Personal Narrative: Developing A Work Ethic

At the beginning of my part-time waitressing position at Isaac’s, I took up more work than I could handle. A Sunday night dinner shift was around the corner, and I was not prepared. Looking back to when I dismissed any forms of constructive criticism or help, I have since realized that accepting advice, taking responsibility, and making changes to my attitude have helped me develop a work ethic where I am more passionate for learning new things. I was still adapting my work environment while also juggling honors and AP school work during my training when my managers instructed me to serve a table on my own for the first time. Furthermore, my newly profound skills at serving have helped a great deal in improving my proficiency at school and everyday life.

On my
last day of training at Isaac’s, I was serving tables with little to no waitressing or communication experience. The need for servers cut my shadowing down, yet I still did not ask questions when they were necessary. I was typing in wrong orders on the computers, bringing food to the wrong tables, dropping plates both full and empty, disrupting the take-out counter, and not serving tables in an efficient manner. Consequently, my manager, Shannon, declared that I would not take any more tables, and I apologized to her for my poor performance.
I wrongly blamed the customers for my mistakes, but the truth was that I did not want to take responsibility.
My job was to represent the restaurant with great customer service, but instead I expected the customers to treat me in a way that I did not deserve. When my first customers left exclaiming that they would refuse to pay, I knew that I could not keep up this habit. My managers were not happy with my recent performance, and Shannon pulled me aside and passed on some very important straightforward advice: stop apologizing and start learning from my mistakes. I blamed the customers or my coworkers or my managers, but I never believed that I could be at fault. My negative attitude hurt me and the people I interacted with, so I knew I had to change my habits. Realizing my mistake of not taking responsibility and not following through with my own plans, I became determined to improve my communication and problem solving skills. I dedicated myself to working harder. This meant concentrating on my tables, greeting them with a smile, and promising to please the customer. Within a year, I was promoted to a trainer position, received a raise, and was considered by my managers as the best server at
Isaac’s.
I am applying what I learned from my time spent serving to other aspects of my life. I find myself asking for help more often while helping others likewise and I have been more involved in class discussions at school. I have also seen improvement in my grades in my math analysis class and have actually started tutoring other students. I set a goal to improve my grade point average as well volunteer for the National Honors Society. To increase my involvement with teachers, I became a grader for my past AP history teacher from junior year. Helping others in my community not only benefits me in my communication skills, but it has also created a deeper respect for the hard workers and authority members around me. If it weren’t for their openness and appreciation for their students, then I may not have succeeded as much as I have today.
In my mind, I had always thanked my manager for her advice, but I realize now that the motivation to go forward with it all came from my own determination. My initial poor performance at Isaac’s kickstarted a complete change in my work ethic in every aspect of my life, and I am now excited for what curveballs the future throws at me next.