Maybe I should just add “actress” to my resume because sometimes I believe I put on a better show than Meryl Streep when I am serving in my restaurant.
Among the service industry community, I find that there are several things all servers can relate to. You might go out to dinner this weekend and think twice about how sweet and funny your waitress/waiter is!
Our weekends start on Monday. Coming into work on Friday knowing you will be there all weekend, well you should probably just bring your bed in with you. Those are the money days which feel so good but hurt so bad by the time peaceful Monday rolls around.
The weekend can be brutal enough when any server goes into the bathroom just to sit down for 5 seconds before their manager walks in and you have to run out pretending you weren't just on your phone…but every server bows down to the one who has the open/close shift. The open to close shift is kind of like a night of binge drinking. You think it will be great and have a good outcome, but you are so so wrong. By the time that open to close shift is over that server has probably contemplated their whole life meaning, mentally cursed out at least 10 tables and probably forgot to ring in maybe 3 appetizers. Whoops?
Now I would never compare the honorable work of a server to the work of a nurse..but I kind of am. 12 hour double shifts Friday, Saturday and Sunday with no breaks to eat, sleep, cry??? It's just wrong. Servers potentially save more lives than even nurses! That unfortunate woman probably would have died if she never got the lemon in her water that she so urgently needed. When the entire party of 20 you picked up in the back all cry for bread before you can even read the specials, you know they only have minutes left before all hell breaks lose. Servers save lives.
Now just to get serious for a brief moment, I don't think people realize that being a server is actually really hard sometimes. Can you imagine having the worst day of your life and having to do a 40-minute presentation in front of your lecture hall? Well, that is the same thing that happens to a server after they have been yelled at by their tables, dropped a tray of drinks and found out they are scheduled for the next 5 shifts and they still show up to your table smiling.
Although serving has taught me the best people skills I will ever learn for any situation, it has also taught me that even a brief encounter like serving someone can have an impact on you well after you count their tip. It is important to treat someone not like a dirty diner slave but like an actual person who is just trying to make money! So be kind and realize my name is not “Coke.”
