Sexual Harassment in the Service Industry

    It’s something we all overlook as servers.  Sexual harassment happens all the time in restaurants yet most of the time nothing is ever done about it.  People are afraid to “snitch” on their co-workers, they don’t want to go through the motions of participating in an investigation, or they don’t want to cause trouble.  Women are especially targeted in the industry, just like in any other workplace, just for being women.  It’s degrading, and it’s wrong, and people need to know how to handle it.

    Perhaps we should first define sexual harassment.   Miriam-Webster defines sexual harassment as:  “uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical behavior of a sexual nature especially by a person in authority toward a subordinate (as an employee or student)“.  This can mean many different things, including lewd sexual jokes and/or comments, unwelcome sexual advances, constant unwanted compliments, even as far as unwelcome touching.  As restaurant employees, these things have become more commonplace, and we tend to ignore the possible implications of our actions.

    Sexual harassment can be described as “anything said or done that has to do with sex that makes an individual feel uncomfortable or afraid.”  That’s the way it was explained to me when I was hired at my first serving job, yet even then, 10 years ago I saw it happen every hour of every day.  It would range from the simplest comments repeated every day, to the guys rubbing all over the women despite the fact that none of them enjoyed it.  I’ve heard guys make comments to ladies about “hooking up” with them in the bathrooms, taking them home and getting them drunk, taking them to the bar and getting them drunk to have their way with them.  The fact that most of us turn a blind eye to things like this is quite disturbing to say the least.

    Women get the brunt of sexual harassment, plain and simple.  They have to put up with “guy talk” everywhere in the building, especially in the kitchen.  Many cooks have a very lewd sense of humor, and often make crass remarks or jokes to women.  Most of it involves commenting on the size of their breasts or butts, or asking them about their skills in the bedroom.  Most of these women put up with it because they don’t want to cause a fuss, but they are almost always very offended by it.  Not only do they have to hear these profane remarks from the people they work with, they usually have to hear them every time they walk into the kitchen because cooks rarely just do their jobs without talking.  Anytime you walk into a restaurant kitchen that is staffed with primarily men, you’re going to hear talk about sex or sexual conquests.  It’s also quite normal to see a cook hitting on a woman, or touching himself while talking to a woman.  It’s unacceptable, and people need to stop turning a blind eye.

    Another thing that could be considered sexual harassment is just seeing things that could be sexual.  Something as innocent as a backrub to one person is something that can make another person feel uncomfortable, which is therefore sexual harassment.  Seeing someone hold hands with someone else, seeing a hug between two friends or two people who flirt, or even seeing a slap on someones butt, they can all offend someone who is sensitive, and they don’t belong in the workplace anyway.  The main thing to remember is this, if someone tells you they are offended, then stop doing whatever it was you were doing.  Sexual harassment is a very serious charge, and can be something that ruins careers.

    Here are some steps you can take if you witness harassment or are the subject of harassment.   First, inform the harasser(s) that they are offending you, and ask them to stop what they’re doing.  If that doesn’t work, inform them that what they’re doing is sexual harassment, and you’ll take it to a higher authority if need be.  Third, go to your management or district manager.  Doing that forces them to investigate your claim, whether they want to or not.  If that doesn’t work, go directly to your company’s human resources department providing you work in a corporate setting.  If you work for a privately owned business/restaurant, or none of the above steps have worked, you are well within your rights to make a complaint to the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).  This is a government agency, and on rare occasions will prosecute your case for you.  Otherwise, they can issue a document to you known as a “right to sue” letter which will allow you to take the case to court with your own lawyer.  No matter what steps are taken, you must make sure to document all instances of harassment.  If it’s something that goes on all the time, keep a journal, even if it’s in a cheap spiral notebook from the Dollar General.

    Everyone has rights.  Don’t let yours be violated just because you don’t want to stand out.  Fight those that are harassing you, make them into pariah’s, take your case to court and win if need be.  You deserve to be happy at your workplace, even if that means fighting for what you believe in.

Sorry for the lapse in posts, everyone, I’ve not felt up to speed the past couple of days. I’m feeling better now, so here’s your weekly feature article.

