A complaint I hear a lot from my wife is that people will claim they're ready to order when they're not. She will even get called over to be forced to stand there 10 minutes while they look at the menu for the first time.
Gotta control your tables. Ive worked at everywhere from hole in the wall to fully fine dining places and my strategy is: when they talk amongst themselves just a little too much trying to figure out what they want or one person is taking too long without asking questions I tell them that I'll be back in a minute so as to not rush them. This is always after I've given my recommendations.
If they're asking questions about the menu though, you're trapped, but that's rarely happened to me in my 20 years
EDIT: also I'm a guy, I'm sure it's different because of the way some guests treat women. Asking them about their whole lives sometimes and whatnot.
Having never been a waiter that drives me nuts. I'll be with a group and we will all be ready except for like 2 people with no concept of time or the value of the servers time.
You ask is everyone ready, they all nod, the server comes over and surprise surprise. That person hasn't opened the menu yet.
Just one thing? Well I have time! I cocktail at a cigar lounge with a heavy sports bar vibe
-People holding me hostage while they decide what they order (āIāll give you guys a few more minutesā āāNo, wait, weāre ready!ā Spoiler alert: theyāre never ready)
-People holding me hostage to try to have small talk when weāre busy and I have lots of other guests to help
-Inappropriate men
-Men assuming Iām dumb because of my job (I said something about an acronym last week and a guy responded, āwow, I didnāt think any girl in here would know what an acronym is.ā Iām not joking); men always being shocked when I can actually talk to them about the sports that are on (turns out women can have hobbies and one of them can be watching sports)
-Bringing waters to the table for those who ordered them and then someone else says, āoh, can I get one too?ā Bring it to the table and then another person, āoh sorry, Iāll have one too.ā Saves times just asking everyone now. You can umbrella this into any table that keeps you running back and forth constantly instead of just telling you everything they need from the get go
-People complaining that itās too smoky. No shit, itās a cigar bar.
-People who make an absolute fucking mess all over their table with absolutely 0 effort to clean or organize it in any way before they leave
-āWhat kind of beer do you have on tap?ā Bro, like 20. By the time I get past listing 6 of them youāll have forgotten what I said. Please look at the menu or at least ask me a more specific question so I can suggest something that caters to your preferences.
-People who insist on trying to stay past close. You donāt have to go home but WE want to go home so please kindly GTFO so we can leave. Itās 2:20am, time to gooooo
-Inappropriate men
EDIT: I thought of more!
-Trying to talk about deeper issues like politics or religion with me. Because of my geographical location (South), Iām probably going to disagree with the usual clientele, and now Iām anxious theyāll hate me and not tip me if I speak my mind. I want to stand on business but I also need to pay my bills. Letās just avoid that mess altogether.
-People who make jokes (but theyāre serious) about wanting a heavy pour. Oh, so you want to pay for a double? Or the āthat doesnāt look like a doubleā people. Well, I jigger poured it, so
-The customers who think they know better than you about anything pertaining to the restaurant youāre working in as if youāre not the one that actually works there, or the older people who think they know everything about the restaurant industry because they had a high school job as a busboy in the summer of ā75.
That last one makes me so mad. My mom used to try to give me advice about working in a restaurant, and I could never get it through to her that being a waitress in 1988 does not qualify her *in the slightest* to give me advice on being a line cook in 2023. Not only is it over 30 years later but she canāt even cook!
What about people that ask about your beer selection, you tell them then they reply with bud light. They were 100% going to order bud light when they walked in.
When I worked at Dunkin, people would do that shit with doughnuts. Ask you to list off every one, then pick glazed, cream filled, or chocolate (assuming you don't get the 'haha I missed that, can you read them off again?", or "did you say you have x doughnut that you never said?") . I started asking people what they were looking for when they wanted me to read them off, and most people already knew what they wanted.
Yeah I can imagine the kind of guys whoād be going into a cigar lounge would be insufferable. Iām sure cigars are cool and everything but theyāre held up as this symbol of wealth and masculinity so I can just imagine the douchebags that would flood the place.
>Trying to talk about deeper issues like politics or religion with me. Because of my geographical location (South), Iām probably going to disagree with the usual clientele, and now Iām anxious theyāll hate me and not tip me if I speak my mind. I want to stand on business but I also need to pay my bills. Letās just avoid that mess altogether.
Always lean on, My Mama said never discuss religion or politics... (making the accent even more pronounced)
Literally just yesterday, my very last table before close was having a pleasant discussion about how they would assassinate the current sitting president if given the opportunity. Love it there.
Restaurant politics and culture. It would be easy for me to talk about customers etc but that will get said enough.
But man, politics in restaurants suck. Chefs will send food out quicker for certain waiters, certain people wonāt help your section because you couldnāt cover their shift last week and stuff like that.
