1. Smile, even if you can’t smile anymore

That child that just threw its food at you? Smile, it’s no big deal. The coworker that just bumped into you and made you spill all your drinks in front of customers? Just keep smiling. The lady that doesn’t want to pay for her food because it’s not what she expected? MUST KEEP SMILING. Everyday servers deal with so much that would make any ordinary person pull their hair out, but to us it’s just second nature to let it roll off or backs.

2. The customer is ALWAYS right

Even when the customer ordered steak but when the food comes out wants something completely different, they are in the right. They are in the right when they do almost anything, even if it makes no sense to you. Though it is never okay for an customer to verbally abuse a server, even in the food industry, some things go too far.

3. It's never the kitchen's fault

So what if 2 cooks didn’t show up for their shift and you're missing half your inventory, it won’t ever be the kitchen's fault. Even if everything that goes wrong happens in there, the outside world will never know the kitchen was even involved. Long wait times for food? We want to make sure your meal is just right. Didn’t get what you ordered? I must have entered it in wrong. Waiting list for a half empty restaurant? We have a private party coming in. Almost anything you can think of to make excuses for the kitchen's mistakes, we’ve used.

4. We wash our hand 1,000 times a day

After interacting with almost anything involving food, it is imperative that you wash your hands, as many illnesses can be transferred that way. So, each time after we pick up a dirty plate, we wash our hands. If we help plate food for your table, we wash our hands. After wiping down a table, we wash our hands. And the list goes on and on.

5. Food becomes so unappetizing for hours after a shift

After working with food for the past couple of hours, the last thing a server wants to do is eat. We see so much food go out, smell food the entire time we’re working, and bus disgusting food from your table. So believe me, the last thing we want to do after a shift is eat.

6. We burn the tips of our fingers constantly

Servers pick up plates that feel hotter than the center of the sun. But once you commit to that hot plate, there is no turning back. As a server, we burn our fingers too many times to count, and suddenly we can’t even feel the hot plate anymore. We are numb and immune to a plate that would make a customer cry if he or she had to carry it the distance we did without dropping anything.

7. People will always blame us if their food isn't right, even though we didn't make it

Servers are constantly on the front lines, we are in the line of fire the most. So, when a customer’s order isn’t right, even though we entered it in correctly, it will always be our fault. It is as if we take our tables order and then head into the kitchen to make it ourselves.

8. Someone will always try and modify something so much it's not even close to the original item anymore

So, you want the chicken pasta but instead of chicken you want salmon, and you don’t want the sauce it comes with you want butter and none of the toppings just tomatoes and cheese? Yeah that’s not anything close to the pasta you ordered, you have, in fact, created an entirely new dish that the cooks now must special make for you. This always has our kitchen staff scratching their heads.

9. Busing tables can be disgusting

Seeing the grimy half eaten food people leave behind at their tables is enough to make your stomach churn, but chances are we’ve seen worse. You really don’t even want to know what the trash can that we dump all the uneaten food in looks like.

10. Side work is an unseen pain in the ass

Everyone forgets that servers do so much more than simply take your order and bring drinks out. The napkin your using? We fold about 50 per shift. The silverware and glasses that you use? We polish each one individually after they are cleaned. The list goes on and on, as each server is assigned a different task that aids in the up keep of the restaurant. And yet, we still only make about $2.50 an hour, so think about that the next time you don’t feel like tipping your server.