Special note:  These various types of theft should never be used, and I do not condone the usage of this article for illegal purposes.  These are ways to catch a thief, not ways to be a thief yourself.  Always make the right choice.

Theft in the Service Industry

Theft in the industry is not a new trend, it’s not even a recent one. Theft in restaurants has been going on for years. Some of it is theft of food from the kitchen, some of it’s theft of money by various means. All of it is both illegal and job threatening. Many servers think they can get away with stealing money, either from their guests from their credit cards, or from the restaurant itself, and there are many various ways that it’s been done. In this article, I’ll give you all a bit of insight into some of the different ways people steal from restaurants on both the service and the kitchen sides.

Probably the most common and simple form of restaurant theft has to do with soft drinks. Servers will ring in a ticket at the beginning of their shift, including the guests soft drink. If the guest pays in cash, the server will simply move the soft drink to another check after they’ve paid, and that’s an automatic couple of dollars. They’ll repeat the process on their next table, and the next and the next, until a guest pays with a credit card or until they’ve made enough extra money to satisfy their want of extra money. Servers do it more than people think, and one thing they don’t realize is that other more honest servers do turn them in. Also, anytime something like this is done, the POS of the restaurant builds up an audit report a.k.a., a paper trail. After a month or so of doing this, the server will be busted no matter how careful they are. Sometimes they just get a warning, normally they’re terminated and reported to local authorities. In short, the consequences of this petty theft are usually not worth the amount of money the server gets.

Another very common form of restaurant theft has to do with false comps/voids. The server will take care of a table or tables throughout the night, and they’ll be working with an overly trusting manager. The server goes to the manager after a cash table has paid and left the building, and they’ll tell the manager that the guest didn’t like something on their ticket, and the manager will comp it off the check. The server could also say that the kitchen failed to make some part of the meal, which is a very popular trick when the restaurant has had an extremely busy shift. The server gets away with a lot more money per shift when using this “trick”, especially if the entree or appetizer in question is rather pricey. This one is also very risky, because after the first few comps, managers get suspicious. A comp/void report also comes up in most POS systems at the end of every month or every financial quarter, and the restaurant will get a detailed report on each employee. If an employee has too many comps or voids, they’ll launch an investigation and as above, the employee is normally terminated pending the results of said investigation.

Tip fraud on credit cards is a major problem in the service industry, and is a crime also. Any servers who do this can, will, and should be terminated and arrested. Servers will change the tip on a credit card slip by adding an extra number, or changing the shape of a number on the slip to reflect a new amount. A big one with servers is adding a (1) in front of something to change the amount, which works mainly when the guest doesn’t put a total beneath the tip. This is FRAUD, plain and simple. It is a bad move, and any server who has done this should be investigated for other infractions along with the changing of the tip. There are other servers who get cash on the table, and the guest only signs the bottom of the credit card slip. These servers will write a tip and a total in, thereby nullifying the total that the guest left, being that they tipped in cash. All forms of tip fraud are deplorable, and servers who do this should be ashamed of themselves, no matter the circumstances. Consumers, always check your bank/credit card statements if you’ve been out to eat, and make sure to always keep the receipt from the restaurant if you’ve paid a server directly. This way, you’ve got it on paper if there has been any kind of fraud, and you have grounds for investigation. If you sign the receipt, but don’t put a total in it or take your copy, then it becomes your word against the servers word, which can go either way. Best to write very clearly the total tip, and total WITH tip, and take a copy of it. Servers, just don’t do it.

Stealing tips from another servers table is the lowest form of crassness. Servers are supposed to be a team, and to steal from one of your teammates is to invite disaster. Most servers who do this will blame someone else, either a guest or a busser. They get away with it many times because many people prejudge bussers, especially if they’re of Hispanic descent. This is not something to be proud of, putting a hard working person under scrutiny, making others look at them with distrust. Yes, bussers do occasionally steal tips, but the majority of them are wrongly accused of it, and are used as scapegoats for a dishonest server. Servers who steal from other servers should not only be fired, but should be flogged publicly.

