The restaurant dream

It has been five years nearly since I have even worked in a restaurant but the other night I had "the dream."

I had just started some serving job, my section was full, I didn't know where anything was, and no one would help me.

I've had some variation of that dream for about 13 years now.

Does every restaurant employee have it or was I just badly scarred by the years I spent slinging hash?

Ten years removed from my days in the 'biz and I still have it as well. In mine I am the only server on the floor. We seat one table after another. I go to each table to get drink order and I never make it back to the first table.

I have similar dreams about UPS.

My wife and i met at one of our mutliple stops on the restaurant serving/bartending scene. We both have been out of the biz for years now and we both still have "The Dream" occasionally. I think like flash backs from a bad acid trip it will be with us forever!

Oh, and showing up for "dream work" pantsless. Or serving tables out of your own bedroom, feeling bad for inappropriate appearance. And knowing there's no way you'll be able to keep up with your twenty table section.

AHHHHH!!!! I Hate the Dream...mine's similar to Ron's, but in mine all my tables just keep talking to me, and I can't get away, if I do I go to another and they do the same time while tables pile up and pile up...the overwhelming feeling is oh crap I'm going to get in so much trouble...

It's funny, because the worst thing that can happen is you get fired and get another serving job elsewhere, but I think the fear of dealing with with how upset everyone including customers/bosses etc...would actually be in that situation just that night is waaaaay scarier than the prospect of actually losing your job...

I think like flash backs from a bad acid trip it will be with us forever!

I can only speak from the kitchen side of things, (and i'm still in the biz);
but i'd equate it more to 'shell-shock' post war.

i've had dreams that i've gotten fired for pretty weird reasons, some were so vivid i'd wake up
the next day confused as to why i'd get fired over such things. (seriously thinking i was fired for a minute or two)

I have a back of the house version of the dream from when I worked the line. In that one the tickets just keep pouring into the window and everyone is only for food from my station.

I have a back of the house version of the dream from when I worked the line. In that one the tickets just keep pouring into the window and everyone is only for food from my station.

I'm sure you've worked when that actually has happened Ron.

I think we all have.

It has been five years nearly since I have even worked in a restaurant but the other night I had "the dream."

I had just started some serving job, my section was full, I didn't know where anything was, and no one would help me.

I've had some variation of that dream for about 13 years now.

Does every restaurant employee have it or was I just badly scarred by the years I spent slinging hash?

Perhaps this publication would have helped...I consider it a must-read for anyone who enters the food service industry or UPS for that matter...

Stress For Success

In my back of the house version I am working at Denny's during the bar rush and I am the only server or cook there.

I did that a time or two in real life. It wasn't fun.

In another dream the hostess is seating me and the entire place fills up and I am the only server, but rather than go on a wait the restaurant somehow gains a balcony for extra seating.

I have a back of the house version of the dream from when I worked the line. In that one the tickets just keep pouring into the window and everyone is only for food from my station.

I'm sure you've worked when that actually has happened Ron.

I think we all have.

Yep, there was one lunch shift that I will NEVER forget.

The only time I've had the "dream" it seems ,is before a big event like Derby or New Year's. It's usually the same. Only bartender and 1000 people wanting a drink at the same time. Oh yeah and out of the stuff they ask for.ANXIETY! Bright side though, in your head you've already experienced the worst thing that could ever happen that night.

I used to work for someone who yelled at us servers so much I would have recurring nightmares of just them following me around at work and criticizing everything I did constantly...not naming names tho!

Worst. Job. Ever!

How about these....

On New Years Eve... The dishwasher walks out, one of the key line guys shows up wasted and the sewer backs up and the kitchen is covered in 2 inches of nasty sewer water right about the time that 150 or so people show up at the same time because the owner overbooked and dosen't understand how to space out the times.

On Breeder's Cup Eve the power goes out right before service starts and the first 100 people are fed out of a kitchen with no lights, dish-machine or exhaust fan. (Thank goodness for those gas burners and ovens though)

These nightmares are enough to scare anyone out of a deep slumber, but they really happened to me.