A bit more experience with service workers

As in a previous post from a couple years ago, when I say "service workers", I don't mean people in non-manufacturing jobs. I mean people that do personal services. Drivers, waiters, etc. Yes, I guess I could say servant, but I can't really bring myself to do that.

Anyway, a few interesting experiences. There are a couple waiters here at the hotel, one breakfast and one dinner, whom we see most of the time. They pretty much know what we want and we get used to the way they do things. I mentioned in the previous post that there was a different guy waiting on me at dinner and my pizza was quite different than expected. What I forgot to mention is that if you order a beer, the waiters always hold the bottle out just like you were ordering wine. I have looked at the label and said, "yes, that's it". The guy last night was not having any of that and wanted me to know that he was holding it out so I could check the TEMPERATURE! Aha! That makes sense. He was probably willing to tell me that because last night it was *very* cold.

There is another waiter hanging around who is always the eager beaver. He seems to go around in circles just so he can walk by me and say "Good morning, sir". And he always seems so overly pleased when you acknowledge. This morning, I ran into him on the grounds of the hotel where I had stopped to look at my iPhone for something. The usual good morning and "are you going to breakfast sir?" Yes. Off he whooshes, and sure enough he is at the breakfast room to open the door for me when I get there. Then he bussles around getting my coffee. I had gotten up to look at the omlet table to see what could be put into it, so I ordered directly from the chef. I don't know if The Beaver was disappointed, but when it was done, he took the omlet and ran over to the buffet to garnish the plate with some tomatoes and potatoes (cooked, so ok). I was amused, but the cooked tomatoes were really good. Next he wanted to know if I was going to read the paper some more. Not sure what that was all about. Maybe he would have cleared all the settings off the table for me. Anyway, a bit later I asked him if it was ok to take my coffee cup outside to sit. Oh, yes sir! Started to walk out with it and he rushes up with a tray (I should have expected it) to carry the coffee for me. Actually that is probably a good thing since I had a newspaper too and had to go down a steep flight of stairs to the tables outside.

And one more story: At work during my training sessions, coffee is usually delivered outside the training room for a break, but I don't always know when or if it is coming. A couple days ago, the coffee was not there when I chose to have a break, so I went to the nearby "pantry" where my company has espresso machines, etc. There are also tenders constantly in and out cleaning, picking up and delivering mugs, replacing coffee supplies, etc. This time as I walked into a particularly small place there were 3 of these folks doing stuff. One of them saw I was going for coffee and insisted on doing it for me. He made a capuccino, tweaked it with a little milk, steamed it a bit and then took another mug and proceeded to pour the coffee back and forth between the two mugs which did a nice job of mixing and foaming it. He handed it to me, I tasted it, and it was delicious! I told him so, and he (and the rest of the staff) were VERY pleased.

That's it for this time...I'm coming back home in a couple days, so no guarantee of more posts for a while!