Bartenders are also often experts at thievery. During a busy shift, a bartender can leave with an extra hundred dollars or more if they know what they’re doing. If a bartender knows the prices of draft beers without having to ring them in, and a guest is paying cash, the bartender can pour the drink and get paid without ever even opening the drawer. Draft beer is the easiest target of the thieving bartender because it’s wasted a lot of time anyway, and the cost is up a lot of the time even without a thief employee. Liquor is easy to get away with too. The bartender will short the server’s tickets on the service well, and give away more liquor to their own guests, who tip them more for it, and the bartender in question will just pocket the money when the guest says “keep the change”. It happens all the time, in restaurants across the country. Some bartenders even take the time to make it look like they’re ringing something in for the guest, and will cancel it at the last minute so the drawer never even opens. Another way they do this is to ring in something significantly cheaper than what the guest orders, and cash it out, gaining a couple of dollars per drink. The bartenders who cancel out the orders or void them off after the guest walks off are usually the ones who get caught the quickest, because like with the servers, the POS system prints up an audit report for each cancel and void. They usually don’t get caught until they’ve gotten away with up to a thousand or more dollars, and can be doing it over a period of months depending on the awareness of management.

Kitchen Theft

Many servers and kitchen employees are involved with the theft of raw foods from the freezer/walk in coolers. They usually work in concert with a well placed cook who has been with the restaurant for a lengthy period of time, but they do sometimes work alone. Many of them will study the layout for a few months until they are confident they won’t be caught, and they’ll slip out raw steaks, chicken, hamburgers etc. from the kitchen. It not only costs the company money, it costs other employees their hours. Food cost goes up and has to be paid from somewhere, and it’s usually paid for with labor. The higher the food cost, the lower the pay, the fewer the raises. Food theft hurts all parties involved, both directly and indirectly.

Servers also many times convince the cooks to make their meals for free. Lots of servers eat better than normal people on a nightly basis because they bribe the cooks. They eat everything from the cheapest appetizer to the most expensive steak the restaurant offers. They don’t care about their coworkers getting paid, or getting a bonus. They only care about the bribes they get from the servers. Servers will give a cook drugs, money, or sneak them alcohol just to get some free food that if properly convinced a manager would provide for them.

Servers, cooks, dishwashers and other employees also take other products from the restaurants. Silverware constantly disappears in restaurants, because people take it home as their own. Sometimes it’s an accident, a server will have some rolls of silverware in their apron, but most of the time it’s taken just to take it. People also take home the tumblers, dressings, tea bags, coffee, and other things they want for their homes. All forms of theft are wrong, and should be reported immediately. Better to be known as a “snitch” than be accused of aiding someone in their theft. You’ll still have your job and make your money long after the offending employee or employees are gone.

Soon, I’ll write a second part to this article, involving the ways management uses to steal. I’m going to do a bit more research before I write it however, so that I’m not giving any false information.

Servers and managers, guests and other employees, take note of these various forms of theft. If you notice these things going on in your restaurant, report them. Allowing it to continue is only going to hurt you in the long run, especially if you know and don’t even try to do anything about it. As I’ve said in another post before, most restaurants have an anonymous 800 number along with an open door policy where you can report these things without fear of reprisal, and if there IS any form of reprisal, attorneys can get involved. Don’t let this kind of dishonesty go on in your presence, be the better person. Theft is wrong, it’s illegal, and it should not be allowed to go on.

Mistreatment of Service Support and Kitchen employees

The Front of House Support Staff

    Service support employees are some of the most widely used and abused employees in the restaurant industry.  They range from the Bus boy/girl, the food runners, the expediters, and the drink runners.  These days, they’re not just support anymore, they are basically slaves to uncaring and lazy servers.  They are talked down to, treated like dirt, blamed for everything, and are much more expendable than the servers do to their low wages and poor attitudes.

