1. Don't pull out your phone in front of customers.
On break? Sure. In the bathroom? If you absolutely need to. When there's only one table? Probably not. When the place is busy? Hell no, you have shit to do. You're not getting paid to text people, you're getting paid to take orders, run food and bus tables (or cook, if you're in the kitchen). And I don't care what kind of drama is happening, unless there's an emergency (to be clear: this means someone dying or an immediate family crisis), don't call people in the middle of a shift. Just don't. It's unprofessional and you'll probably get yelled at for it.
2. Unless your bosses are doing something illegal, don't give them attitude.
Aside from the obvious "this can get you fired", think about it for a second. Your boss is paying you to do a job. If they don't like how you're doing that, whether they're asking you to move faster or stop texting, or even if they're being a bit unreasonable, your job is to say "yes". Bitch to your coworkers or your friends or whoever as much as you like about it, but they are paying you money to do a job for them. If they want it done in a weird way, that's their prerogative.
3. Smile, smile, smile
If you’re working in the front of house, making your customers feel welcome is part of your job. It also makes your life easier. If something has gone wrong (say, an order being messed up or food taking a while) you’ll get a better response to “okay, let me fix that for you” than to an exasperated sigh. Yes, the customer may be complaining about something minor or the kitchen might be having a bad day, but people are less likely to make a big fuss if you at least make it sound like you’re going to do something about it, even if you can’t. At the end of the day, being friendly will also help you make more money.
4. You don’t determine when your break is.
You may be exhausted. The restaurant might have just been slammed. There might be nobody in the dining room. You still have to check with the manager if you want to take your break. This goes for cigarette breaks, food breaks, or saying you’re taking a food break and instead dyeing your hair in the bathroom. You are not being paid to do any of these things. While you’re at work, your time is not your own.
5. Be sober.
Whatever you do, don’t come into work drunk or high. It’s just asking for trouble. Even if the manager somehow doesn’t notice or care initially, you’re more likely to screw up and make everyone’s lives more difficult. I’m trying to understand the mindset that coming into work high or drunk makes sense. Even if you think that you “work better” while high or slightly drunk, it isn’t likely that you do, and the chances that you mess up and cause a problem are higher (forgetting to ring in food and drink, forgetting to bus tables that have left, etc.) Coming into work hungover is equally likely to cause a problem and it’s miserable to boot.
6. Do your side work.
If you’re working front of house, you’re going to have more to do that just running food and taking orders. Bussing, rolling silverware, wiping down tables, sweeping, mopping, and resetting the tables. All things that most people hate, but if you don’t do it, someone else has to pick up your slack, and that someone is going to get annoyed with you. It’s a pain, but it’s got to be done, and again, your life will be easier if your coworkers aren’t constantly annoyed at you.
Sometimes people get stressed and forget things, which is understandable. However, some people don’t realize that these things are part of the job description. They’re really basic, but at least one of these has been a problem in almost every place we’ve worked. Just a little reminder from some mildly annoyed servers/bartenders.
