Saturday night I spent some time on the patio with one of the newer servers at my restaurant. He is low on seniority, but has spent more years serving than I have. I estimate total the two of us have between three and four decades of serving experience. I am pretty high on seniority at my restaurant, but nevertheless we were in neighboring sections on the patio on a reasonably busy Saturday night watching the rain. After nearly four hours (five for him) we were sent home without receiving a table.
I work at a restaurant that has a set schedule. They take it a step further by rotating sections by an established system. This means that seniority and experience do not factor into what station I have on a given night. I know in advance what station I will have, what sidework is mine, and how likely it is that my station will be cut. This has both positive and negative impacts on how I view my job. Today I will discuss the negatives and tomorrow I will address the benefits of having a set schedule.
Here are some of the drawbacks of set schedules:
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