Hi! Welcome you guys, my name is Kate and it is my pleasure to serve you tonight! What can I get you started with to drink tonight? How about a (insert newest beverage menu item that the managers are pushing us to sell here)?
Waitressing is NOT easy, it is very, very hard. It is long hours, high stress, fast paced, physically, and emotionally exhausting. However, I continue to be a waitress and I don't foresee me quitting my serving job any time soon, even if I only waitress on the weekends. Why?
Well just some quick benefits of being a waitress....
1. Fast cash. Best college job ever, you leave every night with your tips in hand (however you NEVER see a pay check, I get paid 2.13 an hour and by the time taxes are taken out of my wages and the electronic tips that I have to claim my paycheck = 0.00)
2. Awesome discounts on the food, I don't know about other restaurants but the restaurant I waitress at gives me 50% off my food while on the clock before or after my shift, and after 3 months they send you an employee discount cards and you get the same discount ANYTIME. With up to 3 people, so where will I be during the semester studying? At my restaurant where its just as cheap as fast food but its ACTUAL food and honestly the staff is my second family.
3. Going off of that, I have met some of my truest friends through serving. People that are a lot like me, I wouldn't trade the staff at my restaurant for any others. We all seem to mesh together really well and I can truly be 100% myself when I am at work. So even if I drop a tray or a customer yells at me, they've got my back. Always.
Why has being a waitress has made me a better person?
This is not something I ever thought I would write about to be honest. When I applied at the restaurant I worked at it was out of somewhat desperation, I needed a job and I couldn't wait around, I had NO experience but I thought, how hard can it be?
HARD. IT IS REALLY REALLY HARD. Being a server is a completely different world. Being that I hold 3 jobs currently I really see the difference in being a server. People that I would meet at one of my jobs as a secretary, that would treat me with respect and like a human being worth talking to, I could meet those same people as their server and all of a sudden I turn into the SERVANT.
How does this make me a better person?
1.Serving is a very humbling experience. Your role in your customers life is to serve them, to meet their every little need as quickly as possible and to entertain them and make sure they have the best night of their lives. Now you try to achieve that goal with up to 10 tables at the same time over and over again in a night and you see how it can be a humbling experience. You cannot achieve that goal with everyone. For some, they come with baggage from their day, already in a bad mood and it is near impossible to please them. So what do I do? I smile even wider, I try to relate a little more, I make sure to pay a little special attention to them. Because that is what I have decided is my true role in my customers lives, to make an impact, to be friendly when they are rude or cut me short, to be understanding when they make a complicated order, and to above all make them feel special and meet their needs.
2.I honestly cannot wait to go back to school this semester because I am almost positive that waitressing has helped me increase my memory, ability to multitask, and has for sure helped reduce my stress levels. If I can manage 10 tables of at least 2-20 people or a party table of 40 and remember that one lady needs no salt on her fries and that the little boy at the end of the table is allergic to tomatoes and keep everyone happy with drinks filled and tummys full then I think my Biology class this next semester should be a breeze.
3.Patience. This is a virtue that if you don't posses it BEFORE serving, you sure will after serving! Patience is standing quietly beside a table that flagged you down because they were ready to order and then changed their minds 10 times while their partner is on the phone and holds up a finger to you to wait until she is done with her call to take her order. All while you have food to run to other tables, the table next to you is slurping their straws signaling that they are past due for a refill, and there's still 2 other tables that you haven't even greeted yet!
4.Honor&Integrity. This is something that I was raised with, to never steal, lie, or cheat. However this takes on a WHOLE new meaning in the food industry. On any given night, some nights with my rent due the next day or a school bill looming in the near future I have anywhere from $100-$600 in my book depending on how many people pay in cash. Now I could lie and say that some tables didn't pay me and pocket the money. But I know that isn't right. And all of us servers have built up trust with each other, we are comfortable letting each other watch over each others books, purses, etc. We all definitely struggle to make that extra $20 sometimes to pay bills but we earn it honestly, by busting our butts to earn our tips.
5.Sometimes in the food industry certain people get stereotyped. A lot of us servers think that we can tell a good tipper from a bad tipper by the way you look, talk, dress, and act. However through experience I have learned that EVERYONE just wants to feel special. When you get all dressed up to go eat or if you have had a long day and you just want to sit down and not have to do anything then you are looking to be served. I have learned that it doesn't matter who you are, you deserve good service. Even as a waitress I go to restaurants and receive poor service because I am stereotyped as a young college kid= bad tipper. I have learned through experience that the people that are stereotyped as "bad tippers" can be some of the best tippers you have ever had because they truly appreciate you giving the service they wanted, and that they deserved.
6.Teamwork. This is a tough one, if you are one of my coworkers reading this then I am sure you will understand this- teamwork is the BEST and WORST part of being a server. Teamwork is AWESOME when someone runs your food for you, grabs your table a refill, or fills up the chip and ice machine so you don't have to run all the way to the back for them. BUT when you are juggling a full load of tables and your manager asks you to run food for someone else because they are having trouble with another table or one of the cooks needs more plates, or your partner asks you to get drinks for your party table so they can start on food orders it seems like the most inconvenient task in the entire world. The immediate thought is to say every man for himself and just watch your own back but through experience if everyone is watching each others backs and helping each other as much as possible the entire shift goes SO much smoother. True team work is team service, help your team serve their tables knowing you wont receive the tip for it but trust your team to help serve your tables.
7.Thick. Skin. My first day waiting tables after my 2 days of training and 0 prior experience was a fiasco. I swore to myself I wouldn't cry. I did. There is absolutely nothing comparable to what the experience of being a server is like. It's high stress, very fast paced, and it seems like every person in the restaurant
needs you. Everyone needs for you to be doing something, to grab them this, get them that, reheat this plate, order this, run that, stock this, organize that. They say the best feeling in life is to be needed, now I think I'd be okay being a little less needed. Tbh. And you have to have a thick skin to wait tables, people are going to call you mean names, question your intelligence and competence, raise their voices at you, and talk down to you and you have 2 choices. 1. Tell them off and guarantee that this displeased customer will NOT be tipping you and might even give you a bad review. 2. Smile, apologize, and fix it. That's it, no highway option.
8.Diversity. I have met SO many different kinds of people while waiting tables. I have had travelers from Brazil and India, I have had soccer moms, evangelists, football players, CEO's, sorority sisters, and people from all different walks of life. One of my favorite moments in my job is when I am closing the restaurant and I only have 1 or 2 tables left and one of them gets to tell me their life story or they want to know mine. You get to, for a brief moment, be a part of each others lives, a source of encouragement or advice lender, and I cannot tell you how many times I have been able to share my faith with tables! A lot of times my job truly is a joy, so many opportunities to make people smile and share Christ.
So that's my spiel on that. I think everyone's first job should be in the food industry, waiting tables. You learn SO many valuable lessons in the food industry and I for one am thankful for the experience that being a server has given me. After all God calls us to be servants, and trust me, waiting tables is GREAT practice at humble service. ;)
Peace N' Blessin's-
Your Server For Tonight, Kate
