Working in a restaurant is a challenging but rewarding job that gives a valuable perspective on the challenges many workers go through. For those who have never been behind the scenes, it can be easy to underestimate the stress and hard work involved in working in a restaurant.
One of the biggest lessons learned from working in a restaurant is the stress and pressure placed on employees. Servers, cooks, and dishwashers are often on their feet for hours, juggling multiple tasks at once while maintaining a positive attitude. This environment can be mentally and physically exhausting, especially during peak hours when the restaurant is busy. Yet, many customers fail to recognize the effort involved and sometimes take their frustrations out on the workers, even though the issues often lie beyond the employee’s control.
Restaurant workers, especially servers and fast food workers, are often subjected to unf/air treatment. It’s common for them to experience rude behavior from customers and get paid very low wages. Despite this, they are expected to provide very good customer service, while getting treated poorly by many of the people they serve and getting underpaid for their work.
Understanding these struggles is essential. If more people had the experience of working in a restaurant, they would have a deeper appreciation for the hard work and dedication involved in the service industry. Not only would this lead to more empathy for workers, but it might also encourage better treatment from customers and better working conditions across the industry.
There was an incident last year where a lady threw a hot Chipotle bowl on one of the workers because she thought that her food looked “nasty”. The judge of her case sentenced her to 60 days in prison but also gave her the option to work 20 hours a week in a restaurant instead so she could understand how it feels to work at a food place. Here is a link to the video of the case.
In the end, working in a restaurant teaches valuable lessons in patience, empathy, and hard work.
