn't take care of cooking and housework due to trying to raise her
babies. Just for those who may be reading me for the first time, Marion
is 87 years old and her (and Tom's) kids are in their 5o's. Sad. Shaniqua
took such good care of her 'babies', as she called them, putting Marion's
beer in a wine glass as she preferred, splitting the waffle Tom would
order in two, making sure their soup had more broth than veggies or
noodles, and checking to see if their bacon was extra crispy! I just hope
I can get another waitress to step up and take care of them and their
special needs...it won't be the same or quite as well done maybe, but we
must move on, as, unfortunately, the days of ghetto fabulous are, at
least for now, done at our dining establishment. Shaniqua was a breath
of fresh air, or a breath of air freshener anyway! (recall the night I
recounted here when we had those customers who very obviously
forgot to wear deodorant and/or shower for several days, and she went
right over and sprayed them - vanilla essence I believe!)