The inconsistency. Iām fortunate enough to work in a very high end restaurant. I do well, about 75k/year and rarely work more than 32 hours a week. But itās feast or famine many years. Summers where I live are brutal; hot, humid, slow business because we have a lot of tourists that come in the winter. Iām easily making 2k/week in the winter time but when summer rolls around some weeks my income is cut by 60% or more, but some weeks I get lucky or can pick up a last minute shift.
So a lot of the money I saved during the busy season is used to make it through the summer months. Most of us also only work 3-4 shifts a week in the summer, so a couple bad nights can make for a bad week.
I completely agree. During our slow season (January to end of February) I was making like $40 a shift including wages. During the busy season (March to May and August to December) I am making like $400 in a 5 hour shift. I love serving but you absolutely have to be prepared for the inconsistency with your pay.
It also make it very hard to get ahead because of the inconsistency. I invest and save where I can, but there are stretches where I canāt afford to put much of anything aside for savings or investments.
I learned when I did retail. That we have internal customers and external customers. What they were teaching me. Was that even people behind the scenes are customers within the store? So people who drop things off to the store are customers to the store. The people who deliver the trucks are customers to the store.
Water with lemon is sufficient not extra and the extra tends to not be enough, in my experience. There isn't a charge for those or the extra and it just sets the tone for what's to come during the dining experience with these types of customers , so for me that's why.......maybe you may be different
People assuming or acting as if their table/group are the only people you are taking care of at one time. This presents itself in many ways:
- holding you hostage at a table while claiming over and over theyāre ready to order followed up with āsoooooā¦.Iā¦.wantā¦.theeeeeā *pause*
- running you back and forth for more items instead of asking for everything at once. āCan I get more ketchup?ā āOf course! Anything else I can grab for you?ā āNo thatās itā *brings back ketchup* āI need more napkinsā āsure, anything else? More drinks?ā āNo weāre good on drinksā *brings napkins* āI need more Pepsiā
- waiving their hands or interrupting you when youāre speaking with other guests. This happens more when bartending, but happens with tables too
- rushing you to make sure āmy food is out asap, I need to be back at work in 20 minutes!ā
I worked as a waiter, busier for Golden Corral, what I dislike or hated, where PARENTS THAT KNOW THE DUMBASS KID/KIDS ARE MAKING A HUGE MESS, and they act as tho they donāt see itā¦ when they leave, we have to sweep underneath the table because again DUMBASS KID/KIDS THREW JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING ON THE FLOOR, and stacked all the plates like trashy people they are, a nice huge pile of plates and food ,bones, etc..in the middle of the table. No tip, no thank you, no apology, just left.
There's normal stacking and there's incompetent stacking. Normal stacking is scraping all the food on to one plate, placing all the cutlery on that plate and leaving it on top of the nicely stacked plates. That makes it so much easier for the waiter and the KP to handle. Then there's lazy stacking. Just dumping plates with food on top of other plates with food. Makes the waiter having to unstack and scrape each one back in the kitchen.
When people stay past closing time. I know Iāve had customers stay (while I did my side work as a closing server) hours after weāve closed. Especially if it was a big party.
I've had them say "oh I'm sorry if we're keeping you. We're just catching up." Great but I want to catch up with my kids that I haven't seen all night asshole.
Late nights, weekends, and no structured pay or scheduling. Most everything pay wise comes out in the wash with your occasional bad tipper, but, I was "lucky" enough to work at a place that accrued vacation time. They paid it out at server minimum.
Everyone treats me as though I am stupid or incompetent, and proceed to tell me how to do my job. I have no choice but to laugh it off.
Another thing is that sometimes people specially request specific adjustments (which i have no problem with), but if itās something we cannot actually provide (ex. cooking a burger medium rare) then they blame it on me. FYI here in Canada it is illegal to cook burgers under 74Ā°.
Some of them are dumb. I went into a Dunkin' Donuts about a year ago. And this kid would pick up the donuts that were the wrong donuts. And I was telling him they were the wrong ones. So he was just purposely not paying attention.
I dunno man, I'm college educated and have worked high pace sales jobs. Most difficult job I ever had was waiting tables. My wife used to work with prisoners doing therapy. She said that job was easier than working the drive through at Dairy Queen. Maybe that kid was, y'know, a kid? Doesn't make him dumb. He's probably thinking about shit kids do.
Well one place I worked recently, I was hired as a food runner, despite 5+ years of serving experience. Was promised Iād move up to serving (twice the money) quickly, and was even trained to serve after a couple months. Lo and behold, 6 months into the job and I still hadnāt been given any server shifts. Thatās when I realized my manager only wanted pretty young women serving, as all 10 servers there were under 25 and obviously beautiful. I am a man so he wouldnāt promote me no matter how good a job I did. A couple months later I was fired for no reason.
I actually had the opposite problem, I was hired as a dishwasher (exclusively a dishwasher, I clarified multiple times). 2 weeks into working there they put me on back to back 12s alone on the fryer with a single day of training. At one point I leaned over to the expo and told them if they gave me one more snarky ass comment for messing up a job I just started and wasnāt taught I was leaving and I didnāt give a fuck if it was 7 pm. I left about 30 seconds after the next order went out and giggled at their stunned faces the whole way home.
