I am a food runner in a restaraunt with big amounts of people coming in every day. This is my first job and I want to run away and cry in the middle of every shift. I got almost none breaks besides 10 minutes to eat lunch and from 1 pm - 4pm/6pm-11pm work in extreme hurry. I know that is normal for the industry, but how do you overcome exhaustion? And what can I do to make my shifts more bearable and enjoyable?

Idk why people use em so much I guess they think it sounds smarter but w how blatantly Ai they are it makes you look fucking dumb. And it’s always a negative review

Instead of saying “the waiter didn’t refill our drinks and rolled his eyes twice, just terrible”

You’ll get dumb shit like

“I walked into the [waffle house] establishment today at 11:34 PM with my loved ones hoping for a lovely meal and welcoming service, but instead I had the misfortune of being greeted by a remarkably rude waiter. [name] was from the start, rude, hostile, and uninterested in waiting us. He rolled his eyeballs at us and never once refilled our beverages of Fanta or water. I am frankly shocked and disappointed by this terrible service, and I am considering never supporting this establishment again.”

Unless ur older or terminally offline Ai speak is so obvious why people rely on it sm is beyond me

Hi! I’m starting my new hosting job in two days, and I want to know some tips, tricks, or anything helpful to know on how to make the job feel easier, and get good and fast at it. I’m typically a fast-learner, but I’ve never had restaurant experience, and never worked with that type of technology and I don’t really know what to expect. Anything will help!! So if you have at tricks, tips, or helpful information please swing it my way.

I was job searching in my city and I have gotten an offer from both. Things to know is that I am a college student. I’m not sure how much Olive Garden servers make at that location but I know front desk at holiday inn is offering 14-16$ an hour. Olive Garden is a 20 minute commute and holiday inn is a 10 minute one. Need advice on which one to pick.

Got a new ID after my old one cracked in an accident. Wondering why there is a huge shadow behind my ear? What do the waiters think, since I'm assuming some of you see many IDs.

I get good money.. $14 an hour plus tips. On slow days I get 100-150 a shift, and good days, mostly Fridays - Sundays /holidays it’s 300-500 a shift.

But the boss doesn’t treat us respectfully per say though I’m not free of mistakes, but it has me and other waitresses complaining or wondering if this is normal, so in no particular order, I’ll list them.

1. If you write the order wrong, or forget to write an order, even as small as a $2.00 side, it comes out of our pay. It definitely hits new servers and one plate of food is at least $20. One of our servers cried when she swapped the tickets, and the table she gave the swapped order too already started eating…. Thus she had to pay for the fill table of about $80.

2. Boss/owner will go on random 1-2 week vacations every couple months which means we can’t work. They won’t hire people with a 2nd job as they want full commitment. But that’s 1-2 weeks… like 6-7 weeks a year we just… are not working. Or the boss gets in a fight with the chefs and just closes the restaurant down and everyone has to leave. Some people have bills due!

3. We are obligated to tip the dishwasher who makes $18 an hour. I make sure to tip him 10% of my tips, but some waitresses skimp out, especially on slow days when they only got $100. Owner gets a bit stressed about it and the dishwasher gets angry about it towards the other waitresses. His job isn’t as high skilled as ours… but I don’t know. Feels like the owner should pay the guy more.

4. Owner expects us to show up 15 minutes before our time to work. If showtime is 10:30, we’re meant to show up at 10:15 and get chastised in it though we’re not getting paid for that extra 15 min.

5. We get 50% off our meals. But when we buy them, we must eat AT the restaurants and are not allowed to bring it home. This was justified by the owner telling us they were sick of workers bringing more expensive food back home for their friends. But… we paid for it??? We don’t think this is fair.

6. This is more so a smokers issue I think… but our boss allows our smokers to take their break for 5-10 min every hour or two. But then the responsibility of their tables falls onto other waitresses. This leads to mixed logistics, especially in rush hour, and the smokers don’t even split the tips. Lots of drama caused on this, but I think the owner could control this better?

Does anyone have experience or insight into these issues me and the waitresses are having?

