Working in a newsroom is hard, no matter what your role. The push to get the story first, get everything right, and be completely fair — all under constant deadline pressure — is enough to make anyone reach for a cold one at the end of the day.
But this isn’t the hardest job I’ve ever had. That would be my nine years as a waiter.
We’ve had a lot of feedback on a story we aired last week about something called “turtle tipping.” It works like this: If you think you got lousy service, you leave a note for the server explaining that you’ve donated their tip to charity. You also get to claim a tax deduction.
I understand the concept. I’ve experienced plenty of bad service and the frustration that goes with it. But if you have never waited tables, know this:
The job is physically and mentally exhausting — the ultimate in multi-tasking. The orders, crazy requests, attitudes, screw-ups, screaming chefs, heavy trays, long hours… My blood pressure rises thinking about it.
I always say that the skills I developed and sharpened as a waiter are valuable to me every day in the newsroom.
Almost everyone who waits tables does it because they really need the money. In my case, it was to pay for school. My sister-in-law still waits tables to help provide for her family (on top of holding down a full-time job and going to night school).
Don’t cue the violins. Waiting tables can be a blast, and it’s a great way to make cold hard cash. I wouldn’t trade a minute of my experience.
But restaurants typically only pay servers about $2.00 an hour, so your tip is essentially the only payment they receive for whatever service they provided.
I’m not asking you to suffer through a wrecked romatic dinner and then drop 20%. A tip is not a donation to charity. It is payment for a promised service.
Go ahead. Tip accordingly. That’s how it works in this country. Most servers understand that and expect to be rewarded or penalized based on how well they perform their jobs.
Just don’t take the issue of tipping lightly. It’s too important to a lot of hardworking people.
5 Comments
May 5, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Thank you for letting people know how little waiters and bartenders make an hour.
It is hard work, but I love it.
May 5, 2008 at 5:03 pm
I agree waiting tables is one of the hardest jobs out there. But for me the hardest job I have ever had is being a mom to twins and quadruplets. I always joked with my husband that going back to work would be so much easier than staying home and taking care of the kids. Well I recently went back to work and I still believe staying home and taking care of the kids was the hardest job I have ever had but I would not trade it for anything. Now it is just harder because I am juggling a full time job and being a mom and everything that goes along with being a parent and mom.
May 5, 2008 at 5:08 pm
I currently work in a restaurant and I must agree I wouldn’t trade the experience, it has truly opened up my eyes to many things. It is not always a cup of tea but it can pay off. However, in all honestly I think everyone should work in a restaurant just to get that tid bit of exposure. I think it would cure many complaints and irritations that many people have.
May 5, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I am a teacher, and I work on the weekends and holidays to make extra money. I work in a fast food place donning the same uniform and expectations as the regular fulltime employee. Although I do not wait tables, I serve food to the public on a serving line. There are customers that treat food service people as if they are the scum of the earth or not even educated with a GED. After experiencing this, I treat any food service person with great respect – you never know what the person’s background or story is.
May 7, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Thank you so much for letting people know how much food servers get an Hour. My husband is a full time bartender and I am a full time food Server. We work together in the same restaurant. He has been bartending there for 20 years. I have been working there with him for 14 years. Like you said, it can be very fun, but is also very stressful mentally and physically. The hard part about it is we don’t get brakes. We work long shifts. Towards the end of out shift, we are tired and starving. A lot of the time it’s too busy to eat a snack. It is very hard doing a physical job on an empty stomach. That’s when we can accidentally make mistakes. We do our best to give our guest excellent service, but we are not perfect. It is frustrating when a guest takes our tips away because of a little mistake. I hope that they realize that some of the mistakes that happen are out of our control. The Kitchen could be behind or short. This job is me and my husband’s profession. We enjoy working together. We both love people and love serving them. The only way we can continue to work there is if we get enough tips from our guest. This is how we make our living. Thank you for letting people know that this is a very hard job. I think most people that have never waited tables don’t realize that we only get paid $2.00 and hour and how hard we have to work.