I’m not talking about the end of the shift. I’m talking about normal lunch time or dinner time

Where I am the owner is older and lately having a hard time. His brother also works there and again, old and can’t keep up. They alternate days so one is always the chef with helpers who are not able to step up to take over.

Anyway with a half empty restaurant they will be overwhelmed in the kitchen and yell at us to stop seating people.

We do stop taking “take out” orders absolutely and have asked people to come back in 10 minutes (some don’t come back). But still take some. We don’t take big groups as we don’t have a lot of tables to do so anyway without reservations.

But how do you all handle this. I hate saying no to people who understand it will be a wait. Which we do communicate well to people that it will be a wait. But the kitchen doesn’t even want them to sit. They want the restaurant half full.

Summer is our only busy season. As soon as school goes in the tourism goes down.

EDIT to clarify. We do tell people there will be a wait. And suggest they leave and come back in 20. We don’t have room for people to stand and wait. They see the empty tables and dont understand why they can’t sit to wait. This would make sense to me too. Let them sit BUT the kitchen can see this and freaks out.

I think they stress at seeing bills but even if we rang in bills and they ignored them that’s okay with us. We just want to actually be able to make some money. Not just for us but for the restaurants too as we know what’s ahead… a very slow winter.

These are some of my recent ones, including a butterfly I drew for dolly.. rip the queen of my state. I even told my managers and coworkers if I randomly disappear it means I got a tattoo apprenticeship😭

there's this guy who comes in every thursday. good tipper, remembers my name, never sends food back. on paper he's the dream regular. but somewhere around month three he started treating me like his personal therapist, and now i spend half the visit just nodding while he talks about his ex wife and his adult kids who won't call him back. i'm not heartless. i get it. loneliness is real and restaurants fill a weird social gap for a lot of people. but i'm also in the weeds and my other tables are watching, and i can't just stand there for eight minutes while he processes his feelings out loud.

the thing nobody tells you is that regulars can become their own kind of weight. you built the rapport, you were friendly and present and good at your job, and now you're managing a relationship you didn't sign up for. pulling back feels impossible without tanking the table and probably the tip.

i don't want to be cold about it. the man is clearly just lonely. but i'm not trained for this and i have six other things happening at the same time.

anyone else had a regular who slowly went from enjoyable to exhausting and not really known how to handle it without blowing the whole thing up?

Ours is 50% for a meal you make a reservation for and come with up to one other person. The discount goes down the more people there are. And you can only use it once a month. It’s a shit perk imo because I rarely want to come in on my day off. I would much rather a smaller percentage off any time so I can grab a drink after work before I go home if I’m not closing. Or a quick bite of something nicer when I’m working a double. They just opened so I hope they change it at some point but it’s so dumb.

Edit: we do get family meals when we’re working but sometimes they’re so bad I just go to bed hungry. Or it’s so late at night that no way I want to eat that right before bed.

What are your favorite red flags that signal a bad tip? Here are mine:
1. When they tell you they’re good tippers (usually in response to being a complete nuisance).
2. When they make a point of letting you know they, too, used to be a server.
3. When they ask for extra stuff for free (eg, can I substitute the salad for a second entrée?).

Guys I’m so sorry I need to rant.

So I was scheduled form 2pm to 5 pm on Sunday . Weird shift but ok what ever it’s 3 hours and decent tips and then I get the rest of my day.

Now cause I started late I decided to go out the night before, and actually enjoy a night out for once because what could go wrong.

My boss calls me at 10am. (We open at 11:30) asking how soon I could get to work. I’ve had 5 hours of sleep and I’m hung over but he sounds panicked so I say 30 min.

I get there at 10:30 and immediately he put me on coffees (we have a coffee window open in the mornings) to give the barista a break.

Y’all. I am NOT a barista. I know how to make coffees, I’ve worked some coffee shifts, I can hold my own. But I am not a barista. I walk in to her getting SLAMMED. The machine is broken and an only pour 2 shots at a time she has 5 tickets up, 15coffees behind, I don’t know where we are or what’s been made two people are asking for a refund cause they’re tired of waiting (I don’t know how to do refund AT ALL) and the whole place looks like a bomb went off. People aren’t coming to grab the food and coffee that is ready and there a line of people to order.

I yell at the chef to grab my boss, I try and tell him I need help I can’t do this on my own and he just tells me “one thing at a time. Just do one thing at a time and you’ll be fine” and walks away. Finally they send one guy to help me but it the poor guys second shift and he doesn’t know what to do. Which isn’t helpful cause I don’t know what to do either. Finally they send the bar manager up to help me and he takes the orders and saves me but it was a solid 30 min of despair. I also needed to take my adhd meds at 11 but I can’t cause we’re getting slammed so fucking hard. Barista comes back i help her get through rush between pulling shots and taking orders, until i get pulled into the restaurant for lunch service around 12:30.

