Mother's day marathon

So for the last week the restaurant has been prepping and scheduling as many people as possible for Sunday, Mothers Day. It's one of the busiest time of the year for the restaurant business. So I usually don't work on Sundays. It's my only day off during the weekends. I agreed to work a Double, roughly a 12 hour shift of on my feet all day, with Maybe a 15 minute break to eat. Our managers had me all pumped up to make a load of money! I was all ready to go! I brought my own food, ate a good breakfast, had my coffee and took all my vitamins to have energy for the whole day. Aaaaaand...not that busy. I expected to be busy from 12 noon to 9pm. Not so much. AT ALL. 

I had a good section. People were tipping well, I even had little inserts for the bill books that said happy mothers day with little drawings on it. Had we been busier, I would have broke $200 in tips. Easy. We had 12 servers on! Thats factor number one. Too many servers with not so many customers. Then we had large parties, which unfortunately if it is a party over 8, we have to have two servers do now, and split the tip. At the end, it's normally not worth working a party with another server. If the bill is $200 and they leave a $30 tip, not that much to split. It sucks.  So I refused to do parties. Yea it's money, but sometimes the money is not worth the stress with customers you get. They like to run you around constantly, asking for one thing, sending you off to get it, then when you bring it, ooops! They need something else! I've had a lot of people do that to me at least 4 times in one sitting. It gets irritating, specially if you have 3 other tables doing the same shit all at once.

Anyways, I was severely dissapointed in the Mothers Day Marathon of work. Because it was so beautiful outside all day, I lost out on money. Oh well, I at least did make more money than I had previously to working that day. So there's that. 

A good day...

Well, it was one of those days that I actually had the energy and good humor to take on my job. I was happy to get sat left and right, knowing it would just mean more money for me. While other servers were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, I was moving at a consistent rate and didn't feel flustered. Everyone was tipping well, so that was good.

It would have been a perfect night had my very last table not been a terrible tipper. If you cant afford to go out and eat to your hearts content AND leave a good tip, just don't come out. Go to McDonalds, really. They spent $56 getting what they wanted, took forever to leave after I had been told I was cut (means you don't have to take anymore tables and can begin cleaning up to go) and left a mess by their two little hellions. *sighs* but because I had a good night for the majority, It really doesn't piss me off that much. Made good money, guess that's all that matters. 

8 years and counting...

So I'm going on 8 years of having to be a waitress at numerous restaurants. I used to believe it was a respectable job, part of me still does. However, there's nothing respectable about it when you come across those people who can ruin your whole day, not to mention your whole tip. You get berated, yelled at, demeaned, run ragged by needy people and often, you feel powerless. You can't just tell a customer off when they are in the wrong. You have to suck it up and pucker up. It's not the greatest feeling.

Amazingly, I have learned that A L O T of people do not realize what the majority of servers make nowadays. Hence, they do not always tip properly. It's customary to tip 15% if your server did an O.K. job. 20% if they just blew you away with customer server, not one mistake in your orders and a friendly person. These percentages are vital, because as of right now, as a server, I only make $2.13 an hr. That's it. I don't make any more than that unless they are through the tips the customers give me. The customer is the one that determines how much I make on a daily basis. Not all of them are fair.  

So of course, when I get screwed on a large bill, I tend to get upset. It makes me wonder why I should even give my next table the best service I can. Because now I'm afraid to put all that effort in, only to be rewarded with a lousy $5 tip on a $60 check. The worse part about that tip is that the customer goes on and on about 'You were great! Excellent service!'. Apparently not that excellent. And the stupid thing about this is, at our place, the tip percentages are PRINTED out at the bottom of the check for you!!! But yet, they still leave below the percentage. It's really frustrating. I don't know how people can live their whole lives being servers. It stresses your mind and body out until you become all worn out. And it shows.