The Evening Shift at IHOP

Okay, I thought the morning shift was a little screwed up, and maybe they are, but the evening shift is roughly 72 times worse.

When I went into work yesterday I was the first person on the evening shift to arrive. Ashley came in right after I did. She probably has the most consistantly raunchy mouth I've ever seen. I don't think she likes me very much. I'm not sure what I did to tick her off, but I certainly did something! She cussed me out a couple of times.

J.J. came in next. The two of them got together and started talking about the rumor going around. There's a possiblity that we'll be tested for drugs. I'd be safe, but apparently they wouldn't. They were saying, "The management wouldn't be that stupid. They'd lose most of the evening and graveyard shifts." Hmmm...

They talked constantly about getting wasted this weekend. One of them called the manager a rather foul name because he hadn't let her come to work drunk. ? Go figure.

I've never had so many guys asking for my name and number. It was always, "Hey Anna, how old are you? You're only 17?! Okay, I'll tell him... He wants to know if you have a boyfriend." Just tell him I'm not interested, okay? Thanx. It was just kind of a hard night. Maybe it'll be a little easier tonight, now that I know what to expect.

I think that the hardest part was the fact that they don't think of us as being a team. It's every man out for himself. Dog eat dog. If I see that someone is too busy to clean a table in their section, I clean it. I don't steal their tips, I just clean it. Ashley was shocked at me. She said, "You belong on the day shift. You won't fit in on the night shift." Boy was she right! But it was never my job to fit in, was it? I'm just supposed to do the best I can, whatever shift I'm on, with all the people I'm with.

Poor Ashley doesn't understand that. Maybe that's why she hates me. She doesn't understand why I do what I do. She said, "You're going to get tired of doing everyone elses work. Someday you'll learn to do yours and no one elses." I doubt it. She actually told me not to clean her tables. Ever. The funny thing is that she'll let me clean her floors, just not her tables. My guess is that it's because her tables might have money on them. She doesn't trust me. Maybe one day she will.

I'm praying roughly 72 times harder that God will be with me at work, that the language won't rub off on my thoughts and speech, that I'll stay strong, and that I'll be a beacon of light in a dark place.

Anna