Restaurants and Staff Shortage

beach-mom · ‎03-09-2010

DD and I went out to eat last night. Our server was so overworked. They were so short staffed. She came over right away to take our drink order. We also ordered an appetizer. Someone brought it over after a short time, but we had no silverware or napkins, so we asked the person who brought the food.

We didn't see that person again. After about 5 minutes I stopped someone coming to clean the table next to us and asked if we could please have silverware and napkins. He said sure. A few minutes later our server came out with those. As soon as we took our first bite someone brought the salad we were splitting out. We had no plates so we asked for those. We had to wait a little while, but she brought them. We also got the wrong salad, but we liked it, so we told her we would keep it and eat that one. She was so upset, and we told her not to worry. She kept apologizing over and over.

Some of her other tables were not happy, and complained loudly. When she brought our bill she apologized again and looked like she was about to cry. I told her please don't worry about it because we knew she was busy. She brought us refills on our drinks and put them in disposable cups to go. I overtipped.

I hope at least we made a little difference in her day. It's not her fault she has to do the work of two people.

buyornot · ‎03-10-2010

@beach-mom wrote:

DD and I went out to eat last night. Our server was so overworked. They were so short staffed. She came over right away to take our drink order. We also ordered an appetizer. Someone brought it over after a short time, but we had no silverware or napkins, so we asked the person who brought the food.

We didn't see that person again. After about 5 minutes I stopped someone coming to clean the table next to us and asked if we could please have silverware and napkins. He said sure. A few minutes later our server came out with those. As soon as we took our first bite someone brought the salad we were splitting out. We had no plates so we asked for those. We had to wait a little while, but she brought them. We also got the wrong salad, but we liked it, so we told her we would keep it and eat that one. She was so upset, and we told her not to worry. She kept apologizing over and over.

Some of her other tables were not happy, and complained loudly. When she brought our bill she apologized again and looked like she was about to cry. I told her please don't worry about it because we knew she was busy. She brought us refills on our drinks and put them in disposable cups to go. I overtipped.

I hope at least we made a little difference in her day. It's not her fault she has to do the work of two people.

Thank you for being so kind and making my day by reading this-poor kid

aroc3435 · ‎09-30-2010

@beach-mom Good for you. I'm sure you did make her harried work life better. I treated my daughter and granddaughter (almost two and a half) to a belatedd birthday brunch yesterday since Dad and the three brothers--8, 6, and 5--were off on their own adventure.

Our waitress was extremely busy as well and apologizes for a couple of delays, and the lack of one ingredient for a signature cocktail on the menu. I assured her she could have the bartender substitute regular grenadine. He came out to let me know that there was spice in the grenadine, so was I sure. I assured him to go for it as I am an adventurous eater and drinker.

I always have been a generous tipper. If I can't afford to tip (and there have been those times in my adult life) I simply do not go out to eat.

Being a waitstaff person, or doing other restaurant jobs, are challenging in the best of times and being way understaffed and still performing well deserves a generous tip.

Best,

aroc3435

Washington, DC

hckynutjohn · ‎06-15-2015

@beach-mom

Many restaurants in our area are offering a bonus to hire people. A lot of them are open less hours because that cannot get workers. Some even offer $20 per hour to start.

Pretty easy to figure out how and why this happened, and will continue to happen if? A lot of small businesses don't have a chance anymore, and that is a shame.

hckynut 🇺🇸

hckynut(john)

ID2 · ‎06-25-2012

Yup get used to it. Just the sign of the times. it wasn't like this until recent.

"Pure Michigan"

Greeneyedlady21 · ‎01-06-2015

Google the May unemployment rate, it was 3 point something. Sorry to bust your narrative, but there are no more extra benefits being paid. None, and they haven't been paid for a long time now. And at least in my state unemployment has a length limit, and you can't collect if you quit.

Google why people are leaving and not taking service jobs. But don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

I recently left a job for a better paying job. I work, so I know what the work conditions can be like these days. Freedom exists in the USA to make these choices and to not have to serve people. And you also don't have to worry about some irate complaining customer shooting you.

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

paixmcdao · ‎04-16-2022

@Greeneyedlady21 wrote:
Google the May unemployment rate, it was 3 point something. Sorry to bust your narrative, but there are no more extra benefits being paid. None, and they haven't been paid for a long time now. And at least in my state unemployment has a length limit, and you can't collect if you quit.

Google why people are leaving and not taking service jobs. But don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

I recently left a job for a better paying job. I work, so I know what the work conditions can be like these days. Freedom exists in the USA to make these choices and to not have to serve people. And you also don't have to worry about some irate complaining customer shooting you.

Those pesky facts again..

“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” -Mark Twain

CalminHeart · ‎03-09-2010

I feel so bad for your server. It wasn't her fault things went so wrong for you and other customers.

IMO. There isn't a staff shortage. There are 2 problems - lousy wages and lack of respect for employees.

Respect comes in many ways. If the manager/owner knew there was just 1 server and left him/her alone on the floor, that's lack of respect for the server and customers.

People are tired of lousy pay and taking cr* p from bosses. So many bosses demand way more than the job description or job require.

People are tired of working for slave wages.

People are tired of seeing the stock gifts, huge salary increases, and outrageous bonuses to CEOs while they struggle to get a puny raise once in a while.

People are tired of the excessive pressure - emphasis on excessive.

As a senior manager in a corporation, I watched managers call employees names and abuse them in so many ways. It made me sick.

I could tell you so many stories about how salary increases are skewed, employees are targeted, employee abuse, etc that would curl your hair.

Caaareful Shopper · ‎10-09-2012

The restaurant business has historically been a very difficult business to sustain. Turnover has always been notorious, but in the past, there seemed to always be a pool of new workers to replace the ones that quit.

My son worked nearly every position in restaurants. He bussed tables, was a waiter, then went to cooking school coupled with teaching himself how to cook. For 10 years he was a supervising cook, then sous chef for some of the best restaurants in the metro DC region.

In all those years, there wasn't a day that went by that he didn't come home beat down, to the point of exhaustion. He did it for so long because at one point he wanted to open his own restaurant.

It's not just the job you see on the floor, it's the mental and physical stress that goes on in the kitchen and after work. On any given day, you're expected to do your job, the job of the ones that didn't come in or quit that morning, clean up after the restaurant closes, clean the restrooms, deal with patrons that are mean and nasty, getting yelled at by managers or head chefs for things that are usually not their fault, having to put tips into a tip pool, etc. I haven't even listed the things that go on strictly in the kitchen.

My 30-year old son lost his job in the pandemic, but it was a blessing in disguise. He had the knees and back of a 65 year old man from standing 10 hours a day, usually 6 days a week all those years.

He moved back to NYC (he was born there), and got a fantastic job in a totally different industry. He's never been happier, and has control over his future, and is making twice his salary just two years later. He will never in a million years go back to a restaurant job.

So if you think you know why there's restaurant worker exodus, you should probably talk to someone who lived it for years, not what's being talked about elsewhere.