My First Day

Today I had orientation for my Cashier job at the local Papa Gino's Pizzeria. Unlike many other events in my life, I did not feel very nervous coming into the orientation. I did not know what exactly to expect, or even how long it was, but ignorance certainly does bring some semblance of bliss. I did wonder what I needed for orientations and so looked up some articles about orientation, had very little success here. In the end, I put on a collared shirt and long pants for my orientation, thinking I should dress to a standard higher then I would expect to need. I made sure I looked and smelled neat and then went off on my adventure to Papa Gino's Pizzeria. I arrived a few minutes early and went into the shop ready to go. As I went in I spoke to another employee there, I told him "I'm here for orientation with Kevin". They pointed me to a back room, but Kevin waved them off as he was on the phone. One person, Micheal, asked me what size shirt I was and I retorted with "medium". I got a Papa Gino's shirt and visor which I was told to change into, and as I put it on in the bathroom I could only smile at the employees must wash hands sign. I was an employee. When I came out of the bathroom I put my old shirt in my car and then headed back in. Kevin waved me into his very small office, the width of only one person, and the length of two and a half. We did some paperwork together, things like tax forms, waivers, and basically a whole bunch of assurances from me that I won't be a liability. Kevin then tried to set up the online orientation lesson plan, but to his dismay, my name was not one of those available to click. Kevin frustratingly vented "I can't do paper orientations anymore, and the online one doesn't work" in annoyance with our now digitalized world. With this impasse in place, I was sent to Michael to work on the pizzas. I helped move them out of the oven, and even sauced and cheesed some of them. This was really interesting because, to me, pizza is one of the few foods that never tastes as good at home as it does at a restaurant. I got to see the large pizza oven in action, and how each pizza went through multiple cookings. After a bit of doing this, I was headed to the back kitchen. In there I spent my time sorting penne pasta and spaghetti into bags of equal weight. I assumed each bag was for one pasta dish. Part way through my spaghetti batch grouping the person who was going to train me at the register came in. I was elated to see it was someone I knew. My trainer was a kid who was in my grade, whom I knew decently. This made me feel incredibly more comfortable because I felt better asking questions to them. After I finished putting the spaghetti into bags I headed to the cash register with my trainer. I was fairly confused at the set up feeling out of my depths. The clicking and fast-paced ordering of both in person and over the phone overwhelmed me. The first call I took was tough, trying to figure out what to say in the beginning, and then getting the entire order down as they talked became complicated in my mind. Thankfully, I had my teacher with me who helped me along the way. Slowly my training wheels were let off and I had to go about the cashiering alone. During this middle period of my cashiering, it felt incredibly scary. There were multiple times where I scrambled to get the order done, and even feared if I had done it correctly. To get out of this time of troubles I had to ask for help. I asked where certain things were, and what to say on the calls exactly. This nudge certainly helped, but what really pushed me over the edge into competence was exploring the cash register and its area by myself. I would look at what foods were under each tab and would look at where each button brought me. Slowly, with the confidence gained from this continued practice, I came into myself and felt ready for the first time. I was much more fluent in speaking to customers and felt more confident in the cashiering. This growth stayed with me for the rest of my night. As the restaurant slowed down, after dinner time started to pass, my teacher showed me other jobs I could do like taking out the trash and cleaning the eating area. During this time, I learned about lots of miscellaneous things and got to see areas like the basement of the restaurant. At the end of the day, I felt comfortable in my job and ready to come back to it. My coworkers were all very nice, and helpful whenever I needed them. I am excited to continue working there, with my only scare being the number of hours I will work during the school year. I want to make sure it is a manageable amount, especially during school nights.