The hospitality industry can be ruthless. People are expected to perform miracles while incredibly short-staffed and have to learn to deal with potential criticism when they fail. One catering hero, who shared her story on TikTok, was faced with an impossible situation and somehow used it to teach us all a lesson or two about professionalism.
Lauren aka GrungeKitty on the video app was left all alone at a hotel corporate event for which was hired to bartend when the entire in-house catering staff decided to leave at 2:00pm. On top of minding the bar, which was all she was contractually obligated to do, she was asked to prepare the snack bar, then clear that, prepare the buffet dinner, then clear that as well, and finally, leave the tables set and ready for breakfast the following morning. Oh, and she was also expected to clean, do the dishes, and polish silverware. If this sounds like a ten-person job, it’s because it is.
The disgruntled TikTok creator didn’t specify just how many people left when she arrived at work, but they were, for sure, multiple employees. When asked whether they were possibly walking out in some kind of protest, Lauren said it didn’t feel like it and that the preparation they had already done — leaving the meals for dinner in heaters all day —had her convinced this was just standard practice at that hotel.
Across six videos, the Seattleite explained the details of the story, each one more exasperating than the one that came before it. For instance, she was given the cold shoulder by the hotel front desk when she asked for help, her phone calls to the hotel catering manager were ignored, and she was locked out of the kitchen where the meals and heaters were held because no one remembered to give her a key card.
Some of the over 600 thousand people who tuned into the maddening story time agreed she should have just walked out. “I would walk out. No amount of money is worth that nightmare,” one netizen said. “Runnn! Leave that bridge burning and don’t turn back! They will learn their lesson when the food don’t come out!,” another agreed. Most just advised her to stick to her contract, serve drinks until 6 pm, when she was scheduled to leave, and let the people who messed up deal with the consequences.
But that’s not what Lauren did.
Lauren stayed, found the person in charge of the event, and agreed to close the bar one hour early, so she could roll out dinner. Then she found the hotel key master and got him to open the kitchen, allowing her to serve the buffet. Only then did she leave.
She did not do any clearing or cleaning, and she definitely did not prepare the tables for the next morning. While the dedicated caterer did end up having to perform tasks that were not her responsibility after being handed a nightmarish scenario, Lauren made sure she didn’t leave the event guests hanging.
“A lot of you called me a giant people pleaser, which is probably true, but I am also a professional, and I care about my job,” she argued in a later video. Most comments, however, were complimentary, praising Lauren for her problem-solving skills, but also demanding that she be paid extra for her troubles.
We are sad to report that that was not the case. Lauren confirmed she was only paid the amount that was previously agreed upon with the third-party agency that set her up with the hotel. The last time she offered an update, she was being ghosted by the hotel management after reaching out to them about that extra payment she was owed.
The main reason why Lauren did not walk out that day might have been that she could not afford to lose a day’s pay, but the whole ordeal turned out to be an extraordinary example of her professionalism and why any catering team would be lucky to have her.
At this point, we’re hoping the viral TikTok videos reach the eyes and ears of someone who can make a real difference in Lauren’s life. She deserves it and she needs it. In an unrelated, more recent clip, the mother of school-age kids talked about tapping into savings to cover daily expenses because of the rising cost of, well, everything.
According to Indeed, a bartender in Seattle makes an average of $4,429 per month without tips, which is barely enough to cover the estimated monthly individual costs of a single person living in the Emerald City ($4,054, per cost of living database Expatistan), much less those of someone with dependent children. This is a good reminder that life doesn’t always, or nearly ever, reward the hardest and most honest workers.
Published: Aug 27, 2024 12:53 pm