Food Service industry is just abusive, period!
Like many people, and I gather most people who read/post on these boards, I worked for period of time in restaurants and catering. It’s just not good business for employees and it never will be. Please, if you can GET OUT!!!
You can bitch on here all you want, but in the end, nothing will change. I gather the basic premise of this site is that a business exposed on here will change as result of being exposed, and if they don’t? No customers? No staff? Can you really believe that?
You can turn to the goverment for help, but in general most state’s labor and health departments are too overworked to be of much use. Yes, what a lot of companies do is illegal, but they do it, and they are not gonna stop doing it. Plus, the money they save is greater than any potential penalty, so it’s actually good business for them to keep doing it.
You could also sue privately but class action lawsuits make money for the lawyers not the clients.
Here’s a few things I detested about restaurants:
Schedules: Most restaurants I work for thought nothing of last minute scheduling changes, basically rendering any planning about one’s private life moot. And, they brooked no interference on this…. You won’t be "flexible" You’re gone!
Level of discourse: Yes, from customers, but sadly they weren’t the worst. The way I have been spoken to by management and owners is simply beyond belief. I’ve seen this time and time again. In virtually no other human relationship is this tolerated.
Pretentiousness: Where to begin with this one! Customers, owners, managers, chefs, co-workers. I don’t care who the fuck you are, it’s just food you dumb shit. And, yes this goes for Thomas Keller too. Why do waiters say it ‘tastes like chicken’? Because that’s what the customers understand. Where do these people get the ideas they have of themselves, and is death a sufficient punishment?
Folks work in this business not because they are service oriented, but because they need money. Waiting tables is one of the few decently paying unskilled jobs, and let’s face it is unskilled. You can pretty much learn everything in less than a week.
I wish you all the best.
Comments
The service industry is not an easy profession in fact it’s an extremely difficult profession, but it is an unskilled profession. There’s a different between a skill, like say surgery and something being difficult. I’m sure digging ditches for instance is difficult.
The only thing that is universally wrong with the profession is: People like you.
Schedules; it’s a customer driven business.
We are here for them, they are not here for us.
Customer’s have last minute requests, requiring last minute schedule changes.
Weak-sucks that can’t handle it and bail require sudden schedule changes.
Can’t argue about the discourse, except to say it is not universal.
Not every employer or employee speaks rudely.
Maybe you worked for an a$$hole, or maybe you are the a$$hole.
“it’s just food”.
Well there you go.
You ARE the a$$hole.
If it’s just food to you, you were wise to get out.
To sum up: YOU are what’s wrong with the industry.
Young, know nothings who have all of the answers, but who can’t keep up with everyone else.
Grow a sack, man up, or go away sniveling, I really don’t care.
I’ve got people to feed.
I did read it. I’m pretty sure that was all fabricated, you live in your own world, why don’t you just stay there. By the way, it seems another universal truth is that all the people who read your “true life accounts” think your an asshole. Good luck I hope your mom doesn’t kick you out of her basement.
I know waiting on tables can be tough…especially in a bad work environment.
The thing is is…when I first came to New York lo those many years ago I got very lucky my first time out. I like thinking I have some talent and smarts. I was in the right place at the right time and as a 21 year old young man i scored a job many years ahead of me. My starting salary (a little over 40 grand) seemed like millions) and I thought i was off to a good future.
I worked my ass off. For my first six years as a professional adult i averaged 60 and 70 hour work weeks (keeping in mind as i was on salary i would only get paid for 40). Increases in my salary became harder and harder to come by and I experienced several years worth of looniness at the hands of dumb assed bosses.
What looks good to a 21 year old man is not nearly enough for a 31 year old man to survive on. I was always getting my electricity and phone shut off…i was always late with my rent, I couldn’t afford furniture or cable television and when my last “professional” job went away “due to the recession” I had no other choice but to wait on tabes or become homeless.
Initially my intent was to work as hard as i could, get my finances under control and keep trying to find a job in my field.
About a year into my becoming a waiter i realized that not only had i managed to get caught up on back rent and bills…i found myself getting ahead. I was able to afford a better apartment, I was able to afford to furnish it and i was able to afford extras I denied myself all those years i was busting my ass working 60 and 70 hour work weeks. Working a respectable office job kepot me in pay less shoes and 99 dollar glasses. Now i wear prada and gucci.
A few months ago I was offered a job…in my field. A friend of mine heard of the job opening and reffered me.I didn’t really know what to think but i went to the interview anyway~never pass up a chance~and during my interview I discovered that i wouldn’t be working one position. Due to downsizing i would have to handle the responsibilities of several different jobs meshed together. I was told I would have to work lots of unpaid overtime, there were no real benefits and the salary i was offered amounted to less than what I make on a good friday and saturday night. My friend was actually pissed at me…stating if I knew what I was doing with my life.
He himself exists in a state of perpetual lateness…late on his rent, late on his bills, no money left over to save, no health or dental…why is he feeling so bad for me?
I have got a million restaurant horror stories…but the bottom line is as a waiter i manage to take home about 40 dollars an hour and I work about 30 hours a week.
do the math.
I am not giving this up for anything.
How is being a server an unskilled profession? That makes absolutely no sense to me. Being a server for a little over two years, I see that there is a huge difference between the veterans and the people that came in “just a week” before. I can outsell any chump that comes in wanting to make a quick buck, because I’m not a order taker, I’m a salesman, and that takes time and practice.
And how long was this “period of time” that you worked in the service industry? It sounds like you were the type that couldn’t handle it, or you just weren’t making as much money as the rest of us who are good at what we do.
I take pride in giving great service, it sets me apart from people like you who don’t see the value in providing a dining experience, rather than just setting food down and refilling waters.
Service is a profession, and you can’t “learn it all in a week”. Perhaps you hated it so much because you just couldn’t pick it up. Don’t feel bad, it’s not for everyone. Good luck with whatever high expertise, important work you are doing now.