Kate O’Abrams, 24, of Red Hook, Brooklyn, studied psychology at Purchase University and has been waitressing on and off for the past three years. O’Abrams is currently working at a long-running restaurant in Bay Ridge. Here, she shares with Waiting on Brooklyn her experiences waiting tables. This interview is a reoccuring feature that profiles the hard-working employees of the borough’s restaurant industry. 

O’Abrams confirms that working in the food service industry is one of the most challenging jobs out there. It’s not your average nine-to- five job, people don’t get the respect they deserve and wait staff are on their feet all day and night, serving customers’ each and every possible need.

“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,”  O’Abrams said. “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.”

 

Working in the food service industry means living a non traditional life style.

“The thing about people who work in the food service industry is that we’re all a little crazy. We go into work at 11, we leave at midnight and party until five. Then we do it all over again,” she said. “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.”

While O’Abrams said working as a waitress or waiter might mean existing in a world apart from everyone else who has a socially acceptable career, it’s not all that bad.

“You meet the best people working in a restaurant. My friends work there,” O’Abrams said. “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.”

Servers rely on their tips as their main source of income. She said she supported moves by some restaurant owners in New York to do away with tipping.

“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.”

Being a server may be the only job where workers are judged and criticized on their work ethics by people who are not their employers.

“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.”