On Tue, 4 Oct 2005 12:04:23 -0500, "Jesse Robinson"
> wrote:

>Thank you for your kind words, I really appreciate them. I agree with you on
>not making the auto-gratuity based on a percentage. It is true that a plate
>of ribs or a salad bar are two worlds of difference. A simply formula could
>be put into place, amount of people, number of courses (apps, entree,
>desserts, etc.), maybe beverages, something like that anyway. And I stand
>true that this type of change would offer better selections.
>
>I agree, the amount of "good applicants" or just any applicants has
>drastically decreased in the years. We use to get ten to twenty applications
>a month, now, we are lucky to get five. And even less of those five, if any,
>are what we would consider "good". That leaves us in a less-than-positive
>situation. We are almost forced to hire these people just to keep our doors
>open. An increase in server profits would open that door. "Good" servers
>might want to stay servers instead of quitting to get a "real job".
>
>We need to find a way to redefine what the server industry is. To many
>people see it as a supplement while they educate for better things. Others
>see it as a dead-end job. It is rare to hear someone proudly express, "I am
>a server." Unless of course, they make a lucrative living doing so.
>

Jesse,

I was good, I truly feel. I was routinely selected to be a trainer and
a shift leader, and I served on management advisor committees, etc. I
had regulars who asked for me, and I won sales awards without being
pushy with my guests and while aviding the horrible canned rap I was
supposed to use. I am sincerely interested in food preparation, wine
service, sales, and the industry. But I finished graduate school and
left because of the lack of respect for the position and my
dissatisfaction with the base pay and the poor to non-existent
benefits. I made decent tips for the city I was in, which was a
depressed area nothing like what the serving life is in a major city.
However, the unreliability of the money could hit me hard sometimes,
as did bad weather or bad scheduling, i.e. too many servers on per
shift.

Maybe the fact that our economy is supposed to be recovering is the
cause of the poor pool of servers. Or maybe it is the tipping system.
I would love to work in a place that would reward good servers with a
completitive/higher wage and regular reviews and raises. I would
have liked to be treated like a food professional with more equal play
in the restaurant team. Sadly, I feel that servers are the least
"equal" because of the pittance wage and the unfair tipping system
that could cause me to lose my money through no fault of my own.

How do your poorer servers respond to training and discipline?

Nellie Paris