My Not-So-Prestigious Summer Job
4.5 hours of commuting a day. 11–12hrs shifts. One meal in 11 hours. Heavy lifting, bad tempers, and no tips.
Before summer even started I was looking for internships — baking ones to be specific.
I applied to several bakeries including the more well known Bang Bang Ice-cream and Tori’s Bakeshop as well as less known ones such as Prairie Boy Bakery and Brick Street Bakery. I was interviewed several times and even brought in for baking trials but the one thing mangers kept saying to me was: “the time and effort it takes to train you is not worth the amount of time you’re staying” — three months to be exact.
After seven interviews, I decided to try something else.
I applied for a bunch of random positions online, one being the — — — Yacht Club. It slipped my mind until they asked me to come in for an interview.
I did.
It seemed fancy, successful and interesting. Serving on a private island doesn’t seem all that bad and although tips were not including, being paid a wage of approximately $5 more than an average server makes, seemed great!
I have never been paid $14 an hour before so I agreed and signed up in a heartbeat.
Fast forward to three months later, I realized how innocent I was:
4.5 hours of commuting a day. 11–12hrs shifts. one meal in 11 hours. Heavy lifting, bad tempers, and no tips.
This summer I worked at a yacht club, made of members that own yachts, pay a yearly membership fee, and spend an average of $50 a meal…who don’t tip.
Why?
Simply because the club wanted to create a no tipping policy for members, allowing them to save money while making the staff suffer.
Yes, the servers at private clubs do get paid a higher wage, but with an average of $500-$1200 of sales a day, I would make more being paid 9.98 an hour with a 15% tip, WHILE sharing 5% to other staff.
For an example I make an average of $600 — $1500 of sales every day. Tips are about 20% per sale, which totals to about $120 — $300 in tips. I make $14 an hour, if I work 11 hours I will make $154 a day. If I was paid an hourly wage of $9.98 (what a regular waiter gets paid hourly) I would make $109.78 excluding tips, including tips it would be $229.79 — $409.78 a day. That is approximately $75.78 — $255.78 more than what waiters at the Royal Canadian Yacht club make a day!! (Taken from part of my email I sent to my supervisor regarding the tipping policy)
Naturally being the rebel I am, I decided to go the the head manger to complain. He listened and told me to write him an email detailing my arguments.
I did.
It was quite long.
He said he would bring it to his supervisor.
But nothing really happened.
So I decided to take matters into my own hands. I set a goal for myself: to be such a great server that people would WANT to tip me voluntary EVEN with the no tipping policy
It was hard at first. I made a million mistakes, broke two wine corks, smashed a bottle of newly opened wine worth $87 on the ground, forgot and/or screwed orders up and argued with my coworkers. But with the patience of my supervisor and the bar manager, I learned from my mistakes. I researched articles on how to become a better waitress, reading about techniques and tactics, ranging from my looks, how to introduce myself, to what “hoppy” meant in terms of beer. I bought my own notebook, made little notes on my frequent costumers so I would remember them and what they liked.
Slowly, I started getting tips.
First, $5–15 a day or every couple of days
Then, $20–25 every couple days
And finally, I was making an average of $30–60 each day,
From members, guests, and kids telling their parents to tip me
Not once did I ask a customer to tip me or suggest the thought. I wanted it to be voluntary, to be a result of the effort I gave. Though at times, greed made me think I deserved the entire portion, I reminded myself frequently I couldn’t have done it without the help of the food runners.
I was a waitress for the summer after my first year of university. At times when the topic of summer jobs are brought forth, I am usually looked down upon. With the competitiveness to land a great internship or job, people with higher salaries are deemed to be more successful than others. And although I do admire people who hold white collar jobs, I am also proud and happy of my accomplishments this summer!
Being a waitress was fun! I also hated it with all my heart and wanted to quit a million times. But I learned about the food industry, the value of hard work and the rewards that can come from it. I learned to speak up about what I wanted. I learned that failing is okay and being vegetarian means the chef cooks an individual personalized meal for you. But most importantly I learned that no matter what job you have, do your best. It’s better to be the best server in the restaurant than to be known as the intern who got fired for sleeping at his desk all day.
Like Martin Luther King said,
“If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.”
