How to Keep Good Servers

1.  Pay Enough!   And that doesn't have to mean anything except PAY MINIMUM WAGE, DAMMIT!   Minimum wage plus tips is pretty decent.  That $2 an hour deal plus tips is ridiculous.  Ideally, pay more--if not in wage, then in benefits.

2. When you have a server who is really good, give them the really good shifts, and reward them in as many ways as possible.  THIS IS CALLED RETENTION. Gawd, it's amazing how many of these moron managers will keep the 'hotties' but will shaft the really good (but maybe not as cute? not as busty?) servers.  If you don't treat the good ones right, you won't have the good ones for long.

3. Lay off the substance abuse.   A minimum of 60% of the owners and managers I've worked with since the early 80's have been high or tanked.  How can you make decent decisions when your brain is fried, I ask you?

4. Back the server up when the server is right--whether you have to back them up to the kitchen or the customer.   Wanna keep them?  Back them up.  If you spend an hour screaming at a server because he or she DARED to make a substitution on the menu, and then next time, when they dare to NOT make a substitution and the customer bitches about it, please have a backbone and tell the customer that you instituted that rule.  YOU can kowtow to the customer if you want, don't use the server as a scapegoat.

5. Don't give in to every customer.....establish what your restaurant is willing to do, and do your best with that.  It isn't necessary to be all things to all people, and it's impossible anyway. If you don't want to do substitutions, if you don't want to take reservations, then don't.  Do what you do best, and you'll get a following.  Try to be all things to all people as some sort of haphazard way to keep/retain customers, and you'll only breed chaos and frustrate the hell out of your staff.

6. Understand that labor laws do apply to restaurants. Really. They do. Restaurants are not exempt.  Just because you get away with not paying the full minimum wage doesn't mean you can disregard the other rules, too.  Understand the rules, post them, abide by them.

7. When your staff is sick or injured they shouldn't be in the restaurant.  Understaffed because of that?  Get your fat ass off the barstool and away from that buxom bleach blond, and bust out the bus tray and towel.  Be there for your staff, and they WILL be there for you.  I've had both kinds of managers and owners:  I've been told that (after getting 3rd degree burns from boiling water thrown by cooks during 'horseplay' in the kitchen) I'd lose my job if I didn't complete my shift, injury or no injury, and I've also had a manager pitch in and take tables when we were down two servers -- and she then gave the tips to the servers instead of keeping them for herself. Where did I work the longest?  Shouldn't be a tough guess.  And aside from the server's discomfort when ill or injured.....do you REALLY think that customers want their food brought out by people who sound like they have galloping consumption?  I think not!

--Submitted by Jen
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