Waiting tables.

It's one of the most common jobs for young individuals, especially the college student. Many people think serving isn’t a difficult job, but it is. It requires skills. Skills to multitask, move quickly in fast paced environments, and the most important skill of all… biting your tongue. LOTS of biting your tongue. And if patience isn’t a quality you possess, then forget it. Waiting tables is not the line of work for you.

People say a lot of things about servers such as,

“You have no right to complain, you chose this job”

OR

“Go find an hourly paying job if you don’t like the pay”

but what these people don’t understand is that waiting tables isn’t always terrible. On good days, servers can make hundreds of dollars in one shift. But in order for them to do that, it is required that customers tip them 20% of their bill. Although it is not the law, it is common knowledge that when dining in at a restaurant, you should tip your servers 20%. Servers are only paid $2.13 an hour and at tax time, many servers owe money to the government because the $2.13 isn’t even enough to cover taxes.

At the end of this year, I had to pay the government $2400. Luckily my taxes from my student loans were able to cover that cost but think about the individuals who don’t have student loans. Those individuals have to come up with that money and pay it out of pocket. And how will they do that? By working more shifts. It’s a vicious cycle. But this post isn’t about taxes and $2.13 an hour pay. Its about a day in the life of a server.

As servers, it is our job to get customers in and out of the restaurant in a timely manner. It is our job to ensure that your dining experience is as close to perfect as possible and to have you walking out the restaurant with a smile on your face. And that means doing whatever we have to do to make sure that happens.

Waiting tables is our job. It is our paycheck. It’s how we pay our bills. It’s how we put food on our tables. Every time we step foot in our restaurant, we have no idea how much money we are going to walk out with. With this being said, we work extra hard to impress our customers and make everything perfect for them, as said before. We do this in hopes of receiving a 20% tip. So when we bust our butts and run back and forth because our tables food is not up to standards or they need something new every time we walk past their table, we expect to be compensated for our running around. Running around, which we only do, to make YOU happy.

So naturally, when a difficult table does something like that and their bill is $60 or higher, we expect our 20% tip. Well, we always expect our 20% tip but for larger tabs is when we need it the most. What I don’t think many people realize, is that at the end of the shift, we have to tip out our bussers and bartenders. So that’s more money we lose at the end of the night. We don’t pay our bills with your smiling faces and empty compliments. We rely solely on your tip.

A lot of people don’t understand or appreciate servers until they’ve worked in the restaurant business themselves. You try being on your feet for 10 hours a day without a break, walking over 6 miles in a day just from running back and forth from table to table. It’s not easy. That’s a lot of running around. So no, I’m not sorry for complaining when I’ve done that much walking, my sales are over $1000 for the day, and I’m only walking out with barely over $100.

As severs, we deal with crappy people and even crappier tips on a daily basis, but that’s what we do to make ends meet. Personally, I do not have my college degree yet so finding a good paying job is hard to find. Yes, I could get an hourly paying job, but an hourly paying job doesn’t pay $300 in a day like a severing job does. And that’s on a good day.

All I’m saying is, you should respect your severs and compensate them for their hard work. We aren’t there because we feel like it or for your entertainment. We are people just like you. After all, someone has to wait on YOU when you want to go out to eat. Without us, dining in would not be an option.

It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it. So don’t take your bad mood out on us. We are simply there to provide a service. It’s not our fault you had a bad day. It’s also not our fault if your food is not up to par, considering we are not even the ones who make it. We just bring it to you. But yet, we are always the one to blame. But that’s a whole other ordeal that I wont get into.

Bottom line, TIP YOUR SERVERS.

Please and thank you.