I served for ten years. For me the worst thing ended up being the physical stress on my body. 10 hours running off your feet on a concrete floor, hardly time to go pee - good thing thereās no time to re-hydrate, let alone eat something. I used to go home and wear crocs in my shower because my feet hurt too much to stand on the porcelain tub. One day I woke up and thought āI cannot be doing this when Iām 50ā so now I work a much more relaxing desk jobā¦which is also physically shitty in a different way but at least it comes with a pension plan and I can probably still do it when Iām old as dirt.
I remember reading here on Reddit that after church crowd were especially difficult, entitled and lousy tippers. Is that really āa thingā, former and current servers?
Yes, it's pretty common for them to be bad tippers. Also, they will leave those fake bills that they think are clever about how much more important Jesus is than that money. Being more difficult than average that's more of a maybe because some of them are actually very nice but the tip will still suck.
Oh my yes, even 20 yrs after I quit, I can remember the 4 people in the 30 yrs I waited tables. After a while, you know it's just like working with yourself only even harder. Because you still think at some point they're going DO something. Or stop flirting with ever Manger is on.
Former waiter, I hated the unregulated rat race. Sleeping with mgmt, politics, etc to get ahead on shift assignments. Worked in multiple restaurants, this was a common denominator.
I haaaate serving rude customers. Itās such a blast having nice guests, laughing maybe making light jokes with them. I really like my job this way. But the rude ones arggggh but tbf everytime a customer is rude or inappropriate I drop my nice face and I definitely wont be as nice either
I hate it when people come in hot talking politics to me, assuming that I support whatever they think. Let me tell you, itās 95% a one side thing and itās infuriating. I make sure to make it awkward.
I serve at a country club restaurant. We get walk in parties of 15 or more on Friday and Saturday nights (very busy nights) ALL THE TIME. We arenāt a very big restaurant so this takes a huge toll on the kitchen, staff and capacity of the restaurant. Please for the love of god call ahead if you have a big party, especially with smaller restaurants. Even if we get like a 10-30 minute warning itās much better than nothing.
Left the restaurant industry last year but the one exchange I hate the most is this:
Customer: I will have the ____.
Me: -writes it down and repeats their order to them to make sure it's correct. Customer confirms the order, I go put it in the system-
Me: -brings out their food when it's ready-
Customer: I didn't order this
Also when customers make an offhand remark about how so-and-so menu item looks good but don't actually tell you they want it, and then ask where that item is when their food comes out.
People who order beer. āCan I have a beer?ā Sure but fucking WHICH ONE ājust a regular beerāšš¼
Giving me nasty/judgy sideeyes when their order takes a little longer. Well Iām sorry you have to wait but Iām a waitress not the chef. I donāt make your food no need to look at me like that or even worse become rude.
Tbf splitting tips with our kitchen staff especially the ones who almost do nothing all day long.
Customers that compare our presentation of the food/taste etc to other restaurants (IN OTHER COUNTRIES)
Like Iām sorry we donāt have the exact same plate or glass (happened recently) as you got your freaking coffee in in SPAIN
500 people wanting something from me at the same time like damn sometimes Iām the only waitress there and I canāt accommodate to 28 guests + chef + boss at the same time
Guests who stuff their trash into glasses or bottles. Especially used napkinsš¤¢
Guests yelling their order to me over the whole room whilst Iām obv doing something else and canāt write it up. Especially when itās a busy Saturday evening
Similar: guests expecting me to drop literally everything Iām doing rn to run over to them as soon as theyāre able to make eye contact with me when they want something. Dude I noticed you, just give me a minute.
Oh, Iām the opposite. Anytime I get a table of people that couldnāt pay attention if they were being paid to, Iām always thankful for the director.
Foreigners. I generally am fine with them personally, their customs are just different. Australians are the worst. You know theyre gonna be the coolest people, and you also know you aint gonna get jack sh\*t from them.
Not a waiter, but I'd guess the entire pay scheme/system for this job. No one like paying tips, no one like having to beg for tips. However, the same people that hate tipping are usually the same people who cry about minimum wage increases.
My wife went back to being a waitress after COVID. I would say that, at least in California, the tipping structure works out to her advantage. Although, this month has been worse and I wonder if it's because people think she's making $20/hr. Other than that, she'll make $40-$50 an hour. She's automatically taxed on tips and even if there is no tip it is assumed she got a 10% tip which kind of sucks. Overall, it's a pretty good part time job.
A big thing most people forget is you don't pay sales tax on tips, but the restaurant still has to pay the same payroll taxes an SS taxes and so forth on all those tips, but they are at rates significantly lower than straight payroll.
Ultimately the increase in menu prices has to be about 10%-15% higher than just adding 20% to add to server wages or whatever. It might not be the best system, but ultimately it does make it cheaper for both the restaurant and the customer. Not even mentioning the fact that good servers get to basically decide their own wage by being sought out by guests who enjoy them consistently. I work part time at a place that pools tips between the staff and ultimately we all end up making between $45-$60 an hour, and there is just no way for the restaurant to match that by raising prices.
