Archived from UCI Literary Journalism Submissions
Subject: Sara Prusinskas, 24, lives in Poway, California, Server employed at Olive Garden.
What do you do for work?
Right now I’m working as a server at Olive Garden, a americanized italian family restaurant. I’d say they are mostly known for their ‘unlimited breadsticks’ and never ending italian music playlist laughter. I’ve been working there for just about two years now. I started out bussing tables and i believe six months serving now. Some to-go catering here and there but mainly waiting tables at this time.
Can you walk me through a typical work day? What are the tasks that are performed as a server?
Sure. When I come in for an opening shift, I come in 30 minutes before the restaurant opens. Me and one other worker will go about getting the restaurant ready to serve people food. So that includes salad bar set up with lettuce, croutons, tomatoes, etc. We got the cheese and the cheese grater stations setup for the servers, filling ice buckets, making sure that there's pitchers on both sides of tea and lemonade and making sure that ketchup and ranch are filled. Also making sure that we have to-go supplies on both sides of the restaurant. It's kind of just the same thing for the closing shift . And then once we open at 11am you are just taking tables and there is usually already a line outside.
How many tables would you say you take at a time on a regular workday? What is the foot traffic like?
I would say on I try to work more weekday nights and on good night I'll make $100 on a really good night will be like $150, which is usually more for the weekend. But I would say for weekdays I usually get about like 11 tables, but on weekends, especially if I'm doing a volume or a double shift I can get up to like 18 tables.
Do the tips there make it worth it? What is the average you get on a week night?
No.
No, the tips aren't worth it in my personal opinion. Just because we don't have a mandatory tipping amount over a certain check balance. And it's a lot of work for minimum wage plus 15%. Oh, this last day like for Veterans Day I made $130 which was really good and we weren't that slammed. So there are some good nights some bad nights but overall I would say that I go home saying that was not worth it at all.
And you said there was no tipping requirement past a certain bill amount. Can you describe a big party that you had where you didn't feel you were tipped as well as you should have?
Yeah, I had taken a I believe it was a 35 person party with two other co workers of mine. And I think they ran the bill up to about 1700. It was for a bridal party or a baby shower I think so I kind of understand you know, one person was paying for it. And they gave us $100 To split which wasn't totally awful. It was just you know, I'm not taking any other tables besides this large party and that just took up three hours of my shift and I made $33 So it’s just kind of frustrating.
And what do you get for minimum wage?
I make $16.30 plus tips right now.
How busy can waiting tables get?
So Olive Garden is known for their unlimited soup and salad, bread and drinks. So that's just kind of expected when working here. So the standard is I usually have four tables but if we're busy and short staffed, they will just keep seating me or I'll have like up to six tables on rotation and trying to keep that many checks straight in my head and trying to remember who needs refills. Like ‘who got this’ and then trying to manage priority like ‘oh well this table’s food is about to come out’. But at the same time i’ll just get sat another table again and I need to greet them within a minute of seating and get a drink for the guests or it can be very anxiety inducing. I'm not gonna lie. I've been serving for just under a year and I'm ready to not be anymore.
Do you have any other duties on top of serving?
Yeah, so every server is required to roll silverware. You're also expected to run people's food when we're busy. They might pull you to work on bread if they're short a person in the kitchen. I've been told when I'm not busy to wash the walls like with a rag. Bugs oh man bug nights. So like once a month we have a bug night which is when we pull everything out of the kitchen to fumigate for bugs. And I hate bug nights are so annoying it takes up so much more time even while i am still serving tables. It can make us stay as late as midnight and we close at 10pm or 11pm on friday nights.
What are the customers like?
Some are very rude for no reason. We have meetings often about mental health because customers often don't treat us like we’re human. One mess up like an incorrect soup we can easily get from the back is a warrant for them to yell at us or get the manager. But i bet if they were in that position they wouldn’t be able to handle it as well. We just smile and move on, but you have to have a very thick skin for this business. We even had a regular guest who was just overall a racist, sexist man who would get the same order of soup and salad every week. He would always request a girl and i got him one time and his comment that has always stuck with me was ‘you’re very tall men don’t really like that but it’s good that you’re pretty.’
It’s just a lot of work and stress that overall many guests treat you bad anyways for so it’s really not worth it. The food is good though and affordable.
Comments