1. Pro: Tips!
One of the reasons that serving in restaurants is a timeless favorite for student workers is the possibility to make an insane amount of money: like $100-$200 a night, depending on how busy it gets and at what kind of business you’re working at. On busy weekends during football season in a college town like Tallahassee, you know that the servers are making bank due to the sheer amount of people that want to go out to eat.
2. Con: Tips…
Unfortunately, when your wage depends on the kindness and understanding of others, you may not always be rolling in the dough. When the restaurant is dead and people are not coming in to eat, you go back to making minimum wage. Freakonomics Radio host Stephen J. Dubner goes so far as to say tipping should be eradicated completely as a way to ensure fair pay that isn’t based on guests making up for what the restaurant does not. The podcast can be found here.
3. Pro: Free/Discounted Food
Employers want to reward you for your hard work in many ways, and at a restaurant, one of the ways to do this is obvious: share the delicious food! It’s smart to work somewhere that has the type of food that you like, because you will be eating a lot of it. It’s cheap, convenient right before a shift, and you can always ask the chefs in the back what the best thing to get is. Sometimes they may even modify a regular menu item to get you exactly what you want.
4. Con: Too Much Free Food
All that free or reduced-price food has been treating you well now that you’ve been at work a few months now… maybe a little too well. Being surrounded by food makes it so easy to eat, so why wouldn’t you? Almost every restaurant employee can recall when they first started and realized they got a bit too comfortable with the menu and their uniform became a little tighter. At a certain point, though, you’ll be surrounded by the same food for so long that you’ll never want to see it again without vomiting in your mouth! So… yay?
5. Pro: Great Coworkers
When working in a close environment, friendships are formed quickly. Restaurant employees must rely on each other to make the night work for the guests that walk in the door, and when it gets busy, you have to know which of these people is going to have your back. Through the stress and the after-work drinks, lifetime bonds are formed.
6. Con: Problem Coworkers
While many friends are to be made while working in a restaurant, some people are what your manager will call “frictional.” And for some reason, these people will stick around and make your life hell for no good reason. Everyone has their own stuff going on at home, though this probably won’t make you feel any better while you’re on the clock and just trying to get through your shift with a smile on your face. Coworkers are supposed to band together against the rude customers, not fight with each other, right?
7. Con: Insanely Rude Guests
Sometimes, it seems like certain people go out to eat to make everyone’s life more difficult. Dementors of the hospitality world, you can call them. The table you take them to isn’t good enough, nor is the next one, or the fifth… Only after they hand pick the perfect dining surface do the real issues begin. The problems are never large, and you can fix them quickly enough, but they always request to speak to a manager. You swear they had this planned out for the free food. Don’t take this personally… They probably did.
8. Pro: Making Fun of Insanely Rude Guests
After such awful people are out of the restaurant and the stormy clouds part, you’re finally free to pick at all the awful things the guests had said to you while you had the pleasure of serving them. The insults of their tacky blouse, their request for mayonnaise for their PIZZA, and just the sheer trashiness of the type of person who goes out to treat others that they see below them poorly. This is a great way to let off steam and connect with your coworkers, as everyone has bad customer stories.