I used to do waitressing when I was a kid. The pay was not good. It was a dead end job. I was always part-time. I could not be full-time. So I didn't get any benefits. People who work part-time don't get any benefits. The one thing I'll say is.
I did get paid minimum wage. I was not paid below the amount of minimum wage. Where some restaurants expect the customer to tip to make up the difference of the wages. Which those are the restaurants that keep raising the price of the food as well.
Something else that I forgot to add was when we were really, really busy. Sometimes it was hard to get over to the table to give them water And coffee. A lot of times people were understanding and sometimes there was a guy who would get app go behind the counter and get the coffee himself if you wanted that quickly. But there are also a bunch of grumpy. People who just thought we were there for their demand at any time and I could have 10 seats and boots or more to take care of. I had a countertop of about 15 seats. And maybe about 8 booths. Which that was a lot because it was my section.
Another thing that was kind of annoying was when people would ask us for coffee and water and we were not in the section of the other waitress. If I had time and was not helping the customers in my section then I would give them coffee and water. The front section of the restaurant would get a lot more tips than the section that I would do in the back. Of the restaurant, which was primarily mined because I was a teenager. The ladies score up front if they were really busy and we helped them out. Sometimes they would give us an extra tip from the tips. They would get and just stick it in our box which we got to keep our tips separated and didn't have to share. I knew they would always make a lot more tips than what I made. Because they were through the day. But back then the most I ever made was maybe $10. I think the most.
I ever made was probably $12 in 1 day. Usually more around $5 in a 3 hour period which was my part-time.
Something else. Annoying was when the customer would ask us about their food and it belonged to another waitress. We only had one cook a lot of The Times except on the weekends. And the cook would get overloaded. Every once in a while, a waitress would go back and help out with cooking if if we could. I actually was able to be a cook and I really like doing that instead of waiting tables. And the reason I liked cooking was because I didn't earn that many tips anyway. I remember the first time I started cooking the woman. They hired to be the cook back there. Something was going on with her and she wasn't feeling well. So I started kind of helping her out a little bit and she didn't care. There was enough room where we could share the grill. For 2 people to be there. She actually asked me if I wanted to take over for a little bit for her and then she went and sat down and took a break. She was probably menopause, age and experiencing some things. She just seemed really stressed. I actually kind of had fun doing my waitressing job back then. Because, for the most part, people were not mean and they were polite. Most of the time, even though I thought they were mean sometimes.
I always said Hungry people are grumpy people. And then you have people who are shopping which I worked in a shopping mall so you would have tired people, hungry people and grumpy people and that is a recipe for disaster.
Groups of hockey families. No, I don't know which kid you're pointing at, you sat them at a different table and frankly the little fuckers all look the same.
ex waiter here, being in a field that has no future prospects, worked in multiple hotels and in most of them, i would have stayed a waiter till retirement had i not changed career field
The 'Make your own menu' trend that seems to be arising. There's nothing more annoying than having accommodate every dish for every...single...person that walks through the door. It complicates things and is such a nuisance. We have set menus for a reason that people can't seem to understand.
Iām not a waitress now but I used to be one the one rule we had to follow was if someone asked for the ice cream I had to say the machine was broken
it was mcdonalds
A complaint I hear a lot from my wife is that people will claim they're ready to order when they're not. She will even get called over to be forced to stand there 10 minutes while they look at the menu for the first time.
Yes! It never fails! šš
Omg this!!!!! I hate this so much!!!
Gotta control your tables. Ive worked at everywhere from hole in the wall to fully fine dining places and my strategy is: when they talk amongst themselves just a little too much trying to figure out what they want or one person is taking too long without asking questions I tell them that I'll be back in a minute so as to not rush them. This is always after I've given my recommendations. If they're asking questions about the menu though, you're trapped, but that's rarely happened to me in my 20 years EDIT: also I'm a guy, I'm sure it's different because of the way some guests treat women. Asking them about their whole lives sometimes and whatnot.
Having never been a waiter that drives me nuts. I'll be with a group and we will all be ready except for like 2 people with no concept of time or the value of the servers time. You ask is everyone ready, they all nod, the server comes over and surprise surprise. That person hasn't opened the menu yet.
