I’ve never worked in the food service industry. And these days I spend a lot of my time sitting at a desk on a computer. While I’m certainly not as adventurous as the One Week Job guy, I think it’s important to try out different things so that I don’t turn into stuffy, white-collar desk job guy.

Recently, I jumped at the opportunity to volunteer concession for a football game, and here are a few things I learned (à la Morgan Spurlock):

• It is a lot easier to figure out that $10.12 on a $9.87 bill will return a quarter when you’re the customer. When I was the cashier, I was a slave to the cash register.
• It takes a certain amount of skill to pour beer properly, especially when you’re using a faulty tap.
• Filling a cup of pop to the brim is tricky to do without spilling.
• When it’s busy, it suddenly feels like people’s orders are a lot more complicated, even if they’re not actually any different.
• Technical problems with credit card and debit card payments seem twice as long behind the counter than in front of the counter. My only solution was to ask the manager what the heck to do.
• The time seemed three times as long when I accidentally put a customer’s credit card receipt in the cash box, and had to… call the manager to open the box.
• Standing behind the counter made my legs more sore than playing tennis.
• It is darn hot sitting next to the popcorn heat lamp and hot dog steamer.
• A few customers grumbled about the awful prices — those complaints fell on deaf ears.
• Working in the concession was a ton of fun! Therefore, I think I was able to be friendly and cheery. But I’m sure the fun would decrease dramatically if I were doing that every day.

Luckily, nobody got mad at me for being slow or clumsy.

So remember, especially at event concessions, the workers might be inexperienced volunteers like me!

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