Tips of the Trade
I’ll say it till the day I die: Everyone should be required to spend at least six months as a server. Waiting tables – essentially depending on other people for your livelihood – takes an amount of grace and humility not always abundant in daily life.
I spent roughly a decade in the restaurant business before starting my career, and I’m better for it. It teaches you about values, priorities and respect. It forces you to connect with people and, sometimes, to defuse situations or compromise on solutions. It helps you see that the problems that often give us the most grief aren’t that big after all.
With the tables now turned and me a customer, that hard-earned perspective has begun to expire. For instance, when the check comes, I often have to remind myself that what’s only a couple of extra dollars to me is usually the difference between a decent and a good tip or a good and a really good tip to my server – the basis for our first story below.
– Jennifer Bardoner, editor