I’ve had several jobs over the past four years- most of which have been in the restaurant business. Needless to say, I’ve learned a few things about life, myself, and other people. I first started working the week before I turned 15 at a Mediterranean restaurant about ten miles from my house. At the Mediterranean place I was a hostess/sever assistant (as I was in every place I have worked). Since the town I worked in (adjacent to mine) is very much a tourist town, it worked out well- but only for the summer months. The following winter I got a job working at a pizza shop in my town. I loved it (for the first week) before I discovered the problem with pizza shops. Pizza places aren’t sit-down restaurants where you get dressed up and you’re waited on, but they’re not fast-food restaurants either. People want sit-down quality food at a fast-food pace. I worked at the pizza shop all winter but moved onto something different when spring arrived. About mid-May I got a job in the town adjacent to mine again working at a coffee/art gallery. At the gallery I helped make Middle-Eastern food, smoothies, and coffee. I also took orders and worked the register. While I worked at the gallery, I worked right next door at a new restaurant owned by my friend’s Aunt and her fiancee. This worked out well because I could work mornings at the gallery, take an hour for lunch, then come back to work the night-shift at the restaurant. I did that a lot last summer. I managed to juggle the two all summer and made great money! Here is everything I’ve ever learned while working in the restaurant business.

1. People can be jerks.

I’ve experienced it all; from rude customers to sleazy bosses. Nothing surprises me anymore. While working in a restaurant I have found that some people are just plain miserable. One time, I had a customer come in and say to me that he had requested a window seat. I looked around and sure enough all the window seats had been taken. I profusely apologize for the mix up but get chewed out regardless. In his defense he had made a reservation earlier and had listed a table preference, but it had not been written down. After being chewed out about how disappointed he and his wife were and how the restaurant wasn’t making a good impression already, he proceeded to let everyone else know that too as I walked him down the aisle to a table in the middle of the room. Imagine my embarrassment as I stood there waiting, menus in hand, while this customer talks smack about me to the multiple people he must have known on the way to his table.

Another time, just a few weeks ago, I had a customer come in to find his table of 12 on the downstairs veranda instead of the upstairs, as he requested. Keep in mind this was the busiest night of the entire summer and every outside table in the restaurant was already taken. So, they waited for the upstairs veranda to clear out before they sat, and clogged our entire bar for about 30 minutes before we were able to take apart their 12 top downstairs, then clear and rearrange the upstairs tables in under ten minutes. Oh, and don’t think that the head of that family didn’t give me, a few of my co-workers, and both of my bosses a good talking to before he sat- because he did!

Oh, and it’s not just the customers that can be jerks, most of the time it’s the people you work for that give you the biggest hassle! I’ve had bosses scream in my face, breath down my beck, withhold 500 dollars of my hard-earned money, shove things at me, and most of all, cuss at me. This is no exaggeration. Like I said, people can be jerks, but hey, I’m tougher for it.

2. I’ve learned how to better manage my time.

Timing is everything. You’ve got to be quick and think quickly or else you’re either getting yelled at or run over. Whether it’s knowing how much time it takes to get to work, spreading your time evenly over all of the tables and your duties, or (if the servers are busy) delivering the food to the table before it starts getting crusty under the heat lamps. The biggest challenge for me is estimating wait time. I’ve had as many as six or seven parties waiting at the bar for a table at one time. You’ve got to be quick on your toes and remember who came in first, what order they came in, how many people there are per party, and their seating preferences.

Last summer it was an especially busy night at the restaurant I was working at. I was busting my butt trying to seat the people that were lined up at the bar waiting for a table. I always made sure I knew where I was planning to seat each group and that I was updating these groups on how much longer it would be for their table. It was about 9pm when I sat the last couple waiting at the bar. I liked this young couple because every time I updated them on their wait time they always said, “Don’t worry about it” or “We know how busy you are”. It was about 10pm before everyone cleared out, except for this couple. I went over to their table to ask if there was anything else they needed to which the man replied, “No, but we just want you to know that you are amazing. Watching you run around all night to make sure you checked up on everyone was amazing to see. Here, take this.” He slipped me a 20 dollar bill. I was shocked. After thanking them profusely, we had a wonderful conversation about where they were from, why they were visiting, and what they did for a living. It was one of those rare occasions that made working in the restaurant business totally worthwhile.

