I do, and that’s the reason why I haven’t been blogging so much (and dropping, for the EC readers). It’s a waiter job and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday I make 12 hour days. Never did that before and it’s really tough since you’re standing all the time and since it’s a touristy restaurant it gets extremely busy, guaranteed! Here are some (clickable) pictures of my work:
The job’s quite fun. I get to speak many different languages. Today I’ve spoken Turkish, English, French, German, Dutch, and a little Bulgarian! 🙂
The pay’s not so great though. It’s 50-80 lira per day (about 30 euros) for 12 hours of work. You can do the math and calculate my hourly wage. It’s very hard work and I don’t think most of the visitors realize how hard the staff actually works for what kind of money. I wouldn’t expect it at least. Now that I know, I’ll be a little bit more considerate when tipping in touristy places. Also, some of the visitors thinks that “service costs” means that the tip’s included. Wrong. I don’t get an hourly wage, I get a “commission”, which comes from the service costs (10% of the total check). So next time you see “service” on your bill, TIP!
It’s great to be working in a bar/restaurant again and it’s a nice experience for now. Hard work, but it makes you sleep well at night… and wake up with an aching body the next day. 😉
Off to bed. Gotta get up early tomorrow for another 12 hour day.
Comments
8 responses to “I’ve Got A Job”
He!
Hope all is well out there and I see that you even started working, how cool! I gotta make a stop there sometime, what is called again? (guess not mentionned in your blog n couldn’t see it on photos either) Seems like it locates at Sultanahmet region, right? Well, nowadays every spot in Istanbul started to become touristic though.. (sigh) Btw, Cuba was fantastic!
Congrats on your new job. 🙂
Good luck with the job! We might come visit you. 🙂
And by the way, thanks for stopping by. I appreciate picture-browsing.
Congrats on the job! Just out of curiosity, what is the cost of living like there in Istanbul? When I was there, overheard a young police officer mention that he makes about $900 a month but did not mention anything about the cost of living there.
Way to go on the job. Working in that field is one of the most tiring jobs can think of. Kudos to you for enjoying it.
@Karen: It’s also one of the most fun jobs.
But… I will quit. 🙂 The wage is really to little. Last night I was calculating how much it is in euros and I will not work for this wage. I was making more when I was a 15-year old making Dutch minimum wage and Istanbul is not that much cheaper than Holland.
@Ann: Not exactly sure what the average living costs are. I think if the police officer has a family, and if his wife’s a housewife (like most Turkish women) then he will need every last bit of that 900 dollars. It really depends where you live though. Istanbul’s bigger than London or Paris. If you’re really interested, Google around a bit 🙂
@Mine: Since I won’t be working there anymore, I’ll invite you if I’m DJing somewhere or if an acquaintance is playing anywhere 🙂
cool. so many languages spoken. :O
Congrats.