Kate O’Abrams is a 24 year old living in Red Hook, Brooklyn. She has a major in psychology and has been working as a waitress on and off for the past three years. Kate is currently working at a long time running restaurant in Bay ridge, where she gave me her take on life working in the food service industry.
Photo by: Brenda Hazelton
Working in the food service industry is one of the most challenging jobs out there. For those who have never worked as a waiter or waitress, this may be hard to believe. Working as a waiter is not your average nine to five job, it’s so much more and it deserves a level of respect that it doesn’t always receive . It’s standing on your feet all day and through the night, serving others each and every possible need.
Kate O’Abrams reveals what she finds are the most challenging parts of being a waitress from her own experiences.
“I think it’s when people ask you what you do for a living and you tell them you’re a waitress or a waiter. They sort of look at you and then ask, so what do you really want to do? I don’t think I would get asked that ordinarily. Like, if I worked at a pharmacy, people wouldn’t question me about it. I think that’s the worst part of it.”
Being a waiter isn’t for everyone. Working in the food service industry means living a non traditional life style.
“So, the thing about people who work in the food service industry is that we’re all a little crazy. We go into work at eleven; we leave at midnight and party until five. Then we do it all over again. Rinse and repeat, right? I’m sure an office job might seem the same way, except you go to happy hour at six and go to bed at twelve.”
“Doing this as job as a career can definitely wear on you. So I can see why people would think it’s just a temporary job to have.”
Working as a waitress/waiter puts yourself apart from everyone else that has a socially acceptable career. But its not all that bad.
“You meet the best people working in a restaurant. My friends work there, I pretend I know everything. Once you’re in the food service industry you think you’re in it. It’s a very inclusive bunch of people.”
As many people might know, servers rely on their tips as their main source of income. I asked Kate what her thoughts were on tipping and whether or not this was fair way to justify how much a server should get paid.
“I heard that some restaurants plan to do away with tipping and I’m all about it. Why should people get away with paying us minimum wage and then have us depend on customers to tip us well to make up for it? Maybe we shouldn’t be getting pissed at customers when they don’t tip us well, instead we should be pissed at our bosses for not paying us well. That’s how I’m feeling about it.”
When you think about it, being a server is the only job where workers are judged and criticized on their work ethics by someone who is not their employer.
“Maybe we shouldn’t depend on tipping. Maybe we should depend on those who are employing us, to keep us employed. Maybe we shouldn’t worry about the fickle nature of customers, consumers and culture. But that’s just me and I’m just a waitress.”
Photo by: Brenda Hazelton
