During lunch, the owners of a famous company offered waiters to work for them: today she is one of the managers Vida

During the year, from the waitress to the logistics managers of the Lonas company, which manufactures bedroom furniture and mattresses. It sounds really amazing, but that’s exactly what happened to Rosita Norkevičiūtė.

Today, she admits that this offer was very unexpected for her, after all she was not an ideal waitress, there were also spilled soups, crumbling dishes. But the most important thing was her rapid progress.

The Jakučiai family also noticed this, and often came to have lunch at the cafe where Rosita worked. Dad, mother and four children who run Lona, seeing the potential of the waitress at the table, argued and offered to join her team.

“When I saw Rosita for the first time, I thought there was a desperate newcomer working at the bar. She dropped her tools, she kept forgetting or confusing something. At the same time I thought: it won’t last long. The only thing that redeemed her mistakes at the same time was a sincere smile. Even later, I saw her perseverance and desire to improve. Less than a month later, she had already served the table correctly, remembering our table orders correctly. What’s more, the phrases and greetings she used were more pleasant and professional than those of the other bartenders.

At the same time, I did not focus on instant skills, but on character itself, stubbornness and optimism. She was perfect for customer service. Even afterwards, her perseverance and stubbornness allowed her to grow with the company, ”said Domas Jakutis, director of the company, about how she and her brothers decided to invite the waiter to work in the team.

– Rosita, you were a waitress before coming to work for the company. What were your career goals like at that time?

– I lost my job during the economic crisis of 2008, I went to the UK where I worked seasonally on a small flower farm in an English family business. I’ve always seen myself in Lithuania, so after four years of driving, I promised myself that it was time to go back to Lithuania and build my future here.

I got an offer from a friend to try to get a waitress job at Arma. I was inexperienced, but I think I liked the managers for their politeness and wide smile, so I started my career as a waitress a week later.

This job had to be temporary until one could find one with more career opportunities. I have always seen myself in a managerial position.

– Were Lono executives frequent guests at your cafe? Did you often make friends while serving them?

– It is a family business, they have a tradition of having lunch together, so I had the opportunity to interact with the whole family.

I guess at first I didn’t like them very much, my beginning was hard. I am a person who loses everything from his hands, I had to serve a lot of soup, break the dishes, apologize a lot to the customers. It took me time to get used to and learn.

– How did you get an invitation to come to work in a family business?

– I worked as a waitress for about a year, I knew many clients, I felt confident in that job.

But once a day, he served his family’s table. They had ordered extra takeout, so when a colleague said he was calling me Lonitas, It was the only thought that he would already want to pay and would need to take the food he had ordered.

When I approached the table, Birutė Jakutienė received me with a business card in his hands and said: “Rosita, we have been watching you for a long time, we like you a lot, also your communication with customers, so we want to see you in our team. If you’re interested, I’ll wait for a call. “

By the way, Birutė then and now organizes the selection of people, participates in them and helps managers to choose the most suitable person for the position.

– How did you feel then? Probably such an invitation was very unexpected: clients do not offer jobs to waiters every day …

– That day I flew like in the clouds, I wondered what job offer he would give me, because they don’t know anything about me, neither what I teach nor the education I have.

– Did you decide immediately? Or maybe you were still thinking?

– I decided right away, but didn’t call because I was working hard and it didn’t seem ethical to call for another job during work so I was looking forward to a day off. But over lunch the next day, Birutė encouraged us not to expect anything and to call to discuss the details of future work.

I came to the interview, it was quick. Such an image that the managers had already decided beforehand that he was fit. They asked me if I could work with a computer, and when I answered that I could, I offered him a job.

Although the salary offered to me at the time was lower than that of the waitress, I saw more career prospects here, so I agreed to come to work.

– Why do you think they invited you? What did you see in you when you served your table that offered you a job?

– We have spoken with the owners about it. They enjoyed my interactions with clients, but were more influenced by the progress they saw from my start as a waitress to the results I achieved after a year of working there.

– What functions did you start from?

– I started as an e-commerce consultant, interacted with clients, managed an electronic store. They were pretty simple jobs, and the volumes weren’t as large at the time as they are now, so I would constantly go to my then manager Adas (UAB Loniukas director) and ask him what else I could do to help.

Sometimes we talked so much, teaching me to do new tasks that Adas didn’t have time to do his job. But the hours we spend together are completely unfortunate for him, now he’s even happy.

Although the salary offered at the time was lower than that of the waitress, I saw more career prospects here.

– How did you imagine your life then? That he would stay in that position, or maybe he already dreamed of a professional promotion and did everything for it?

– As I was earning a higher salary in the previous job, I was unequivocally attracted here by the opportunity to grow and improve. It was a kind of investment in my future that, in my opinion, paid off today.

– How was your trip to the position of director? How long did everything take?

– I have worked as a consultant for a year. Through them I had to learn and know the company’s processes from different angles.

As the company grew, a need arose for new positions, one of which was that of transportation manager. My manager, Adas, decided not to seek an outsider in this position, but to offer me. I agreed without hesitation. I think it is the result of curiosity.

Subsequently, the companies were restructured and Loniukas activities were refined in logistics. It was then that he was offered the position of director.

– As you move up the career ladder, did you get excited?

– I can not say that. In life, everything came together by itself.

– How did you feel when you became a director when you were offered this position? You probably never thought or expected such a position.

“As I remember today, when Adas came to my office, he shook my hand and said, ‘Rosita, you are going to be the director.’ Then I thought it was a joke, but after a few minutes I realized that Adas was speaking in I laughed”.

I did not sleep all night. It was very unexpected, so I got excited about this idea for a while before I could share my knowledge with my colleagues.

– What was the most difficult part of this trip?

– I had challenges to form a team. As it was a new experience for me, even though Adas was constantly helping at first, I always felt anxious for the newly accepted person. Will he fit into our team or did I choose well? Sometimes there were days when I wondered if the messenger would go on a trip that day. Now I am very proud of my team.

– There is probably a lot to learn quickly? Maybe even study?

– When I came to work for a company, I studied economics part-time, so I had to combine work with science. But I can say unequivocally that my best teacher is my supervisor Adas. Life has learned a lot, you just need to live with your eyes open.

– You are perfectly in line with the saying that a manager must have tried all the work before becoming a director. After all your fur, as you say, does it matter?

– I’ve always had the idea that no matter where I work, my goal at the beginning would be to get to know the company not by reading about it, but by trying different jobs. Then you can better understand the team, their problems, empathize with the position of the employee. This is unequivocally useful. Sometimes even the smallest changes in the manager can affect the well-being of the team, and people are the driving force of the company.

– Probably no one expected you to become the director of that “only” waitress?

– My family has always known that I do not plan to be a waitress in my entire life, so they are not very surprised. We are happy together, but I haven’t had a heart attack yet.

– Proof that nothing in life is impossible, right? Think about it?

– I rarely think about that, I think I rarely think about possible things. I am more of an action person, I believe that every job has a result.

– How much have I heard that you are a constipated cyclist? You go to work every day on a motorcycle. And then a leather suit is replaced by a fancy suit?

– The internal policy of the company is not strict for the clothes of the employees, so I can choose the clothes according to the mood of each day. If I go to work on a motorcycle, I do it with my motorcycle boots, jeans and I stay all day. Maybe I just take out the guards to make it easier to get around.

And I’ve been riding a motorcycle for 11 years, I was the first girl in Jonava to retain her rights. I persuaded the teachers at the driving school to buy a motorcycle to teach me how to drive, so I flew in the wind.