After working in restaurants for years throughout high school, it was almost inevitable that I would end up in a new restaurant after moving off to college.
Working in a restaurant throughout college supports so many college students. Students particularly find themselves in the role of a server, waiting tables and living off of their tips.
Serving is a job that a lot of people do, but not all of the people that do it are cut out for it. The appeal to serving for most is the sense that you have more control over your money and that you usually get to leave with it at the end of every shift. There will always be restaurants to eat at, so there is always a place for servers to work.
We see plenty of articles about servers complaining about not getting tipped properly or dealing with extremely difficult customers. The thing about working in a restaurant, is these things happen ALL of the time.
Is it right? No.
Is life always fair? No.
In the serving world, you're going to have really great tables and really not great tables: that's just how it works.
When you are serving people, you can get more than just tips from them. I was given business cards and offered internships countless times while serving at a restaurant. I once had a guy say he would love to write me a job reference if I ever needed one!
Just because people aren't giving you cash, doesn't mean you are getting nothing from them. Use your serving job to make connections and expand your network of people.
Unfortunately, most people just serve for tips and may not care about the benefits of networking. This leads to complaining and frankly, bitching, about all of the guests that get seated in their section.
Pro tip: when you get a table, stop complaining about them and pre-judging them because your job is LITERALLY to serve them and make them have an enjoyable experience.
That's your job, that's what you sign up for and that's what is expected of you when you are hired.
The complaining about tables and the even worse "what do they look like" or "yeah, they definitely aren't leaving me anything" is the reason you will never make as much as other servers who enjoy their job. People can sense your prejudgement and indifferent attitude, and it makes their experience less enjoyable.
Would you want to tip someone 20% if you heard them say "Ugh, that table isn't going to tip and they look trashy."? You'd probably get up and walk out.
Don't treat your tables differently because of how they look, treat people how you would want to be treated.
When you love your job and making everyone have an enjoyable experience, the tips and connections with people that you do make will be so high you won't even care about getting stiffed every once in a while.
You'll get regulars who ask for you and over-tip constantly, you will get great feedback that they will pass along to your manager and you will be doing your job the way you're supposed to.
If you aren't getting these types of responses from people, then you probably are doing something wrong.
Have a reasonable expectation to be tipped, but don't just expect them to fall in your lap without zero effort. As someone who has been a server, I do believe tipping 20% and over to people who are doing their job properly.
The wait staff who I constantly have to look for are always on their phones in a corner somewhere and who never offer refills are servers that I don't tip 20%.
You don't get tipped well for doing nothing — that's just unreasonable.
Do your job well and enjoy doing your job and the tips will start flowing well.
None of this sound appealing to you? Pick a different job field.