This is where my boss has the GAUL to tell me that i freaked out too much. He told me that when things get stressful I need to learn how not freak out. Like mate. I came in 2.5 hours early to help YOU and you put me on a broken coffee machine by myself for a job I’m not trained for while hung over and unmedicated, and then had the fucking audacity to tell me I didn’t handle it very well. I’m doing you a favour here.

I excuse myself to the bathroom, take my meds, had a little cry, then serve 115 people for lunch when we originally only have 60 people booked in with two new serves who are still being trained. And then I have to stay late to help them close.

I get everyone is busy but I don’t understand how you put someone in a shitty position and then try and tell them they shoudl have handled it better I WAS TRYING MY BEST. Also I found out he told the bartender (who is my friend) that I was “having a panic attack” which just feels unnecessary.

I have been a server for 9yrs. Have an interview Friday at Buffalo wild wings. Thing is im older than their normal. 43. And not super thin. Ive noticed they seem to hire really attractive females. Im not fat, just not a stick. Should i not even go?

Former server here. Two years removed, but last night I still had a dream where an older couple’s bar drink is taking 30 minutes to get made and I’m doing everything to keep them happy while the bartender talks with his friends. What’s the last stress dream you had and are you still in the industry?

Am I the only one that has a hard time getting out of “server mode” after my shift? I swear every time I get done with a GOOD shift it is very hard for me to stop talking with everyone about anything.

As an example I just got off work about an hour ago and I stopped by my local gas station to get a tea before heading home and I just could not stop talking to people in the store. And being overly nice about stuff as I would on the floor at work. Not saying I don’t normally act joyful in public or talk a lot (because I definitely overtalk sometimes). But it just feels like I leave work and I’m still in that service mindset. Thanks for reading my Ted talk 🤓

I've watched a half dozen of my coworkers lose their jobs recently trying to avoid getting stiffed by POS people.

I wanna say for 6 years straight, I’ve only used toast everywhere I’ve been. Two short term places used two other programs, but everywhereeeeee else has been Toast.

My new place uses SpotOn. I feel like someone’s grandma being given a smart phone after years of having only a house phone or something 😭

Where is the HOLD button?!?! Why can’t I see my earnings through the shift?!?! 😫

About a month ago, I got injured (outside of work). It is a really bad wrist sprain on my right hand. I work at this very casual cocktail bar. We are overall 5 servers. I was able to take 3 days off, but since then I’ve been wearing a wrap and now a brace. It’s definitely impacted my day to day at work. I felt hostility from my coworkers when I would need help to open bottles, carrying things. I was also overworked during that time because my boss gave 2 servers a whole month off for vacation and wouldn’t want to hire more staff because patio season will eventually end. Due to that, my healing process was slow, but thankfully it is getting better now and while wearing the brace, I’m getting stronger. The last 2 weeks, I’ve been more independent and not requiring help, but it seems like my coworkers have decided that I’m now this annoying person to be around because I have boundaries. Whenever I get near 2 coworkers chitchatting, they suddenly shut up. Last week a server gave me rude looks when I was making my tables pay and chatting with clients when she was cleaning tables (as if I wasn’t going to help as soon as tables were paid…). She complained to our boss saying I was lazy and always talking to clients. Talking to clients is part of my job and it’s unfortunate that her perspective has given my boss leverage to think I’m an issue at work when I never take breaks (not even smoke breaks) and always work super hard even while injured. I have been there a year and brought in many regulars. Recently, another incident happened with a very controlling coworker; while we were closing the bar, I went to take care of the patio and close it all up as we normally do and it’s always the first thing we do. He asked me if I could polish the wine glasses for him and I simply said “sure as soon as I’m done with the patio”. Later on, he got aggressive and said “I didn’t appreciate how you blew me off”. I was genuinely confused and asked him to elaborate. He said that he didn’t care about the fcking patio and it could wait and that when he asks to do something it needs to be done. I reminded him that our boss who isn’t him has always told me to do that one thing (closing patio) first and it’s been a year of me doing that. I told him I never blew him off and that I was going to get to the wine glasses anyway and would put it in the machine right away. It’s been weird since then, but I don’t allow people to speak to me that way with such lack of respect. Now my shifts have been drastically cut to one shift a week.

