If you have ever thought about waiting tables and just aren’t sure if you can pull it off then let me just say that waiting tables isn’t for everyone. In fact, I have worked with some extremely shitty servers. If you can do 15 things at once, have lots of patience, and don’t mind working in an environment filled with profanity and poop jokes then you might be up for the challenge. Heck, you might even make a lot of money doing it.
To give you some insight into my day, I have broken down exactly how I spend my time at work.
15% explaining cooking temperatures
2% taking food back to the kitchen because people failed to listen to me when I explained cooking temperatures
5% answering menu related questions like “what is your favorite thing on the menu?’
3% taking orders after people say “that doesn’t sound like something I would like… I’ll have…”
5% avoiding answering personal questions by making up complete fabrications that require no additional explanations (I will teach you how to do this someday, I promise)
5% having genuine conversations with guests who are polite and friendly
10% running back and forth to get things because people are not considerate enough to ask for everything at once – including bringing refills to guests who changed their mind about wanting a refill, even though I asked them when they only had half of a swallow left
5% doing menial side work or rolling silverware
5% sexually harassing my managers – including the female ones
5% gossiping about co-workers
15% doing other people’s jobs
10% making sure my tables aren’t in need of anything
15% completely goofing off – turning everything into a joke about my vagina – making fun of my co-workers – making fun of guests with insane hairstyles or no sense of fashion – thinking of things to blog about
Awesome blog, I was looking around for more info about what’s the job like and this is pretty helpful and dreadful at the same time, haha. I’ve been in sales for 7 years and have similar stories, the only reason why I had such patience was the money was good too. Anyways, I wanted to ask you for some quick advice. I’m in Vegas now too but have no restaurant experience at all. Was planning to start as a bus person and/or bar porter for graveyard shifts since I have school during the daytime. Would some classes at the Culinary Training Academy in Vegas be of any help landing a job at a casino restaurant? If not, what are other options? I landed a nonfood position at one of the more upscale casinos so I figured I’d have a better chance of transfering if I have some “class experience” to offset no food experience. Any info would be greatly appreciated, thanks.