life of a server Archives - Page 5 of 8 - I Hate Working In Retail

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25 Ways To Get Your Server To Hate You

1. Leave them a different type of “tip”

Source: complex.com
“My suggestion about their hairstyle is surely more valuable than their ability to pay the bills.”

2. Snap your fingers to get their attention.

 Source: dave-daring
They are dogs rather than human beings, after all.

3. Complain about your food after you’ve eaten all of it.

“It was so disgusting that I licked my plate.”

4. Tap them on the shoulder while they’re with another table.

“MY FIFTH SIDE OF KETCHUP IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN OTHER PEOPLE’S NEEDS.”

5. Hang out for an extra three hours after you’ve paid your bill

“And here’s an extra nickle for your time.”

6. Come in five minutes before the restaurant closes.

“It makes me feel like a special snowflake to know that so many workers can’t go home to their families for another two hours just because of me.”

7. Make lots of substitutions so the original item you ordered is unrecognizable.

“Can you ask the chef to find a way to combine the cheeseburger with the fettuccine alfredo? Oh, and no meat.”

8. Yell at them when your food is taking too long.

“You mean you don’t cook the food? AND I’m not the only person in the restaurant? WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE?”

9. Stay glued to your phone instead of deciding what you want to eat.

“You know the old saying: first tweet, then eat.”

10. Claim to know the owner and expect free food as a result.

“We went to high school together. Yeah, I was his ex-girlfriend’s neighbor’s cousin.”

11. Let your kid run around.

“She’s so cute when she dives between the servers’ legs while they’re carrying huge trays of hot food, isn’t she?”

12. Use your personal beliefs as an excuse for not tipping.

“Giving others a negative impression of my religion makes me feel powerful.”

13. Let your kids make the table look like a war zone.

“You’re right, sweetie. Pulverized dry cereal adds a lovely touch to this five-star eatery.”

14. Push your chair out really far so that no one can get past you.

“My extra leg room is definitely worth inconveniencing everyone else.”

15. Complain about your seats during a rush when there is clearly no other place for the staff to seat you.

“I am sure that the food tastes much better while it’s eaten at that booth rather than this booth.”

16. Pretend like you’re leaving a tip, but actually nah.

“WWJD? Probably nothing nearly this rude, but I enjoy giving him a bad name.”

17. Interrupt their introduction by stating your drink order.

“How are you?”
“Iced tea, no lemon.”
See, it’s funny because iced tea isn’t a state of being.

18. Make no effort to move your phone when they’re serving your food.

“It’s a trendy new game: If you touch my phone, I cut you. If you put the hot plate on my phone, I still cut you”

19. Call them over while you are still deciding what to order.

“Do you know why you came over here even though you knew I wasn’t ready? Because of my gravitational pull. I am the center of the universe.”

20. Give them a ‘verbal tip,’ but not a monetary one.

“Now they can pay for their groceries with ~*~love~*~.”

21. Make them get you one thing every time they come to your table instead of asking for them all at once.

“I don’t even like tartar sauce. I just want to see you run.”

22. Assume that they know you’re in a rush without saying a word to them.

“You’ll be back with the check in ‘just a minute?!’ We have a show to catch in forty-five seconds!”

23. Make no effort to move your body when they’re clearing or setting plates.

“It’s like an obstacle course, but with the added twist that I sue you if you get sauce on my new jacket.”

24. Try to make a political statement instead of leaving a tip.

“This will definitely prove that I am qualified to help choose the leader of our nation.”

25. Treat them like anything except what they are: a hard-working person trying to make an honest living.

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16 REASONS PEOPLE QUIT THE SERVICE INDUSTRY

The service industry can be a jumping point between other jobs or a lifelong vocation. But even some of the most hardened, battle-scarred servers eventually decide that they don’t want their feet to hurt all the damn time. So they quit.

To find out what makes people clock out of the industry for good, we polled a group of veteran servers, bartenders, and cooks about what drove them to greener pastures. A big reason was more green! That one’s easiest to understand. Read on to find out the other 15, which are not so simple.

