June 28th, 2018

Thursday night, once again.

My determination to get my personal logistics on hand started to pay off as I clocked in about 10 minutes early for the first time in a while. That’s good. I’ll need to make sure to stick to that. The new point system is… Well. Let’s just put it this way. The comment I made to someone upon reviewing it was “I guess they have too many employees or something….”.

I’ll be the first to admit that I knew how to play the old systtem like a cheap violin, yet I was nowhere as near as bad as some people, who’d take time off right up until alllllmost terminated, and then behave for six months to bring everything back to the OK mark. That’s no longer a thing. The salient points are these :

Termination occurs at 8 ‘infraction’ points now, rather than 12 of previously.
1 point will expire after 90 days. So that’s a total of 4 that can fall off in a given calender year. (Previously points took a full year to expire, but you could set up a nice little rolling cycle that way, with 1 or 2 poins falling off every month. So that’s no longer an option)
On your hire anniversary, you can lose one additional point, for a total of five.
No call/no shows are still blocked as a 4 point in fraction. “Patterns” of 3 absences may be hit for an additional 2 points. The fun rolls onward from there.

It’s like they’re seriously just looking to get rid of people. Ah well. I’m good at playing their little game. Their decision to change the rules won’t mean anything.

So anyway. On my way in, I peek my head into the office and Rickie tells me she has something for me. After confirming that it sadly isn’t a huge stack of money, it does turn out to be $6 worth of free casino food, in ticket/scrip form. Well that’s not horrible, really. I can get a nice salad for dinner for a few days, or a half dozen bowls of soup, or somesuch. I’m pleased. Surprised too. Perfect attendance rewards are very delayed-reaction apparently. This definitely isn’t for anytime recently.

After that, I head down to the cage, get my money and head over to the service bar. Rickie asked me to call down and tell her if anything wasn’t unlocked yet. I did so shortly, informing her that absolutely -nothing- was unlocked. So I did what I could do, which large consisted of ferrying several bucketloads of ice over to fill my ice chest, and enjoying a coffee casually for a half hour, until she was able to get over to where I was and open up the bar so I could sell things. For good or ill, I hadn’t had any customers come by yet, so at least I hadn’t frurstated anyone with the situation.

That left me about an hour before going down to the Lounge to give Cherry her dinner break. I sold stuff. I stocked my appropriate things. I wasn’t planning on being back over on Saturday, and I was feeling vaguely ‘fuckit’, so I wasn’t killing myself with the task. People who do stop by to buy are being reasonably generous.

Dinner hour comes. I give Cherry her break. Guest generosity continues, which is good as we looked just dead as all get out. I took my own break afterwards, then headed back to the service bar.

Mary was serving on my side of the house, and that was nice, as we get along very well after over 9 years working together. Haley’s on the floor too as per usual for a Thursday night, and is tense because we have an old cocktailer coming to join our crew soon. You’ll hear more about her, I’m sure. Lawsy in advance.

Around 10:30pm, I head back to the lounge to give Cherry her other break, and enjoy the lounge tips for another half hour. Morgan shows up to drink, and comments in aside that she’s being kicked out to the floor to cocktail on Saturday night. (This I knew). Then she also noted that Jerry the Younger & Cherry would have the lounge that night, and I’d have the service bar. (This I did -not- know). She was a little indignant about the injustice of it all. I listened thoughtfully. Inside, I was doing the biggest happy dance ever. The band this weekend is our loudest one, and I have an unbroken perfect record of not being anywhere near the lounge when they’re in the house, and I figured that streak was going to break on Saturday. I’m still hesitent, though. This is still rumor-grade info. I make a note to self to quiz Rickie about it later.

Once Cherry returns from break, I gather up my stuff, and head back over to the service bar and start doing some early closing prep. After a couple of trays, I manage to raise Rickie on the office phone, and she tells me to basically get myself ready to take off, so that she can come down and do stuff quickly to effect that.

She shows up after 30 minutes. Apparently an employee made her completely lose her shit. I didn’t ask. None of my biz. It’s a reasonable explanation, though. While she’s packing up and counting my tips for the night, she also basically confirms Morgan’s bitching session without even being asked. I have the service bar to myself on Saturday night.

Glorious.

Closing observations :

I’m growing to dig on this abbreviated Thursday night routine, honestly. Not as much money, but the novelty of not being stuck behind the bar until 2am as I have been for many years, is appreciated.
I still have yet to see anyone beat up the dragon on the Castlevania slot machine near the service bar. A lot of people have been roasted by it, though.
I’ve decided that I’m not going to keep ashtrays out in plain sight anymore. Why encourage people to pollute my air? If they want one, they’ll get one with a smile. I’m just not going to have them sitting out like complementary chips any longer.

Next up : Saturday