Folks, I've worked in restaurants off and on since the summer of 2003. I would like to think I have a good idea of what I'm doing by now. That being said, I don't necessarily need you to nitpick at every little thing in our restaurant.
When the hostess on duty tells you that it will be a few minutes for a table to be cleaned, she isn't giving you the go ahead to sit down. If you see me clearing a table, don't assume it's free yet. That is rather disgusting. If you do perform the preceding action, do not ask me to please hurry up and then have the cojones to look at me like I'm holding up your day.
Then there is tipping. Tips equal a waiter/waitress's lifeblood. I long ago learned how to smile at someone despite how annoyed they made me. I make sure you and your party always have drinks and that your food is out as soon as possible. I joke around to make your stay more enjoyable. So when I come to start cleaning off your table, I hate to see only dishes and used napkins left behind. This makes me think it is not worth it.
Speaking to the guys out there, if the female waitress repeatedly tells you to stop hitting on her and then you proceed to grab her wrist we will escort your ass out. If you try and fight me on this, I will not be gentle on doing so. Oh and don't threaten to try and get me fired because I moved out of the way of your fist. The fact that my boss laughed in your face should prove how stupid that is.
That concludes this PSA. You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming. Thank you.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
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Well said. As a server of many years, you've covered most of my pet peeves. Eventually, I realized that I had to "zen" everyone -- no matter what was said, no matter a bad attitude or a customer who cannot bring themselves to actually look me in the eye, I told myself to smile. It got more difficult as the days and nights went on. Eventually the smiling required booze. And, at that time, I realized that waiting tables wasn't worth it any more.
ReplyDeleteNice job on the PSA! ;)
I wholeheartedly agree!
ReplyDeleteAnd to add a few of my own:
- It's rather impolite to not tip on the full amount of the check before you whipped out your coupons. Tipping $2 on a $10 check is, technically, 20%, but when your bill was really $20, it's nowhere near as generous as you ought to be.
- Just because someone serves tables doesn't mean they're not intelligent. Some of us went to college, earned a degree or two, and simply don't get paid enough at our full time positions to pay for the aforementioned college. It happens, ya know.
- To stiff a girl who is clearly in her ninth month of pregnancy and still refilling your glass with sweet tea is rather rude, don't ya think?
I could come up with SO many more... But great PSA, had to add to it though, ha.
Bad day, huh? It's a hard, dirty, relatively thankless job you do. I think everyone should be forced to work as a waitperson at some point in their lives just so they can see what it's like on the other side of the table.
ReplyDeleteOh! Oh! I wanna play!
ReplyDeleteWhen your waitress is busy addressing another table and has her back to you, it's absolutely, positively NEVER OK to stick your fingers in her hip pocket and pull her away from the table she was helping and over to yours.
Yay! That was fun! I wanna go again.
Just because your age ends in '-teen' does not give you any sort of exemption from leaving a gratuity. Especially when there's a whole mess of you. Enough of you, in fact, to give us the right to automatically add said gratuity to your bill. One dime over the original pre-gratuity total isn't just rude...it's downright offensive.
How was that for your PSA?
I can relate to you on every level here.
ReplyDeleteI worked first as a busser, then as a hostess, bartender and finally (during my last month there) as a server. There are stingy, stingy people out there, and you can usually tell who they are before they even sit down (server's intuition). Still, we smile and go about the service as if they were not rude tourists, demanding seniors, or sleazy used car salesmen asking us to go out clubbing with them or sipmly to take off our clothes.
I always tip in the 15-20% range because I know the crap that they have to deal with. I only ever tip below 15% if the service is bad, which is really the only reason why you should leave a bad tip.
There is still more I can add but I've just got off a 12 hour shift and all I really want to do is shower and get at least a couple hours of sleep.
ReplyDeleteOh gosh I TOTALLY understand you. I feel like I experienced your day on Sunday. *Sigh*, it's an interesting experience isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI hear you. I used to work 12-13 hour shifts, get 5 hours sleep and do it all over again the next day.
ReplyDelete