(no subject)
Things They Could've Told Me...
(The stuff I wish I knew before I started in the restaurant business)
Don't even bother asking, "When am I off?" Because no one knows. It depends on such intangibles as when the last customer is done, how much of a mess everyone made, do your credit card charges add up or do you have to go back to the P.O.S. system and make an adjustment... Just get there on time and plan on leaving any time from a minute later to the next morning.
No Holidays off
The good news? You always get to go to the movies and out to eat on nights when it isn't crowded. The down side? You will work on Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Easter, any Monday holiday and possibly Thanksgiving and Christmas. Those New Year's Eve plans? Forgeddaboutit!
Minimum Wage + Tips
BOH workers don't usually need to worry about this one, but if tipping is part of your compensation, you can say good-bye to any semblance of a "regular paycheck". Income, while it may be good at times, is erratic--seemingly following the Nasdaq chart. You will need to discipline yourself to save money in the good times to carry you through the slow seasons, when the tips may be paltry. Rookies, flush with cash during the busy months, often party or go on buying sprees, only to be begging for shifts and digging in their sofas the next month when rent is overdue.
Tip Credit
"Tip Credit" laws vary from state to state. If you are in a tip credit state, your employer can credit the tips you make (up to a certain amount) towards your total compensation. This means that instead of paying you minimum wage, they can pay less--sometimes as little as $2.13 per hour.
Tipping Out / Losing money
You've worked a grueling shift on the floor, a slave to a never-ending onslaught of needy and sometimes rude customers. You count your cash. Somehow, you gave away a fifty instead of a twenty when Mrs. "I need to get outta here now to catch my movie" demanded her change while you had food in the window and three new downs. Now, as is customary in the restaurant business, you must "tip out" your busser, the host and the bartender on what you should have made. As a rule of thumb, tip your bartender 10% of your bar sales, your busser 15% of your tips (15% of 15% of sales). Other people you might need to tip out: Host, sommelier, expediter. Welcome to the world of subcontracting!
Declaring Tips
Since the IRS likes its share of all of our income, anyone who earns tips is required to declare how much they have received. In most cases, this is done by recording the information for the employer, who includes that amount on each paycheck, so the feds can get their share. Often, the thought occurs to tipped employees that they might save themselves a little dough by under-reporting their tips; hence, the question: "How much do I 'have' to declare? The legal answer is everything you get minus what you "tip out".
Certificates and Licenses
Some states require mandated certification for health departments and alcohol service before you can take a job as a waiter. And the waiter has to pay for them!
Mean-spirited Diners
While few, there are those who come into the restaurant to make your section the "fifth circle of hell". Try to remember the phrase "this too shall pass" and smile!
Territorial Waiters
You've just gone through training and been assigned your first 3-table section. You are doing quite well, having already earned $30.00 in tips in your premier hour. "This ain't so bad," you think. So confident you are in your abilities that, when you notice that a table just next to your section hasn't been seen by any other waiter yet, you approach them to ask if you can get them started with some drinks. As you go to the bar to order their beers, Wally--who has been waiting tables for 13 years, comes up and says, "Don't be snaking my tables, rookie" and demands you turn their drink order over to him. You try to protest that you were just trying to help out..."be a good team player" as you were instructed but Wally storms off, mumbling under his breath and shaking his head. Not everyone is like Wally but, take care...and watch your back.
Lack of Training
While most large restaurant companies have established and documented training programs, many--in short-sighted attempts to keep their labor costs down--shorten the training program. Some restaurants do not even have a training program.
High turnover rate
If you stay in the same restaurant for a year, plan on not knowing any of the same co-workers you began with on your first anniversary. Typical turnover for a restaurant ranges between 100% (considered good) and 300%!
The money is good
Why have some people been serving for 20 years? For little education, an extremely flexible schedule, less than 40 hours per week, you can make a good living. There may be no feeling in the world like walking out the door after a six-hour shift with $300 in your pocket.
Turning into Archie Bunker
People who want to believe we are all created equal may want to keep their 9 - 5 job. No matter how hard you may try to hold on to your liberal outlook, you will begin to stereotype customers, by their age, race, sex, accent, etc.. You will predetermine how much they will tip you and your service will reflect your preconceptions.
