If you’ve ever been to a restaurant, you have probably interacted with a waiter or waitress. Obviously, as a costumer, the waitress isn’t your main attraction; usually you choose a restaurant for the food, the ambiance, the trendiness, the proximity, etc. The customer doesn’t realize what happens behind the kitchen doors and between the tables. That’s really the waiter's job: to blind the customer from the effort that goes in to the meal and let them just enjoy the food and the company. In fact, that’s really a valid reason for someone to eat out instead of preparing a meal at home. Cooking and cleaning is so time consuming and annoying. The only part you enjoy, the eating, is the thing you spend the least amount of time doing. Going out to eat gives people a chance to focus on the food, and, although it is more expensive, it is definitely healthy for us to focus more on the food we are eating rather than all the stressors that come with cooking your own meal and cleaning up after yourself. That’s why we — the help (waiters and waitresses) — exist. To do all the worrying for you and make your life as easy as possible when you are dining out at your local restaurant.

When you go out to a restaurant, you don’t realize how hard the waiters and waitresses are working. The good ones make it look effortless, with a genuine or not so genuine smile on their faces the whole time. Trust me, it’s not as easy as it looks, and quite frankly it’s hard work. Waiters and waitresses work for many, many hours on their feet; my usual shift was about seven hours. Imagine running around and serving people for hours on end. As a waitress, I’m basically being paid to be many peoples “b****” for a period of time, serving them drinks and food. I don't think of it that way because I genuinely enjoy serving people and interacting with them, but if you think about the effort we put in, it definitely makes you realize how hard we work. Not only does it require enormous stamina, given that we stand like 99 percent of the time, but you need to have balance to carry trays full of glasses of water and enough arm strength to carry three or four dishes full of food, all while walking. Not only that, but the hardest part is dealing with customers, because not everyone’s as nice and great as they think they are.

Dealing with customers is sometimes a true pleasure and other times a pain in the ass. Typically kids and young adults are good customers, especially if they come with similar company, because they don’t really care about anything other than the food and their phones. So you can get away with humor and being a little more real. Dads are usually great; they come with their kids to enjoy some quality time together, they order more than everyone can consume and they always have that cute yet annoying dad humor that waitresses are literally paid to laugh at. Elderly people can go either way, some are really sweet and caring, but others are nasty and no fun at all. Some will judge you and pick out all the little things that you did wrong. But usually, the absolute worst are moms and middle aged women. I have nothing against them in general (Again, I am not making assumptions that all moms are like this, in fact the majority are probably nice, friendly people.), but from personal experience the majority of the annoying customers are women who seem to be having a mid-life crisis. They are picky, annoying, unfriendly, entitled, a bit disrespectful and nothing I do seems to please them. No matter how hard I smile and how perfect everything turns out, they will never be satisfied. As a waitress, it's the worst, because that’s what I’m there for, to make their experience enjoyable and make sure they leave the restaurant satisfied. But alas, I can only try.

Another skill that waiters and waitresses have to master is remembering everything. Technically a good waiter should write down everything on a piece of paper so he or she gets every little detail of the order, because most of the time it's not the simple “Caesar salad” order. The conversation usually goes like this:

Waitress: “What can I get you today?”

Customer: “I’d like a Caesar salad, with no onions or olives, and dressing on the side and also if it’s possible can you add avocado and chicken on it?”

Waitress: “Sure, is that all?”

Customer: “Oh, also bring some olive oil and vinaigrette, and some water with no ice and a lot of lemon”

Waitress: *tries to hold a smile as long as possible, nods and runs away*

So, if the waitress risks not writing the order down she might forget something and that can cause a whole domino effect of problems and very, very bad vibes. Tip to any future waiters or waitresses: write everything down, for the customer’s sake, for the restaurant's sake and for your sake, so you’re not worried out of your mind if you got the order right, and so you aren’t doubting yourself once you put the order in to the kitchen. It’s all about the details, and relying on your memory doesn’t work most of the time.

One of the saddest things about being a waitress is seeing how much food goes to waste. Every day, a majority of customers don’t finish everything on their plate and, if you think about it, we can’t really do much with the food. It’s already been touched and picked at. It’s so sad to see that food just go into the trash when you know someone else could have easily eaten that and enjoyed it instead of going hungry. I know there are some programs that help restaurants donate food that would usually go to waste to the homeless, but there definitely aren't enough programs like that. Just try to be wise with what you order, and in general don’t waste food.

Most customers don’t appreciate everything we have to do for them. We clean the tables for you, bring you menus, greet you with a smile for your whole entire stay, advise you on what to eat, take your order, serve you drinks, carry large and heavy plates full of delicious food to you (that, if I may mention, we cannot eat). We bring you extra eating utensils when you accidentally drop yours on the floor, bring your babies' and kids' special high chairs for their comfort, bring you extra napkins when you spill something on your pants and bring you anything and everything you might need or want. So the moral of the story is, next time you go out to eat at any restaurant treat your waiter or waitress well, tip them well and be friendly to them! After all, they did sign up for the job and usually do want to have a good time while they are there. Most are really nice and just trying to start a life by making some money while they’re still in school. So come with a positive attitude and I promise you’ll have a good experience and so will they.