Trudy Berger, who works in the Halls cafeteria, puts her heart into everything she does, and often works very hard to make sure that everything in the cafeteria is to her satisfaction, for the enjoyment of the students.
She creates the displays whenever we have a holiday or a “theme night”, she cleans all of the appliances that were not cleaned the night before, she refills the juice, milk and coffee machines, and stocks the dessert cart and the fruit and cereal displays.
When the checking machine is down and she is unable to swipe student’s cards, she has to write down everyone’s student number by hand and later punch them into the machine – by hand. That can amount to several hundred nine-digit numbers for lunchtime alone.
She comes in at 6 a.m. every day, and leaves sometimes as late as 5 p.m., because she stays behind to see that everything gets done the way it is supposed to, although technically she only has to stay until 2:30 p.m.
I also know that she performs the majority of these functions because there is no one else to do them.
The cafeteria is chronically short staffed, and the manager, Emily, does nothing to my knowledge to try and discipline the staff that she does have, or to recruit other, more efficient workers.
I lived in Halls last year. I remember seeing signs out saying that Marriott was hiring, and to ask the manager for details. Well, that was a different manager, and before Sept. 11 and the economy plummeting. But to have a single senior citizen performing the work of three, if not more, people, because the remaining staff members either don’t care or claim that the work that needs to be done (cleaning, stocking, etc.) isn’t within their job description, is intolerable. For those of you who live in Halls, or eat there, look around. Watch Trudy, and how often she has to run from one place to another, from checking students to refilling coffee to going to the back freezer to get waffle batter. Her physical health can’t stand that kind of labor, but more often than not, there is no one else to do it. Or they just don’t care.
I could write on a comment card, as I have in the past, saying that the caffeteria needs more employees and that Trudy does too much on her own. But it doesn’t appear to have done any good. Trudy says that she’s going to talk with the managers, but in the same sentence she says “It’s ok, honey, it’s ok.” Well, it’s not ok, and this situation has been persisting since September.
Something needs to be done about this, and I believe that the only way change is going to truly be affected is if the students start saying something about it.
We fill out cards complaining about the lack of Passover food, or rice, or non-wilted lettuce. Pick up the pen and tell Marriott to fix its labor problems, to find Trudy help that actually HELPS and not hinders, so that she doesn’t have to shoulder this burden alone.
