I worked at a restaurant in New Zealand and my manager left for his holiday. I was like a manager though my English was poor. You can check out Working Holiday Story 10 here.
My manager went back to his country
If I remember correctly, my manager went on holiday for about three weeks. We had three members, and at most, two people were on simultaneously. One of them was working on weekends. A guy came to work with me from the same owner of another restaurant. I was only a regular member of the restaurant while my manager was away, so I needed to look after it.
I was like a manager
I was like a manager. I called a company to order a specific kind of food. My English was poor, but I was able to do this. To order other foods and stuff, I reported to my manager about what we needed.
I was worried before my manager was away and I was way more worried and nervous as like a manager.
Problem No.1
We used paper time sheets where our boss checked our hours. We got running out of those. We usually got new ones from another restaurant, but they refused to give us some. I needed to print the sheet.
I didn’t have my own transport, so I could go somewhere I could print. I called some shops and asked how much it costed to print. I needed to get sheets by Monday, but most of the shops I could print were closed on weekends. I learned I could print at a shop inside the same food court, so on Monday, I went to the shop only to know they didn’t do the service. I didn’t have time. I would be on my own to open our restaurant, so I couldn’t leave it. I needed to find somewhere, went there, and came back in time before I got to work.
I searched Google Maps for a potential place. I found a place open now. I called them and questioned if they did the service. They said yes. I delightfully ran there and got 100 copies. I was able to reach my workplace in time, fill out new time sheets, and send them to my manager. I was relieved. I had been really nervous because there was a language barrier and no one to rely on.
Problem No.2
This was my fault. When we got a delivery of food, we checked if we got everything on the list. The delivery company often forgot to send us some stuff and my manager called them to get a refund. I found out about 3 foods were missing, called them, and got refunded successfully.
A few days later, we got to know another 1 item was missing. I called them, but some days had already passed and the customer service didn’t handle the problem. I needed to talk with a higher-class member of the company. Don’t forget my English was really poor. It was still hard to understand English natives even when they spoke slowly.
I was really nervous because I didn’t know I could handle this problem with my poor English communication skills. My manager was on holiday and didn’t want to spare time. I was asked to sort it out on my own. I talked with a person. I was not sure if I made myself understood, but she said reporting items missing a few days later was unprecedented. She came over to our restaurant and said she could solve it.
Of course, that was my problem, but I want to emphasize that I was unlucky. I sometimes told my manager an item was missing. This time, 4 items were missing at the same time. It was the first time and it happened when I was a manager for just 3 weeks of my 1 year of working period.
Problem No.3
I reported to my manager what foods we needed to order, but he ordered less than our needs. We didn’t run out of our main menus, so I went to the restaurant of the same owner several times and took food to our restaurant. I felt like my manager was just mean. I was always nervous that we could finish the day without running out of our main food.
End
My manager ended up coming back to our restaurant and I was relieved.
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