Not My Job - A dinner experience at Left Bank

I think it would be safe to say that people who know me would probably
describe me as being pretty easy going.
 
There’s only a few things that really get me going. Off the top of my head, the
top two would probably be:

1. Promises not kept, or under-delivered. (Which is what will happen to the
   person who buys
   
   this condo based on the headline!)
2. Not-my-job-itis.

This post is going to cover not-my-job-itis. You know what this is - when an
employee says "Not my job!". Not exactly a good thing to say to oh… someone
like a customer. Especially when you are in the hospitality industry.

That’s pretty much what happened multiple times at a dinner I went to at
Left Bank in
Santana Row in San Jose last night. I’ll let slide the fact that when the
entrees and desserts were brought, they inevitably went to the wrong person at
the table - mistakes happen. I’ll also let slide the fact that the entrees were
delivered in such a rush and hurry that my bread plate was literally shoved away
by the waitstaff  using my dinner as a shovel, or other dishes had the
sauces sloshed out because of the impact to the table - perhaps they were busy
(though not really at 10pm when our entrees were served.) And finally I’ll let
slide the fact that my entree was luke-warm - perhaps the heater lamps were
broken. After all, I realize that
I’mPer
Se - the price here is exactly an order of magnitude less. 

But that doesn’t mean that the service should be 2 orders of magnitude worse
- the service should be at least better than a
hole in the wall!!

1. When they began serving our entrees, one of the diners asked the
   employee about the appetizers which never arrived. What did the employee
   say? "Oh, I’m not your waiter." And that was that. Does that sound helpful
   to you?
2. When the waiter came by, and the diner asked about the appetizers again,
   he apologized explaining that he "forgot to hit send on the first screen."
   He then asked if we still wanted them (no) and then left. Was that really
   helpful?
3. My girlfriend’s entree didn’t come with a spoon. Perhaps it is cultural
   in that stews in French cuisine don’t come with spoons, but one was needed
   in this case. We looked around, and our waiter was never anywhere to be
   seen. I tried to wave down another waiter… and the hostess saw this but
   walked by. Hm, isn’t the hostess an employee? Strike 1.
4. Finally I caught the attention of another waiter - and this is the part
   that kills me: he turned to look both ways for our waiter before coming
   over. Not exactly "Not-my-job", but pretty darn close if you ask me. And
   finally we got a spoon - 5 minutes later. Strike 2. But this isn’t baseball,
   so 2 strikes and you’re out!

On the upside however, one thing that Left Bank did do well in this meal was
to not include 18% gratuity in the bill for parties over 8. I’m not sure
if this is policy, the doing of the waiter, or another mistake - but let’s just
say that 18% was definitely not deserved in this case.

It’s not like avoiding "not-my-job-itis" is even that hard. Not your job?
Offer to find the person whose it is! It’s that easy! Otherwise, if its not your
job, perhaps you shouldn’t have whatever job it is that you do have. Though thinking through this further, I suspect this is a problem at the management level - given how many times it happened. Respecting the customer is something is an attitude that has to start at the highest levels - so that it can diffuse to the front-line employees. It’s a culture that has to be reinforced. The
customer should always come first.