Something to think about before you go out to eat again...

I work at a restaurant, I serve tables, and most of the time people are generally not very nice to servers. 

I say most of the time because honestly there are really nice people who come into where I work, and I also say not very nice by this I also mean down right mean and awful.

Before I worked in a restaurant, I was nice to people but things I didn't know were like how a restaurant is run?, how much does a server make? when my food takes forever, or I have a problem, etc whose fault is that? Should I complain?

And now that I work in a restaurant, granted I'm not like some of the 20+ year veterans, I know some of the ins and outs. I even think to myself, I thought this was common sense!? When maybe it's really not, I had a close friend ask me about it. And so I figured no question is dumb, and if one person asks how many people are out there that just don't ever ask, therefore they never know...

• When you go out to eat be nice to your server! Treat them like a real person! Ask them how there day was, or was it busy that day? Christians, I know you're going to pray before the meal, ask your server what you can pray for them about! By doing that you are possibly opening the door for more conversations, you can be laying a seed.

• Servers in general make minimum wage for a tipped employee, do you wanna know how much that is? Right now that mean $3.70 and hour. And that means that on our paycheck, most or all of that money is taken for taxes. For real, my paychecks every two weeks are most often $0.00

• So where the heck do they get money from? So unlike many working people who get their money from their paycheck every two weeks Server depend on TIPS, that means how much money you give them. We rely solely on other people(not our boss or company) for our income.

• What should you take into consideration when deciding on the tip? First, the cost of your bill. You should try to at least give 18% but really 20% of the total cost. How long have you been at the restaurant? Because if you've been here talking to you girl friend for the past 4 hours, you seriously need to think about that. how many other tables could I have had in that time? You should give the person more, or maybe think about going to Starbucks to sit and chat.And even if you're out with friends and you didn't get anything but water, or you checks only 1.99  leave a few bucks. My rule of thumb is if I can't tip $5 then I shouldn't be going out to eat. And how did the server do? When your drink was full did they ask if you needed a refill or how busy were they? Were they running their butt off? Just think about it, I'm not trying to say all servers are perfect or to guilt you into tipping above and beyond. But from my experience people don't really think about these things

• What if your food is taking along time? Honestly that most likely not your servers fault! They're not a cook! Ask to speak to a manager if its bad, or ask your server about it. They are most likely aware of what is going on, probably more than the manager on duty. Most places will comp your meal if you complain, or maybe give you free dessert or appetizer. 

• If you have an awesome server, by all means tell the manager! Or how about maybe the whole experience was great, go to the website and leave some feedback! Do you know that most of the feedback we get is negative? Or maybe your didn't like the food, and your server forgot about you(hopefully this never happens!) Don't leave angry, ask to talk with a manager right then, if you leave then go on our website and complain and send it to corporate. That's really not helping anyone, you should really address the problem where and when it happened. 

• Treat your server with respect, we are all human. We all have bad days, the kitchen can screw up, most likely we'll have other people yelling at us, we can't read your mind. Just be nice, that will be more than enough!

Now, just take these as reference! If something is really wrong, by all means say something but if you sat for a minute without your diet coke is it really the end of the world? Just be understanding. Most of all be nice, talk to them like they're your friend or neighbor or cousin. And remember we really depend on you to pay our bills, and to buy groceries, don't leave a crappy tip period...