Counter Girl

Chatty Cathy is a just-turned-18 redhead with an immature air about her who, you guessed it, loves to talk.

Cathy has a job position which is new for The Cafe, working the counter.  What she is supposed to do is seat people, keep track of the seating charts, ring up checks, and take care of retail orders.  Since there isn't a lot of that right now, she does a whole lot of nothing.  We ask her to do some things for us, like pour waters for a table or something of the sort, but she mostly just stands around talking or singing to herself.  

When I am working, no matter the job, I always like to stay busy.  If I'm on the clock, I only feel content if I'm doing SOMETHING.  So I'm always looking out over The Cafe to make sure that customers aren't looking for assistance and everything is running smoothly.  Cathy prefers to talk to me while I'm doing this.  While I'm typing in complicated orders on the register (which she should really be doing), she talks to me.  While I'm trying to make three different pots of loose leaf tea, each with their own sides of lemon, honey, milk, a timer, tea cups, saucers, and tea spoons, she talks to me.  I'm good at multitasking, but I CAN'T reply to you while I'm trying to keep track of orders in my head!  Cathy's nice enough, don't get me wrong.

There's a small tip jar on the front counter, and she frequently checks this while customers are around, which I personally find quite tacky.  She complains all the time about how there are no dollar bills in it, and makes a big ordeal out of counting out the change in her tips before she leaves.  CATHY, you are not considered a tipped employee!  You are paid minimum wage!  I will soon have to start relying on tips, and if she continues this, I will go crazy.  If you are unhappy with the tips you are getting, pay more attention to the customers who are walking in the door.  If I don't have anything that I need to do right away and a customer comes in, wandering to the front counter and not sure of whether they want to eat here, to go, or whatever, I always try to hook them in, offering a menu for them to look at, a to-go menu if they'd like to return, showing them the pastries in the display case, answering questions... she does none of this, and is quite abrupt with the customers.

Cathy, once you take orders, make sure the kitchen is on top of your food, type in your own checks, serve your food, check on customers, make complicated drinks, and bus tables, THEN you can complain to me about have no dollars in your tip jar.

I sound like a jaded waitress already.  Success.