It Ain't Easy/ Training II

 So we just had a new server that couldn't make it through training. He was a nice guy, seemed intelligent, was polite, but he just couldn't cut it. Like my friend said, you can lead a horse to water, this horse was refusing to drink. Or something like that.
 I guess this guy looked good on paper. But when, on the first day, he tied his apron on OVER his vest, I knew he wasn't restaurant material. I mean, come on, you can't even put an apron on properly, what else are you going to screw up? Here are the major server points that this guy missed.

Menu Knowledge
 This is huge. I don't care what restaurant you work in, sales is a major part of the business. Simply put, if you don't know about it, you can't sell it. We give people all the information they need. They get detailed menu descriptions and then spend time on the line in order to see the food. This guy didn't do so well on his tests. Which we couldn't quite get because he's a teacher. Interesting. Even when I told him EXACTLY what he needed to read and know for his next test, he did badly. Are you kidding? Either you can't or won't learn what you need to. This guy took over an hour to take his final test. Maybe he was making it appear that he was trying.Even with taking an hour, he didn't do so well. Which is mind-boggling, because he had been training for well over a week and still couldn't get anything. What??? It's not that awful, we have about 15 other servers on the floor who managed to pass their tests. After a week of training and you still don't have quite a grip on the menu, I'm inclined to think that you aren't taking this whole job thing too seriously.

Time Management
  Um, this was a big, fat NO. It's completely understandable on the first or second day for a trainee to be a little slow with the flow of the restaurant. The first and second days you are just following, and LEARNING how the restaurant works. After these days, you should have a pretty good grip on how the restaurant works. By day five, you should be able to completely run a section by yourself. This did not happen. We had three tables and he was stuck at the first two-top. I don't think it registered that we even HAD two other tables. I would say, " ok, we have to hustle and get these drinks for this table because this six-top just got sat and we need to greet them.". He would say, "ok". And then nothing. No lie, just stand there. So then I would say, "ok, so what do you need to do?". No answer. Me: "Let's ring in these drinks and greet this table". Him: "ok".
 So we go to ring in the TWO drinks,( which he has gotten confused about what they ordered ), and when we FINALLY get them rung in, this jag off starts heading off to the bar. NO! You have completely forgotten that there are six people waiting on a server. You toddle off to the bar and keep taking care of your little two-top. At this point this is my money you are messing with, and the fact that you have no idea about what you are doing has completely ticked me off.
 And that is how day five went. He just would not listen. At all. Which brings me to the next biggie.

Listening
 You have to listen to the trainers; they are teaching you. You have to listen to the guests; they are your bread and butter. When I say that we have to get this coffee quick, then get the coffee quick. When you go to a table, and they ask you what the fish of the day is, don't answer with, "can I start you off with an appetizer?". That really happened. The table looked at him like he had grown two extra heads.

 So we couldn't keep this guy. Obviously he thought he was smart enough to play the serving game, and obviously, he was not. We've had others like him and they have managed to weed themselves out. Thank goodness. And you wonder why I hate training.