Reflective Log: Experiences at The Gold Coast Restaurant and Bar

This reflective log details a student's experience as a manager at The Gold Coast Restaurant and Bar in London, providing a comprehensive analysis of their professional development. The report explores various aspects of the job, including external engagement, difficulties encountered, surprising ob...Read More

Running head: REFLECTIVE LOG
Reflective Log
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
1. External Engagement Description............................................................................................2
2. Reflective Log..........................................................................................................................3
2.1. What Went Well................................................................................................................3
2.2. What were the Difficulties Encountered and Why...........................................................4
2.3. What was Surprising.........................................................................................................5
2.4. What was enjoyed and what was Not Enjoyed.................................................................6
2.5. What was noticed about my own Feelings and Reactions................................................8
2.6. What I Noticed about the Behavior about Others.............................................................9
2.7. What was Noticed about Other’s Performance.................................................................9
2.8. What I would do differently............................................................................................10
3. Future Development...............................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
As a student in the cosmopolitan city of London, I am always open to new experiences
and encounters especially experiences that entail dealing with and handling people from another
culture. I personally believe that there is a lot that we can learn from people who belong to a
culture that is different from our own. The maturity and knowledge that is to be acquired in the
course of cultural interactions is not something that can easily be obtained through bookish
learning or academic learning, which is why I always look forward to events and opportunities
that provide me with the scope of getting to know more about and engaging with people from
diverse cultural backgrounds. Hence when I was given the opportunity to work as a manger in a
Ghanian restaurant in London known as The Gold Coast Restaurant and Bar, I jumped at the
opportunity. In this assignment, I will analyze in detail and reflect on my experiences of working
as a manager at The Gold Coast Restaurant and Bar highlighting in the process the many
takeaways from my experience and the valuable lessons that I have learned with professional
competence, and employee and customer management.
1. External Engagement Description
I was approached to be a restaurant manager at The Gold Coast Bar and Restaurant in
London by the people who own the restaurant. The job involved overseeing the duties of the
restaurant staff, ensuring that customers got their meals on time, ensuring that the food
cooked was of high quality and up to the standards the restaurant is known for and to look
into customer grievances. The job was a six day job with Monday being the only day in the
week when I was given an off day. It was a high energy job and something I enjoyed a lot.

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2. Reflective Log
2.1. What Went Well
I was approached by someone at my university campus with the offer of working at The
Gold Coast Restaurant and Bar. The person who approached me is Ghanian herself and she is
related to the restaurant owners by blood. She informed me that her relatives were looking for
young people to join the place as service attendants, and when I heard that this was a restaurant
that specialized in the provision of Ghanian cuisine for UK customers, I was intrigued and
decided not to hesitate and take up the opportunity immediately, given that I am a person who is
always open to learning about new people and new cultures. I inquired about the type of
positions that were being offered and when I heard that working as a restaurant manager is what
would be my job responsibility for the most part, I was happy to divulge that I would gladly
work at the restaurant for some time. I was in need of some extra money anyway, and I realized
that this opportunity would also give me the chance to learn more about Ghanian people,
Ghanian culture and Ghanian cuisine and food habits in particular. I was welcomed with a great
deal of warmth by the owners of the restaurant when I went over there with my CV for a job
interview (Canziani et al. 2016). After asking me a few questions about my academic and
personal background, and after asking me why working in a restaurant was something I wanted
to do, the owner couple asked me to wait for a few minutes and let me know after some time that
I was being given the job. I was of course ecstatic at being given such an opportunity and
promised my recruiters that I would do my best for their enterprise (Choi et al. 2018). The initial
few days of working at the restaurant turned out to be great as I realized that almost all of the
people who were on the employee base of the organization were not only well equipped and well
qualified to be working in the hospitality industry but were also great human beings who were a

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good deal of fun to be interacting with (Ecklund et al. 2017). In the process of interning at the
restaurant, I came across staff members who were from Ghana, some were from different parts
of Europe such as France, Germany and Bulgaria and two of them were Asian.
2.2. What were the Difficulties Encountered and Why
Noe et al. (2017), argue that being acquainted with different cultures forms a crucial
aspect of proper human resource management and workplace competency. One of the
primary difficulties that I encountered when working at The Gold Coast Restaurant and Bar was
around the area of language and culture especially when it came to communicating with
both of my Asian counterparts at the restaurant. This was largely due to the fact that the
Asian waiters at the restaurant were not fluent in English and would speak in broken
English for the most part. Since I am not familiar with Mandarin (the two Asian waiters
were from China), I would be compelled to speak with them in English, and while the two
were friendly in disposition, the language barrier made things very difficult, with me not
understanding half of the time what it is that they were saying to me and vice versa. More
often than not, the restaurant owner couple who were themselves familiar with the
Mandarin language would have to act as interpreters, something that I am always going to
be immensely grateful for. Another difficulty that I experienced while working at the restaurant
was the lackadaisical approach that was adopted by the restaurant owners towards the running of
the business (Gim et al. 2019). What was clear within the first few days of working at The Gold
Coast Restaurant and Bar is that Ghanian’s are people who tend to have a relaxed and casual
approach to business, and they do not mind being a little easy going about the manner in which
they run their business operations. As someone who has lived in the United Kingdom for a very
long time, I am more accustomed to the rigid discipline that is so characteristic of the English

