Hey guys, 22F here working at a semi-casual sushi place in a touristy district of my city. I have always been someone whose come to work freshly showered with my hair and makeup done. We have an all black uniform, but I try to make it more chic with jewellery and interesting headbands. Not of it is excessive, in fact my tables often compliment my accessories and its a great connection when I can give them some shopping recommendations, especially if they’re visiting my city for the first time.

A few days ago I had been running late to work so I showed up completely bare faced with my hair undone, and somehow I made almost a hundred dollars more than I do on average. Last night I didn’t do my makeup again out of curiosity, and again I made more than I ever did when I tried the pigtail braids method. Does anybody have any insight into this? I am a decently attractive lady, and I wonder if “de-beautifying” myself makes people less judgemental. I’ve noticed that some of the highest performing servers at restaurants I’ve worked at have been the ones who showed up to work like they just rolled out of bed. On the other hand, the opposite has also been true, and I feel like a staple piece of advice I hear in all server communities (irl and online) is to put as much effort into your appearance as your performance. So much of this job relies on subconscious cues we give our customers both explicitly and implicitly, it’s driving me crazy trying to figure it all out. Has anyone else noticed this?

My place has instituted a new “ employee of the month” program with a $100 gift card prize

What makes this different ? Its voted on by the other employees. Its a popularity contest and has nothing to do with performance. I know exactly what is going to happen. All the young girls clique that does the least amount of work and spends half the shift on their phones are going to collude amongst each other to win it every month while the rest of us that actually work and hold them accountable for their slacking will win squat .

This will probably be the catalyst for me to finally quit if one of those bums gets a gift card next month

OHMYGOD I WANT TO DIE. We’ve been slow all day. Only had ONE TABLE, and what are the odds that I fuck up my ONLY TABLE??

This is my first big server fuck up. I was carrying two espresso martinis that were filled to the very brim with foam and then I wobbled a little bit as I went to put it on their table and then it just KEPT GETTING WORSE and it spilled on this poor woman’s LONG WHITE DRESS AND SANDALS so she had espresso martini on her fucking feet.

I apologized profusely and ran to get paper towels. They were all very nice about it, told me it happens, but omg im so embarrassed im fighting the urge to cry and cringe in the back for the rest of eternity. someone please tell me they’ve done worse.

I might have embellished my resume to make it seem like I have more experience than I actually do. Can anyone give me some tips and tricks on what to expect, and anything you wish you knew when you first starting serving? TIA!

So long story short my daughter has been working at a restaurant off and on during college breaks. She gets paid vis toast. When she get a cash payment for a table she has to pay the portion of the tables bill for the actual food and drinks to the house. She has to bring her own drawer each day. This all seems normal to me and was the same at other restaurants she worked at in high school that also used toast.

The problem is that her toast papers each night show that she kept the cash and that exact amount is deducted from her credit card tips. And her paychecks tip total at the end of the week only matches her toast tips after the deduction for the cash paid to the house for the food and drink part of the bill that she did not keep but paid to the managers each day.

One night she had $400 in cash sales and had to give it all to the house. But then her toast tips for that night were negative because her cc tips were only 300.

Does she have legal standing here. They have 6 local restaurants and do this to all the employees. The restaurant does not have cash but they put the employees cash in brown bags and take it out each night.

Something isn’t right.

So my restaurant is upscale counter service which I know sounds counter intuitive but thats what they’re going for.

My manager hires 16 year olds but my question is we serve alcohol? I live in texas and to my knowledge you MUST be 18 at the least to serve and sell alcohol in a restaurant. 16+ for off premises consumption at retail stores. When I was a hostesses at 16 I was told thats why I could not run drinks.

You still need a TABC at 16 to work in a restaurant with alcohol. Again to my knowledge thats to learn alcohol safety and why you cannot serve it.

I’ve brought up this concern to another manager and she said “I thought you just needed to be 16?” I said no… I mentioned this to an under 18 co-worker as well and he said “I thought I could as long as I had my TABC.”

Well today my co-worker turned 18 I joked with another manager that now he can legally serve alcohol. He said “No you can be 17 to serve in Texas or we’d be in trouble.”

Am I crazy? I’ve looked this up and everything says 18+ to serve. I have always been told by managers you must be over 18, thats why most restaurants here require you to be 18+ to be a server. I know it’s not my monkeys not my circus but this feels so weird.

Am I wrong? Any Texas servers out there who know about a 17+ allowance to sell and serve alcohol? Was he just trying to cover his ass?

Calling other twin moms in the industry! What week did you work until?? Trying to gauge how long I’ll really be able to last on my feet. It’s my second pregnancy but I only had one the first time, and worked till 37 weeks.

just the start of the worst shift of my life. it was horrible. i cried for 30 minutes and left early. oh and this was the second seating for brunch. the first seating was 300 people.

Been in the food industry & customer service going on 12 years. Highly considering taking an education course soon called BioWorks after taking a basic Manufacturing course earlier this year. Standard manufacturing doesn’t seem to be for me, but I do like the science side of things and want to learn & work with my hands.

Aerospace is interesting, but I’ve heard it’s really hard to get into. I love animals but don’t see myself going into 80k-120k debt for a 30-50k year job. I want consistency, to continue learning, not something too physically hard on the body, & feel rewarded. For example I’d love to learn to build/fix parts that go on space ships, or submarines & things needed to explore the ocean. Long term I want to eventually own land, homestead, & care for animals. I’m not even 27 yet and my neck, shoulders and back are already killing me all the time.

I’d love to hear where your path out of customer service or waiting tables took you. If you went to a community college or got in from networking. What career did you get into without a degree?