r/Waiters

I am just venting because this has me so pissed. I work as a small family-owned business and recently the manager just hired two childhood friends as servers. Even before they started working there, I also felt like I was expcted to the good old reliable one that picks up every extra shift, is always on time, never calls out, ect. The two new hires and previous coworkers would come in late ALL THE TIME. Last month, there was a day I was stressing out because I was the only one there doing prep work. I about walk out because it was TWO MINUTES before opening and not even the manager had shown up yet. No text, call, anything. My manager and co-worker roll up with Starbucks a minute before we opened. I then got chewed out for not finishing all the side work on time. This isn't the only instance of others being late, but it was definitely the worst.

Well, yesterday I came into the restaurant three minutes early for my shift and my hair-tie broke. I had to run to the drug store across the street to buy a new one and clocked in an entire five minutes late. Because of this, I was behind on the mountain of side work left over by the morning shift. My manager came in a few minutes later and started lecturing me on timeliness. She kept making passive aggressive remarks about it the entire night until I told her that she better start hiring because I was going to start applying either other jobs and/or student loans. She was super nice to me the rest of the night and says that she hopes I reconsider in the morning. Just submitted a Trader Joe's application. I'm OUT!

So I recently started working at a sit-down restaurant around 2 weeks ago as a host. I've had around four shifts with this person, and every single time she'd see the other servers giving me my portion of their tips before I go and basically just ignore me. I feel weird, because I think it's literally in the employee handbook that she HAS to give me a (very small, might I add) portion of her tips but I don't want to confront her. I asked one of the other servers and she confirmed all of them have to give it to me, but she just won't? What do I do here? Just suck it up and not get a third of the tips I'm supposed to get?

Edit: Just some info for clarification, I make minimum wage. The servers also make at least minimum wage, maybe more depending on if they've gotten any raises since they've been there, so anyone talking about how hostesses get paid more isn't right about this case. I also bus their tables, so I am actively helping with their sections aside from just seating people. I'll update this post when I talk to her after our next shift together.

So I decided to become a waitress, and started working at a hole in the wall type of restaurant.

A friend of mine knows the family who owns it. So I was like cool. I’ve always wanted to try working in a restaurant.

Thing is… I’m not sure if it’s even legal how I’m getting paid.

I get paid a fixed amount ($150) per day. I work 10:30am - 9pm. No break. It’s a slow restaurant though. So when I have down time I see that as a break.

If I make less than $150 in tips, they give me $150. If I make more than $150 in tip I take it all home.

I get a paycheck every two weeks, but they keep it and just give me the paystub. I asked them why don’t I get the paycheck. They said “ you get paid $150 a day.”

I also pay them taxes on the 15th every month for being on payroll. They said I’ll also be paying back at the end of the year..

Im in Tennessee and I don’t understand how the taxes thing works for being a server.

The other day I was looking at my husband‘s finances and he paid for our order as usual so I wasn’t really paying attention to the numbers that he was pressing. When we get home and it’s like the next day, I ask him how much did he tip because the charge was saying it’s like $75. And then he proceeded to tell me he only left a five dollar tip for a 60 something dollar bill for our server. When I tell you my heart dropped and I was so livid… Like he didn’t even tip $10 and this was at Texas roadhouse and the server wasn’t bad but just ok…

How would yall react?
Did he tip enough?

Im a senior in highschool, i really wanna get a part time job (i've been doing tutoring here and there but its kinda exhausting). So i've been thinking about working at a restaurant. My parents however really don't want me to because of safety reasons. Do you think they have a point? I live in a relatively safe town but harassment is not unheard of here.

im a host at a local restaurant and i feel really sick, like bedridden today on mothers day. i called out really early to give them time to find cover but my manager got really mad and hung up on me.

i just feel really crappy and i feel even worse after all that. im 18 and this is my first restaurant job, is it really bad that i called out? we have the same amount of people working (usually we have a few more for really busy days), so i kind of assumed we just don’t get that busy on mother’s day.

im not sure if i’m just stressed because of being sick but i feel horrible. i’m trying to make myself feel better by thinking it was either this or being overworked while sick, but was it really bad for me to call out today? should i send an apology letter or something?

