p. 1

silent service my first job was as a waitress at a popular restaurant chain after i had been there a few years management shifted hands the company went corporate along with acquiring a new name brentley s started to undergo many other changes a different menu and a new approach to serving were some of the first attempts at becoming a fine dining restaurant of course this involved many other subtle changes as well for instance no more five dollars off any two entrée coupons in the local paper air fresheners in the bathrooms and the most taxing of all the idea that a clean and/or ironed uniform was actually expected on a daily basis although we still had green and white checkered table clothes and an array of classics hit songs that played continuously throughout the day hinting that a jukebox might be hidden in the back somewhere i guess customers were just supposed to over look the picnic blanket draped over their table and resist the urge to break out in song when marvin gaye s ain t no mountain high enough started to play aside from the cosmetic changes we were and weren t making there was another important piece to our attempt at being high class a little thing called silent service when i thought about silent service visions of unhappy wal-mart cashiers came to mind the type where you go to pay and the person swiping and bagging your bargain buys never says a word in fact you begin to wonder if their facial expression can change and whether this person has ever cried or smiled in their life did these people get the same tutorial on how to be a silent server one would think and because i didn t particularly like or appreciate such alienation the notion of not speaking or engaging in as little conversation as possible while waiting on a table didn t exactly appeal.

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p. 2

in fact we weren t just supposed to not talk to our tables we were expected to be little magicians magically make the guest s drink refills appear and immediately accommodate any other need we saw apparently our pens were supposed to double as wands and in our spare time we should practice our stealth mode techniques often times before the shift began we d have line up line up is comparable to the gathering football players have before the big game you know where they all huddle around the coach as he spews game strategy except we weren t big muscular men covered in two feet of padding and there was no signature chant to conclude our meeting these changes also brought a new manager a rather average man named julio vasquez who only became intimidating when he spoke his voice was loud and could carry and even when he was done speaking his words would hang in the air around you if you had heard the way he spoke about these refinements you would never know our actions weren t directly related to a state championship he preached of silent service with such fervor that you d almost believe in it it was the key to fine dining and ultimately the gateway to better tips you d believe in it until you stepped out onto the floor and got a gander at the clientele obviously they hadn t undergone the same metamorphosis while walking in through the doors to work this evening i m optimistic .it s been about a month now since we ve implemented our silent service strategy of business and things are going well it s a thursday night business should be good.

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p. 3

within moments of entering the restaurant i m already standing in line up i have yet to see julio and am delighted to think of his absence when suddenly he strolls around the corner happiness to haplessness in mere seconds i can tell it s going to be a long shift julio then promptly takes his spot up front and begins to drone on about how we need vast improvement for the most part i start to block out what he is saying i see his lips move but somehow hear nothing a tactic i ve developed over the years this is mostly because once he starts one of his line up speeches the only thing missing is a pulpit and choir but then suddenly the word contest strikes my interest i listen tonight ladies and gentlemen marks the start of our secret shopper contest it may not seem like it but this is a big deal each of you at some point tonight will get sat a secret shopper from the brentley s corporation they have a very detailed checklist of what they expect from a brentley s server you will receive 10 points for each task you carry out you are all familiar with the things they re looking for such as offering our newest drinks up-selling bottled water describing our latest dishes and the best part is the server with the most points will win $200 cash a free meal and a star pin julio continues talking i don t continue listening this was it my chance to get a fifth star i m one of only two servers with the distinction of being a four star server this very fact left only one person as my competition guillermo guillermo or gill as we called him for short is the only other person that has actually been here long enough to be a decent waiter actually he is the best and this makes me want to beat him even more he s somewhat of a legend at brentley s stories

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p. 4

of him holding down ten table sections and parties of thirty have given him a status comparable to indiana jones i glance over at old gill and notice the fire in his eyes i see his brentley s service pin pinned onto his perfectly pressed shirt it reads serving you proudly since january 2004 while mine states may 2004 of course this is only a five month difference but gill acts like those months count as years with line up finally over we all scatter i see him approaching me but don t look i m not in the mood for his antics hey there susan i reckon tonight we ve got a competition on our hands he says with his piercing accent it s suspected he hailed from somewhere in texas no one really knows his past remains a mystery gill i don t care about that kind of stuff i don t need to win a contest to feel good about myself i say without even turning my head if you say so it s not like you have a chance anyway we both know that star has my name written all over it he starts to walk away and then says take a look at the tip report yet just loud enough for me to hear the hate boils inside me he disappears and i immediately walk over to the tip report and it says what i expect guillermo rojas susan marsh avg tip 24.0 avg tip 23.9 good i think this is just the motivation i need.

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p. 5

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