aysabaw.com

I’ve been a restaurant hostess in my younger days when I was working in a 5-star hotel in Dubai. The job entailed meeting and greeting the guests, answering phone calls, taking reservations, escorting guests to their tables, explaining the restaurant concept, asking for their feedback, and bidding them farewell as they leave the restaurant.

A few weeks ago, I did the same job but with a slightly different task.

The management team decided to give us ‘breakfast shifts.’ The job entailed standing at the entrance, greeting the guests, asking them to wear masks, and sanitize their hands.

I thought the task was easy peasy. Been there, done that.

It was a Friday morning when I did my breakfast shift. It’s pretty much the same as my job when I was a hostess. But instead of escorting guests to their tables after greeting them, I had to give them masks if they still aren’t wearing them and squeeze sanitizer on their hands.

The shift was from 7am to 10am but I started at 8am. Hello. Nobody comes for breakfast at 7am on their holidays except Asians because they wake up early due to their body clock and at this period, we don’t have Asian guests. So.

When I came to the restaurant, there were just three tables. I was just chatting with the Chefs and waiters who were very happy to see me there that they all offered me something to eat or drink while waiting for the guests to arrive. But I just had my breakfast before coming in and I couldn’t take more so better luck next time.

Until 9am there were just a few tables in the restaurant so I was getting nervous. There were two entrances and if they all come together at the same time, I might miss people. My supposed partner for the day was still in the morning meeting. Luckily, the guests were arriving one family at a time so I had the chance to run back and forth the two entrances until my partner arrived.

We did this exercise because the restaurant is the easiest place to acquire or spread the virus even though the tables have enough distances in between. Even though all tourists coming to the Maldives present negative PCR tests upon arrival, we still cannot guarantee that none of them won’t get it on the way to the resort.  So we still have to take precautionary measures.

I am glad to see that a lot of people follow the protocol of wearing masks however, a lot of them wore masks but didn’t bother to sanitize their hands until I chased them.

It’s sad that we all saw what this virus did to the world and a lot of people still don’t (want to) follow simple protocols that are even made for their own benefits.

Anyway, the experience was quite refreshing. It’s nice to be out in the open air for some hours, greeting guests with social distancing, of course, and walking around. Quite healthier than sitting in the office for eight hours.