    Service support used to be just that, support.  Servers could depend on their support persons to help out when they were swamped, either with helping out running a couple of plates to a table, or by clearing the last things from a table so that new guests could be seated.  The way most restaurants operate today, the support staff is forced to clean every table for the servers because they’re too lazy to do it themselves.  They are forced to run every plate of food because the server doesn’t want to actually carry a tray or burn their fingers.   Things need to go back to the way they used to be, where servers and  the support staff worked together to make things happen.

    Bussers and runners generally make minimum wage to 6.50 an hour depending on location.  The primary job of a busser is to clean and wipe down the tables, help carry trash out, and help expedite the process of getting guests seated and fed.  That’s what their job is supposed  to entail.  At most places, the bussers are used unfairly.  They’re doing jobs that they’re not being paid for, and they do it because most servers think they’re better than everyone else.  Old-school bussers were only supposed to clean tables for the servers if there were only glasses and silverware left on the table.  Servers today will bring a busser to the table to have them clean it, then they’ll stand back and watch while it’s done.  They don’t bother with pre-bussing the table and making it easier for the supporter, because that would mean they might get their hands dirty.

    Runners sole job is to run food.  They are always blamed if food comes out incorrectly, even if it’s the servers fault for not putting it into the system correctly.  Servers these days don’t feel the need to visit the kitchen for anything other than to make drinks or ring in an order.  The food runners are yelled at because they are not fast enough, or because they have to go back and get a second tray of food for a large party when nobody would follow them out with the first tray.  Servers try to get them to bus the tables off when it’s clearly not their job, they get the runners to roll silverware because they don’t want to do it themselves sometimes even withholding mandatory tip-out unless they roll silverware.  They get their runner staff to do their sidework, and in some places they get the runners to take out the trash for them.  Runners in most restaurants today are doing the jobs of lazy servers.  The servers who work are the ones you see running around,  the ones who have the support staff doing their jobs are the ones you see standing around watching a t.v., or talking on their phones/texting.

    What people don’t realize is that yes, we do have to share a percentage of our sales in tips with the support staff, and yes they are a valuable asset to our team.  People also don’t realize that even with the support staff, they are not there to do every aspect of our jobs.  I’ve seen servers who send bussers to tables because they don’t want to take the time to pre-bus the table themselves.  I’ve seen servers who will ring in the food and get refills, but not run a single tray of food their entire time working for a restaurant.  I know a couple of servers at my job who in three months have only rolled their own silverware twice.

    Servers need to stop mistreating their support staff.  They need to learn to work together with their support staff to make the shift run smoothly.  The busiest shifts will be dominated by lazy servers who don’t want to take the time to clean their own tables, who will yell at a busser because it took so long to get their table clean, and who will yell at a busser because they’re “costing the servers their money”.  In the time it takes for most servers to hunt down a busser and get them to clean a table, they could have cleaned the table themselves.  If servers would actually pre-bus their own tables and clean their tables themselves, they would make double what they normally do because they would have more tables to seat.  Servers also need to stop blaming the runners for the food getting cold in the window.  It’s their tables food, stop standing around and try to get it out to your table.   Too many times at my job do I walk through the dining room do I see tables upon tables that are dirty, piled high with dishes, and see servers standing watching tv or talking to each other.  It makes me mad, because even with having 2 bussers and one runner assigned to an area, they still can’t get to every table or every tray of food.  These people are here for support only, so let’s stop treating them like slaves.

    Most restaurants, mainly chain restaurants, make their servers tip the support staff a percentage of their sales.  Usually 1% to 3%.  Too many times I hear servers complaining that “They didn’t bus enough of my tables” or “They didn’t run enough food” and my favorite, “Why should I have to tip them out?”.  You have to tip them out because no matter what you think, their job is to make YOUR job easier.  So they didn’t get to clean off every single one of your tables, or you had to run a few trays of food.  That’s part of a servers job.  Some of the people at my job have noticed my constant defense of the support workers, for instance, If I find out one of the cocktails on my staff have a busser roll their silverware for them, I have the server re-roll the silver themselves.

