The FINANCIAL — Dressed in a black T-shirt, denim trousers and apron she is ready to serve the day’s first customers.
With a smile on her face, she tries to create a positive atmosphere for her clients to make them feel welcome.
She is kept very busy. From 12pm to 2am she is at her busiest, serving 15 tables and at least 50 customers a day without stop and trying not to let her tiredness show. This is Mary, the 20 year old waitress working at Acid bar on Leonidze Street.
“I’ve been working here for a year. For me this work has given me extensive experience in public relations. I have learnt how to be friendly and likeable to people who don’t know me. This work has given me more self-confidence. I love being a waitress,” says Mary.
She spends her time travelling between kitchen and customer. This is necessary when it comes to putting food on the table in a busy restaurant.
Mary is a 3rd year student at Tbilisi State University. She is studying Business and Administration. During her winter holidays, as she had a lot of free time, she decided to find a job and use her time constructively. She sent her CV to every possible place she could think of. The first response she got to her CV was from Acid bar. She leapt at the chance. “I just wanted to have some work experience. It didn’t matter to me where I worked. What I described in my CV as my main interest was getting experience, as I’m actually a workaholic. Of course, I had financial interests too. I did want a salary which would make me more independent and confident. When I say I wanted to be independent, I mean financially independent. I wanted to be able to buy everyday items for myself and not have to ask for the money from my parents. Earning my own money gave me the possibility to think independently,” she said.
15 GEL is her official daily salary. She gets her salary twice a month – at the end of the first 2 weeks of the month and at the end of the month. In total she gets 450 GEL a month. “The tips I get come to much more than my 15 GEL daily salary. So I earn more than enough if it is a good season and we have lots of customers. It also depends on the type of customer. Tourists tend to leave tips. I and another waitress whom I work with, collect all our tips together and at the end of the day divide the amount equally,” explained Mary.
Being good looking and sociable, having good communication skills and understanding the principle of teamwork, speaking at least 2 foreign languages (English and Russian for example) is an incomplete list of the requirements a good waitress should have. Punctuality, responsibility and hard work are essential components of a waitressing job. “In fact all these attributes are required in every job, not just waitressing. When you have relations with clients, of course you need to be sociable. Otherwise the client won’t visit the bar again and it will be your fault. It is all for the purpose of attracting clients, making them satisfied with the service they receive,” said Mary.
There are lots of rules for her and other waitresses: one’s hair must always be tied up, wearing colourful clothes is not allowed, and shoes must be closed-toed. Mary has to be on her feet all day and can’t sit down. “When a waitress is sitting and resting it gives a negative impression to clients. They should feel that you are thinking about them and are ready to answer their every need,” said Mary.
On the bar’s busiest days, Mary has served up to 100 customers or more. 4 waitresses work at Acid in total, but only 2 of them are at work on any given day while the other 2 are on their day off. “Most of the clients come from 12 to 3 o’clock, over lunchtime. Usually after 12am there are no new clients. Before leaving the bar, I check everything over once and then go home,” said Mary.
At home, Mary’s mother, father, brother and brother-in-law are waiting for her. In spite of Mary returning home late at night, her mother does not go to bed until her daughter is home. “My mother doesn’t like the fact that I work. It doesn’t make a difference to her whether I am a waitress or doing a different job. She is unhappy because she sees how tired I am every day. I don’t have time for much of a private life and this makes my mother upset,” she said.
Unlike her mother, her boyfriend didn’t want Mary to work as a waitress for a different reason. He was jealous of Mary’s male customers. “We split up. But my job wasn’t the main reason. He was usually jealous. As I didn’t have much time to spend with him, he would come to the bar and sit and watch me. He didn’t like it when male clients were friendly with me,” said Mary, but explained that her job wasn’t the only reason for why she broke up with her boyfriend.
“My friends don’t like my job either. They think I should work somewhere else where I can keep normal working hours like everyone else. That way I could spend my evenings with them. However getting a job in Georgia is difficult so I’m just grateful that I have one,” said Mary.
She plans to work as a waitress whilst she is still studying. After she graduates from university she plans to find another job – with a higher position, higher salary and one that gives her more free time.
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