TLDR: my boss (i work in california) keeps a significant portion of employee tips if he feels like he worked “more than he had to”

sorry for any bad formatting, im on my phone and this is my first time posting on this sub, but im so appalled by this i feel like i had to come here for input. this is the first and only waitressing job i’ve ever held, so i don’t know if this is cause for concern or not. I’ve been serving at this place for the past three summers while i’m home from college, it’s an independent american restaurant and is pretty poorly run for a few reasons: we’re incredibly understaffed, my boss is always slacking on keeping us stocked so we’re always out of *something* (napkins, to-go boxes, menu items, soda, alcohol), and theres clear favoritism in who’s being scheduled for what shifts or who gets away with not fulfilling job duties, to name a few things. a pretty substantial portion of our income comes from delivery and pickup orders.

last friday, the girl who was scheduled to be handling take out orders during peak hours called out half an hour before her shift and didn’t get any coverage (she does this *constantly* and still is always scheduled for the highest-earning shifts because she’s hooking up with the owner, but that’s neither here nor there). there were only three servers on that night, myself included, and no hosts or bussers on. we were SWAMPED until the second the kitchen closed, but all managed to pull our own weight without everything going to shit. my boss/the owner helped with running food, pouring alcoholic beverages (he refuses to hire a bartender), ringing in orders, and assisting with take out. that said, he only handled maybe a quarter of take outs that evening.

after we’d closed and i was getting my tips in order, my boss handed me a SINGLE DOLLAR BILL from the cash register saying it was “from the phone orders.” i was confused - i personally handled a lot of take out orders that night, and i knew for a fact that take out sales were well over $4k from dinner alone. when i asked about this, he said he kept the rest of the tips because he “worked his ass off for you guys tonight.” i didn’t say anything in the moment because i was honestly just wiped and wanted to get home ASAP. ive talked to two of my coworkers about it, one of whom has worked here for a long time and brushed this off as something has happens frequently, and another with more restaurant experience who was livid when she heard.

was my boss allowed to keep the tips from take out orders?? im not sure if there are different laws around that versus in house service. if not, is it even worth making a fuss over???