    Service support employees are also people.  That’s something that is hard to understand for a lot of people because most bussers and runners in restaurants are Mexican workers.  They are paid less, speak little to no English, and are willing to work harder than most because they usually aren’t working to support their habit.  They’re working to support their families, and are usually working more than one job.  They also get yelled at, forced to do jobs that aren’t theirs, and are forced to do the dirtiest jobs possible.  They work long hours, longer than most servers or even managers for that matter.  Yes, they get tired, and yes sometimes they can’t do it all, and they shouldn’t be expected to.  Servers need to understand that sometimes they have to do their job, and not expect others to do it for them.  I get so sick and tired of seeing servers who don’t want to do their jobs, and I have to deal with it at my own too.

    Friday night, toward the end of the shift, I walked into the hallway to the kitchen, and I saw that one of our runners who does anything anyone asks of her, including dragging trash cans that are far heavier than she is, rolling up silverware.  I asked her whose it was, and after a few minutes I found out it was another servers.  I confronted this server, and threatened him with a writeup.  At least he wasn’t one of the servers on my staff.  I then started rolling my own silverware, even though I didn’t have to.  I started rolling it to help out my own staff.  When I started, that runner grabbed some of it and started to roll.  I told her she didn’t have to, that I didn’t have enough money to pay her to do it, and that I didn’t mind doing it herself.  She told me that I’m one of the only people there, management included, who shows her any kind of respect, and that she didn’t mind helping me out.  She also talks to me, I’m helping her learn a little bit of English.  I take the time to ask her how she’s doing, how her family is doing, which is something that nobody else bothers to do.  I understand that people are people, and not just things to do a job.  That’s where a lot of servers screw up nowadays, they don’t think that their support staff are people.

Kitchen support staff

    The Dishwasher.  Nobody wants to help the dishwasher, nobody wants to go near the dish machine.  Nobody wants to do such a dirty, low paying job.  There’s no tip-out involved with a dishwashers job, yet they do anything we ask of them.   They generally speak less English than the bussers and runners, but they understand enough of it to know that they’re being disrespected.  I see more servers that don’t bother to even scrape their dishes before they set them on the dish table, that don’t stack the dishes up or stack them so high that they fall over on the dishwasher, or that will sling stuff onto the table so that it either splashes the dishwasher in the face or hits them.

    Can any of you imagine having to wash dishes for a shift?  Can you imagine having to deal with servers constantly yelling at you for glasses and silverware, or cooks yelling at you for plates?  I’ve done the job, which is why I don’t have any problem jumping back there and helping the dishwashers out.  I know how stressful it is in that particular area.  People don’t respect you.  They don’t consider you a person, they consider you another machine to be abused and mistreated.  Yet without the dishwasher, the restaurant just wouldn’t be able to run properly.  They sort the dishes, they clean up our messes, they are sent to clean up the vomit and feces in the bathrooms.  Management doesn’t respect them, management only cares about their dishes being clean and the kitchen being able to put out food.

    Dishwashers also have to take out wagons full of trash to the dumpster.  Nobody helps them out, even when it’s blistering cold or pouring down rain.  They go out, and come back in to do it all over again.  They don’t even get a thanks for the work they do.  Even without thanks, or any sort of recognition, they still do their jobs day in and day out.  Oftentimes they don’t get breaks, they don’t get time to eat, they don’t get a smoke break.  It makes me sick to see how people treat them, and I hope that someday soon, people might change their ways.

    Expediters also get the low end of the stick.  All they have to do is misread a ticket and a server will be in their faces yelling about how they screwed up.  They also don’t get much recognition, many breaks, or time to eat.  Many of them are very skilled, making sure our food comes out as fast as is possible, and presented well.  They make sure we get the right sides with our food, they make sure our steaks are cooked right before they go out, and they are generally our line of communication with the cooks.  Expediters take the heat when things are wrong, they get yelled at from both sides, the servers and the cooks, and they do it without question.  Why?  Because it’s their job.

