Roadie Meets Benjamin

I really do not enjoy closing at work, especially on a Friday evening. This past Friday I found myself the last busboy in for the evening. The day had already been long: early Key Club meeting, National Spanish Exam, lots of homework, Spanish tutoring right after school, followed by work. What's worse is that all of the guys I was working with that evening were lazy, slow, or a combination of both. I made a strong effort to quickly clean tables so that I would be permitted to send guys home sooner, thus grabbing a bigger portion of the tip-out pot. One good thing was that we were short a busboy because he was out for back surgery (not-so-good). Another plus was that the guy I picked up the Friday closing shift for paid me $30 just to come into work. The night was going swell, since my friend that I never see anymore was working that evening and I was able to talk with him in slower times. That evening, the servers seemed to be more careless than ever. Glasses were breaking all around me and I scrambled to clean up the messes. As I swept peanut dust near the end of my shift, the boss approached me with a stern look upon his face. He held out three time slips exclaiming that the teens had worked over 5 hours without breaks. This is against the law and entails a $1,000 fine if caught. Two of the guys were only 5 minutes over each, one who I had told to leave 8 minutes prior. So, I got scolded for nothing considering that it was "my responsibility" to ensure that all had their breaks if necessary. After 6 hours of fun and frivolity, I fled the restaurant with nearly $100 for the evening. I could not imagine having a better job at this age.