#working for tips

Who's this nice maid?

Barbara Sloan’s New Book Dares To Suggest Service Industry Professionals Deserve Financial Stability Too

I sat down with Barbara to pick her brains right after I read absorbed the book. And because our combined beauty is too perfect to be hidden from the eyes of our readers, I released the whole interview on our YouTube channel. You’re welcome, aesthetic connoisseurs of the feminine form!

Without further ado, here’s our full interview with the incomparable Barbara Sloan, author of Tipped.

Keep reading.

Hello hockey fans. I'm in a bit of a bind. Work has been slow this month and I'm in need of some extra dough.

If you have a scenario that you would like written(mostly short stories/one-shots), please hmu. I'm most familiar with just the Stars roster. Bennguin is popular, but I do more too: reader inserts, ships, etc. I'm very open minded.

I'm just working for tips atm. Feel free to message me.

1. Yeah, rant all you need too. That’s what this is for. Go you, man. This shit ain’t actually crazy easy to do well at.

2. I understand that I’m in a privileged position being in a state where my employer is required to pay the state minimum wage on top of my tips.

2a. But, even with that, I make a gaudy amount of money for what I do. 

3. I’m more than just an order taker. Yeah, I’m there to bring you food and drink, and that’s my primary goal, but I want you to have an experience that makes you want to tip better, come back, and maybe even remember my name to request my section again. Part of that is being an MC for each of my tables.

4. On this pre-apology thing that a lot of people seem to hate...Like...why? They’re letting you know that they have a need (which happens to be your job to fulfill) that requires more attention than average. You’re not going to be surprised, and now you can fucking prepare to accompany it while also streamlining it to make your life a little easier. 

5. We are like, actually getting paid in tips (something people don’t have to do, mind you) to fulfill the needs and wants of the people sitting at your damn table. People are all different with different needs/wants. Part of our job is accompanying those difference needs/wants to ensure that our customers have a good, relaxing time dining at your restaurant. 

6. I get that people take the above point too far, it happens. Y’know what else happens that nobody seems to touch on? The ones who are a bit needier, notify you of it and are genuinely appreciative when you remember and accompany them. I get a lot more of those than I do needy, ungrateful types. 

7. It’s literally all about your attitude. Want to make more money? Want people to not be assholes? Want to have fun and enjoy your job? Go into it with the right attitude. Have fun while you’re working, it’ll go by faster and you’ll have a lot more of a positive outlook if you, oh I dunno, have fun with your tables. Be more than an order taker with a pulse. This ain’t McD’s, shape up, kiddo.

8. On running coworkers’ food/drinks. And this is a big one for me Y’know that line after dropping shit off where you’re like, ‘Is there anything else I can grab for yah right away?’ Well, that’s you opening yourself up for them to ask you for things. They want mas bevy? Take it down and say you’ll go find their server, odds are that server will swing through their section and check on em’ before you even find them and you won’t have to deal with it anyways. They’re out of ketchup? Grab them another fucking ketchup. If you’re so weeded you can’t spare the minute, you shouldn’t be running food, you should be catching up on your own shit. Oh, they need empty plates and glassware removed from the table? Yeah, that’s called pre-bussing, also an aspect of your job. I’m sure you haven’t been the greatest at it at times in your own section, either. This point is getting long so I’ll move on.

9. 90% of my tables appreciate and find it funny when I throw a little bit of sass back their way. If I get my greet interrupted with a drink order or whatever (which is honestly my biggest peeve in this industry) I respond in kind. Typically something along the lines of, “Oh cool, I like getting new nicknames, maybe Diet Coke could use some more work though. Anyways, how are we doing tonight?” and I usually get at least a chuckle while also reminding them that I am in fact a human being and I run this shit. 

10. Remember, they’re guests in your restaurant, in your section, at your table. You’re fuckin’ in charge of this shit, homie. You’re the MC and they’re your crowd. You have complete control of 99.9% of the interactions you have with guests. Take the lead, don’t let them talk down to you, don’t let them control your mood, let alone how you serve them. You have that job for a fucking reason, and it’s because you’re good at it. Take back the control if it starts to slip.

11. I wanted to stop at ten, but this is probably the most important. 

Hey all, my partner and I have been really slammed this month with paying rent and a half while we move, ridiculously huge amounts of taxes, car trouble, etc. We’re not going to make our bills in the next three weeks, but I know that after that, we will be ok.

We are doing everything we can - signing up for on-call weekends, extra hours, etc at our jobs and selling things we don’t use anymore, we even went to a food pantry to get us through a couple of weeks.

But we are still short and I have been studying tarot pretty regularly in the several months since I last offered readings. Though I am fairly new to the divination community, I want to open up my 3-card readings for some practice and if anyone likes my readings and could donate or tip for them using my blog’s “donate” button, it would mean the world to me. Every dollar helps.

In the same vein, I have made some sigils for myself lately that were really lovely and if anyone would like me to try to design a sigil for them, I’d love to give it a go and maybe present a few options until we come to something you like! I don’t have any fancy digital art tools, but I can do them with calligraphy pens on paper and upload photos of that.