Laughing At Work: Why It's Necessary!
Laughing At Work: Why It's Necessary!
Another life-time ago I was a server at the Olive Garden. If you have ever worked in the hospitality industry (actually, I think it should mandatory, but that's another story) you understand the meaning of stress. I'm talking about the face-to-face kind of stress. Meals arriving late, customers repeatedly changing orders, dropped plates of food, crashing into other servers, drunk customers, and all the rest! You have your own horror stories, I'm sure.
In such a tense environment humor plays a significant role. It's a release mechanism. Humor can bond employees. Besides, laughing is very healthy for you. I had an occasion to share my sense of humor with both staff and customers...April Fool's Day.
Closing a restaurant and getting it ready for the following day can be tedious, at the very
least. As my closing partner, Bill, and I prepared the tables for lunch the following day, it occurred
to us that the next day was April Fool’s Day. Suddenly, I had an idea.
Each table had to have four sets of cutlery rolled up in red napkins. We called these rollups.
A manager would inspect each table in the restaurant prior to letting us go home. So, you wanted to make sure your closing duties were complete, otherwise you could be a while longer. I explained my idea and Bill endorsed my plan.
While Bill would take the manager around checking tables, I would follow them and replace all the roll-ups with empty rolled up red napkins. I then informed a waiter who would be working the lunch shift what we did and where we hid the real roll-ups. However, to add more excitement, I then moved the real roll-ups to another undisclosed location in the restaurant. In other words, the lunch staff will be scrambling looking for the cutlery during the lunchtime rush. April Fools!!!
I was working the dinner shift on April Fool’s Day and looked forward to hearing what happened earlier that day.
No sooner did I get to work when a waiter came up to me and flatly stated that I was to have a meeting with Anna, the manager that day. You must understand that Anna was the most feared manager! She was the only female manager and took her job very seriously. I was instructed to take a seat in an empty part of the restaurant and wait. Perhaps my joke went too far. A knot grew in my stomach.
Things were not looking very good. I took my seat and waited, anxiously. Anna arrived, straight faced and very serious. She held a pink form in her hand. Oh, crap! She sat directly across from me and proceeded to replay the chaos my stunt created at lunch. I was in deep trouble. My job was in jeopardy. I went too far, this time. Anna then reiterated company policy and the subsequent disciplinary actions, in cases like mine. Here it comes, I thought.
Anna asked that I read the pink form, sign it, then leave. She slid it across the table. I slowly reached for it, holding my breath all the while. I turned it over and read the following, "April Fools!”
At my relief she explained that most people, customers and staff, found the prank very humorous.
Then, she instructed me to stand at the door and wait for Bill, my accomplice, to arrive for work.
With a somber expression on my face, I was to show him to a table to wait for Anna to dish out her
brand of punishment. Bill and I had no idea Anna had such a sense of humor. It was brilliant! In fact, I
had a new respect for Anna and her challenges at work.
Another life-time ago I was a server at the Olive Garden. If you have ever worked in the hospitality industry (actually, I think it should mandatory, but that's another story) you understand the meaning of stress. I'm talking about the face-to-face kind of stress. Meals arriving late, customers repeatedly changing orders, dropped plates of food, crashing into other servers, drunk customers, and all the rest! You have your own horror stories, I'm sure.
In such a tense environment humor plays a significant role. It's a release mechanism. Humor can bond employees. Besides, laughing is very healthy for you. I had an occasion to share my sense of humor with both staff and customers...April Fool's Day.
Closing a restaurant and getting it ready for the following day can be tedious, at the very
least. As my closing partner, Bill, and I prepared the tables for lunch the following day, it occurred
to us that the next day was April Fool’s Day. Suddenly, I had an idea.
Each table had to have four sets of cutlery rolled up in red napkins. We called these rollups.
A manager would inspect each table in the restaurant prior to letting us go home. So, you wanted to make sure your closing duties were complete, otherwise you could be a while longer. I explained my idea and Bill endorsed my plan.
While Bill would take the manager around checking tables, I would follow them and replace all the roll-ups with empty rolled up red napkins. I then informed a waiter who would be working the lunch shift what we did and where we hid the real roll-ups. However, to add more excitement, I then moved the real roll-ups to another undisclosed location in the restaurant. In other words, the lunch staff will be scrambling looking for the cutlery during the lunchtime rush. April Fools!!!
I was working the dinner shift on April Fool’s Day and looked forward to hearing what happened earlier that day.
No sooner did I get to work when a waiter came up to me and flatly stated that I was to have a meeting with Anna, the manager that day. You must understand that Anna was the most feared manager! She was the only female manager and took her job very seriously. I was instructed to take a seat in an empty part of the restaurant and wait. Perhaps my joke went too far. A knot grew in my stomach.
Things were not looking very good. I took my seat and waited, anxiously. Anna arrived, straight faced and very serious. She held a pink form in her hand. Oh, crap! She sat directly across from me and proceeded to replay the chaos my stunt created at lunch. I was in deep trouble. My job was in jeopardy. I went too far, this time. Anna then reiterated company policy and the subsequent disciplinary actions, in cases like mine. Here it comes, I thought.
Anna asked that I read the pink form, sign it, then leave. She slid it across the table. I slowly reached for it, holding my breath all the while. I turned it over and read the following, "April Fools!”
At my relief she explained that most people, customers and staff, found the prank very humorous.
Then, she instructed me to stand at the door and wait for Bill, my accomplice, to arrive for work.
With a somber expression on my face, I was to show him to a table to wait for Anna to dish out her
brand of punishment. Bill and I had no idea Anna had such a sense of humor. It was brilliant! In fact, I
had a new respect for Anna and her challenges at work.
Comments