Okay, People....listen up. I'm going to educate you on the thankless job of Waitressing 101.
If the food is bad...it's not our fault. If the food is late coming to your table...it's not our fault. If we don't have what you want...it's not our fault. And if your service is slow and it's Friday night and 3 waitresses have called in and one has to take the sick cook to the doctor leaving only 3 waitresses to serve a busy Friday night restaurant crowd...it's not our fault.
Do you know that wait-staff only make $2.01-$2.15 hourly? Do you know that the proper amount to tip is at least 15%? Do you know that if you have a waitress that is doing the best she can for you and often goes above and beyond that it is totally acceptable to tip more than 15%? Do you know that wait-staff has to tip bartenders and busboys 5 and 10%, even though they are getting paid more hourly? Come on, People! Help a girl out!
Now, I understand that you don't want a tip if your waitress/waiter is ignoring you, getting your order wrong, standing around talking to friends/co-workers, or just plain giving you lousy service when there is no excuse for it. Just 15% or worse, 10% would be justifiable. We're making $2.15 an hour. I think you should know that. $2.15/hour. That's it. And we have to share our tips with people who are getting paid more hourly. We're working hard for you--taking abuse that you would never take in the process--and you're leaving 3 bucks!! Maybe two. And if you're really mad, because it took 40 minutes to get your food and you spilled your expensive Mexican Martini all over the table, you leave NADA. Just a big 'ole slash mark through the tip line on the credit card receipt. Like it's MY FAULT.
Can you tell it was a bad weekend at the restaurant yet?
Friday--the BUSY night for restaurants, especially if they serve Margaritas and Mexican Martinis--we had 2 waitresses call in sick and one that was out of town. Our cook--and owner's brother/co-manager--had been dragging his sick ass to work all week long to the point of bordering on pneumonia. He looked like death warmed over and could barely stand up. I told our illustrious owner--the cook's own sister--that he was going to end up in the hospital on fluids for a week if she didn't make him go to the doctor and go home and get some rest and she finally decided that it might be a good idea. She sent the one waitress--we had only four at this point--that didn't have a table to drive him to the doctor. Leaving us with three. Three waitresses on a Friday night and no cook. At least, no cook that was used to cooking. She ran 30 minutes behind on everyone's order because she's not used to doing it. Because her brother works his ass off every day and every night. And let me tell you...he can run the kitchen just fine by himself. In fact...he prefers it that way.
Anyway..it was a night from hell. Some customers had sympathy and understood that we were doing the best that we could do. Most though....they didn't have a clue. So I just thought you should know: Wait-staff only make $2.01-2.15/hourly. Don't stiff us if we're doing the best we can do. Don't stiff us if we're out of something you want. Don't stiff us if your food is not made the way you want it made. Don't stiff us if it takes 40 minutes for your food to get to your table. If you're the only person in the restaurant and you aren't getting good service, then you may have a point. We are not the cooks. We are not the inventory control managers. We are not the managers that can't seem to hire reliable wait-staff. We are not the owners that think they can get by with only two cooks, one of which only works days. We are not everyone else that decided to go out on Friday night. We are your waitstaff. We are SERVING you. We're not getting paid a living wage. Show some apppreciation for God's sake! You don't have to cook or do dishes because of us. Your getting awesome--yes, we do serve awesome--Margaritas and Mexican Martinis because of us. And you don't have to lift a finger to do it! You have no mess to clean up! You can let your kids throw food all over the place--and you do! You send us running each time we come to the table for something instead of telling us everything you want or need all at once, taking us away from other customers, because YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD THAT MATTERS.
SHOW SOME APPRECIATION!!!!!!!!!!!
