Work in the food sector is never simple. It's more challenging, though, to work in the food industry with clients who are trying to score free meals. The story below is an account of a puzzled server. The Original Poster (OP) is a server at a local restaurant. As we all know by now, working in customer service has its challenges, but nothing could have prepared OP for the day when a family would attempt to score a free meal. The savvy family came up with a sly scheme to divert the attention of…

Memes on the rocks

If you survived working New Year's Eve and then opening New Year's Day brunch... You're stronger than most people.

In my younger years, I worked as a waitress to support myself. My eight-hour shift at the restaurant would be followed by a job working in retail till the early hours of the morning. To be honest, though, I wasn't very good at being a waitress, and I didn't particularly love my work there either. The story below is of a stubborn customer who demands that his server adjust the quantity of the meal before accepting the order. And to make matters worse, the customer refused to leave a tip after th…

As a former server, I can attest to the fact that ninety-nine percent of customers are Karens. However, it's our positive outlook that keeps us sane. Though the evidence may seem to contradict our sense of optimism, we, for some reason, hold onto this notion that one day our table will greet us with a smile and leave us with a fat tip. The story below is an account of a frustrated waiter who has to deal with a table of Karens who won't pay the well-deserving servers. It's one thing when the tab…

Corner!

Despite what you might hear, sometimes being a waiter can actually be fun!

Working at a restaurant is kind of bad for your health. I've seen both front of house and back of house people succumb to alcoholism, drug addiction, burnout and dark depression. I've experienced some of these ails as well. Unfortunately, working a high-paced and high-stress job kind of goes along with those pitfalls. But for all the glaring problems with restaurant work , the industry can help people develop much-needed empathy and compassion. Servers, bartenders, and even broke line cooks are…

Servers are going to another dimension when they walk from your table to the kitchen…

Imagine if Karen was your boss.