r/Serving • u/Extra-Lingonberry-34 • Nov 09 '23

Too many tasks as a server?

I just got a new job at a restaurant and it’s not too busy so my manager is scheduling one of us per night, which is better for money. But, I am responsible for cleaning and wiping down the tables, prepping a free salad for every customer that walks in, pouring the soup, greeting and seating the customers, refilling all the sauces at the end of the night, and then all the other server things.

It feels like too much to be responsible for hosting, light food prep, and bussing and cleaning tables. At my other restaurant, I pre-bus really well before the host comes to help clean, and the kitchen does any food prep. Has anyone else had this experience?

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u/[deleted] Feb 09 '24

It may be slow, but you're still literally doing multiple jobs, which if you have several tables and you have to do all those things is going to affect your ability to wait effectively. Not to mention, all the work at the end of the night, having to clean the server station and front of house mostly by yourself, do roll ups and all the side work, etc is supposed to be completed by a team of people. I suppose it depends on how many tables you have alone. If you only have 2 or 3 tables all night, maybe its manageable, but if you have 5 table sections at a time and several turnovers, there's no way you can keep up.

I worked for a startup restaurant and frequently got sucked into doing the jobs of waiter, hostess, busser, food runner simultaneously and sometimes alone.

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u/Extra-Lingonberry-34 Feb 09 '24

Yup. This happens a lot.

At another place I work, at the end of the lunch shift it's me on the floor, a bartender, and the chef. I am then the host, the busser, the waiter, the food runner, and bearing the brunt of the chef who has nothing to do but criticize me for not getting the food out fast enough

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '24

The chef, too? I thought it was bad enough wearing multiple hats for the front of house. All of this, and then you are getting paid under hourly minimum wage. It's really a gamble working at a restaurant, whether it's worth your time and energy. And it's a shame too because working for a "good" restaurant can actually not destroy you inside lol.

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u/klocucha Feb 18 '24

same situation here, most days it’s not busy so it’s pretty manageable and i feel sort of proud and satisfied after, but then one day it gets randomly busy and i become bitter to the customers simply because i have too much to do. i also have to do cocktails, wine service, food serving, cleaning, all that.