Words From A Disgruntled Waitress

I'd like to just take a moment and file a few complaints to the general public regarding last nights showdowns at my place of work...



There are two kinds of people that disrespect servers at restaurants: 1) Those that have never worked as a server in a restaurant and 2) Those that have, and were better at their job than you.

Last night at my job we had many large parties (and when I say large I'm referring to parties of 10 or more per single server). Usually I'm great at multitasking, taking orders, timing courses, making the small talk, just giving overall good service to people who are paying a lot of money to expect a service done for them.
However, last night I became frazzled and irate when a few customers complained about the quality of the food and the wait staff. So let me just say a few things, before you complain again at a restaurant:

1) This is a hard job. 12+ hours on yr feet, and not just standing idle, I'm talking running back and forth all day, spinning in circles trying to get the work done. Smiling all the way.
2) Cooking food for an entire restaurant is a hard job. Say you have 10 people at yr table. Okay, so that's ten separate dinners the kitchen has to cook, all timed perfectly, so that every dish is finished at the same time. So the 4 or 5 kitchen chefs start cooking yr food. They're halfway through but it's taking a little longer than expected for everyone to get their dish. Something is cooked wrong, okay cook it again. Someone complains that their food isn't hot enough. Okay send it back. By the time the kitchen finishes the last dish, the people who received their dishes first are 50% finished. A common problem. Sorry about that. We're trying our best. But yr not the only table they're working on. So they're cooking yr food, and everyone else's sitting down around you. Give them a break, they work harder than you for shittier pay than yr cush-cush desk job.
3) We work for yr tips. Of course we're not trying to deliberately sabotage you. In the food service industry, the amount of money made is solely based on the customers evaluation of you, the food, and the atmosphere. That being said, tipping five dollars on a hundred dollar tab is not cool. So yr upset that the dinner was expensive... take it out on the server? Don't think so. We see none of that $100 you spent on the meal. All we get is yr five-spot? Take it back, that's offensive to me, and shows me that you need that five bucks a whole lot more than I do.
4) Unlike you, white-collared desk-jobbed middle-class Americans, we don't receive a salary. Say JinJin works a whole day: 12 hours at 4 dollars an hour. That's 48 for those in the know. Minus taxes... Well... wasn't worth it for JinJin to get out of bed this morning was it? Now we add tips. So JinJin gets a few good tables, yay 20% tip! But then there are those inbreds that tip less than 10% or (ah!) nothing at all. So JinJin makes a couple of hundred in tips after the night is done... or does she(?). JinJin must pool between the other servers, the bartender, the busboys, the food runners. JinJin walks home with a few pennies in her pocket. There's more behind the scenes than what is on yr table, folks. JinJin doesn't get than whole 20 dollars you left, in fact, she gets about 4 dollars.

This is all just food for thought, you are all still free to do what you want, it's yr money. Just remember that there are some hard-working people out there.