I just got a job as a hostess in an upscale Japanese restaurant, and I'm really doubting myself. I failed the first test on table numbers on the second day but passed it yesterday (it's a really wierd layout), and he keeps going on about how most people learn the layout and seating assignments in 10 minutes, whereas I'm still shaky after 3 days. I've been studying my ass off (menu, regulations, employee manual, etc), but I'm still not real great at it. Bookwise, I've pretty much memorized the handbooks, but on the battlefield...
Maybe I'm some sort of idiot savant like my uncle. He has a Ph.D in artifical intelligence but couldn't keep a retail job, pay his bills on time, etc until he got to his career and got married. I try hard to learn, but somehow I can never learn as quickly as they want me to. At my last job at a nursing home, I was put on orientation again because the coworkers would tattletale on everything while they sat around and talked ontheir cell phones, so they were shooting themselves in the feet. I quit because there was too much bitching and no offers to help (ex. I was not allowed to lift people by myself, but the nurse manager and nurses would encourage the other aides not to help me). In almost every job I've had, the dreaded question will invariably come up, "Are you sure that this job is within your abilities?"
Who here has worked as hostess/waitress? How long did it take to get used to the fast-paced work? Most of my jobs in the past were healthcare-related, so this is totally new to me. Am I dumb and a slow learner, or is it just common for everyone to forget that they were new once and eat their young?



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