My work cares more about appearance than function, so all us servers got Adidas Sambas for work. They are so slippery I almost fall all the time. Anything product I can use that won’t affect the look of the shoe? Bonus points if you can also recommend good insoles because my feet have never hurt so bad 🥲.

I personally love to go out to restaurants alone because I usually already know what I'm going to get, and it's always a quick in and out process for me. I just order everything I want when I first see them, get my food, pay the check and go on my merry way. Nice and simple. Now I know not everyone is like this, and sometimes some people are more extra than others, which leads me to wonder how do you feel about them? Do you usually assume they might be a easy customer, do you get nervous, have you had bad experiences with them? I'm curious to know as someone who likes to eat alone!

Has anyone ever accused you of making more tips because of your looks rather than your professionalism?

First of all I wanted to say I’m absolutely not complaining about tipping out bussers and foodrunners and bartenders. I know they do so much and help waiters out a lot. For our restaurant it’s required we tip out the bussers 10% each, foodrunners 15% each and bartender 7%. So for example yesterday for mothers day we had 3 bussers, 2 foodrunners and 1 bartender because it was busy. All of them were helping out every server so I tipped all of them out. I ended up making around $500 for the night. By the time they were all tipped out I left with $215. I work at a relatively fine dining place, not overly fancy but pretty nice. It kind of sucks because I make $4 an hour while the bussers foodrunners and bartenders make over $10 an hour. There were 5 servers so they were all tipped out that amount. I just want to know if this is normal. Again I'm not complaining because particularly the foodrunners and bussers we had yesterday did so much but at that point I’m tipping out more than I’m bringing home for such a busy day, and I took home way less than I make on a normal weekend and did so much more work and had so many more tables

Hello, I’m 21 and a guy. On Monday I went around inperson with resumes and applied to a bunch of restaurant or bar jobs, some both. I walked into a really nice restaurant in a really really town near me, extremely rich town and known for being a well off area and expensive to live in. It’s just outside nyc. It’s like 6 minutes down the road from me also which is great, I’m just nervous. I go in on Thursday to see the layout and “train a bit” the owner is an older man and said things are layed back. It’s my first server job and it’s a fine dining restaurant bar. I’m just curious what to expect and what I should do to be prepared. Ik im only going in for the first time but I’d like to avoid mess ups as much as possible. Expensive spot and luxury so it’s making me worry about when I will fuck up which is bound to happen.

So I’m relatively new to serving. Not a baby, but I can’t say I have much experience, either, and today I dropped a large tray of four dishes all over myself right in front of the table I meant to give it to. It was easily one of the most embarrassing things in my entire working career, not just as a waiter. I got food all over me, broke every dish, and had the entire restaurant’s eyes on me. So for any servers out there who’ve done the same thing or something similar, how do you deal with the embarrassment and complete and total rage I’m feeling?

I work at a popular grill as a server. My shift starts at 10:30, restaurant opens at 11. It is now slow season here in Florida, so business is a lot slower everywhere, particularly in the mornings/afternoon shift. It will often take a good while until things start picking up. I’m not concerned about making money here, I know severs do well here overall particularly during season and during dinner shifts (which I don’t get often yet as a newbie). There’s definitely money to be made so I don’t plan on quitting.

In the mornings though, the hosts let people basically choose where to sit. And everyone chooses to sit in a certain area of the restaurant with the best views first, which often means my section is dead until noon. Servers will just stand around talking, or eating until they’re sat or while it is slow. There really isn’t anything to do. I could run food, but there is a food runner and there isn’t much to run. So I’ll run drinks for people at the bar when they are there. Sidework can’t be done till the end of the shift, and there is no silver to roll.

