by Julie Hartnett

Created on: November 26, 2008

Your waitress is your connection to the kitchen. Remember this. She deals with cranky, bitchy people all day long. This is due in part because we all get a bit fussy when our tummy's are empty. So, your nice waitress comes to the table, greets you and askswhat you'd like to drink. After many years waitressing in a chainn restaurant, I feel it is my duty to share some inside information with you.

1) Most chain restaurants will employ "secret shoppers". They look like everyone else so when you are bombarded by a server who tries to up-sell, (flavor in your soft drink, bacon on your burger), please understand, they're only doing their job. And it doesn't end with the up-sell:you must greet the table within 15 seconds, take a drink order within 30 and take the food order within three minutes. In a lunch or dinner rush with 8 tables that seat four people, it should be an Olympic event.

2) If you have been "secret shopped" and received a poor rating, you're given a warning. Twice, you will receive a formal write up and the third time, you will be fired.

3) The kitchen staff hate your server. That's right, your unsuspecting server faces the wrath of Mr. Chef-Supreme who never reached the status of Michelin Star rating. Your server has most likely put the order in correctly but customer fussy-pants asked for well-done and there's still a hint of pink. This has caused extra work for the kitchen and they want to blame someone so it might as well be your server.

4) Tips: you may ask yourself why anyone would become a waitress if the money is bad. Almost everyone I worked with was going to school or trying to make ends meet with a second job. Waitressing provides flexibility. If you're not prepared to tip the customary 15%, eat at home. Servers make minimum wage at the average restaurant. If your bill comes to $100, know that your server is taxed on that amount. When I waitressed, it was 8%. That means I just paid $8.00 to be your waitress. If the service was terrible, by all means don't tip. If the food was bad, don't make your waitress suffer.

In my years as a waitress I was called a bitch, a cow and someone actually spat at me. If you knew me, you'd I did nothing to provoke this behavior. Sometimes people are nasty because they can be. I was called a bitch because I charged a woman for a refill. A cow because the high-school kid I served was showing off for his friends, I am a svelte size 10 for the record. And the mean man who spat at me? Well, he was a plus sized man having a bad day and I brought him fruit salad instead of chili-fries. It was my mistake but that wasn't a good reason to spit at me. I know other waitresses who have suffered much worse than I. Maybe good old-fashioned manners, not something your server experiences, would not go astray.

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