Let me start by saying, I understand it is frustrating when a person goes out to eat and their meal doesn’t go as planned.  With that being said, people clearly have NO idea what goes on in a restaurant behind that “corner” you always hear us servers yelling about.

There are at least 8 servers trying to get drinks, plates, bread, salads, appetizers, dinners, A1 sauce, extra this and extra that.  Seems simple right?  It is and it isn’t:

•   You go to put ice in your drink… there’s no ice.
• You go to get lids for a kids cup… there’s no lids.
• You go to get bread… but not only are the premade butter balls out, there are no knives to stab your break, no cups to put butter in, no butter scoop… no butter.
• Then, you finally have all that and you see your table’s salads come up, but there’s no extra sides of ranch with them… commence to wait another minute until the kitchen guys get around to it.

When all this is done you realize you just got double sat, bam 10 more people to take care of.  Table 69 is complaining about their food being cold, 68 needs refills on their drinks and A1 sauce, 67 needs to be bussed, and 65 and 66 are slab full.  Shit.  This is what we like to call “the weeds.”  When a server magically pulls ALL of this off, there is food that needs to be ran, managers that need to be talked to and checks to cash out.

I know this is not the customer’s problem, per say, but we are people.  Yes, I know!  We have kids to feed, tuition to pay for, clothes to buy, rent to pay, cars to get fixed, and gas to pump into our car too.  If a server bends over backwards to make YOU happy, you should appreciate that and compensate your server on a job well done.  After all, when you do good at work, you need recognition right?  Your tip is our recognition.

Do I think I always deserve a 30% tip, NO.  I really don’t.  Sometimes, I cant force a smile, I just have to do my job and truck along.  And in those hours or on those days, I am willing to accept a smaller tip, because I don’t feel like I owe the world a smile.  I am good at my job, I work my ass off, but if customers have been giving me a hard time all day, I cant force happy.  I can only force out a decent last 3 hours of busting my ass for an entire weekend.  I will help my coworkers clean up, we will all gripe about the day, and sigh when it is finally over.

Now, I know every server has days like this.  I know because tonight when I was leaving work I saw another chick walking in looking JUST like me.  Chafed, sore, and wore the fuck out.