I have been a waitress as my summer job for two years, and I worked in fast food for two years before that. Restaurants and I are tight. Anyway, the food industry is the absolute worst. Sure, I make killer tips as a waitress because I'm personable and people like that I can laugh at myself when I mess up, but really, the money isn't even worth it a lot of the time. The food industry, especially waitressing, is 85 percent misery.
The ugly truth about the food industry, and about all service jobs, is that people automatically decide you are lesser than them. It does not matter that I am a straight-A college student who writes and edits for Odyssey; it does not matter that I volunteer and take summer classes and work 40 hours a week to pay for myself to go to school. Because I am paid to do people a service, I am looked down upon. People think, Oh, she's just our waitress, she's here simply to serve us and we are the most important part of this equation. Sorry, but you're wrong. I am paid to help you, not because you deserve it, but because my restaurant wants to be successful. You are no better than me. In fact, I'm probably smarter than you and your whole rude family (sorry, not sorry).
The ugly truth about working in a restaurant is that no matter what problems arise, they are always your fault. For instance, our air conditioning broke this weekend when it was severely hot. I was there for ten hours a day, about to have a heat stroke and feeling as though I was going to pass out. All of us were. It was a health risk, and we dealt with it all day. Did anyone care? Absolutely not. Instead, we were yelled at because it was somehow our fault and we weren't suffering, too.
Food is taking a long time? Automatically the waitress's fault, even though the restaurant is packed and you got there behind two large groups. But no, 30 minutes is too long, and that warrants for you to call myself and my colleagues b***hes and say that the whole place is a s**t hole. Card was declined? Waitress's fault. I didn't give you enough napkins, or you need a refill and I didn't get to it right away? It's the end of the goddamned world. Because waitresses are not allowed to make mistakes. Our food is overpriced? My fault, because obviously I am the one who dictates how much you're paying. My fault because I do nothing but sit around while I wait for you to need something.
I am here to make your eating experience more enjoyable. I am not your slave, and the sad fact is that all you have to do is be cordial to me and I will be happy. If you have manners, we will get along, and I can use my charm and hard work to do whatever I can to help you. If you are nice to me and treat me like a human being, you will make my whole day, and I will go out of my way to show you that I appreciate it. I want to do my job well, and I want to meet people and show them how friendly I am. If I didn't want to, I wouldn't be working in customer service. However, that doesn't mean that you can be a bad customer and still expect me to give you the best customer service I can muster.
The ugly truth about the food industry is that people are going to yell at you, call you names, make you cry and make you question whether your job is even worth it. They will tell you that you don't know how to do your job even though they have never done it (and yes, we can all tell if you have). All over a meal. They will storm off and refuse to pay you. They will tell you that your best effort was not enough.
Newsflash: the customer is not always right. Your money does not make or break my day or our business, and if you're going to be an asshole to someone who works there, the management is 100 percent not going to side with you. Because guess what? We are a team. We are a family. We stick together, and we really don't give a crap if you don't come back. Honestly, we'd prefer if you didn't.
