Your first day on a shift

Feeling nervous before your first shift somewhere new is normal. No one expects you to know the place from the first minute. What they expect is simpler than that: arrive on time, ready, and ask when you don’t know.

This guide goes step by step, from the day before the shift until you leave.

1 The day before

Check four things, and if any of them isn’t clear, ask about it today, not in the morning:

• The exact place. The address, the floor, and a nearby landmark. If the venue has more than one branch, check which one you’re going to.
• The time. What time you start, and what time you finish.
• Who to ask for. The name of the person you’ll meet when you arrive.
• What to wear. If no one told you, ask. A question like that shows you care, not that you don’t understand.

Then work out your route: how you’ll get there, and how long it takes at that particular hour. The journey at 3 PM is not the journey at 11 AM. Plan to arrive fifteen minutes early.

Charge your phone and get a good night’s sleep. The shift is long, and you’ll be on your feet a lot.

2 What to wear and what to bring

Wear exactly what you were asked to. If no one said, wear something simple and clean, with closed, comfortable shoes. You’ll be standing for hours, and kitchen floors can be slippery.

In a small bag:

• Your ID.
• Your phone, charged, and the charger.
• A bottle of water.
• Something light to eat if the shift is long.
• A hair tie if your hair is long and you’ll be in a kitchen or behind a bar.

Leave anything valuable you don’t need at home; there won’t always be a locked place for your things.

3 When you arrive

Go in and ask for the person you were told about, by name, and introduce yourself in one sentence: who you are, and which shift you’re here for.

Before you start, ask four questions that will make the rest of the day easier:

• Where do I leave my things?
• Where’s the toilet?
• Is there a break? When?
• If I need something, who do I go to?

4 While you’re working

• Ask, don’t guess. A mistake on your first day because you didn’t ask is far worse than a question. No one minds “how do you do this here?”.
• Repeat what you’re told in your own words. “So I take the order and then the payment, right?”. Two seconds that save a mistake.
• If you make a mistake, say so straight away. An order taken wrong, or something dropped and broken. Said straight away, it’s fixed quickly; hidden, it grows.
• Phone in your pocket. A quick glance at it during a rush gets noticed more than you’d think.
• When it’s quiet, ask: “What should I do now?”. That one sentence makes a difference with any manager on your first day.
• Watch the people who’ve been there a while. How they stack things, how they talk to customers, where they stand. You’ll learn from them faster than from any explanation.

If something comes up and you’ll be late or can’t come: If you’ll be late or can’t make it

5 Finish the shift properly

The last fifteen minutes are remembered like the first fifteen. Before you leave:

1. Hand over whatever you had: the drawer, the tables, the tools, or the shelf you were stocking.
2. Ask the manager: “Is there anything else before I go?”.
3. Don’t leave without telling someone you’re going.
4. Say thank you, and if you’d like to come back, say so.