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Most AUBGers who go on a work and travel program end up in Massachusetts. They are waiters, cashiers, cooks, shop assistants in Provincetown, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard. They are working two or three jobs desperate to find cheap housing. My work and travel experience was nothing like that. I always worked one job with one and the same employer three seasons in a row. I never had to pay for the housing or the meals. I was a waitress at an up-scale country club in a wealthy suburb 20 km away from downtown Boston. Country clubs are often exclusive privately owned clubs that provide different sports facilities, usually tennis and golf. There is always a restaurant, sometimes a big party room for functions, and a pool area. There are country clubs in practically every state. There are over 80 of them in Massachusetts only. Many country clubs are willing to hire students for the summer. The wages are not high, but the benefits are often plenty. Usually the starting wage is fixed at $9 per hour, and most club managers do not allow employees to accept tips from customers. The hourly wage is increased by $1 or more every year if the employee comes back. Most clubs provide free housing and meals, some offer re-imbursement of airfare. The season at a country club starts in early May and ends right after Labor Day in the beginning of September. The hours depend on the amount of events like golf tournaments and weddings scheduled for the season. Most clubs will pay 150 percent for the hours worked overtime.  A fancy setup for demanding customers. Photo by Anastasia Pasecinic.
| The beginning of my first season in the country club was a disaster. I had no experience in restaurant business. Balancing drinks on a cocktail tray, memorizing long lists of alcoholic beverages, taking food orders – everything was a challenge. I could hardly pronounce most of the items on the menu. I had no clue what the difference between the many cocktails we offered in the bar was. The trays were heavy, the glasses were shaky, the menu sophisticated, and the customers… The customers could make your life infernal. “I want a two-egg white omelet with mushrooms, tomatoes, and a touch of Mozzarella cheese cooked on Kosher pan with a scooped out lightly toasted whole wheat bagel on the side. And please, make sure the omelet is light on the butter,” one of the regulars would go. Twenty minutes later the customer would complain the omelet was either too big or too small, there was too much cheese or too few mushrooms, and the whole cooking ritual had to be performed again. |
The wait staff thought we had a lucky shift if nobody returned food to the kitchen. And it was never because of the low quality of the meal, but because of the high and often unreasonable demands of our customers. We had a joke that the club’s members were so rich that, combined, they could buy not only the whole of Boston, but the whole of Massachusetts. And the wealthier the member was, the harder it was to serve him. “Smile, and remember, the customer is always right,” Junior, my manager said on my first day at work. As easy as it sounds, it took me months of practice to follow his advice and not take the customers’ complaints as personal offense. I learned very fast that the customers are often wrong, and smiling can be painful. “A good waitress is the one who greets the customers by name,” Junior would say. Given that the membership of the club was over 600 men plus their wives and children, I thought it was impossible to do. The job turned out to be not as difficult as I first thought. Now I know the names and member numbers of most regulars at the club. The important thing in a country club is to be extra nice to the customers as you will be seeing them everyday till the end of the season. Be sure to satisfy every gastronomic caprice they might have. And if something goes wrong, oh well, try to be even nicer. The main disadvantage of working in a country club is that they are usually located on the outskirts of big cities and it may be difficult or impossible to find a second job. The managers of some country clubs may not allow you to get one as the schedule is often flexible and you might have different amount of shifts every week. Mondays are traditionally days-off as the golf course requires maintenance on a weekly basis. If you ever decide to work in a country club, make sure it is located near a big city, and there is a possibility to reach it as you will soon get tired of the monotony of working and living in the same place. The main advantage of working in a country club is stability. You get to live and work in a family-style environment. You are provided with free housing, free meals and at least one day off per week. I loved every moment of working in a country club. I’ll be going back there for the fourth time, but this time as an intern in the club’s PR department.
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