    Expediters have the unlucky job of trying to get the food out of the window.  Getting a server to run food is sometimes one of the hardest things to do, because if there’s no food runner to help, it becomes the servers job.  Servers seem to scatter when food is ready to be run, or they’ll try to “window shop” for their own tables food and will leave other food to die.  Expediters try their best to get all the food out as fast as possible, but many times they get little or no cooperation from the rest of the staff, yet they still get blamed for things.  I’ve been an expediter as well, and I know how hard the job is.  They get burned before the server does, as they pull the food directly from the window.  They have to re-plate things that have been sitting for too long, and they get yelled at if a kid burns their hand.  Without the expediter, the servers have to set the food up themselves, and more often than not they screw it up.  Then they blame the expo for having to use the toilet or by law, taking a break.

    Servers are not a law unto themselves.  As a server, I see things that most other people overlook.  Most of my coworkers don’t agree with my stance on service support, or kitchen support, because they don’t want to have to do any kind of work for themselves.  Most servers today are utterly lazy.  Until my fellow servers change their ways, I’ll continue to stand firm on my beliefs, because our support staff needs to be treated with respect.  Without them, our jobs would be 10 times as hard as they are now.

    I’ll leave you with this final word:  Treat people with respect if you want to be treated with respect yourself.  This includes servers, managers, cooks, and yes, even the customers.  Everyone has a job to do, let’s not make them do things that aren’t a part of that job.

Ribeye

ADDITION:  NURSES AND DOCTORS WHO READ THIS PLEASE ADD YOUR COMMENTS AND THOUGHTS, ALONG WITH ANY INFORMATION YOU’D LIKE TO GIVE IN THE COMMENT AREA, IT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

Drug Abuse in the Service Industry

Drug abuse in the service industry, or even in the restaurant industry in general is nothing new. For decades, there have been drugs in and out of the pockets of various servers and cooks, bussers and managers. It seems though, based on my recent poll, that abuse in the industry is climbing to new levels. This is also based on restaurants that I have personally worked at in the past few years. Cocaine, Marijuana, Alcohol (yes, alcohol is a drug), and Prescription pain pills and psychoactive drugs are running rampant in our restaurants, and there’s not much that we can do to stop it. Servers and cooks don’t want to be known as the ’snitch’ to their co-workers, so they keep their mouths shut. Managers don’t want to waste corporate money on mandatory drug testing because they’d have to test their entire staff, which is not beneficial to their monthly costs.

What are the various reasons for the drug abuse in the industry? Most of them are pre-existing addictions. People come into the job already addicted to their various drugs, and they are only working to support those different addictions. Others start using drugs or alcohol to ‘fit in’ with their co-workers, unaware that they have embarked on a path of self destruction and/or a tougher working climate. Now I know that saying a couple of these things may offend some of those currently working in the industry and abusing drugs, but the fact is, it’s truth.

If a server or a group of servers go out to a bar after work, and they stay out drinking all night, they are going to come to work the next day hungover. It doesn’t matter how much they claim to drink, and how they claim to never have hangovers, their working performance is usually affected. Others will be picking up the slack whether they like it or not. I can attest to this as it happens at my job, and has happened at other restaurants that I’ve worked at as well. If the bartender of the shift keeps sneaking off to the bathroom to take another line of cocaine, they’re not going to be around to a) take care of their own guests or b) be around to make drinks for the servers on the floor that rely on the bartender. The guests will also notice when a server or bartender is high, due to changes in their eyes or behavior.

Prescription pain pills are harder to spot if someone has been taking them for an extended period of time. They’re a much more widely used/abused form of drug in the industry because they make the user feel good, and when the user is up and moving around, they have a great amount of energy and ‘perkiness’. This can be misconstrued as genuine happiness, and unless the user actually tells his/her co-workers about their usage it’s quite possible that none will be the wiser. Prescription pain pills can also be dangerous, which is something people in the industry don’t often know. Take the most popular pain medicines, Lortab, Percocet, Oxycontin. The three of those all usually have a mixture of both the narcotic and acetaminophen. Acetaminophen in high doses can severely damage the liver. Acetaminophen when mixed with alcohol, as so many servers do when they mix their Lortab (also known as Vicodin) with that margarita after work, can lead to extensive liver damage, coma, and is potentially fatal. When warned about the effects of mixing alcohol with pain meds, most servers blow off the advice, saying things like “I only have a couple of beers with one,” or “I don’t do it all the time,” when in actuality they mix the two substances on a nightly basis, usually with higher amounts than they state. They also will never accept that they are causing real damage to their bodies.

