I worked as a waitress and I have interesting information to share

“My name is Tatiana, I am one of the authors of the awesome.club and today I want to share with you interesting details about my previous work and my learnings from it. They say that experience is formed from actions that make us say afterwards: “I could have done it differently”.

In my case, these experiences were countless. When I was in the second year of college, the guy I loved so much left me and since then, making a drama out of this case and thinking that my life had gone with him, I also dropped out of my course. After two weeks of a lot of crying, I concluded that my sanity had returned, because I didn’t realize that my parents would kill me if they knew I wasn’t going to class anymore. She needed to find something to do during college hours and finding a job would be perfect. Among the opportunities that appeared, that of a waitress was the best alternative.

Silvio Santos was a street vendor, Anderson Silva worked at McDonald’s, Marcelo D2 was a doorman and Edson Celularijá worked in a bakery. There is nothing strange about that: they are super honest professions, even if they are not the real vocation of these people. So, before achieving something better, I went to be a waitress in one of the most popular pizzerias in the center of my city. I imagined it would be like Rachel from the series Friends: I would sit on the sofa, chatting with my friends and, from time to time, take requests. I knew better than that when, on the first day, I accidentally spilled melted chocolate on a customer’s plate of savory pancakes and, trembling with nerves, asked the brilliant question: ‘do you want me to change it or is it good like that?’ And that was just the beginning of the story.

Especially for the awesome.clubI will talk about all the advantages and disadvantages of this job and I will give some answers to the common questions of those who usually eat out.”

It depends on the establishment. But, on this subject, there is a funny joke: “a customer signals to the waiter and asks: ‘Is it true that you eat what we left?’, and the waiter replies: ‘No! You eat our leftovers!’”

In fact, in the kitchen there are always rigorous inspections of all products. Also, there are security cameras (at least where I worked, yes). As for the dishes customers order and don’t eat, there are several possible outcomes.

If the dish was even touched by the customer, any employee could eat it without guilt. Any food that customers left half-finished was set aside for stray dogs. Food that is close to the expiration date could be shared among everyone to take home. In my work, this was one of the positive points.

We’ve seen, in movies, scenes where an attendant spits in the coffee of a rude customer. In real life, I’ve never seen anything like it. The existence of security cameras ensures that this never happens. Besides, that would be very dangerous revenge on the part of an official, don’t you think?

Yes, there were customers whose behavior could be summed up with this phrase: “Waiter, if this is coffee, I want tea. If it’s tea, I want coffee.” But we all understood perfectly well that each customer represents our work and our money. Therefore, what could be done was, at most, make comments or faces sincerely tired of the day’s annoyance. But, of course, so he couldn’t see it, because the customer is always right, even when he isn’t.

But I’ve also seen cases where customers were absolutely right. For example: a hair in soup, a small bone in a salad or a paper clip in pizza. So, it was one more reason to keep quiet, even if the rudeness was disproportionate to what happened.

They gave employees free meals, but not the dishes on the menu. Usually, each day, two people cooked for the rest of the team, but it was always something simple, like pasta, salad or French fries.

If one of the employees had a birthday, we could have a can of beer or, at the most, a glass of wine in the kitchen, and then we were off to work. At times, due to extreme tiredness or to put up with bad-tempered customers, we mixed something alcoholic in our drink (like a soft drink, for example) and continued working, with the most natural expression in the world.

A 10-hour shift wears anyone out. To endure the even more intense days, we drank energy drinks. One of my colleagues mixed Coke with coffee! It was literally a bomb and must have been pretty bad for his heart, but it was his way of coping.

During my work at the pizzeria, many different stories happened to all the attendants. We dropped pizza, burned ourselves with hot plates, cut our fingers, mixed up orders, spilled drinks on pizza, broke trays full of dishes… well, I’ve seen it all happen!

There was a case in which one of the attendants dozed off, propped up on a shelf of dishes, as she had gone to a party the night before and was “on her toes”. The pizza maker made a sudden movement with the pizza board just out of the oven to wake her up, but she didn’t imagine that the pizza would fly away and hit the girl’s face exactly. All this in front of customers! Imagine the embarrassment of being woken up like this…

But, for the happiness of all the employees, there is a thing called “cancellation”: if you mess up a dish, they only deduct the cost of the ingredients, which wasn’t very high.

Our duties were not limited to serving dishes and cleaning up dirty dishes. We helped other colleagues, made sauces, peeled fruit for some drinks, packed cutlery and ran to the market in case an ingredient was missing.

Over time, many waiters made their own clientele. Those who had been working there for a longer time often became “lazy”, choosing only the best tables to serve. There really was a kind of “hierarchy” between employees.

This is a profession that is quite interesting, despite the little importance we usually give to it. You communicate with a lot of people completely different from you, often with foreigners, you learn to be kind and good-natured in any situation (testing your patience, of course), you move a lot and you never go hungry.

It was nice to see that, under the influence of delicious food, a warm atmosphere and good company, people relax, smile more and even seem friendlier. We noticed everything! Marriage proposals in which the box with the ring was under the table, job promotion celebrations or, simply, a discreet discussion between a couple in which the facial expressions spoke for themselves.

The pizzeria was always full of life, and we didn’t know what boredom was. That was definitely not part of the job.

On the other hand, there are people who still consider waiters to be simple “servants”, and treat them without the slightest respect. John Green, author of the novel Blame it on the stars, wrote that a person can be judged by how he treats secretaries and waiters. Sometimes I would repeat mentally, like a mantra, that the customer is always right, so as not to fall into the temptation to respond with rudeness. Fortunately, these were not frequent situations.

At first, I was surprised that almost all of the staff smoked. A month later, I lit a cigarette myself. And not because he liked to smoke. We had a lounge and a huge terrace, and in the summer the pizzeria was always packed with people. Endless queues, hungry (and, of course, rushed) customers waiting for tables, nervous staff. Going out for a smoke was almost the only opportunity to rest my head for a few minutes from all this madness. And those who did not smoke continued to work. But as I needed an excuse to go out for a bit, I used the cigarette for that and it provided some rest. So much so that, after I quit working at the pizzeria, I quickly abandoned this habit.

But the most annoying thing was that the attendants were forbidden to sit down if there was a customer in the salon. By the end of the shift, my legs would get really tired, and the only thing I wanted to do when I got home was get them up. The three years of experience in this work caused huge varicose veins in my legs, which I am treating until now.

I finished my college, then I found a job in my field. But I don’t regret anything, because having worked as a waitress was a good experience for me, and it strengthened me as a person. Now, when arriving at any establishment, I continue to have the habit of evaluating the service at the house, paying attention to detail and valuing every gesture of the employees. And, deep down, I see myself there, working while still studying.

Dear reader, your life is interesting! Tell us about it! Maybe you’ve volunteered at a nursing home, worked for many years in a hospital, or taught abroad. Each one has an interesting story to tell! Write yours to redacao@ entitled “My Story”. We are waiting for yours!