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people, and I found it difficult to accept that the restaurant owners were alright with the staff not
always being punctual and efficient in the rendition of their duties (Gim et al. 2019).
2.3. What was Surprising
There were a number of things that I found to be quite surprising when interning for a-while
at the Ghanian restaurant in London, known as The Gold Coast Restaurant and Bar. For one, I
found that Ghanian people are capable of holding their liquor quite well and do not rave or rant
too much when they get drunk. This is because I saw scores of people from Ghana in London
attend this restaurant on a regular basis, and many of them were customers who would drink
quite heavily. I did not see too many Ghanian people throw things at each other or get unruly and
wild when they were drunk. This is something that I found surprising primarily because of the
fact that I had been told by a friend at University that people from Ghana are quite wild and that
their behavior tends to be atrocious when they are drunk. I realized that my friend was under a
gross misconception, and I was happy with the fact that my part time job opportunity at the
restaurant was something that had given me the scope to examine Ghanian people from close
quarters and understand what they are really about. Another thing that surprised me is the fact
that the Ghanian people who would attend the restaurant and the restaurant owners in particular
were people who were very friendly. The restaurant owners did not think twice about cracking
jokes with their employees. There was no sense of class consciousness in them and I found that
in spite of being entrepreneurs and owning a premier restaurant in the heart of London, the
restaurant owners were at east with people from all walks of life and from all types of economic
backgrounds. It was a pleasant surprise to get to know this, and it is something that me more
attached to my employers than ever (Gordon, R.T. and Brezinski, M.H. 2016). Upon realizing
how friendly and nice they were and seeing their informal yet careful approach to the running the

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business I warmed up to them more readily and was ready to do my best for them for the entire
length of my service at the restaurant (Gordon, R.T. and Brezinski, M.H. 2016). In the view of
Salmon et al. (2017), team work constitutes an essential element of professional
competency. Team work was also something that was quite evident in the operations of the
restaurant. There was no hierarchy in the management as such, with all of us working
together as a team to attain the goals and objectives of the restaurant. Whether there were
differences between us or not, we were able to overcome these differences and come
together to offer customers with the quality services that they demanded from us, keeping
our employers happy for the most part.
The third thing that I discovered and which surprised me when working at the Ghanian
restaurant is the fact that Ghanian people are open to eating all types of fish and meat and have
no prejudice when it comes to food (Jogaratnam 2017). This is something that I found to be
rather strange at the outset, give that all cultures tend to be finicky about some type of food or the
other or have some or the other restrictions with regard to eating habits, but not so with the
Ghanaians’.
2.4. What was enjoyed and what was Not Enjoyed
As a restaurant manager, what I enjoyed about working at The Gold Coast Restaurant and
Bar in London is the fact that there was a lot of Ghanian music and dance that I was exposed to
during my time here. I had not been acquainted with Ghanian music prior to this so it was
definitely a treat for me to witness such music and dance for the first time in my life. Ghanian
music is something that came across to me as highly melodious. The music tends to focus a lot
on the use of percussion instruments which I found to be interesting especially since I play a lot
of percussion myself and am always interested in hearing new types of percussion. While it was

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taped music that was played at the restaurant and there were no live performances by bands
taking place as such, even this experience turned out to be highly meaningful as the beat was just
amazing and working at the restaurant was made even more enjoyable than it would have been
because of the delightful music that was played over here. Another thing that I enjoyed during
my time of working at the restaurant was answering the questions that visitors would pose about
Ghanian culture, to me, given the fact that I was the manager of the restaurant. While I was not
too familiar with the culture myself, the fact that I had to answer such questions for visitors
implied that I was compelled to find out more about the culture and what it entailed and then
respond to the questions that customers would ask me. All in all in turned out to be a very
interesting affair. I was doing a job that I loved, that is managing people, and that too in the food
industry and I was also getting the opportunity in doing so, in learning about a culture that was
entirely different from my own and learning about which was proving to be such a great
experience (Han et al. 2016).
There were of course some things that I did not enjoy about working as a restaurant manager
at The Gold Coast Restaurant and Bar in the United Kingdom. I did like having to handle some
of the drunken brawls that would burst out among customers when the weekend was in progress.
Christensen and Sneider (2015), argue that flexibility forms an important feature of
workplace competency and that workplace professionals need to open up to new
experiences that includes unpleasant situations as well. My own ability in this respect was
put to the test when I had to handle drunken brawls. The weekend is the time when the
restaurant and bar gets very crowded, and it is common for visitors to come and have more
alcohol than required, which in turn results in terrible brawls ensuring and which me and my
staff members would often have to break up (Han et al. 2016). While I am personally quite good

