There isnt much separating a waiter from making enough tips to pay rent and utter failure.
none of it is helped by our meager 2 dollar an hour wage.
now around Sakura nobody talks about how much their wages are because its so ridiculously small. we compare tip pulls to each other along with war stories about that obnoxious drunk group of guppies at table 7.
now the other day a fellow waitress we'll call her Sarah comes up to me while i am at a table and tells me that she just got promoted to head waiter of the floor. Now I'm not jealous that she'll be earning $5.00 dollars a hour as head waiter, to my meager $2.00 dollars. It was the way she went about it.
First she interrupted me while i was busy doing something in the middle of the shift to tell me that she got promoted.
"nice, congrats"
i reply out of pure courtesy to her joyous moment.
immediately after she brags to me about the fact she'll be earning $5.00 a hour as if to rub it in my face.
if that wasnt enough she then says
"arent you going to congratulate me? say congratulations to me"the fucking nerve on this bitch, i'm not quite sure if she meant to push all my buttons or if this is the first real recognition shes ever gotten her whole life...
"c-o-n-g-r-a-t-s"
i tell her a second time as if she really needs me to pat her on her 5.00 a hour back. I could taste the disdain as the word left my lips.
She immediately runs into the kitchen where i am later at and tells all the chefs that she became head waiter as if they would immediately jump up and down screaming
"no way! omg! this is the best! yippie yay"Her first response was a sarcastic
"He... made you the head waiter?" from Matsu the most senior chef, working at Sakura, since it opened up 6 years ago.
He then continues on with
"how long have you been working here?"she quickly replies in astonishment...
"a year and a half, arent you going to congratulate me?""arent their other waiters who've been here longer?""yeah but The owner likes me the best I'm the most hardworking" , bullshit, utter bs... Sarah really just likes to suck up to the boss as if she were his wife in ownership of the joint. sure Sarah's a decent waittress but at 20 years old shes hardly the kind of waitress i want to have yapping orders at me.
The Chef Matsu looks up at Sarah with a grin and eyes that scream the words
'oookkkiieeeee'throughout the night Sarah began to open her mouth to the other waiters and waitresses.
I encounter one of the other waitresses later on. Holly a waitress whos been here for at least 2 years and has been dating the Hibachi chef downstairs for at least 3 years.
"The FUCKING NERVE" she tells me before i can even say i word
"i know i know...." i reply
"She hasnt even been here for that long and then shes goes rubbing it in peoples faces??!""shes getting 3 dollars a hour but shes gonna be losing alot""how so" she ask"well, if you must ask... shes definately lost respect from you, me, and the rest of the wait staff""true""and from the little scene i saw in the kitchen shes lost the respect of the chefs also""if she didnt it'd be a miracle" holly says"but you know its not just respect shes lost the helping hand we waiters and waitresses give eachother when we're in th weeds."hek like i'd help her out anymore" Holly snaps"but you know whos the real losers?""who?""us and the owner""why is that?""well... we get the added benefit of her powertripping over her higher wage and new found responsibilities, which is just a pretty way to say she'll be asking us to do alot of shit she doesnt want to or we dont really need to do just because""fucking shit your right she better not pull that bullshit but what about the owner" Holly says"well... he just lost a satisfactory waitress and gained a mediocre one""wouldnt she be working harder?""well... now that she earns a extra 3 dollars a hour there is less incentive for her to really need those tips, that means less refills, less service, less caring about pushing the tip percentage with good service""sigh" she retreats back to her tables with a sense of defeat. In my mind i'd dont care what small wage us waiters earn as long as we earn the same wage. the minute the owner pushes the worth of another waiter up by 3 dollars for essentially doing the same thing we've all been doing already is the minute that every employee will begin to see that the extra she gets paid for is full of incompetence. We'll begin to nit pick and treat her not as one of us but as one of those snotty brats that can barely earn her extra 3 dollars a hour. 1 dollar for power tripping, 1 dollar for being a overpaid worker (overpaid compared to us who do litterally the same amount of work if not more), and 1 dollar for sucking up. bitch
just a few helpful notes.
try not to talk about your pay unless its about customers tips to eachother... and NEVER bragg about how much more your getting paid to a fellow waiter.
to owners and managers everywhere: you better make sure that that raise won't cause tensions between your whole staff because that is a nightmare for the whole business and morale.
there are ways to get raise and be modest.
then there are ways to get a raise and realize you've just become the most hated person on staff.
I'll bite my tongue for now. sadly i fill my mind up with thoughts on how to grief or sabotage a fellow waiter.
Its a short distance from fellow waiter to fellow traiter.
I need a drink.
Arigato
-Waiter