Industry stereotypes
Men in the kitchen--except only usually women are pastry chefs. Women are typically servers, except for fine dining where men hold the title. Men typically are bartenders, except at the local dive bar where only women will even get an interview...etc.). General Managers usually come from the "Good Old Boys" club. While strides have been made, the "glass ceiling" is, sadly, still in effect too often.
Marriage and relationship issues
While the hours may be less than a normal job, if you are a server, a manager's work week may be between 55 - 70 hours per week. Plus, always working Saturday and Sunday, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas and every other day when "normal" people expect to be with their families can add a lot of stress to a relationship.
Vengeful Servers
Spitting in food, stirring drinks with private parts. You get the picture.
Stealing
So many ways to cheat behind the bar: watered down drinks, not charging for draft beer, bartenders bringing in liquor and making money for himself etc. Server scams: not ringing in soda but charging customer for it, voiding items off the bill after the money is collected. Manager scams: voiding items from P.O.S. system after servers turn in money, pretending to give a gift certificate to an upset guest but turning it in as cash instead, trading dinners for personal items. Sometimes, a group of people can get together and really screw the restaurant: Cooks making dinner without getting rung in for server who is also in cahoots with bartender and then kicks back percentage of the take.
Disrespect for management
We work in an industry where employees usually make more money than management...it gets to their head.
The lack of respect from the customers
Many look down on a server or bartender, or automatically assume that you are a student. They don't know alot of people in the industry have college degrees, we just can't give up the money or the lifestyle. Ironically, they also expect you to be their personal psychologist while waiting on them.
The workplace as a den of iniquity
Two words: Drugs, sex. Not necessarily in that order.
The number of dorks in the business
It is getting harder and harder to find good help and management. You have to be a physiologist, mathematician, maintenance person, able to make split second decisions. With the unemployment rate being so low, many have fled the stresses of the business and found employment elsewhere. High tech recruiters, looking for warm bodies, often call restaurants and lure away good people who are tired of putting up with it all.
(The stuff I wish I knew before I started in the restaurant business)
Don't even bother asking, "When am I off?" Because no one knows. It depends on such intangibles as when the last customer is done, how much of a mess everyone made, do your credit card charges add up or do you have to go back to the P.O.S. system and make an adjustment... Just get there on time and plan on leaving any time from a minute later to the next morning.
No Holidays off
The good news? You always get to go to the movies and out to eat on nights when it isn't crowded. The down side? You will work on Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Easter, any Monday holiday and possibly Thanksgiving and Christmas. Those New Year's Eve plans? Forgeddaboutit!
Minimum Wage + Tips
BOH workers don't usually need to worry about this one, but if tipping is part of your compensation, you can say good-bye to any semblance of a "regular paycheck". Income, while it may be good at times, is erratic--seemingly following the Nasdaq chart. You will need to discipline yourself to save money in the good times to carry you through the slow seasons, when the tips may be paltry. Rookies, flush with cash during the busy months, often party or go on buying sprees, only to be begging for shifts and digging in their sofas the next month when rent is overdue.
Tip Credit
"Tip Credit" laws vary from state to state. If you are in a tip credit state, your employer can credit the tips you make (up to a certain amount) towards your total compensation. This means that instead of paying you minimum wage, they can pay less--sometimes as little as $2.13 per hour.
Tipping Out / Losing money
You've worked a grueling shift on the floor, a slave to a never-ending onslaught of needy and sometimes rude customers. You count your cash. Somehow, you gave away a fifty instead of a twenty when Mrs. "I need to get outta here now to catch my movie" demanded her change while you had food in the window and three new downs. Now, as is customary in the restaurant business, you must "tip out" your busser, the host and the bartender on what you should have made. As a rule of thumb, tip your bartender 10% of your bar sales, your busser 15% of your tips (15% of 15% of sales). Other people you might need to tip out: Host, sommelier, expediter. Welcome to the world of subcontracting!
