Thread: Life after resturant work?

Ok Much inspired by the recent thread I have decided to be firm with my resturant who has not been treating me well lately. He has me on some crappy reservations only thing so Basicaly a customer calles for a reservation and then he calls me to see if I can dance some times only 4 hours in advance. Well I have a new student that wanted to see me dance so I told her to call and make a reservaion and request me. She called my house this morning becuse she needed the # for the resturant. I gave it to her and told her that I would be availble all weekend so no prob! Well I get a call right back from her saying that she called and asked for either sunday or saturday and he said it was impossible becuse I (did you get that I, ME) was busy both days. I was SOOO PISSED I called and I greeted him and asked basicaly why he would say I was busy when I was not. He said that he only told her that becuse there is a consertive Muslim family comming for dinner saturday night and they didnt want to see the bellydancer, OK FINE i say..........ARE THEY COMMING SUNDAY TOO? (useing stern voice) he starts the umm and sputter bla bla crap.....SOOO I say (yelling this time) LOOK _________ IF YOU DONT WANT ME TO DANCE HERE ANY MORE THAT IS FINE BUT YOU NEED TO LET ME KNOW BECUSE IF NOT THEN I AM GOING TO TAKE MY DANCING ELSEWHERE, he then sputters about how 4 people on sunday may be ok....he will call me....I call the student back and tell her it would be best to make reservations for sunday.....she does and then lets me know that he took her phone number and will call her back if I am available or some crap..........STILL NO CALL though it is 12 noon here and im sure he is busy and may call after that............BUT Then I got to thinking not every one has a happy ending like the other thread before so I am my get fired from this though I FEEL great.............Is there life after resturnat work? I mean what else do I do? I liked the steady weekly/bi weekly gig.....Thoughts?

Oh don't worry, there IS life after restaurant work!

Over the years I have worked in many restaurants.
The reasons I stopped working there were
- got replaced by a cheaper Turkish dancer
- restaurant closed down
- did not like the way I was treated
- restaurant closed down
- got replaced by another dancer
- owner was sent to jail
- restaurant closed down

Somehow, Oriental restaurants often seem to have a short life span. So after dancing there for about a year - or just a few months - I was out of job again.
I even worked in the same place twice. First is was a Persian restaurant - a year later it was an Arabic night club.

Meanwhile the scene has changed and younger dancers are ready to dance for half the money I was paid 10 years ago (which was not too much already).
So I am definitely out of the restaurant business.

I teach more and do the odd wedding/birthday and dance at festivals. Meanwhile I am often so busy at weekends that I wouldn't even have the time to dance at a restaurant.

Something stops - something else starts. That's life.

MEISSOUN

Oh I just relized that I posted this in the wrong section........oops....

Stand your ground! Things happen for a reason, maybe there's another gig that is just waiting around the corner for you to jump on. good luck Annwyn.

P.S. since you are the creator of this thread, can't you move it? I thought I saw a button somewhere that allowed the author to move a thread to a different group.

You did good, Annwyn. Even if this place doesn't work out, it's best to stand up for yourself and insist on being treated fairly and properly. I've known dancers who work "on call." Personally, I would never put up with it, but that's my decision. If you don't feel like you're being treated with respect, then SAY SOMETHING!

My bet is that since he didn't fire you on the spot, he realizes he needs you and things will probably work out to your favor. I hope so, at least!:thumbs_up:

OOOHH I AM SOOO EVIL!!!! I spammed the internet all day with advertisments saying that I was dancing at the resturant tomorrow night(1 chat room, 1 e mail list and 1 group all local)....I know that at least 1 other group of people called and made reservaions (love my students they are so loyal) I did it just to prove that he needs me....... HA jerk.....Hopefully he will see what an idiot he is and will stop being an ass......YIPPIE and i get to dance.....I hope I did the right thing, he just made me so mad.............

Annwyn, relax. Its all drama and not real life. And the more emotionally involved you become, the more you drain the energy you need to dance.

If it doesn't work out, it doesnt work out. You can use the break to work on new things, improve technique, maybe work on some new or different skills. And find some different venues. Let other people ask the owner where that wonderful Annwyn went to.

Souzan

good for you for telling him like it is.

this is exactly the type of stuff that creates the hate part of the love/hate relationship with restaurant dancing.

at least they're not doing the "we'll pay you next week" crap.
if that starts, find a new gig asap!

meissoun is right!

good luck. they should be grateful to have you.