Prescription psychoactive medicines, Xanax, Valium and the like can be easy to spot. The employee in question will be extremely lethargic, forgetful, lazy (or more lazy than normal) and very slow during their shift. They get dizzy when walking, and spend a lot of time sitting down. They usually try to pass off the lethargy as being “tired from a long night”. Many people abusing these drugs will find an excuse to get out of work, and either go home to sleep or go out to the bar awaiting their co-workers to come out and join them drinking. Mixing Xanax or Valium (or anything else in the benzodiazepine family) can lead to passing out, seizure, coma or death. Once again, many users will try to downplay the effects of these drugs, mainly because they enjoy the feeling.

Alcohol abuse in a server/cook is very easy to spot. If the server has come to work with a hangover, they’re going to be complaining about a headache and nausea for most of their shift, they’ll have bouts of dizziness, and they’re going to be very snappy and standoffish. They’ll run to the bathroom and vomit a few times, or if they’re trying to get out of their shift due to the hangover, they’ll vomit in a trashcan in plain view of guests and/or management. If the employee is drinking while on the clock, the guest or manager is most likely going to smell it on them, or they’re going to see the behavioral changes the employee expresses. A drunken employee is going to be a lot louder than a sober employee, and they’re going to be more crass. They’ll be more willing to fight with their guests over a bad tip that they normally deserve due to their lousy service. Drunken servers are very impatient when it comes to their guests and are reticent at best to do what’s needed much less to go above and beyond.

Marijuana use by servers is probably the most widespread of all drug use in the industry. It’s also the easiest to detect, and the thing that most employees are fired over. They come in smelling like a rancid skunk, they tend to eat off of guests plates, and they are disinterested in anything but the games on their cell phone. Their eyes are perpetually red and nearly closed, and it’s fairly easy to spot someone who has been smoking either before or during their shift. They will find anything at all to be the joke of the century. They also are constantly paranoid of being caught and fired, so they usually carry a bottle of Visine at all times, and when they aren’t with guests, they wear sunglasses to prevent people from seeing their eyes. They don’t think as quickly as a sober employee and are very slow to answer even the simplest of questions.

Some of you might ask why I expose all of this if you haven’t noticed the problems before. I let you all know about it because it’s a problem for the employees who do not abuse substances either while at work or off the clock. Sober employees constantly have to pick up the slack for non-sober employees, which can be very hard to do on a busy shift. Managers should also be aware of the various signs if they aren’t already so they can remedy any problems they may be having with certain employees.

You, the customer, should know about these signs because they are going to affect the quality of your food, and the quality of your service. Nobody wants to be served by someone who is geeking out of their mind on coke, or who is half asleep on pills, and none of us wants to have our food prepared by a drunken cook who doesn’t pay attention to the temperature of that medium rare steak. Employees who are not sober also don’t pay attention to the sanitary aspects of their jobs, making sure dishes are cleaned properly, making sure food goes out on clean dishes, making sure to wash their hands. If you suspect your server of being intoxicated, let a manager know that you’d like another server so that the proper investigation can begin. Employees, if you suspect a fellow co-worker of being high or drunk on the clock, let someone know, but do it discreetly. Many restaurants have an Open door policy, you should feel free to utilize it. Many chain restaurants have an 800 number where you can report these employees anonymously. Do what needs to be done so that you’re not picking up the slack and your guests aren’t paying the price.

Ribeye

This week, I’m starting a new thing here at RagingServer, the weekly feature article. I’m going to have a new one every week, so keep reading. They’re going to be up every Tuesday morning.

The Decline of Service Standards

Service standards in recent years have declined in restaurants. Servers think they can get away with doing the bare minimum and still make their money, then they complain and whine when they come home with next to nothing. These servers are usually some of the worst that the industry has to offer, and they account for at least 75% of us. You see them mostly in chain restaurants (i.e. T.G.I. Fridays, O’Charleys, Applebees, etc.) and diner style restaurants (i.e. Denny’s, Waffle House, Steak and Shake, etc.) You won’t see them as often in a fine dining setting, but believe me, they’re there.