DAN GENTILE

Your income is too unpredictable

Strikes and gutters, ups and downs — the Dude said it best. The instability of working as a tipped employee eventually weeds waiters out of the weeds.

People don’t take your job seriously

Waiting tables or bartending is hard work, but a lot of people don’t agree. If they ever stood 10 hours in a server’s shoes, they might stop being so condescending.

You want to apply your education to more complex tasks

You’d be surprised to know that your favorite bartender has a master’s degree. And after pouring a million Manhattans, he might just decide to use it.

Dan Gentle

Your feet hurt

Eventually your body doesn’t want to stand up all day. And you become way too familiar with the latest trends in bunion prevention.

Customers treat you like a subhuman

Some customers are the worst. And at the end of a shift, the bad apples are the ones stuck in your teeth.

Your coworkers are subhumans

Some service industry folks are pros. Dedicated lifers who take their job very seriously. Others aren’t. And if your team isn’t full of A-players, it’s likely you’ll often be doing the work of two people. Or mopping up someone else’s mistakes (literally and figuratively).

You miss everyone’s birthday/wedding/funeral

“Special Occasion” is a great Smokey Robinson song, and if you work at a bar or restaurant, you’ll be stuck humming it to yourself while your friends are off celebrating. Or mourning.

Dan Gentle

You aren’t allowed to get sick

If your server looks like an extra from The Walking Dead, it’s because calling in sick isn’t an option. Combine that with a lack of health care and it doesn’t make for a very healthy workforce.

Your weekends are not real

Monday is the new Saturday. Sunday doesn’t exist.

It’s quite stressful

Multitasking takes a lot of mental energy, as does adapting to completely unpredictable situations. This is often the salad fork that breaks the server’s back.

Dan Gentle

You repeat the same task over and over and over

After you’ve rolled 100 sets of silverware a thousand times you’ll want to stab someone.

Kitchens are boiling with testosterone

There’s a certain machismo that comes with the territory, especially in the back of house. But no matter the size of your manhood, eventually you get tired of the biggest d*ck contest.

The extracurricular activities are bad for your health

After 10 hours of being on your feet in work-mode, you’d think you could just crash into a bed and fall asleep, but that doesn’t happen. Instead, you clock out and head to another bar. Or spend half your tips buying controlled substances from that dishwasher guy. It’s fun… until you burn out.

DAN GENTILE

Intoxicated people are idiots

Some people who go to a bar or restaurant need a server. Others need a babysitter, because they act like children. And being a babysitter sucks, unless the kids have gone to bed and there’s lots of good stuff in the fridge.

The drama is real

Close spaces, “interoffice” relationships, long hours, relying on other people. We’ll spell it out for you: D-R-A-M-A. And the casual nature of a restaurant or bar amplifies the type of friction that’s just white noise in a real office.

Management nearly always sucks

Corporate, management, The Man, whatever you want to call them — they’re usually awful. No matter how great the workplace, there’s bound to be a thorn in your side coming from up high.

Sourced from thrillist.com

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THE WEIRDEST ORDERS WAITERS HAVE EVER GOTTEN, ACCORDING TO REDDIT

SHUTTERSTOCK (EDITED)

Your gross friend who orders General Tso’s with brown rice isn’t the only weirdo who frequents restaurants. There’s a whole population of inscrutable eaters out there, and servers from all over recently took to Reddit to out those freaks. While the entire “Waiters of Reddit, what’s the most ridiculous order someone’s placed…?” thread is unbelievable, these were eight of our favorites. May you never encounter the heathen who requested microwaved root beer.

8. No-pepperoni pepperoni pizza

“A lady calls and orders a ‘small pepperoni pizza with no pepperoni’ I clarify and ask her ‘So just a small cheese?’ To which the woman, clearly annoyed by my lack of understanding , says ‘NO. A small pepperoni with no pepperoni.’ I again clarify and ask ‘You want a pizza with sauce and cheese only?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Ok so a cheese pizza.’ ‘NO I WANT A SMALL PEPPERONI WITH NO PEPPERONI.’

