An Oscar? She who was denied a role on "All My Children!" Bah!

I haven't had very much experience with restaurant work, just part-time for a summer, but I can tell you it's a very stressful environment. In order to provide the customer with a dining experience worthy of return trips and the ever-important word-of-mouth advertising (real restaurants don't advertise! Ew, as if!), the management requires exacting service from the waitstaff. The servers must be knowledgeable about the food's origins and preparation, be able to describe and recommend wines, and delicately toe the line between attentiveness and obsession/intrusion. The kitchen relies on servers to properly coordinate the "firing" of the various courses, so that food doesn't sit around unnecessarily. And if anything goes wrong, the servers take the fall- customers or "guests" don't want to hear excuses, they want compensation. And since there are few instances where one will receive free food or drinks, the guests will take out their frustrations on the servers' hides. Itty bitty tip.

So when I began to read this article on waiters, I thought, "Cool! Maybe this will help people to be a bit more compassionate when dining out!"

Then, I kept reading. Then, I got angry.

"'I'd say waiting tables is one of the most stressful jobs you can have, short of being a firefighter or an inner-city police officer,' said Bruce Griffin Henderson, a singer-songwriter who did 10 years as a waiter in New York." -NYT*

Being a firefighter/police officer/doctor/teacher/soldier/etc., etc. versus being a SERVER??!!! Working in a RESTAURANT?? Shit, maybe if you got shot at for bringing out the wrong entree...wait...nope, not even then.

And the tipping anger is misdirected. It's not the customers' fault that servers' incomes rely so heavily on tips, it's the employers'/government's.

It's a tough job, but there are also perks, like free/reduced price meals/drinks and work schedule flexibility (so that the future Julia Roberts' of tomorrow can make their headshot appointments).

People are KILLING me.

*You'll need to log in to the NYT to read the article, I suspect...sorry.