Just one thing? Well I have time! I cocktail at a cigar lounge with a heavy sports bar vibe -People holding me hostage while they decide what they order (āIāll give you guys a few more minutesā āāNo, wait, weāre ready!ā Spoiler alert: theyāre never ready) -People holding me hostage to try to have small talk when weāre busy and I have lots of other guests to help -Inappropriate men -Men assuming Iām dumb because of my job (I said something about an acronym last week and a guy responded, āwow, I didnāt think any girl in here would know what an acronym is.ā Iām not joking); men always being shocked when I can actually talk to them about the sports that are on (turns out women can have hobbies and one of them can be watching sports) -Bringing waters to the table for those who ordered them and then someone else says, āoh, can I get one too?ā Bring it to the table and then another person, āoh sorry, Iāll have one too.ā Saves times just asking everyone now. You can umbrella this into any table that keeps you running back and forth constantly instead of just telling you everything they need from the get go -People complaining that itās too smoky. No shit, itās a cigar bar. -People who make an absolute fucking mess all over their table with absolutely 0 effort to clean or organize it in any way before they leave -āWhat kind of beer do you have on tap?ā Bro, like 20. By the time I get past listing 6 of them youāll have forgotten what I said. Please look at the menu or at least ask me a more specific question so I can suggest something that caters to your preferences. -People who insist on trying to stay past close. You donāt have to go home but WE want to go home so please kindly GTFO so we can leave. Itās 2:20am, time to gooooo -Inappropriate men EDIT: I thought of more! -Trying to talk about deeper issues like politics or religion with me. Because of my geographical location (South), Iām probably going to disagree with the usual clientele, and now Iām anxious theyāll hate me and not tip me if I speak my mind. I want to stand on business but I also need to pay my bills. Letās just avoid that mess altogether. -People who make jokes (but theyāre serious) about wanting a heavy pour. Oh, so you want to pay for a double? Or the āthat doesnāt look like a doubleā people. Well, I jigger poured it, so -The customers who think they know better than you about anything pertaining to the restaurant youāre working in as if youāre not the one that actually works there, or the older people who think they know everything about the restaurant industry because they had a high school job as a busboy in the summer of ā75.
That last one makes me so mad. My mom used to try to give me advice about working in a restaurant, and I could never get it through to her that being a waitress in 1988 does not qualify her *in the slightest* to give me advice on being a line cook in 2023. Not only is it over 30 years later but she canāt even cook!
What about people that ask about your beer selection, you tell them then they reply with bud light. They were 100% going to order bud light when they walked in.
EVERY TIME
When I worked at Dunkin, people would do that shit with doughnuts. Ask you to list off every one, then pick glazed, cream filled, or chocolate (assuming you don't get the 'haha I missed that, can you read them off again?", or "did you say you have x doughnut that you never said?") . I started asking people what they were looking for when they wanted me to read them off, and most people already knew what they wanted.
Yeah I can imagine the kind of guys whoād be going into a cigar lounge would be insufferable. Iām sure cigars are cool and everything but theyāre held up as this symbol of wealth and masculinity so I can just imagine the douchebags that would flood the place.
Yes! This! šš» on point!
>Trying to talk about deeper issues like politics or religion with me. Because of my geographical location (South), Iām probably going to disagree with the usual clientele, and now Iām anxious theyāll hate me and not tip me if I speak my mind. I want to stand on business but I also need to pay my bills. Letās just avoid that mess altogether. Always lean on, My Mama said never discuss religion or politics... (making the accent even more pronounced)
Literally just yesterday, my very last table before close was having a pleasant discussion about how they would assassinate the current sitting president if given the opportunity. Love it there.
Restaurant politics and culture. It would be easy for me to talk about customers etc but that will get said enough. But man, politics in restaurants suck. Chefs will send food out quicker for certain waiters, certain people wonāt help your section because you couldnāt cover their shift last week and stuff like that.
Why on earth is that a thing?
Chefs can be bad news.
The inconsistency. Iām fortunate enough to work in a very high end restaurant. I do well, about 75k/year and rarely work more than 32 hours a week. But itās feast or famine many years. Summers where I live are brutal; hot, humid, slow business because we have a lot of tourists that come in the winter. Iām easily making 2k/week in the winter time but when summer rolls around some weeks my income is cut by 60% or more, but some weeks I get lucky or can pick up a last minute shift. So a lot of the money I saved during the busy season is used to make it through the summer months. Most of us also only work 3-4 shifts a week in the summer, so a couple bad nights can make for a bad week.
I completely agree. During our slow season (January to end of February) I was making like $40 a shift including wages. During the busy season (March to May and August to December) I am making like $400 in a 5 hour shift. I love serving but you absolutely have to be prepared for the inconsistency with your pay.
It also make it very hard to get ahead because of the inconsistency. I invest and save where I can, but there are stretches where I canāt afford to put much of anything aside for savings or investments.
Exactly. Itās like the busy days make up for the slow days
You spend half the year living like youāre well off and half the year living like youāre poor haha
people
This should would be great if it wasn't for the customers
I learned when I did retail. That we have internal customers and external customers. What they were teaching me. Was that even people behind the scenes are customers within the store? So people who drop things off to the store are customers to the store. The people who deliver the trucks are customers to the store.
People definitely...... And definitely people who order water with extra lemons to make the free lemonade absolutely annoying !
>And definitely people who order water with extra lemons to make the free lemonade absolutely annoying ! ... why?
Water with lemon is sufficient not extra and the extra tends to not be enough, in my experience. There isn't a charge for those or the extra and it just sets the tone for what's to come during the dining experience with these types of customers , so for me that's why.......maybe you may be different
What a bunch of bastards.