We made her a cheese pizza. She didn’t call and complain. Still not sure what the f*** she thought she was ordering.”

7. A “regular” filet mignon

“Had a lady order our filet mignon, when it was brought out to her she said with disgust that she had ordered the filet, not a steak. She proceeded to argue that a filet mignon was a type of baked potato rather than a steak.

EDIT: Damn this blew up, and when asked how she wanted it cooked she looked puzzled and said ‘regular’ which I took as meaning medium.”

6. The “Doughnut Explosion”

“At the Italian restaurant I worked at as a server/bartender/manager for 5 years, we had a lot of regular customers come in and had some strange requests. Most were nothing too special, but one guy would come in 4-5 days a week, and he would never order anything on the menu unless it was a busy night and we wouldn’t have time to ‘get crazy’. On the slower nights though, he would order things with sauces we didnt normally make, or special dessert concoctions (even though we prepared desserts daily, and did not make them to order).

The craziest thing he ever ordered though, was a Doughnut Explosion. To be clear, we did not nor know how to make doughnuts. However, there was a Dunkin Donuts next to our location, and he sent one of his favorite servers next door to pick up a dozen random doughnuts. When he came back, the customer told me which ones he wanted on his dessert, and I proceeded to go back into the kitchen and whip up his dessert to his specification. It consisted of 2 doughnuts, topped with vanilla ice cream, layered between the brownie cake that was our house specialty, and topped with Chambord and a port wine fig sauce that we put on pork chops. This was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen in a restaurant, but he let me try a bite and it was f***ing amazing!”

5. Ice cream sundae, extra Heinz

“Used to be a waiter. Had a family come in and eat. Little boy eventually orders dessert. Vanilla ice cream and ketchup.

Yes, he put the ketchup on the ice cream. No, I didn’t stick around to watch. I would’ve thrown up.”

4. Egg-less omelet

“Over the summer, I had a customer who came in for Sunday brunch and ordered a spinach and feta cheese omelet. She then adds that she would like it made without eggs. I clarified that she wanted an omelet WITHOUT eggs, not made with egg whites which is quite normal.

We made her a spinach feta salad and the customer was happy.”

3. Warm root beer

“I had someone order a warm root beer. As in, stuck in the microwave and heated up. I definitely made a face but I did it. Really sucks to work somewhere that has bottomless pop and be sticking one in the microwave every 15 minutes.”

2. The spaghetti appetizer

“I once had a guy place his order, and then say ‘And give me one of those spaghetti appetizers.’

I had been working there for a couple months, and we had no pasta dishes whatsoever on the menu. I politely tried to clarify this, but he wasn’t having it. He just kept getting more irate. He insisted that he eats here all the time, and he always gets the spaghetti appetizer.

Eventually, he gets up from his table, storms over to another one, and points at what he wants on another diner’s table. He was pointing at their cole slaw. And yes, as far as he was concerned, I was still the asshole for not knowing what he was talking about.

Edit 1: Our slaw was a southern style slaw, where the cabbage is shredded. So, the cabbage is in strings, but you would still have to be some sort of weirdo to confuse it with noodles. And a few people have mentioned a Dane Cook bit. I’m not familiar with that joke, but after doing some googlin’, it appears that is a joke about messing with staff at a restaurant. This happened in 1994, and the customer was an older, well dressed guy out to dinner with his wife. I’m positive he wasn’t f***ing with me, he was just an obnoxious a-hole that expected me to know what his confused mind was talking about.”

1. The dolphin sideshow

“As a waiter at a coastal restaurant, we occasionally had dolphins come in the harbor right to where people would eat. These two old ladies came in and before they placed their orders, demanded I release the dolphins for their amusement. It took a good 10 seconds of silence before I realized they were serious. I passed this request onto my manager and then continued to eat free jumbo shrimp.”

Sourced from thrillist.com