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They have been called waitress, waiter, server, Flo, food jockey, honey, babe, sugar and countless other names describing their appearance, occupation or personality. Regardless of what they are called, they are professional food servers. While most servers choose their job to finance their way on to bigger and better things, some service professionals are in it for the long haul because of their love of food, attention to detail and human contact.

The service professional deserves respect, as does any other professional and in most cases is all they ask in return for their hard work in the form of proper tips and respectful behavior. There are talented service individuals that handle a busy evening well and with grace and there are some who get "in the weeds" and don't always provide the best service to their guests. They should be compensated appropriately for their service whether excellent or fair. Their paychecks are generally non-existent after their tips are claimed. Most make $2.13 per hour and their livelihood depends on their tips. A proper tip for an outstanding server, who was intent on making sure your dining experience was enjoyable, but not overbearing is 20-30%. A tip for average service, good, attentive but possibly problematic in small areas such as timing or a forgotten soft drink should range between 15-20%.

Keep in mind when entering a full service restaurant, the server is not the only employee of the establishment. Delays in food delivery to the table might not be because the server is running slowly and not giving their customers good service. It could be the kitchen causing the problem. While there is no explaining to a hungry stomach why it is taking so long, think about the Chef making the 5-6 figure salary and the dishwasher making a guaranteed minimum wage and higher and then the server, dependent on your generosity and evaluation to make their living.

There are servers out there who just don't belong in the restaurant world and even the best of the best have a bad night. It is better to speak to a manager about the poor service than voice opinions and complain to the source of a bad dining experience. The manager will most likely listen and react appropriately by offering a discount on the meal or offering a free dessert to help rectify the problem. From then on, it is the manager's responsibility to handle the server leaving the customer free from further unpleasant confrontation. The more complaints a manager receives on a below par server, the more likely it is the server in question will be reprimanded or dismissed, therefore clearing a path for the more deserving service professional to serve the customers' needs next time. Remember, a true service professional worthy of the title would never intentionally do anything to a customer's food. While it has probably happened somewhere, at sometime, servers are more interested in making their customers happy and correcting the wrongs to increase their tips than causing more grief by defiling the food order.

It would be hard, under normal circumstances to offend a server who is there to greet their guests, seat them comfortably, take their order and serve their food and beverages. Provided the customers are pleasant and humanely respectful to the server and follow complaint protocol by speaking with management instead of confronting the server, the dining experience should be as relaxingly rewarding for the customer as it is monetarily rewarding for the server.

Learn more about this author, Rae Harp.
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