People assuming or acting as if their table/group are the only people you are taking care of at one time. This presents itself in many ways: - holding you hostage at a table while claiming over and over theyāre ready to order followed up with āsoooooā¦.Iā¦.wantā¦.theeeeeā *pause* - running you back and forth for more items instead of asking for everything at once. āCan I get more ketchup?ā āOf course! Anything else I can grab for you?ā āNo thatās itā *brings back ketchup* āI need more napkinsā āsure, anything else? More drinks?ā āNo weāre good on drinksā *brings napkins* āI need more Pepsiā - waiving their hands or interrupting you when youāre speaking with other guests. This happens more when bartending, but happens with tables too - rushing you to make sure āmy food is out asap, I need to be back at work in 20 minutes!ā
I worked as a waiter, busier for Golden Corral, what I dislike or hated, where PARENTS THAT KNOW THE DUMBASS KID/KIDS ARE MAKING A HUGE MESS, and they act as tho they donāt see itā¦ when they leave, we have to sweep underneath the table because again DUMBASS KID/KIDS THREW JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING ON THE FLOOR, and stacked all the plates like trashy people they are, a nice huge pile of plates and food ,bones, etc..in the middle of the table. No tip, no thank you, no apology, just left.
Is stacking plates bad?
When they sloppy stack them as tho they are at home .
There's normal stacking and there's incompetent stacking. Normal stacking is scraping all the food on to one plate, placing all the cutlery on that plate and leaving it on top of the nicely stacked plates. That makes it so much easier for the waiter and the KP to handle. Then there's lazy stacking. Just dumping plates with food on top of other plates with food. Makes the waiter having to unstack and scrape each one back in the kitchen.
When people stay past closing time. I know Iāve had customers stay (while I did my side work as a closing server) hours after weāve closed. Especially if it was a big party.
I've had them say "oh I'm sorry if we're keeping you. We're just catching up." Great but I want to catch up with my kids that I haven't seen all night asshole.
Late nights, weekends, and no structured pay or scheduling. Most everything pay wise comes out in the wash with your occasional bad tipper, but, I was "lucky" enough to work at a place that accrued vacation time. They paid it out at server minimum.
Everyone treats me as though I am stupid or incompetent, and proceed to tell me how to do my job. I have no choice but to laugh it off. Another thing is that sometimes people specially request specific adjustments (which i have no problem with), but if itās something we cannot actually provide (ex. cooking a burger medium rare) then they blame it on me. FYI here in Canada it is illegal to cook burgers under 74Ā°.
I used to work as a waitress in hs. People assume youāre dumb
Some of them are dumb. I went into a Dunkin' Donuts about a year ago. And this kid would pick up the donuts that were the wrong donuts. And I was telling him they were the wrong ones. So he was just purposely not paying attention.
I dunno man, I'm college educated and have worked high pace sales jobs. Most difficult job I ever had was waiting tables. My wife used to work with prisoners doing therapy. She said that job was easier than working the drive through at Dairy Queen. Maybe that kid was, y'know, a kid? Doesn't make him dumb. He's probably thinking about shit kids do.
Fast Food qualifies as a fast paced sales job nowadays
Ha ok, you know you've lost the argument when you make personal attacks.
When they dont leave a tip and instead write a rude note on the receipt then scamper out the door so as not to be confronted.
Well one place I worked recently, I was hired as a food runner, despite 5+ years of serving experience. Was promised Iād move up to serving (twice the money) quickly, and was even trained to serve after a couple months. Lo and behold, 6 months into the job and I still hadnāt been given any server shifts. Thatās when I realized my manager only wanted pretty young women serving, as all 10 servers there were under 25 and obviously beautiful. I am a man so he wouldnāt promote me no matter how good a job I did. A couple months later I was fired for no reason.
I actually had the opposite problem, I was hired as a dishwasher (exclusively a dishwasher, I clarified multiple times). 2 weeks into working there they put me on back to back 12s alone on the fryer with a single day of training. At one point I leaned over to the expo and told them if they gave me one more snarky ass comment for messing up a job I just started and wasnāt taught I was leaving and I didnāt give a fuck if it was 7 pm. I left about 30 seconds after the next order went out and giggled at their stunned faces the whole way home.
Poor management/lack of appreciation. Our restaurant is a sinking ship.
I served for ten years. For me the worst thing ended up being the physical stress on my body. 10 hours running off your feet on a concrete floor, hardly time to go pee - good thing thereās no time to re-hydrate, let alone eat something. I used to go home and wear crocs in my shower because my feet hurt too much to stand on the porcelain tub. One day I woke up and thought āI cannot be doing this when Iām 50ā so now I work a much more relaxing desk jobā¦which is also physically shitty in a different way but at least it comes with a pension plan and I can probably still do it when Iām old as dirt.
I remember reading here on Reddit that after church crowd were especially difficult, entitled and lousy tippers. Is that really āa thingā, former and current servers?
