Cape Town – The restaurant industry is often a space in which waiters and waitresses are “seen and not heard and speak when spoken to”.
Little do restaurant-goers know that the silent table tenders are storing up the juiciest stories of interactions with customers.
No, there isn’t a handbook on how to treat your waiter like street litter, but a particular kind of restaurant patron acts as though such a book exists.
People working in the hospitality industry spoke to us about their pet peeves and cringe-worthy experiences.
Former waitress Danielle Perold told of being under-tipped: “I was serving a table for their Christmas dinner and the bill was over R2 000. The guy who paid the bill ended up tipping me less than 5 percent.”
She summoned up an inkling of courage and confronted Mr Meanie and asked if he was aware that he had severely under-tipped her, which resulted in a favourableoutcome.
But not many waiters have achieved the same. One young waitress, who prefers to not be named, received a R3.50 tip on an R800 bill. The young drunk customer offered a sloppy “sorry for the small tip” while spending what could have been a more acceptable tip on red roses for the beautiful blonde he was trying to impress.
“A few weeks ago I served a table of young men who were regulars of the restaurant and were known for having and spending a lot of money. I served them for 10 hours over the course of the day, and the bill eventually amounted to R5 500.
"When I went to print the bill, they all scurried out of the restaurant and I was left with it. This has happened quite often to me and my friends who are also waitresses,” said part-time waitress Trisha Jacobs.
Some customers may not be aware of this, but it is commonplace in many restaurants for waiters to be left with the responsibility of paying for the walkout.
We gasp and we exclaim at the thought of theft, but that is exactly what a walkout is: theft of stock that belongs to the establishment, and theft of a waiter’s hard-earned tips that probably took him the entire day to gather. Not only is it theft, but often an arrogant display of being untouchable and a despicable act of selfishness.
While conventional career choices can lead to a set salary that gloriously appears on a specific date in your bank account, waiters rely almost solely on that white elephant in the room: the tip.
In essence, waiters put on their brightest smiles and their sweetest of voices in the hopes of landing what South African culture calls acceptable, a 10 percent tip.
Sadly, due to the fluctuating nature of the restaurant business, that 10 percent tip could range from R200 to R2. And in the eyes of many big bosses who own restaurants, that’s just the way the ice-cream melts.
Waiters are left with little to no control on how much they earn on a monthly basis, leaving them very little opportunity for making financial commitments.
Catcalls, whistles, clicking fingers and shouting rants are just some of the ways in which waiters and waitresses are addressed. Would the average Joe or Mary address his or her colleagues or superiors this way? Probably not. So why is it acceptable to speak to waiters this way? The truth is the mindset of some customers harks back to the abovementioned sentiment that waiters are to be seen and not heard; and should only speak when spoken to. The waiter is a nameless face.
“People I haven’t served the entire night will flag me down and say something I have no idea about. Then they look all confused when I tell them I’m not their waitress and in fact the other blonde who has been serving them the entire night is their waitress. Then they make a joke and say ‘Oh, you all look the same’ as if that is some valid excuse for not being able to recognise the girl who’s been serving them for six hours,” Jacobs said.
A manager’s perspective
Most managers have been waiters and bar tenders and have often felt the impact of the dreaded walkout. Restaurant manager Grant Edgar said: “I have waited tables and worked in bars for years and I don’t understand how customers who walk out on bills think it is okay.
“But, that said, some waitresses and waiters don’t pay attention to people and don’t give the right service. So people do get up and leave just on principle. It’s not the right way of handling it.”
Edgar believes owners should let waiters pay back the cost price of what the customers walked out on, since in most cases it is not the employee’s fault for the walkout.
Weekend Argus