Declaring Tips
Since the IRS likes its share of all of our income, anyone who earns tips is required to declare how much they have received. In most cases, this is done by recording the information for the employer, who includes that amount on each paycheck, so the feds can get their share. Often, the thought occurs to tipped employees that they might save themselves a little dough by under-reporting their tips; hence, the question: "How much do I 'have' to declare? The legal answer is everything you get minus what you "tip out".
Certificates and Licenses
Some states require mandated certification for health departments and alcohol service before you can take a job as a waiter. And the waiter has to pay for them!
Mean-spirited Diners
While few, there are those who come into the restaurant to make your section the "fifth circle of hell". Try to remember the phrase "this too shall pass" and smile!
Territorial Waiters
You've just gone through training and been assigned your first 3-table section. You are doing quite well, having already earned $30.00 in tips in your premier hour. "This ain't so bad," you think. So confident you are in your abilities that, when you notice that a table just next to your section hasn't been seen by any other waiter yet, you approach them to ask if you can get them started with some drinks. As you go to the bar to order their beers, Wally--who has been waiting tables for 13 years, comes up and says, "Don't be snaking my tables, rookie" and demands you turn their drink order over to him. You try to protest that you were just trying to help out..."be a good team player" as you were instructed but Wally storms off, mumbling under his breath and shaking his head. Not everyone is like Wally but, take care...and watch your back.
Lack of Training
While most large restaurant companies have established and documented training programs, many--in short-sighted attempts to keep their labor costs down--shorten the training program. Some restaurants do not even have a training program.
High turnover rate
If you stay in the same restaurant for a year, plan on not knowing any of the same co-workers you began with on your first anniversary. Typical turnover for a restaurant ranges between 100% (considered good) and 300%!
The money is good
Why have some people been serving for 20 years? For little education, an extremely flexible schedule, less than 40 hours per week, you can make a good living. There may be no feeling in the world like walking out the door after a six-hour shift with $300 in your pocket.
Turning into Archie Bunker
People who want to believe we are all created equal may want to keep their 9 - 5 job. No matter how hard you may try to hold on to your liberal outlook, you will begin to stereotype customers, by their age, race, sex, accent, etc.. You will predetermine how much they will tip you and your service will reflect your preconceptions.
Industry stereotypes
Men in the kitchen--except only usually women are pastry chefs. Women are typically servers, except for fine dining where men hold the title. Men typically are bartenders, except at the local dive bar where only women will even get an interview...etc.). General Managers usually come from the "Good Old Boys" club. While strides have been made, the "glass ceiling" is, sadly, still in effect too often.
Marriage and relationship issues
While the hours may be less than a normal job, if you are a server, a manager's work week may be between 55 - 70 hours per week. Plus, always working Saturday and Sunday, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas and every other day when "normal" people expect to be with their families can add a lot of stress to a relationship.
Vengeful Servers
Spitting in food, stirring drinks with private parts. You get the picture.
Stealing
So many ways to cheat behind the bar: watered down drinks, not charging for draft beer, bartenders bringing in liquor and making money for himself etc. Server scams: not ringing in soda but charging customer for it, voiding items off the bill after the money is collected. Manager scams: voiding items from P.O.S. system after servers turn in money, pretending to give a gift certificate to an upset guest but turning it in as cash instead, trading dinners for personal items. Sometimes, a group of people can get together and really screw the restaurant: Cooks making dinner without getting rung in for server who is also in cahoots with bartender and then kicks back percentage of the take.
Disrespect for management
We work in an industry where employees usually make more money than management...it gets to their head.
The lack of respect from the customers
Many look down on a server or bartender, or automatically assume that you are a student. They don't know alot of people in the industry have college degrees, we just can't give up the money or the lifestyle. Ironically, they also expect you to be their personal psychologist while waiting on them.
The workplace as a den of iniquity
Two words: Drugs, sex. Not necessarily in that order.
The number of dorks in the business
It is getting harder and harder to find good help and management. You have to be a physiologist, mathematician, maintenance person, able to make split second decisions. With the unemployment rate being so low, many have fled the stresses of the business and found employment elsewhere. High tech recruiters, looking for warm bodies, often call restaurants and lure away good people who are tired of putting up with it all.