YOUNG HEARTS run free.

In the month of July, there were so much changes, decision making and on the spot thinking.

First of all, being given too much freedom to choose which outlet or area to go to in July has ended up giving me some headache. I was given the choice of going to Baan Talay, the Thai Restaurant, Xana Beach Club or Loy Krathong Lobby Bar. They even let me cross-train into Baan Talay’s Kitchen (but I was afraid that I might burn down the kitchen with no culinary experience).My original schedule was that I was supposed to be trained in the office, which is the back-of-house admin side, of the F&B department. However, plans do not keep up with changes. I was posted to Baan Talay in the end.

I found that I started to learn nothing new after doing front-line services for 3 months in different outlets, as I got used to the outlet’s service sequence and standard operating procedure in no time. Instead, the bombshell which I had to juggle was that I was given 1 week to familiarize myself with ALL the different roles in the outlet, ranging from hostess, captain, food runner and even cashier. Because after one week, I was supposed to take on the role of Assistant Outlet Manager for the rest of the month. It’s not an easy task for me being in a new outlet when I have not gotten close with the rest of the team. Moreover, in Thailand, they talk a lot about respecting whoever is older than you, so to the rest, I am still young and don’t know anything. Fortunately, they all understand that I am not power-hungry and that I am just here to learn. My outlet manager is very willing to teach me and my colleagues are very supportive.

But I have to admit that out of everything this month, what challenges me the most is handling guest complaints. I have no experience in that but on the hierarchy I am the assistant outlet manager, or theoretically at least. So what I feared the most and of course this phrase is nothing new to any Singaporean, “I want to see your manager.” @_@