A few things you might not know about restaurants...

[settiai]

I've had a couple of questions in some of my recent work-related posts, so I thought that I'd throw together another quick post for those of you who've never been lucky enough to work in the restaurant business. Hopefully this will be of interest to at least some of you.

Comments

[vampireborg]

Why I'm glad to be in Oregon - servers make a regular wage here, they can't be paid lass than minimum wage.

[minervasolo]

Isn't the restaurant legally obliged to make up your wage to minimum if you don't get enough tips?

The lemonade thing would get you kicked out of a restaurant in the UK, sharpish. Either that or a charge for the lemons!

[wiliqueen]

Isn't the restaurant legally obliged to make up your wage to minimum if you don't get enough tips?

Technically, but there are a dozen ways to cheat it in practice. :-/

[settiai]

I'd say closer to two dozen, personally. :-/

Also, if you don't claim enough and the restaurant does have to actually make up the rest on a repeated basis, there's a good chance you won't have a job for long.

[elliptic_eye]

Not only are there ways to cheat on that, as people said, but most restaurants would make you feel like uppity scum for even bringing it up. And then probably cheat you out of it anyway.

…Yeah, I was frequently angry when working in food service. And it was only partially because I was an angsty tween.

[dune_drd]

I had to chuckle, because waitors usually say something like "We close in half an hour PLEASE LEAVE." Sometimes they just ask you to pay the even though you're still therey, which is the same but in more polite ;)

Plus, you know, in a country where water costs money, and ordering tap water is frowned upon, noone would even *try* to make their own tea ...

[dune_drd]

Plus, minimum wage and the *excess* money gets divided between servers and the kitchen after closing, which is only fair, I guess.

[settiai]

It's definitely depending on which country you're in.

Neither of the places where I've worked have allowed the servers to actually tell the customers we're closing, please leave. And I've eaten in restaurants late at night where the servers haven't been able to say anything. That's why I try to keep an eye on what's going on around me, so if it looks like they're ready to close up I can get out of there.

[yami_chan]

Haha! Lemonade! That's amazing. People are insane. XD

Though honestly I have no idea how servers make a living with this kind of job. I know that on a good night you can make some decent money with tips but jeez. All that bs with tips, percentages, tipping out, stingy a-holes was the main reason I stuck to retail jobs.

[settiai]

If you're at the right restaurant and know what you're doing, the job usually pays fairly well. It just takes a lot of practice, a lot of experience, and a lot of willingness to put up with crap and work lots of hours.

[yami_chan]

Yeah, I agree, it has to take a lot of skill. More skill than I'll ever have.

And it's one of the reasons why I always try to be really nice to anyone working in any form of customer service job. That and because I have a sense of decency. x.x

[tabaqui]

Many reasons why i will never waitress again. Gah. Lousy pay, *hard job*, miserly customers, asshole customers, clueless customers....

And/or owners/managers who have apparently never actually interacted with the public before. Rarrrrrr.

*pets you*