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at negotiating with people and handling all types of people, the task of breaking up a drunken
brawl is something that I did not want to do at all, given the fact that it is extremely unpleasant, it
involves encountering rough behavior from customers and it requires being rough in my
behavior in turn, which is not something that I enjoy doing, given the fact that I am a peace
loving person and would only be interested in having pleasant conversations with all the visitors
to the restaurant. Another thing that I did not really enjoy as part of my duties as a restaurant
manager at The Gold Coast Restaurant and Bar in the United Kingdom is having to hear
unpleasant feedback about the restaurant and it services in person from the customers, especially
racist customers who would find flaws with the cultural components of the restaurant and its
services (Kim et al. 2018). It was not always nice to be told that the food was served cold even
when it was not or to hear that the music that was being played was too loud and too jarring to
the ears even when it was kept at a reasonable volume (Lee et al. 2016). Some of the comments
and feedback that were directed to me as restaurant manager on the part of the customers were
clearly rooted in highly racist behavior and while I could not be impolite with customers, it
saddened me a lot to have to interact with such people. I could see for myself that not all people
in London were as excited about getting to learn about other cultures in the way that I was, and
some considered their own culture to be superior to that of others, which in my view was rather
unfortunate and undesirable.
2.5. What was noticed about my own Feelings and Reactions
There were a number of things that I noticed about my own feelings and reactions during the
time that I was working as a restaurant manager at The Gold Coast Restaurant and Bar. For
instance, I realized that I would become quite emotional when customers would provide me with
negative feedback about the manner in which food would be served at the restaurant such as the

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food being served cold or the food not being served to me on time. All this saddened me a great
deal because I am personally quite attached to the work that I do and every time a negative
comment was made by a customer it meant that my own work was being criticized. I also did not
like it when people in the restaurant, the customers that is, would complain to me about my
counterparts at the restaurant (Wood 2018). I realized that I had got quite close to all of my
subordinates during my time of working at the restaurant and that I was not prepared to hear
anything negative being said about them (Liyanage et al. 2017). While of course I am expected
to be hundred percent professional in my approach to customers as a restaurant manager, the fact
that I was so attached to the work that I was doing and the people that I was working with, came
out clearly in my interactions with the customers, when hearing negative feedback about the
place and its services is not what I was prepared for, and it saddened me a lot.
2.6. What I Noticed about the Behavior about Others
What I noticed about the behavior of other people at the restaurant is that all the staff
members of the restaurant were committed to the work that they were doing. I did not have to
deal with the problem of frequent leaves as a restaurant manager. I did not always have to
motivate my subordinates to work hard and do their best as this is something that they were
prepared to do on their own without being told to. I did not have to coax my juniors and those
working under me as the restaurant offered excellent incentives for staff members during rush
hours and they had every reason to work hard for their own benefit (Abel and Obeten 2015). I
also noticed that the group of people who were managing the place under my supervision at the
restaurant were pleasant and friendly by nature and picking up fights with them was something
that turned out to be quite rare, as they seldom ever talked back to me or refused to do what I was
telling them to do (Chung et al. 2017). I was placed in charge of a highly disciplined lot of

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people and I enjoyed that quite a bit. The restaurant owner couple also turned out to be very good
in their behavior for the most part not only towards me but also towards the other people
working at the restaurant under my supervision (Saeed et al. 2016).
2.7. What was Noticed about Other’s Performance
In the view of Obholzer, A. and Miller, S. (2018), workplace leadership is something
that entails overseeing the work done by others and motivating others to work to potential.
As mentioned above, the performance of other people at the restaurant was one that was
characterized by hundred percent commitment and dedication and as a workplace leader
or manager this made me very satisfied. It was evident in the eyes of one and all that this was
a restaurant that was serviced by a group of staff members who were committed to their goals
and objectives and who really enjoyed doing the work that they were doing (Ryu and Lee 2017).
Few questions were asked, all instructions and orders were obeyed and it was because of such
dedication and commitment shown by other employees at the restaurant that I was able to run the
place like clockwork during my time as restaurant manager there (Wen et al. 2017).
2.8. What I would do differently
As restaurant manager, what I would do differently the next time around that I was recruited
at such a culturally rich destination is to perhaps adopt a more professional approach to running a
restaurant. I got very close to the people I was working with here, and to the couple who had
recruited me as manager, which is not what I am expected to do as a professional. I would also
try to become less sensitive to issues like drunken brawls and bad behavior of customers which is
quite standard at all restaurants and bars across the world (Zhao et al. 2016).

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3. Future Development – More Emphasis on Career Management
As a restaurant manager, I believe the duties I rendered were those that I performed to the
best of my capability. However, if I am hired again to be a restaurant manager in the future there
are a number of things that I would look into which I did not during my tenure as
restaurant manager at The Gold Coast Restaurant and Bar such as matters pertaining to
career management. In the view of Greenhouse et al. (2018), career management
constitutes an essential aspect of employee management especially for freshers and entry
level employees. These include looking into appraisal matters for employees, adequate
representation of people of all genders among the employee base of the organization and
the provision of health and life insurance schemes for the benefit of employees.
Conclusion
Thus, my experience of working as a restaurant manager at The Gold Coast Restaurant
and Bar, is something that turned out to be quite remarkable. I got to learn a lot about a new
culture, witness different dimensions of human behavior and acquire a whole lot of experience,
both good and bad in the process.

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References
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