I am an introvert and I’m new here also. I have social anxiety. I prefer to be busy at work, and hate standing around awkwardly in a relatively new environment around a bunch of new people. So during these times I will pull out my Kindle and try to read a bit to kill time, (not in front of customers), while paying attention to the one or two tables I have of course.

My manager told me to put it away today.

So, what am I supposed to be doing in the morning when it’s slow if I don’t feel like chatting with coworkers? Assuming cups are all stocked, etc. Walking in laps around the restaurant? Standing and staring into space with a big smile plastered on my face?

Former server here and trying to understand what this situation probably means internally.

I got fired a while back because during that time my dad was dying and I became unreliable. I was late a lot, called off sometimes, and took too many small breaks during shifts. I fully understand why management let me go.

At the same time, I was also one of their strongest servers performance-wise. Great reviews, high sales, high tips, etc.

Recently I reached back out asking to come back. The head manager eventually brought me in, we talked, I took accountability for everything, and he told me he’d give me another chance and that the scheduling manager would contact me.

A week went by and I heard nothing. I texted and emailed the scheduling manager politely and got no response.

Today I called the head manager again and when I told him the scheduling manager hadn’t reached out in a week he gave me a knowing “Ohhh, right.” and immediately asked if I could come in today. As we were ending the call, I asked “is everything okay?” because the week long silence made me anxious, and he said “yeah, I’ll talk to you in person.”

From a restaurant/management perspective, what does this sound like to you guys?

I recently got a new job as a host at a diner in my area. Previously I worked at another restaurant that was in a busy city so they used an electronic toast POS system which is what I have been used to because I've never worked anywhere else.

Getting used to the traditional POS system is....something. I had no idea it was so much more complicated, time consuming and just overall really not easy at all. Mind you I'm not even a server I'm just a host.

EVERYTHING is paper based. When I was training, even though I have 3 years of hostess experience, I was just so surprised about how I would have to get used to this whole different mode of functioning and working all because of this absolutely outdated system. I'm talking 1950s style cash registers, carbon paper guest checks, manually adding up every single price multiple times!!!!! For hosting I'm used to using the Resy app on an IPad and I had no idea I'd end up being so grateful for that system!!! At the diner we have a paper chart we have to keep track of for seating charts and just a notebook paper for waitlists. I work on weekends, we go through almost 3 pieces of paper for waitlists.

Not to mention I already have many problems with this new job which I won't get into right now. It's just frustrating that apparently the owner refuses to update this system that is obviously making everyone's lives 10x harder. They even have a Toast business card sitting on the host stand.

Hi guys, my first job is a waiter at a sushi joint where the tip policy is a bit skewed and we don’t get any tips+ it’s pretty unprofessional. I’m looking for a new restaurant job and wondering if yall had any recommendations/ experience advice . Thanks

Admittedly it was for cause.

We had to flag down our server multiple times to add water, waited forever for desserts and had to flag her down 4 times for the bill. It is a poor experience for sure, but $5 out of $200 still felt mean to me. Like, it is not that serious. Usually when I get poor service, I still leave 10% and just write a comment on the receipt like "please be faster on refills." But my bf says that is how everyone does it.

Do people usually do this for poor service and it is normal?

Hi everyone, this is honestly going to be such an embarrassing post but I really need advice right now. I have an interview tomorrow for a server position at Cactus Club Cafe. I've heard they only hire conventionally attractive people. Is this true? I wouldn't call myself striking but maybe above average. 18, thin, but nothing super special. I'm genuinely so so stressed out because I really want this job, more than anything. My family has been struggling for a very long time financially, and I'm doing everything I can to help. I feel like they won't hire me because I don't look like a supermodel, and I very rarely get interviews.

Does anyone have advice, like maybe what kind of questions they will ask me? I want to be prepared as possible to up my chances of getting hired because I feel horribly unconfident right now.

Thank you so much if you leave a comment.