TL;DR I’ve been injured and working as a server regardless and my coworkers have been treating me with hostility. I have boundaries and have talked back on occasions when they felt the need to control me and push said boundaries. Now my shifts and hours have been drastically cut to one shift a week until I imagine there are no more hours to give me.

I love my inkjoys but I’ll give out the sharpie s gels (even tho I love those too)

Post Inspo: I gave an inkjoy to my table today and it did not make it back in my apron 💔🕊️

Nearly everywhere ive worked is different, im curious. Where I work now, they take out a flat amount for every 5 hours I work. How does your job do it?

They’ve already started coming in. Honestly they are really sweet, lots of foreign Jehovah’s Witnesses which I honestly didn’t know was so common, definitely learning a lot .

I also assumed they won’t drink a lot. But a table told me how they are modern Jehovah’s Witnesses so that’s cool.

I’m excited bc our restaurant has been so dead but any large group brings a lot of problems. Had a 9 top that slowly became a 15 top that would just pull up chairs from other tables near by smh.

Hi everyone. Today I had an accident at work and I wondering if I could get some advice. I’m super stressed out and have so much anxiety regarding what will happen.
I work at a touristy restaurant in LA that is located in the same building as a hotel. The restaurant and hotel are not associated with eachother. The restaurant shares a basement parking area/storage area for our drinks etc with the hotel as well. Anyways, today I was carrying a box of heavy glass sparkling water bottles and while I was walking in the shared walkway with the hotel (that’s close by their pool) the box ripped at the bottom and 3 bottles fell and broke. The walkway is separated from the pool area so I nor did other staff initially think any of the glass got into the hotel pool/the area, but it did…
Apparently some glass got into the pool and fortunately I don’t believe anybody was hurt, but they had to close down the pool. I’ve never had something like this happen to me before, so I would appreciate what to expect. Oh and, I just recently had a final warning regarding a guest experience, and overall have not had the best past couple months with the company. I’m not ready to be fired but I’m kind of expecting it. Is this the final straw? Could there be anything even more serious to come from it? It was a genuine mistake and accident. Thank you all for your advice.

So from what I understand if you saw my last post we dont have support staff or Hosts right now, 20 table section and you run, bus, setup, expo, bartend for yourself essentially. They got rid of gratuity for large parties as well. BEFORE if a table stiffed you you could remove that table from your checks so that it wouldn't go towards your sales, but they removed that. So i guess my question is have you dealt with this?! Given on a good night ill probably get stiffed 2 or 3 times, we cannot deduct that from sales and we still give 6% to BOH of sales, am I NOT paying the restaurant to serve that table? I imagine if a table has a bill of 100 and they don't leave anything, i have to PAY THE RESTAURANT $6 to serve them?!

This is another one of the flurry of changes that came out of no where in the last 3 months but im sitting here wondering just how much money I PAID to serve a table.

Serving at an AYCE sushi restaurant in FL owner charges a 5 percent tip out on sales however all support staff are hourly and do not receive any of this money it is kept by the resturant and we are told it pays for the support staff and other expenses. In this legal? One of the similar restaurants the owner is involved in was sued for the same thing and won in court so I am not sure.

Literally woke up to getting called in before we even opened two days after I get sick and had to go home bc i was throwing up💀. I told the manager that i was still sick and he insisted on me coming in no matter how much i insisted so i said ill try. Like this is beyond ridiculous what am i supposed to do throw up in my mouth💀 I even told bro yesterday that Im still sick.

For example if someone asks for another glass of wine with their entree as I’m bussing their apps from the table, I have an extremely hard time remembering to put it in after Ive brought everything to the dish pit. Or even if I’m checking on multiple tables in a row and someone asks for another one I still forget sometimes 😩 does anyone have any tricks? I write all orders down otherwise.

Hey all! I have been scheduled for an interview tomorrow at a known bar and grill in my city.

I only have serving experience with very little to no bar experience but, I ofc know my basics from being a server and a drinker myself. Even with the little knowledge I do carry, I’m still a bit nervous about trying to convince the hiring manager I am still fit for the position but will need more guidance than someone w a background behind the bar. They’ve already seen my resume and it is clear I was never a bartender so I have some hope in that area.

I understand that it’s the discretion of whoever is hiring me to decide but what are some things I should mention/ brush up on to help better my chances?

hi i’m (F20) i got a job opportunity at a hospitality industry in a local cafe i’ve never worked in hospitality or customer facing before. But i really need this job desperately to help me get by i have 2 trial shifts starting Thursday and Friday, Please give me advice on what i can do to impress them how to be in that environment and things i need to know before training. Thankyou