3. Hard work pays off.

My four years of work experience has taught me a lot about the difficulties of saving, budgeting, and making money. It has also taught me that earning a little bit of my own money feels really good. Pulling your own weight is tough but you can’t expect everything to be handed to you all the time. At least that’s what I was taught. At some point we all have to take responsibility for ourselves, right?

I have the perfect example of how working hard truly does pay off. When I was fifteen and started working at the Mediterranean restaurant my Dad told me to keep in mind that one day I’d have to pay for my own car. It wasn't easy because I constantly had to check my priorities. Over the years I saved up a little bit of money but by the time my senior year of high school had arrived, I knew I had to kick my savings into high gear. The summer before my senior year I took on two jobs and literally didn’t spend a penny. By the end of the summer I was able to buy my own car. My hard work had payed off. I bought a 2011 Hyundai Sonata- just what I wanted.

4. Life owes me nothing.

Working in restaurants has flat out taught me that life owes me no favors. In a sense, everyone in the world has it just as hard. There’s no use in complaining about how hard it is to save money in this day and age because everyone else is in the exact same boat.

5. 15% is the new 20!

This is just a newsflash. Inflation, as we all know, is a huge problem these days. Trust me, getting paid by the hour sucks and for the amount of crap your servers have to put up with, it’s important to take care of them. Seriously people, don’t forget to tip your waitresses!

6. It doesn’t matter how far in advance you tell your boss that you need a weekend off because they’ll forget, and they’ll still put you on the schedule for that weekend.

It’s just a fact. It has happened to me at every job. You can write it on a post-it, you can verbally remind them, or you can email them- they will always forget. But hey, it’s okay. I get it. The restaurant business is a hectic place.

7. Every department has it equally as hard. You can’t even play the ‘who has it easiest’ game.

I’ve been told countless times that my job, as a hostess, is the easiest. Well let me be perfectly clear when I say, it isn’t. I’m the first one that deals with the personalities of the customers- good or bad. Whenever something goes wrong with a reservation, seating preference, or wait time- I have to deal with it.

There’s been a few times it’s gotten so busy that I’ve forgotten about the party of 15 coming at 6:30 and I have to scramble around (usually by myself), get it ready, pray to God that the section they’ve requested is open, and do it as fast as possible so they don’t have to wait any longer than they already have for a table they requested days ago. Also, let’s just say there’s no room to seat them- I’m the one that has to explain to them that we’re idiots and we forgot that you were coming in so you’re table isn’t ready, or we just got so busy that we misjudged how long it would take for people to clear out. It’s generally not a pleasant conversation and I bear the brunt of it.

On top of all that, I’m worrying about the workload of my servers, constantly trying not to royally piss them off. Because, let’s face it, if I over-seat a server- I’m not getting tipped out that night. It’s a constant struggle between giving the customers what they want and not angering my servers because either way the consequences fall on me.

Then, there’s the struggle of, not only dealing with the customers’ issues and the feelings of my servers, but bussing tables all over the restaurant. If I'm not by the door, waiting for customers as they come in, they’re made to stand there awkwardly and wait. If I am there waiting for the customers as they come in- I’m doing nothing when the servers need my help clearing their tables. So I have to choose between being lazy and hated by my servers, or not doing my job and angering my boss. You decide which is worse.

Oh, and by the way, when I do have the chance to bus tables, I have to enter the gates of hell (aka the kitchen). Rule number one about the kitchen (for those who’ve never worked in this industry): you never go in or out empty handed. Even if you're too busy, you still always have to run food to a table that isn't even yours. Often times you might not know exactly what table ordered the food so you have to ask several people before you get the right table number which is always embarrassingly unprofessional.

