Since I was a freshman in high school, waitressing is the only real job I have ever known. This job has its ups and downs, like waking up early to deal with the cranky breakfast crowds or getting a bottle of wine from customers at Christmas time. Sure my boss may be a little crazy, I’ve been fired from the same place twice and rehired both times. But, honestly, there is no better feeling than walking out the door with money in your pocket. After waitressing in a tiny diner that attracts people from every walk of life, I think everyone should waitress at least once in their life.
Every job comes with its challenges, but with waitressing, these challenges seem to occur just when the lunch rush comes in. When a mother asks you what you have that is gluten free, peanut free and dairy free for her child, you need to have an answer. You are supposed to be an expert at the menu and you should know what’s on it back to front. To you, the veggie omelette having tomatoes may not seem like that big of a deal, but to a customer, it could be the end of the world.
If you go to every table anticipating an above 20-percent tip, you are not going to fare well in this business, try babysitting. While some people are very generous tippers, others are not. In my opinion, I would rather have no tips at all, as opposed to people who throw a quarter on the table after I bust my ass running back and forth to tend to their every need. The strangest thing I have ever gotten as a tip was someone’s phone number with a note saying, “Let’s go out sometime,” a business card telling me I needed psychiatric help and a pamphlet telling me how to find God. No matter how great a waitress you are, there will still be people who leave five percent.
You never know what is going on in people’s lives. Maybe they are the nicest person in the world, but they just got fired. Your job is to smile and serve them their meal. Don’t try to be a therapist, people don’t need a random server's opinion in their personal business. I’m going somewhere good when I die after listening to people who just want to spew their problems to me. On the other hand, I have been called some of the worst things by customers but you need to just do your job and ignore them the best you can. Then after they leave, you can go cry in the bathroom a little. I’ve done my fair share of that. Then I walk back on the floor with my head held high and blame my glassy eyes on allergies.
Most customers will understand that you are human and tend to make mistakes, but there are some customers who won’t tolerate any mistakes. One year I dropped a plate of eggs on a woman’s lap on Christmas Eve, it was mortifying, but thankfully she was not angry at me but at her husband, who tried to grab the plates from my hand. Being a waitress is sometimes more stressful than studying for a midterm. I’m trying to remember a hundred things at once, and sometimes I’ll be laying in my bed after a long day at work and remember that table 8 wanted a lemon in the water and I never brought it to them.
One thing that has been drilled into my head over the past six years is that the customer really is always right. No matter how much you know the customer asked for cheddar cheese, but they insist they wanted American you have to oblige, and be happy about it. Sometimes it is just easier to lay down and apologize than to argue with a customer. Actually, you should never argue with a customer. Period. You don’t want to throw your tip out the window over something that can be fixed. Smile and be kind, sometimes that just mean yes-ing someone to death. It will all pay off at the end of the night when you are leaving with a pocket full of tips.