The servers I’m talking about are the ones who stand around during a busy shift. They’re the ones who don’t help out their co-workers carry out food, they don’t help keep ice bins filled, they don’t do anything other than stand around talking to other lazy co-workers. They’re the servers who come to your table when you sit down and say “What do you want to drink?” instead of “How are you all doing tonight?” They don’t care about you, their customers, they only care about making their money. They think that money is deserved without doing any work.

    What caused this decline in the standards of service? There are a few reasons, at least from my point of view. First and foremost, these amateurs see real servers, the “lifers” that are making great money, and think they can do it too. They don’t seem to understand that we do work very hard, and we do care about our guests. We work as a team to make things run smoothly. Another reason for it is that people these days want something for nothing. They think that a tip is owed to them no matter how little they do. Some servers don’t even take their own orders, yet they think a tip is deserved. They don’t run their own drinks, they don’t even try to run their own food, and they rely on other people to do their work for them, so they can stand around.

    Serving is hard work, no matter what people say.  If you haven’t done the job, then you have no clue what you’re talking about.  Serving takes skill, endurance, and a hard outer shell.  Servers are constantly run into the ground, they are abused by both the customers and the management, and have to deal with laziness on all ends.  Is it any wonder that the service industry was number 2 on the list of jobs with the highest depression?  People these days think that servers are expendable, that they can fire a server and have a new one within a couple of days.  That may be true, but most servers are nothing more than warm bodies in a restaurant that cares as little about their job as the server does.

    Servers have an incredibly high rate of substance abuse too, which also accounts for some of the decline of standards.  Many servers are only working so they can get another gram of cocaine, or have money to go out to the bar when they get off work.  Many of them come into work drunk, high, coked out, or with a hangover.  All of those severely dampen a persons ability to do their job well, and as servers, we have to be sharp and on point at all times.  You aren’t going to remember a tables of eight’s drinks when you just got done smoking a joint out in your car, and you’re going to have the stench of marijuana on you no matter how much cologne or perfume you try to spray.  If you’re too busy getting the bartender to slip you shots, or drinking out of your pint you brought in from the liquor store, then your coordination is going to vanish, and you’ll spill a drink on a guest without so much as an apology.

    Most servers these days think that a restaurant can’t do without them, therefore they do whatever they want.  That’s only partially true.  Restaurants can do without the servers who don’t care about their jobs.  There are people who come to work every night and work their fingers to the bone to pay their bills or support their families.  They are the ones who make real money as servers, and they’re the ones who pick up the slack for the lazy ones that come in to stand around and whine about their lack of funds.

    The decline of service in chain restaurants stems from the lack of proper training.  Most chain restaurants have a short training program (usually around 3 days max.) that doesn’t actually teach new servers how to take care of guests.  Most of these training programs only involve a few tests over the menu and drinks, and a test over table numbers.  When it comes to one on one floor training, the trainers are too interested in making their own money to let the new hires do anything, and the new hire stands around with the servers who do nothing.  They aren’t learning how to properly serve tables, and you end up getting the dregs of our workforce taking care of you on a regular basis.  If these restaurants would devote more money into their training programs, more time into their new hires, and a little enthusiasm into the mix, these new servers wouldn’t be coming out of training knowing nothing.  Even after months of doing it, these people stay substandard, because that’s what they are taught in these programs.  Chain’s want to have these people on the floor as soon as possible so that corporate doesn’t get on a high horse, and the guests suffer.  They don’t allow their truly good servers to have a real section where they can take care of people, we’re relegated to having 2-3 table sections.  True, we make money with them, but we could be making so much more on the tables that the not so good servers are ignoring.

Ok, somewhere along the way, this turned more from an article into a rant, but that’s okay.  It’s only the first one, and I’ve only ever done blogging.  Articles, truly serious ones, are a new thing for me, so you’ll have to bear with me.

Next time I’ll do a bit more research…..

Ribeye