I’m not done yet. Usually the hostess is the one that stays the latest. We have to catch up on side work before we go because usually servers are older and have families to get home to or they have to catch the bar before it closes. Before I leave I have to roll the silverware, mop, sweep, clean the bathrooms and reset the tables for lunch the next day while the sweat on my back dries.

By no means am I saying that hostessing is the hardest department. The dishwasher is always slammed with dirty dishes and has to endure the stench of garbage. The cooks have to endure the hellish heat behind the line and crank out orders to the best of their ability. The managers are responsible for everyone and everything. The bartender always gets backed up with drink orders. The servers have to put up with running their food, getting the timing right, and satisfying their customers. No one in the restaurant business has it easy.

8. The language you hear in the kitchen is not to be repeated- ever!

Hey, I get it. The cooks are under a lot of pressure back there and sometimes they just need to let out a good curse word here or there (or every five minutes).

9. Presentation is important.

When you come home all hot and dirty remember that no matter badly your feet hurt, or how badly you want to sleep, you’ve got to muster out some energy to shower. You can’t show up to work the next day looking how you did at the end of last night’s shift. Also, you can’t slap some dishes on the tables and call it good. The devil is in the details. People pay good money to come and have a nice evening- you have to make it look nice. In general, you have to keep the restaurant looking beautiful or else people will stop coming and then you’ll be broke and unemployed.

10. Working in the restaurant business is extremely painful.

The first shift I ever worked I wore a cute pair of black flats, and by the end of the night I wanted to chop my feet off to distract myself from the pain I felt in my feet. Cuts, burns, and abrasions are basically in the job description. Seriously, the amount of cuts and burns I’ve gained while working is enormous. More recently, I’ve started taking Advil before each shift in hopes my back won’t be completely shot by the end of the night (it never works).

11. Working with different personalities is sometimes hard, but always entertaining.

I’ve meet some really cool people working in the restaurant business. Having said that, I’ve also meet a lot of really unusual people. What I love most about working in restaurants is working with my co-workers, and seeing how we deal with one another. You always have the pot-smoking co-worker, the lazy co-worker, the really uptight co-worker, the creepy co-worker, the hilarious co-worker, the know-it-all co-worker, the co-worker that thinks work is social hour, the co-worker that’s really bad at their job, the co-worker that hardly speaks, and the mother of the co-workers. There’s never a dull moment.

12. Not everyone will like you, and that’s okay.

Just because you have a different opinion than someone, doesn't mean you should hate them. If there’s a customer who isn’t necessarily nice to you- get over it. If there’s a co-worker you can’t stand to be around- you still have to deal with them in a professional manner.

There was once this server at a restaurant I worked at that literally everyone disliked. She was rude, she was bossy, she thought she was the smartest person in the entire world and that everyone was obligated to listen to her. One day at the beginning of my shift, this server told me to do something and I just snapped on the inside. I immediately asked her, “will you come with me to the back for a second?” she followed me to the back and I basically told her that if she didn't stop acting like she owned the place I was going to have words with our boss. She tried to flip the situation around on me and I just walked away. I thought I handled her perfectly. Sure she gave me dirty looks for the rest of the summer, but, so what?

13. If you’re weak, you had better start lifting some weights.

If you’re not able to stack several heavy dishes and glasses on a tray and carry them back to the kitchen- don’t apply to any restaurant job. If you’re not able to carry a tray full of hot food at a moments notice- don’t apply to any restaurant job. You don’t want to be in a position where you’re in the middle of a dinner rush and when asked to take food to someone’s table you have to say you can’t because you’re afraid you’ll drop it.

14. It’s a big world out there.

If there’s anything the restaurant business has taught me it’s that I don’t want to be doing this for the rest of my life. Although it’s a fun summer job to have, I’m going to get myself a good education so I don’t have to survive off of a minimum wage check for the rest of my life.