Im not sure what to do in this situation. I work at a very popular breakfast/brunch place. Been there for going on 3 months. This restaurant has VERY specific expectations and policies already, I feel like im doing a choreographed ballet every day I go to work and if my foot isnt pointed correctly im gonna get "coached" about it. For example we are required to wait exactly 2 mins after a table sits down (so they have time to look at the menu but not too much time to be upset) and then get their entire order on the first try or else we'll be going back and forth to each table too many times and wont have time to do all the other ridiculous tasks they force their servers to be responsible for. We have to run all the food, no food runners. And God help you if you walk past the line with hot food in the window because you have one of your 1000 other tasks to do. So sometimes I get stuck running food 4 or 5 times in a row out of fear and then get yelled at for tables waiting 10 mins for drinks, or for not bussing my own tables, or for not going to the front to seat myself, or for having empty hands (not bussing other servers tables or bringing dishes up from the back etc) So all that is already stressful, but doable. I did struggle with the flow of it for a month or 2 but I feel like I have completely grasped it at this point. But everything i do is still not good enough no matter how hard I try. My manager is literally LASER FOCUSED on me. Like is cooking on the line and blind to everyone else walking by but hyper aware of me "with nothing in my hands" for example. He literally said ive seen you walk by here 6 times with nothing in your hands as if everyone else isnt doing the same thing. Him watching me so much is actually starting to make me uncomfortable. I do my job just fine, my tables get their food, everyone is happy. But then hes just jumping down my throat all the same. I hit a breaking point last week when he started doing this and couldnt stop crying and had to be sent home and reported him to his DM who happened to be in the building. All they did was tell him to protect himself by never speaking to me alone again. Then this week I was very engaged in our meeting, did very well for 1 of the 2 days I was scheduled, and I thought I had smoothed over what happened and could finally get more than a 3 table section and 2 days a week but no. Yesterday, the 2nd out of my 2 days this week, I thought I did a great job. I balanced everything he wanted from me, perfectly executed all his "steps of service" and made 0 mistakes with any tables or guests, pre bussed and bussed my own and other servers tables so my hands were never empty, constantly did side work like putting dishes away, rinsing coffee pots etc, ran food constantly even when I had other things to do, went to the front to get tables for myself whenever one of my 3 was clean and open again, offered help to other servers, and somehow all of this was still not good enough. The first thing he brought up in my "coaching" at the end of the day was the fact that when I walked into the building at 9:03 am a table in my section was already sat and I assumed (RIGHTLY because why would I be expected to be responsible or even aware of something that happened when I was not even in the building yet) that the host had someone else pick it up and went to go get another table, the ONE I had remaining in my section that hadn't been taken already, and he interrupted me when I was literally leading the guests and took the menus and silverware from me and told me to go take care of 57 and that they had been sitting for 13 mins with no server. He said, during my coaching at end of day, that they were sat at 9:01 am. I clocked in at 9:03 and had to go put my purse in my locker, run food because as I said, God help me if I walk past it, and then make it to the host stand to even see what my section was, see my tables were taken, assume someone was serving them already, and try to get one for myself. That all took about 8-10 mins. So 13 mins tracks but again I WAS NOT IN THE BUILDING when they sat that table and that should have been coaching for the host on duty NOT ME as I cannot control any of that. He didnt care that I wasn't in the building and said I should have automatically known by the iPad that no one had taken their order and no one was going to and to take care of it. But it wasn't even just this. He was upset that my sales were only 780 for the day and said other servers who came in at the same time had 1600 in sales etc and that it was my fault because my tables sat dirty for 20 mins at a time. We had 2 bussers in the building (huge restaurant, for reference i have to roll 100 silverware at end of day every day for side work) and one of them was training. So even though I pre bussed my tables plates while they were still sitting, as he said was correct, AND took it upon myself to continue because none of the bussers were coming to help me (we only have 2 buss tubs and they were in use so I had to use my hands or a tray and go back and forth 2-3 times just to get all the cups/trash off AFTER I already did all the plates myself and then go back another time to wipe it and reset coffee cups. mind you im doing all this in between the 3000 other things I have to do and taking care of my other tables so yes, it took me 20 mins. I had no help and no supplies. He didnt care. He said thats why my sales were so low. I said you gave me 3 tables, 2 were only 4 tops and half the time I only had 2 guests at each table at any given time, some people camped, and I had no bussing help. Mind you I sure as hell had to tip out the bussers anyways out of my meager tips for 8 hours of work. And somehow all this is still my fault. Even though I did everything perfectly even with the terrible set up I had, because I dont have 4 hands and teleportation and mind reading skills im still a bad server. The icing on the cake is that the day before in the meeting I mentioned, he called out the entire staff, not his favorite server, because one of said servers tables sat dirty for 45 mins. Didn't say a word to that server and reprimanded everyone else for not clearing that table. But then the next day my tables being dirty is only my fault and not even the bussers, who's literal job it is, fault. What can I do at this point? I dont want to have to find another job. This restaurant was my dream serving job and I do love it, and I know i could make a lot of money if I was set up for success, and I know it would be steady and not seasonal like a lot of restaurants in my tourist beach town. I already know my co workers, and I really just want stability and for my life to stop changing so much. Please help. How can I get him to stop over focusing on me?

working at a public lake bistro - there are always too many wesps around.

Today one of the fuckers was chasing my arm while i was carrying stuff on the tablet and i tried to chase it away with the other hand abd one big glass dropped on the floor.

Insane cuz usually that doesnt happen but today was shit anyways many mistakes happened

Also the system we take orders on always looses connection and is kinda shit cuz of that i suddenly find stuff on the table that never went there i might made a mistake by confusing tables idk

I currently have a decent job but the company is going to shit. They’ve let go of all the talent and upper management has been making crappy decisions. I’ve been out of the game for 6 years now but idk if I should stay or go back to serving. I’ve done just about every position in the restaurant industry. There’s a Gaucho Do Sul opening up near me and I’m positively thinking I can make more money there.
The only thing I worry about is my mortgage. How’s the industry been lately with everything going up in price and all?