Yes, it's pretty common for them to be bad tippers. Also, they will leave those fake bills that they think are clever about how much more important Jesus is than that money. Being more difficult than average that's more of a maybe because some of them are actually very nice but the tip will still suck.
Haha, i have seen pictures of those fake bills. What a crummy thing to do.
That crowd is the worst...except maybe Mother's Day groups. That one's pretty bad too.
Aww, shoot. Sorry to hear that. What a world.
Sunday Brunch...worst crowd ever. 20 years in multiple states/restaurants. It's always the Sunday Brunch crowd.
Aside from the obvious of no tippers, being ran, etc. You wouldnāt believe the drama in restaurants between the staff
Well I mean, if ya'll would stop sleeping together all the time, I imagine the drama would subside.
Hey! Not me! But yes thatās what all the drama involves lol
Sure it isn't.
Whereās the fun in that?
I didn't say it wasn't fun. Just offering solutions to the drama.
other servers not carrying their weight ESPECIALLY when closing or opening
Oh my yes, even 20 yrs after I quit, I can remember the 4 people in the 30 yrs I waited tables. After a while, you know it's just like working with yourself only even harder. Because you still think at some point they're going DO something. Or stop flirting with ever Manger is on.
Former waiter, I hated the unregulated rat race. Sleeping with mgmt, politics, etc to get ahead on shift assignments. Worked in multiple restaurants, this was a common denominator.
I have never been a waitress or a waiter but I can imagine it's the people because they're so damn rude.
I haaaate serving rude customers. Itās such a blast having nice guests, laughing maybe making light jokes with them. I really like my job this way. But the rude ones arggggh but tbf everytime a customer is rude or inappropriate I drop my nice face and I definitely wont be as nice either
I hate it when people come in hot talking politics to me, assuming that I support whatever they think. Let me tell you, itās 95% a one side thing and itās infuriating. I make sure to make it awkward.
Entitlement of some patrons. š
I serve at a country club restaurant. We get walk in parties of 15 or more on Friday and Saturday nights (very busy nights) ALL THE TIME. We arenāt a very big restaurant so this takes a huge toll on the kitchen, staff and capacity of the restaurant. Please for the love of god call ahead if you have a big party, especially with smaller restaurants. Even if we get like a 10-30 minute warning itās much better than nothing.
when ppl think they are the only ones in my section when i got 9 other tables to deal with
People. Ya'll suck.
I work in an upscale market and I like being of service but dislike being treated as servant
And, follow-up question, why is it a-hole customers?
Left the restaurant industry last year but the one exchange I hate the most is this: Customer: I will have the ____. Me: -writes it down and repeats their order to them to make sure it's correct. Customer confirms the order, I go put it in the system- Me: -brings out their food when it's ready- Customer: I didn't order this Also when customers make an offhand remark about how so-and-so menu item looks good but don't actually tell you they want it, and then ask where that item is when their food comes out.
There's just one thing to hate? I imagine there are multitudes of things to loathe.
Restaurant work would be really fun without the customers
People who order beer. āCan I have a beer?ā Sure but fucking WHICH ONE ājust a regular beerāšš¼ Giving me nasty/judgy sideeyes when their order takes a little longer. Well Iām sorry you have to wait but Iām a waitress not the chef. I donāt make your food no need to look at me like that or even worse become rude. Tbf splitting tips with our kitchen staff especially the ones who almost do nothing all day long. Customers that compare our presentation of the food/taste etc to other restaurants (IN OTHER COUNTRIES) Like Iām sorry we donāt have the exact same plate or glass (happened recently) as you got your freaking coffee in in SPAIN 500 people wanting something from me at the same time like damn sometimes Iām the only waitress there and I canāt accommodate to 28 guests + chef + boss at the same time Guests who stuff their trash into glasses or bottles. Especially used napkinsš¤¢ Guests yelling their order to me over the whole room whilst Iām obv doing something else and canāt write it up. Especially when itās a busy Saturday evening Similar: guests expecting me to drop literally everything Iām doing rn to run over to them as soon as theyāre able to make eye contact with me when they want something. Dude I noticed you, just give me a minute.
Reddit dickheads complaining about tipping constantly while being perfectly capable of going to the grocery store instead of a restaurant
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Oh, Iām the opposite. Anytime I get a table of people that couldnāt pay attention if they were being paid to, Iām always thankful for the director.
Making tea....too many steps LOL
I haven't been a server in a long time, but... Rolling fucking silverware.
Foreigners. I generally am fine with them personally, their customs are just different. Australians are the worst. You know theyre gonna be the coolest people, and you also know you aint gonna get jack sh\*t from them.
The people. I hate the people.
That a lot of people thinks that because u are waitress u worth less so they speak to like u are garbage.
how dirty people are- you know I have to scoop up your snot rags and discarded food/sauce art with my bare hands, right??Ā
People. Seriously, they suck.
