The Good, Bad and Ugly -- A Waiter's Perspective
© Paul Paz
Waiters World
(This article was originally written in response to a survey by Nation's Restaurant News.)

THE GOOD

I will celebrate my twenty-one year anniversary in my career of choice as a Professional Waiter on May 5, 2001.  The opportunities afforded to me in this capacity have truly been limitless, continue to expand, and certainly available to any of my peers.  As an entrepreneur and businessman I know that I have personally served over 231,000 wonderful guests and generated about $3.2 MILLION of sales for my employers during my wonderful career.  The result is a generous economic opportunity that has allowed me to raise my three children as a single parent, sustain a successful household, and expand my entrepreneurial scope based on my daily professional experiences.  Two of my three children are currently waiters or bartenders.  75% of my immediate family add to the current success of the hospitality industry.  I do indeed have the best job ever (quoting from your 4/16/01 article) "to earn more money by working fewer hours".  I am maximizing what the foodservice industry has always made available to its workforce for years: OPPORTUNITY!

THE BAD

Perhaps the biggest professional challenge facing waiters is the routinely deliberate and mean-spirited behavior aimed at them by the industry itself.  I am confident that the most difficult one-to-one engagement for waiters during each shift (day after day) will not be with their customer.  Rather it will be in-house individuals the waiter relies upon the most to execute the action needed to meet the guest's needs.  As an example: when the guest wants a product served a certain way the waiter says, "My pleasure to do that for you".  Yet the waiter knows full well that they may have to face a hostile cook, chef, bartender, supervisor, manager, or owner who will either demand an explanation from the waiter why the customer wants it that way (essentially make the waiter beg) or just flat refuse the customer's reasonable request.

The goal of service to the customer too many times is lost as a result of waiters being treated like "servants" by their professional associates.  In all these years I have never understood why so many of my colleagues, who I completely rely upon to please our customer, get a charge out of making the waiter's job so emotionally, psychologically, and physically stressful.  In my entire lifetime of employment this is the only industry where I have routinely seen otherwise normal people hit a point during a shift where they break down in hysterical tears and/or emotional fury.  And it is usually caused not by a customer but by a co-worker. 

The book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, by Anthony Bourdain, is both raved and scathed by industry professionals.  The rave comes from those that relate to the book as the result of real professional experiences.  The scathe comes from those who don't want the sinister side of the industry made public.  The bad is that so many experienced hospitality members can relate to the dark side and laugh off (comic relief perhaps) the reality of the continuously demeaning conduct between co-workers. 

The sad part is that everyone (the cook, chef, bartender, supervisor, manager, owner and waiter) will blame the customer for the entire situation.  And all because the customer, our guest, made a request for service.  The tragedy is that, even though there are great careers and meaningful incomes to be earned, most folks leave because of the lack of personal and professional respect within the industry.

THE UGLY

Tip Credit: It is very difficult to go before Prostart students trying to sell them on our industry's concept that as an employee improves their ability and productivity for their employer that the wage paid directly by that employer will be reduced.  Work hard, add to the financial success of the operation, and you'll be paid less.  It goes against the traditional American concept of business capitalism.  This negative perception is exaggerated further as we boast of the national dimensions of real financial growth, political clout, and employment base our industry enjoys.

THE FUTURE

I will continue my favorite professional activity: waiting on all those fantastic guests that I serve six shifts a week.  I hope to place even more of my energy into offering services to the industry and public that improve the image of my profession.  And provide more tools to raise the personal, professional, and financial success of professional waiters.  Instead of shouting from my soapbox about all the ills of our industry I prefer to brag about the OPPORTUNITIES.  Our industry is still one of the few in America that offers access to unlimited opportunity as an employee or as an owner!  It's a choice and the industry growth speaks for itself.

To participate in the Nations Restaurant News online survey click here. 

(Paul Paz is a Dinersoft advisor and writes a monthly column for Servers here.  He also runs Waiters World, a website devoted to waiters.)