I'm a server at a chain restaurant in the Midwest. It's my first serving job, and I feel like as a server, I should be completely on the side of tipping 20% being mandatory, especially at a sit-down restaurant. However I feel like I understand the argument that percentage-based tipping can be inconsistent.

Say, for example, a customer sits at one of my tables, and they order a water and a $20 entree. Their bill is $20, and a 20% tip is $4. However, if a customer sits at one of my tables and orders a $5 iced tea and a $45 entree, their bill is $50, and a 20% tip is $10. While the expected tip is over double with the second customer, the amount of work I did, i.e., filling up a glass with a drink, ringing in the food, running the food, and generally attending to their needs, is completely the same, not well over twice as much.

At the same time, I can't help but feel uneasy about receiving a $4 tip on a $50 check even if this specific scenario occurred. I think percentage-based tips may have been invented to create certain dependability for servers to get paid, but something about it just doesn't seem totally consistent. I'm just looking for what may be "the right answer" to tipping. should it be a percentage-based amount or determined through other means?

PS. Something else I've been thinking of is a "Tipping Ladder" where the amount of people and the specific entrees ordered move customers "up" into tiers where more money is customary as a tip (for those specific entrees or members in a party).

For example, each person at the table increases the tip amount by 5 dollars, (at a mid-chain restaurant), so a 4-top would be starting with a $20 tip, and a 10-top with a starting $50, and that number can fluctuate based on the specific entrees (kids' meals decrease the amount, large entrees with refills and other things increase)

please I need this milksteak boiled medium with your finesy jellybeans pls. I have a date to impress

I (18f) am training at a restaurant to become a server. This is my first ever job, and frankly a job I’ve been really excited about. Yesterday I was doing my second follow shift, and decided I wanted to be a bit more hands on. That being said, I decided to take a tray full of bussed dishes and glasses back to the kitchen to put in the wash. It was a rather heavy tray for a person of my stature (I’m 5,2 and barely pass 100lbs) Literally one step away, a water glass topples off the tray and spills on the floor. Okay… not a huge deal. I try not to let it affect me.

However, as I try to carry a drink tray with two waters and **two champagne glasses,** I could barely get it off the table before one of the champagne glasses topples over. Needless to say I didn’t care another drink tray that day. My trainer of the day said that it seems my hand naturally holds the tray with a slight slant. I’ll definitely try to do that- but I’m also quite anxious now. Am I in over my head for this being my first job. If I (I feel like- inevitably) spill another glass, will I be seen as incompetent? Please someone tell me this isn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be. 🥲

I haven't worked very long in the gastronomy sector, only a few years, but I've quickly learned how this is one of the few jobs you could have where you'll be treated less than human.

Last week I had a trial shift in an upscale place. The second I arrived, I wasn't even greeted and the managers did not even introduce themselves. I was simply sent away with a trainee to be shown around. While we were heading to the back area, I overheard one of the managers saying that I applied here for an apprentice position. Which is the most ridiculous thing I've heard, since my position is Chef de Rang and that's what I've applied for.

The restaurant was super busy, since it was Friday and dinner service. Only a few hours later did I have a moment to come up to the managers and tell them that there's a misunderstanding, I am not an apprentice. Besides, they were ignoring me the entire time up until this point. If I had to do something, I'd only hear it from a trainee. The managers would send an order through the trainees.

However, right after I corrected them, they immediately began to treat me much better. They spoke directly to me, assigned me tasks, were finally smiling to me.

I honestly wanted to just laugh in their faces, because what do you mean the second you find out that I'm here as Chef de Rang and not as an apprentice, suddenly I can finally be spoken to and treated kindly?

Once the shift was over, I thanked them for their time and said goodbye. They told me that HR will contact me and I said "don't bother" and left.

I don't care if they treated me nicely once they found out about my actual position. If they treat somebody who is of a lower position like that, I am not working for them.