How hard is it to adjust to being a waitress?

Question

I've heard some interesting stories. lol

Answer 1

I  did waitressing for 15 years, in restaurants and bars and nightclubs, ...I don't do it now... but I used to. It is not hard to adjust to, but I must point out that you must be friendly and happy...all the time ( despite what might be going through your head)....whilst serving customers.

Also, be prepared to put up with indecisive customers, rude customers and people who are just downright fussy.

The customer is always right ( something I do not always agree with), but in waitressing, it is almost a law. Just be happy, smile, be polite.....and always be willing to help, regardless of the situation, even if you know the customer is being a jerk.

One thing though, if anyone tries touching you or makes advances on you, DO NOT put up with it. Get rid of them, or get your manager. ( I speak from experience).

Basically, just be yourself, know your menu, interact with the customers, and always be aware of those customers that might need a bit of extra help or attention....stay smiling, positive and make sure you know your menu inside out....you never know what a customer might ask you....

Also,  wear comfortable shoes, I used to do 15 hour shifts straight, with no break, my shoes nearly crippled me. Make sure you got comfy shoes.

Another thing, don't take any c**p from the chefs.....stand your ground if you are asking about a food order...if they give you attitude get your manager.

And finally, don't let any customer put you down.....just because you are waitressing does not mean that you cannot do anything else, don't let ANYONE make you feel like less of a person.

Answer 2

not hard as long as ur a people person.

Answer 3

I would imagine that it would not be hard at all.

You would just need to be outgoing and friendly.  

If you're more shy or timid, you would have to work on getting out of your shell to better interact with people.

Answer 4

can you multitask? smile when people are so rude that you want to cry? laugh at how ridiculous some questions are like "do you have water here?"  then you can wait tables.  high stress situation, but the days go quickly!

Answer 5

You either can serve or you can't serve. You gotta know what's going on. You can't be careless, nor can you make mistakes. Everyone gets pissed off when you s***w up. It's a job that most people can't do, yet most people think they can do. "ah I'll make some good cash as a server this summer, it'll be awesome..."

"**** this is h**l...I make 6.25 an hour and on my good days I get $30 tips!! My god..."

most servers ^^^ You won't make good cash unless you have good experience, some skills and you work your way up to the good shifts wherever you're working. The restaurant business is a tough scene.

Answer 6

I waited tables at a reasonably upscale restaurant for 6 months and it was hands down the hardest job I ever had. Seriously, I hated it. Mostly because most people you wait on treat you like dirt. If you work in a fairly popular/busy restaurant it can be overwhelming to wait on 4-5 tables (a typical section) at a time. If more than one table gets seated at the same time, someone is likely to get mad because clearly you can't get to both tables at the same time. I really can't explain as well as I'd like, but it was such a hard job, and you make very little money. You work entirely for tips, and after you tip out everyone that isn't as much as you would think. The worst part was that even when you were scheduled to work, if it wasn't that busy you would be sent home, and there was absolutely no consistency to what you made every week. On a good week I'd work 4 days all double shifts (lunch and dinner, so you get in at 10am and leave around midnight, 1am on a weekend) and if I was lucky I'd take home $150 a night, on average I made about $350 a week, and would work well over 40 hours.

Answer 7

Well, I waited tables all throughout high school and college and then waited tables for almost two years after I graduated college and yes, it can be demanding work especially on your feet roughly 14-15 hours a day, and the other posts who said they waitressed hit the nail on he head with most of the things, I am originally from Louisiana but moved to Alabama for high school due to some issues but the pay for a waiter(tress) no matter what hours or anything you worked the protected by law pay was 2.20 an hour plus tips, you of course could get paid more depending on where you worked but 9 out of 10 restaurants only paid maybe 25 cents more or so a normal section was 6-7 tables on a good night, and you tip out to your bartender (if you have one in the restaurant) and you tip out to your busboy, and you do have to claim some of the tips that you get from credit card sales, but normally by the time you tip out and such you arent left with much in the way of money, I went to college in Louisiana and the pay was significantly better at 5.00 and hour plus tips but even so I waited tables for a restaurant and then worked for a catering company on my days off, and you do have to deal with indecisive, rude, inconsiderate people but normally there aren't too many of those. As far as interesting stories, in high school I lived in Gulf Shores, AL, and it is the beach town in Alabama so the snowbirds (old retired yankees from Michigan and those areas come down to winter in the South) come and sit down in my section on my first day on the job, water is free in most southern restaurants so he asked for water and then 2 minutes later he asks for lemon juice or lemon wedges (one of the two) and put that in his water then took sweet and low packets from the table and stirred it in and made lemonade at his table so he would not have to pay for a drink. The table consisted of him and 4 other people the bill came out to roughly 70-80 dollars and they were all very rude and he left me a 2 dollar tip. But to make a long story short, the restaurant business is fun, you just have to work really hard. Good luck!!!

Answer 8

Being a waitress would be a hard job to me.  Having to listen to crabby customers who don't like the food coming from the kitchen and taking it out on you.....having people make substitutions to the menu even though the menu says no substitutions.....working your butt off to try and make people happy and then having them leave you a small tip or no tip at all.....it would not be my type of job.  I always try to treat my waiter or waitress with respect and be pleasant.  If I get the same in return, I usually always leave 18 to 20%.