It's a physically and emotionally demanding job that consists of long hours carrying heavy things, constantly standing and moving, dealing with a lot of people who frankly stink with a smile, and making everyone assume that their work is worth it. The servers have a hard job, not as hard as being the spokesperson for Ryan Lochte, but it's still quite difficult. The restaurant industry is fraught with challenges that most people don't know about until they hit the ground during their first rush hour for dinner. To get some retrospective-based wisdom, we spoke to a guy who has been a waiter in high-end restaurants for the past eight years and who has worked in restaurants for the past 15 to hear what he wishes he had known when his career began.
We didn't name him because he said his boss would prefer him to remain anonymous; you'll see why after reading what he has to say. The restaurant where I work now is smaller. Actually, we only have seats for about 30 to 40 people. Quite frankly, our servers have it easy.
They don't have to do as much side work as I had to do in the past in other restaurants. I was fired about two years ago and I wanted to get down to something quick. I found another job in the field I was in before, but I continued to serve and have been there ever since. To say that serving isn't a real job means implying that serving tables is so easy or useless that it doesn't equal a place in your employment spectrum.
As a waiter for many years in the restaurant business, I've put together a very real list of reasons why serving is, in fact, a real job. A job is a job, whether you're trying to develop technology to improve the planet or you're serving a hot plate of food to a hungry paying customer.
