When the cat's away, well, the mice just work better....

Okay, so the cat was away for a few days…did the mice play? No more than usual, but they also worked a lot better. You see, when the cat is trying so desperately to micro-manage everything, it is just an irritant to all the mice. That, and the fact that the micro-manager frustrates the hell out of themselves, is totally non-productive.

Three of us were working a party of 60 the other day. There was no need to tell us what to do. We know the drill, and we know it well. Everything went very smoothly. We divided up our tasks, I set up the bar, one server took care of the buffet, the third took care of the tables. Okay, we’re good to go.

When it came time for clean up, two of us were busy resetting the room, the third went and took care of the silverware. I went upstairs to see what if the silverware was done, and my fellow server told me he hadn’t finished it yet, because those working the floor got really busy and needed help. It had gotten unusually busy for a Sunday, so we all kicked in and helped. We bussed tables, ran food, got beverages, cleared away a bunch of dirty plates that were left in a wait station, and so on and so forth. No one had to tell us what to do, we just teamed it and got it done. When everything was caught up, we went back and finished our silverware.

I had to stay after our party clean up and work the bar, the other two were free to go. But they didn’t leave, they stayed and helped. We didn’t make a dime off of our efforts, but it didn’t matter…..we just did what needed to be done.

Had the cat not been away, it would not have gone as smooth. He would’ve been barking out orders, oftentimes for things that were not needed. We have a greater “table awareness” than he has…we do this every day….we ask a fellow server what they need, they tell “Four salads for table 110. I’ve gotta get drinks for table 114.” Had the cat been there, he would’ve seen what he perceived needed to be done, and sent one of us for a bread refill, for a table that didn’t want it….also not knowing that someone else already had that covered, for all the other tables. Or he would’ve told us to refill water on another table, not noticing that another server was walking around with the pitcher refilling the entire room.

Really Cat, when it gets busy, you can save yourself a lot of angst by just getting out of our way. If we need you, we’ll come and get you.