Fifteen Percent Please

At 15 I got my first job at a locally-owned restaurant in my hometown. I was a bus boy responsible for collecting dirty dishes in the dining room and washing them along with all sorts of other cooking pots and pans. It was a great job.

I became a server at 18 years old and that was the first time I had the opportunity to interact with all walks of life. I have many stories from my days working in a restaurant. Some good ones, and some bad ones.

I'll share a few stories in the coming blogs.

I worked as a bus boy or server for nearly eight years. During most of those years I was working while most people were sharing holidays with family or friends. I was the behind-the-scenes person helping make some person's day special. I took pride in my job most of the time.

Working in a restaurant puts you at the center of a traffic jam of life. Hundreds of people pass through your life while in a restaurant. Not everyone wants to talk a lot. Not everyone treats servers respectfully. In fact, there are quite a few people who treat servers very badly just because they can. Not everyone is honest. Some people cheat, lie and steal while eating their meals. Some people want to know about your life. Others want to share their life stories. Some people are lonely. Others want to party. Some tip good. Some don't.

While serving in a restaurant, I learned a lot about people. I learned how to be all things to all people as best I could. Some people wanted someone to talk with. Others wanted to be left alone. Some people wanted a doormat, but I never learned how to be that very well.

I did whatever I could to make some one's experience worth 15 to 20 percent of their ticket value. I had to since the government only mandated I be paid $2.13 per hour. I survived from my tips - or gratuity from customers.

It amazed me how two tables could receive the same level of service and one table would tip above the customary percentage and the other table would hardly leave anything. Most of the times I could anticipate a bad tip, but there were definitely several times when a cheap tip caught me by surprise.

It's my belief that everyone should be a server at least for a short period of time in their lives. It's one of the best opportunities to learn about yourself and how people work, think and react to a variety of situations. It's high stress during busy times, and very rewarding when some people open up their lives to you during dinner.