I suppose it can't be all bad. I made a little over $400 in a week and a half. I really should have been making more. I know I could make more if the hostesses were seating me the way they should and following a rotation. Of course they don't or I wouldn't be empty for half of my shift and then double sat (and triple sat on one occasion) towards the end. It screws me up. I go through all the tables and write down what everyone needs (more ranch, refills, to-go boxes etc), but then I get yelled at about not enough people running food or there not being any cups or ice. It's difficult to be on top of all of that because you have to stop doing two things in order to do one thing. It's a very tiring process. I literally feel like I am the walking dead towards the end of the night when I am doing my side work and closing duties.
What makes it worse is I come home and I still want to be able to keep in touch with people but I get so tired when I am online. If I don't talk to people all weekend, I can go to bed at a decent time, considering what time I get off, but if I don't then I can't sleep till later. Let's just say I am the typing dead.
It didn't even feel worth it for a while. I was barely making $50 and I just chalked it up to the fact that I am still learning and still trying to get a system down but I also realize that it is cheap food. Two people can have drinks, one appetizer and two entrees and pay anywhere from $23-$28. If you pay 10%, that is $2.30-$2.80. That is horrible. Let's say the customer feels generous and tips 20%, which supposedly is the new 10%, then you will get $4.60-$5.60. If you can get $5 on a table, regardless on if it is two people or four people, then you are doing pretty good. That is very discouraging for us. It really makes us wish that the food was more expensive because we are getting cheated.
People who have never worked for a restaurant have no idea all that a waiter/waitress does to earn your $5. This is pretty much the whole thing from the time you sit to the time you leave. We come and introduce ourselves. We get your drink order and suggest an appetizer or an alcoholic beverage. We put your order in the computer and go to get your drinks. It gives you time to go and look through the menu. We come back with your drinks on the tray and take your main order. This is apparently when you think that the server is slacking. While you wait for your food, we have to run other people's food (not just our own), we have to keep the cups, ice, teas etc stocked. Cups and ice get used very quickly so keeping up on that is nearly impossible unless you only have a two table section. During this time we have to keep track of your drinks, as well as everyone else's so we can bring out the appropriate refills and take away whatever dishes you no longer want in front of you. Sometimes we bring our own food out, sometimes we don't but we still have to come back to the table(s) with food in our section to make sure it tastes ok, to make sure it was cooked right and to make sure nothing is missing. If something is missing, we have to go back into the kitchen and wait for whatever should have been on your plate, which means we have to run other people's food as well since we are back in the kitchen. This is when we bring out additional stuff that wasn't mentioned before. Extra sauce, more bread, a different drink or anything of that nature. We have to make sure each table gets the same attention so if you want something extra, we have to be sure the other tables don't want extra ranch or a small plate of lemons. We take away your plates, and other plates from other tables, away from your table to the dish pit while we continue to run food for other tables and keep up with what needs to be stocked. Salad mix has to be brought up or salad dressings have to be refilled. Bread has to be taken out of the oven. We then offer dessert in hopes that you would like something else because it is the polite thing to do. Our kitchen is open and we are offering you whatever we have to keep you happy. This is around the time we offer you to-go boxes or drinks. We finish pre-bussing the tables, which means we take away twice as many glasses of soda or tea as you had when you sat down. We figure out how many tickets are going to be printed as well as who is paying for what. By the time you pay, we have been yelled at by the manager to get our side work done faster and to get the food out faster because you can't be sitting at the table for 15 minutes without having your main dish in front of you. Between you, and our other two (sometimes three) other tables (which always depends on how many people are at those said tables) and the manager getting on our ass to keep the ice and cups filled, we are running ourselves ragged. You then sit at the table for 45 minutes on average, sometimes an hour, and all we get is $5. We have done everything, with the exception of cooking your food and washing your plate so that you can be lazy. We are lucky if we get $5 even with a four top table. That averages to $1.25 per person and they think that tipping on a percentage of the ticket is still appropriate. By the time I get home, after doing hours of this, I feel like dropping on the floor when I get in the door.
Lord. Falling on the floor would feel better than walking any further than I need to. I get home to a hurting back, sore feet and throbbing thighs. I have to take aspirin before and after my shifts (and sometimes in between) because it hurts to walk, bend over or do anything in between. It's hard to go to sleep because I always feel like a mixture of sore muscles and restless leg syndrome. Let's not forget how much my shoulders hurt from carrying the food to the tables.
Today was worth it (despite the hiccup I had with Ariel). I walked away with $69 and that is because I was getting $7-$10 tips. The tickets weren't really that high. In the twenties to forties. I just happened to have one big booth and two average booths which were by the kitchen. I also had really understanding tables. That is the highest amount I've made on one single shift. Even my double yesterday was about the same and I was upset about that. I kept wondering if there was something I was doing wrong. Today clearly was proof that what I am doing works, either that or people thought that because today was "God's Day" that they would go to hell if they didn't tip me. ::shrug::
Either way, today made up for the sore shoulder, achy feet and throbbing thighs.
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