8 Things You Should Know about being a Server

1. We don’t make an hourly wage

Well, we do, but it's only $2.15 an hour. After taxes are taken out, it comes to be roughly $0.75 an hour. Being a server is not like other jobs, we do not rely on our weekly check to pay the bills or put gas in our cars. If I serve 6 tables in one night and they all leave me $3, looks like I'm leaving with only $18. My paycheck from my 40 hour pay period of 2 weeks is only going to turn out to be about $30, that is if I don't get money taken out for employee meals. Servers work late nights so there is no proper time for dinner so getting an employee meal is sometimes the only option.

2. 15% is not a good tip

Before I started serving I thought that 15% was what I left when my server did a very good job. Keywords of that sentence is “before I became a server." If your server did an excellent job, AT LEAST leave 20%. We would appreciate more, but anything is better than 15%. If you don't know how to calculate this, pull out your calculator, type in the amount of your bill, and multiply by 0.20 and there you go!

3. The attitude you have towards me reflects my attitude towards you

I'm not saying if you're super sassy with me, then I'm going to be super sassy back. I'm saying that if you seem like you don't want to be here and don't talk a lot, then I'm not going to try to spark a conversation with you. I love when my customers acknowledge me and try to spark a conversation themselves. For every customer, I want to make your experience at this restaurant the best that I can make it, but if you don't talk back, I'll try to come to your table the least that I can.

4. Acknowledge me when I come to your table

It is one of the most embarrassing things when I come to the table and you keep talking amongst yourselves when I have asked you a question. I won't be there for long so while I'm standing there, please listen to me and answer my question and then I will be on my way. Most people act like it's not my job to come up and ask what you want to eat.

5. I don’t work in the kitchen, so if your food isn’t cooked right, don’t get an attitude with me

Your fried grouper is over cooked? I'm very sorry and I will repeatedly tell you how sorry I am for that, but I want you to understand something. I am not in the kitchen cooking the food myself. The kitchen will mess up sometimes, just like I do, and that's okay. But please, don't get an attitude with me about it because it was not something I could have prevented. I promise we will work it out.

6. I am trained to have a greeting line, so please don’t interrupt me before I’m done greeting you

“Hey how are you guys do..."

“I'll have a water with lemon."

I cannot tell you how many times this has happened to me. It is my job to ask you what you want to drink so I will get to it, but before I do that, let me get through my greeting line like I am trained to do.

7. Servers have a lot that goes through their minds

“Ranch for table 6.

Refill drinks at table 7 and 8. Wow that guy drinks a lot.

Don't forget that the guy at table 7 wants his ribeye trimmed a certain way and cooked in-between medium and medium rare.

Where is the water pitcher??

Call out salads for table 8. No onions and peppers on one.

Grab the check from table 5.

Theres no more sweet tea in the urn. We need more!

UGH RANCH FOR TABLE 6!"

I saw something similar to this on Facebook one time, and I laughed at how accurate it was. If I forget that ranch for table 6 at the end of the night, it will hit me and I will feel and about it.

8. Lastly, I am human and I will make some mistakes

I will stumble upon my words when I say filet mignon because for some reason it is a hard word for me to say. My mind will go blank sometimes when you ask me what kind of wine we have. I will mess up every now and then. Sometimes it will be your fault because just like me, you mess up too and that's perfectly OK.