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Originally Posted by MelBridgeman
I somewhat disagree - I don`t think you can compare those two jobs ( i have done both) - most dishwashers are some 16 year old kid still living with mommy and daddy and the odd hipster who has no social skills. A dishwasher may `work` but the stress level of a server can be much greater at times - considering they are slaving for your extra pennies to pay off their student loans.
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I don't think you can generalize most dishwashers as 16 year old kids. Many are the same age as the servers out front, (unless you're in a place where you have career servers and actual professional cooks on the entire line). Many are middle aged immigrants who haven't learned english yet. Mostly, they're just people who need work and that's the best they can do.
Regardless, as someone else who has also done both, I never felt like server stress level was that big of a deal. (maybe when I started out and hadn't figured out the routines yet) And I would never use the phrase "slaving for your extra pennies" as it often felt like at the end of the night I had a bunch of free money in my pocket. (particularly when I compared it to what I would have made before as a line cook, and then I would remember my hourly on top of that)
As far as not enough hours as a server, better servers get better shifts. Those are the rules, your manager distributes the busy times and good shifts to the best servers because they can be trusted at the busy times when restaurant stress levels go high. This also happens to be the time when the most money is made, or hours are earned.
Serving is a decent job for 18 to twenty-somethings, so I have no problem with people tipping whatever they feel is appropriate (even if it's nothing, I used to imagine they were from europe or something, it happens). Some nights are garbage, but some nights you hit big, unfortunately a lot of servers forget the big nights because we'd blow it on drinks for everyone and only remember the 3.00 someone left on the 47.00 tab.