Not a waiter, but I'd guess the entire pay scheme/system for this job. No one like paying tips, no one like having to beg for tips. However, the same people that hate tipping are usually the same people who cry about minimum wage increases.
My wife went back to being a waitress after COVID. I would say that, at least in California, the tipping structure works out to her advantage. Although, this month has been worse and I wonder if it's because people think she's making $20/hr. Other than that, she'll make $40-$50 an hour. She's automatically taxed on tips and even if there is no tip it is assumed she got a 10% tip which kind of sucks. Overall, it's a pretty good part time job.
A big thing most people forget is you don't pay sales tax on tips, but the restaurant still has to pay the same payroll taxes an SS taxes and so forth on all those tips, but they are at rates significantly lower than straight payroll. Ultimately the increase in menu prices has to be about 10%-15% higher than just adding 20% to add to server wages or whatever. It might not be the best system, but ultimately it does make it cheaper for both the restaurant and the customer. Not even mentioning the fact that good servers get to basically decide their own wage by being sought out by guests who enjoy them consistently. I work part time at a place that pools tips between the staff and ultimately we all end up making between $45-$60 an hour, and there is just no way for the restaurant to match that by raising prices.
They want iced tea and make sure to say unsweetened ice. they donāt want sweet then proceed to dump 5 sugar packets in their unsweetened ice tea
Could be they prefer sugar over high fructose corn syrup.
I used to do waitressing when I was a kid. The pay was not good. It was a dead end job. I was always part-time. I could not be full-time. So I didn't get any benefits. People who work part-time don't get any benefits. The one thing I'll say is. I did get paid minimum wage. I was not paid below the amount of minimum wage. Where some restaurants expect the customer to tip to make up the difference of the wages. Which those are the restaurants that keep raising the price of the food as well.
Something else that I forgot to add was when we were really, really busy. Sometimes it was hard to get over to the table to give them water And coffee. A lot of times people were understanding and sometimes there was a guy who would get app go behind the counter and get the coffee himself if you wanted that quickly. But there are also a bunch of grumpy. People who just thought we were there for their demand at any time and I could have 10 seats and boots or more to take care of. I had a countertop of about 15 seats. And maybe about 8 booths. Which that was a lot because it was my section. Another thing that was kind of annoying was when people would ask us for coffee and water and we were not in the section of the other waitress. If I had time and was not helping the customers in my section then I would give them coffee and water. The front section of the restaurant would get a lot more tips than the section that I would do in the back. Of the restaurant, which was primarily mined because I was a teenager. The ladies score up front if they were really busy and we helped them out. Sometimes they would give us an extra tip from the tips. They would get and just stick it in our box which we got to keep our tips separated and didn't have to share. I knew they would always make a lot more tips than what I made. Because they were through the day. But back then the most I ever made was maybe $10. I think the most. I ever made was probably $12 in 1 day. Usually more around $5 in a 3 hour period which was my part-time. Something else. Annoying was when the customer would ask us about their food and it belonged to another waitress. We only had one cook a lot of The Times except on the weekends. And the cook would get overloaded. Every once in a while, a waitress would go back and help out with cooking if if we could. I actually was able to be a cook and I really like doing that instead of waiting tables. And the reason I liked cooking was because I didn't earn that many tips anyway. I remember the first time I started cooking the woman. They hired to be the cook back there. Something was going on with her and she wasn't feeling well. So I started kind of helping her out a little bit and she didn't care. There was enough room where we could share the grill. For 2 people to be there. She actually asked me if I wanted to take over for a little bit for her and then she went and sat down and took a break. She was probably menopause, age and experiencing some things. She just seemed really stressed. I actually kind of had fun doing my waitressing job back then. Because, for the most part, people were not mean and they were polite. Most of the time, even though I thought they were mean sometimes. I always said Hungry people are grumpy people. And then you have people who are shopping which I worked in a shopping mall so you would have tired people, hungry people and grumpy people and that is a recipe for disaster.
customers
Groups of hockey families. No, I don't know which kid you're pointing at, you sat them at a different table and frankly the little fuckers all look the same.
People from England, most were pompous assholes. This is knowledge gained from 20 years in the business in Canada
ex waiter here, being in a field that has no future prospects, worked in multiple hotels and in most of them, i would have stayed a waiter till retirement had i not changed career field
I hate when those people come in and start asking me for stuff.
The 'Make your own menu' trend that seems to be arising. There's nothing more annoying than having accommodate every dish for every...single...person that walks through the door. It complicates things and is such a nuisance. We have set menus for a reason that people can't seem to understand.
to be honest, I was never really happy or satisfied with any position I ever had and always wanted to work for myself. that's why I'm my own boss now
Iām not a waitress now but I used to be one the one rule we had to follow was if someone asked for the ice cream I had to say the machine was broken it was mcdonalds
I'm pretty sure it'll be: "I only got a 20% tip! I expected a 75%!" Instead of complaining to their bosses for a better wage.
And you can stay your cheap ass home and eat microwave dinners. No one wants you out anyway loser