2.5.2019

2.5.2019

I've super sleep deprived typing this so there may be errors and disorganized thoughts.

-Home
I'm supposed to move into my house February 26th. The mortgage lender still hasn't been providing me a monthly payment I am satisfied with and I'm afraid I might have to make a decision to walk away from it, which may or may not put me in a predicament. My current property manager is pretty easy to work with but he also has to make an effort to rent my apartment if I plan to leave. I've barely packed as well. So the culmination of everything would really impact on learning anything new for SGDQ. But, I'm not too worried about that. I don't really have anything else to say on that matter.

-Work
I started my new job in September and a week ago had some fleeting thoughts about it. First of all, the entire staff was pooling tips and dividing it in portions based on how many hours you worked and what position you worked. The servers and bartenders (this is the first restaurant I've worked where I wasn't a server, I'm a foodrunner) decided, with union approval, to break the tip pool. So now my team is reliant on a percentage of servers' food sales. It started yesterday and it's hard to say what's to come of it (whether I make less or more money). Based on Monday, it feels maybe around the same. The other current problem is that they are scheduling a part-timer, full-time hours and creating an additional body, therefore thinning our groups' tip pool further. I guess I'm just going to simplify it and say that the money I was making Sept-Jan hasn't been the same and I'm not expecting it, or to improve. From my estimates, my money earned is going down around 20%. I get it, the service industry is very volatile. But this drastic change shouldn't have happened.

My casino has an employee dining room where all the employees of the restaurants and venues go to eat (free meal per union contract during our paid hour break). Someone stopped me and asked me where I worked and told me where she worked, introduced me to her coworkers, which led to me asking if they were hiring servers. Which is honestly my true passion. Foodrunning is such a boring job for me. I literally stand around most of my 8 hour shift. We usually get busy about 2 hours of the shift. They told me the name of their boss and I swung by yesterday to introduce myself. He told me to come back tomorrow (today) and sit down and chat.

Yesterday I weighed some factors about this place and compared it to my current job. New place has a great location, it's literally off the strip, which is prime walk-in value. It is casual dining, but priced well. They are small, yet high volume. They usually run 5 servers (my part-time job runs 24 on a busy night, it's fucking nuts). Current job is fine dining, slow, low-medium volume, great company but advancement to server could take a long time. And I know the money the servers at my job make okay money, not good money for fine dining, because our lack of volume.

 An important piece of information for servers is also asking fellow servers how much they may make a night during their shift. And if the information is true, it could be the next level money wise. It's a risk too though, because sometimes people don't tell the full truth, or they exaggerate. But I would be serving again at a restaurant right of the strip in a union contracted job. I know strip-based restaurants are always busy because my part-time job is located off strip and we have almost never had a day where it was just dead. So basically, this could be "the job" of jobs.

So, I told the manager I would stop by today after work. I made sure I got off early and stopped by the fedex in my casino to print my updated resume. I waited a while per usual and we just hit it off. I'm so used to being aggressive to get a job somewhere and the manager just... hates their life, isn't helpful, or cares at all. I wouldn't say we became best friends, but we had the connection that people work really well together do. We talked about the company, what separates me from other people, how the union rules can suck for those that abuse them, and even some personal history (both originally from New Jersey). The 45 minute interview ended with him asking me how I would transfer (if you're an employee of the casino, you're not allowed to work for two separate venues and you have to try to transfer [min. 6 months of working at one place]). Although, I work for a company in the casino that is under union contract, I am not a casino employee. So I asked him to start up a requisition for me and I would go down to on-call at my job. The job is full-time as well, which is very important. Full-time positions are almost never offered in union jobs because they are so sought after. Most positions start at on-call, then you have to work your way up through seniority and wait for people to either leave, get fired, transfer, or die. So if all of this goes through, I'm expecting to make about an 80%-150% increase in pay. That's how good this opportunity is. The fact that I would effectively would be doubling my money from two jobs in one.

-Stream
The plan is still Mid-March. My mind is mulling over it, because I potentially move end of February, go see family beginning of March, and Calithon end of March.

That's it. My brain is fried from lack of sleep. Going to lay down.