Slow nights with late dinner rushes

I'm never sure which is worse: being really busy or being really slow. What is irritating is when you finally commit to the idea that it'll be slow when a late dinner rush happens.

When a late dinner rush hits

There could be very little reason for someone to be on the clock and they're struggling to find something to do. All you can do is clean everything... twice... three times... then someone starts singing...

Disclaimer: This is not an actual picture of me and my coworkers

The guest list could be 10-20 people at any given time for a couple hours, then it'll spike up within an hour & a half of closing time... right when you think it's safe to do your closing duties.

Actual picture of guests when we're doing our closing duties (not really)

These late guests, which is the current trend for the last month, erase all of the cleaning and closing you've done in the last hour.

No matter how many times it happens, and it has happens frequently, you end up getting frustrated and tired! So the moral of the story is:

Be prepared for inconveniently timed dinner rushes. They will happen often because, well, we deal with the general public. On top of that, the people who haven't been cut yet will have to pick up the slack.

The restaurant closes at 9:00 or 10:00 so we tend to get things ready to close an hour before the doors are locked. Late diners tend to derail any closing attempts we try and sometimes we end up staying later than we want to. I come up with sayings, mantras, to deal with the job. In this case it's, "If it doesn't happen around 7:00 then it won't happen at all." Normally that's the case, but there have been frustrating exceptions! Last minute guests. UGH!