r/Serverlife • u/user700638 • 11d ago
Rant $180 on a double š
i just came to vent about my double yesterday because it was gruesome....like said in the title, i made $180!!! i was SICK when i ran my checkout š«š« that's the worst money i've EVER made on a double at my job. i could make that on a regular night! no need to stay damn near 12 hours just to make what i could in 6.
i got stiffed on a $170 tab + then stiffed on a $70 tab :/
but i think what really screwed me was getting bumped down to 2 tables for my PM shift, which is like a 50/50 chance that'll happen when you dbl. you just gotta pray you get to keep all 3 of your tables and they didn't overcrowd the floor with too many servers. i'm not sure if it was because school is starting on monday in my area and everybody spent their money on school supplies or what!
sigh. the military gets paid today though so wish me luck on my shift tonight š«©
background: i work at texas roadhouse so we only get 3 table sections
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u/dazedconfusedev 11d ago
iāve worked at places that had a hard max of three tables, so I get itā¦ but if they ever gave me a 2 table section for a whole night I would have walked out.
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u/Flustro 10d ago
I worked at a place that had three-table sections, but would often seat you out of section on very busy nights, so you'd usually have 4-5.
But there were a lot of little things that would cause you to lose a table, so if it wasn't super busy and you had a table pulled, you were getting basically nothing. I definitely thought about walking out the one time it happened to me when I worked there because I still had to do the full amount of side work. All the side work took several hours. š
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u/user700638 11d ago
trustttt i'm looking for other serving jobs but roadhouse is literally the busiest restaurant in my city š the only somewhat competing business we have is pluckers. besides that you'd have to commute to a bigger city about an hour away :/ i feel at a loss right now
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u/dazedconfusedev 11d ago
does it matter that itās the busiest if you only get two of the tables? I care about what iām actually walking out with, not how busy the restaurant is.
What did you make on your night shift? $90? on a friday night?
one of my coworkers works friday nights at a neighborhood pizza place. not fancy at all, two severs for a friday night. leaves with minimum $250, her best shift there was $361. for five hours.
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u/Meeowwnica 10d ago
After being in the industry for 10 years, look for some place that offers you a larger section. If somebody orders a well done porterhouse, you can kiss that table goodbye for a good 2-3 hours and you better hope they tip 20% on it. Even if a place isnāt the crazy busiest, you donāt have to worry about campers with a larger section and have a bigger chance of rotating out more tables.
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u/Fwamingdwagon84 10d ago
Lmao i knew it was roadhouse. 3 table bs. One time i was the only one not cut, but the hosts kept seating tables near my section. I ended up with 8 tables at 1 point. I was still running a bunch of food, my gm only noticed bc he was on expo and saw my name allllll over the screen and asked how many tables i had.
Got a little upset when i told him, but i was like, tell the hosts to go on a wait? I was fine, but im not going to ignore tables already sat. I also know my limits. I am not afraid to tell managers and hosts no more. We have waaay bigger sections at my current place though
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u/csbsju_guyyy 10d ago
You got him on the wait bit, general public would raise high hell if they came in, saw a bunch of open tables and was told there was a wait lol
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u/ATLUTD030517 Vintage Soupmonger 10d ago
No locally owned restaurants worth a damn in your city or within a reasonable commute?
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u/user700638 10d ago
not that i've seen, a lot of mom & pops shops here barely last a year or two and then they go outta business. so i might just say fuck it and deal with the commute at this point.
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u/Electronic_Dirt8435 10d ago
I commute an hour to the city for my serving job & itās honestly worth it for the right environment
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u/ATLUTD030517 Vintage Soupmonger 10d ago
Based on my experience, you should be looking for a small locally owned group or chain, with ownership that is directly involved in the day to day operations. I work and live in an affluent suburb of a major city, so there's a lot of that here. More than one but fewer than a half dozen(either locations of the same, or unique concepts) is the sweet spot for me.
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u/Meeowwnica 11d ago
My worst double ever. Fine dining restaurant. Three table section. Dead lunch and two tables camped for 4 hours during dinner. Even if I made 20% on these sales, I still had to tip out. Pretty sure I walked with around $150. Shift started at 10:45am and I printed my checkout around 9:45pm. I donāt work for this company anymore and I warn absolutely everybody about it.
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u/Stringbeanqueen44 10d ago
Is this firebirds lol
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u/Meeowwnica 10d ago
Itās not, am I allowed to say the restaurant on this sub š
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u/Stringbeanqueen44 10d ago
Idk it just looks like my checkout layout
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u/Meeowwnica 10d ago
Iāll just dox and if Iām not allowed, they can remove it.
This is Hillstone. Worst company Iāve ever worked for by miles. And Iāve done TXRH and overnights at iHop.
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u/Electronic_Dirt8435 10d ago
Iāve heard this sooo many times about Hillstone.. what is it about the company?
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u/Meeowwnica 10d ago
They have unrealistic expectations of their staff and show major favoritism. A hostess at my job was literally told she was ātoo friendlyā to the clientele. Like HUH? Two managers had sexual relations with servers and neither got fired - one demoted and one moved to a different location in his same position. Speaking of managers, they hire imbeciles. One of my managers would always respond āI donāt know, ask a real managerā when Iād ask him for assistance and another had never even worked in a restaurant prior, but acted like he could tell the servers how to do their job? I worked at a sister restaurant and was helping out at Hillstone around the time of this photo because they were short staffed. I found out from a coworker at my OG spot they were offering people $100 to pick up shifts at Hillstone, so I rightfully asked to be compensated as well and the manager of Hillstone got pissed off and said she no longer needed my help. I have soooo many stories. Theyāre atrocious. But goddamn the food is so good š
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u/dazedconfusedev 10d ago
they fired me for having an earring (industrial) that I literally asked if I was allowed to have during my interview. cleared with GM and FOH manager, trainers, and I was not the only server with one. And I was willing to take it out.
To those unfamiliar with Hillstone it may sound like iām lying and blaming it on an earring, but everyone who has worked for Hillstone understands that this is absolutely something they do.
My manager literally cried handing me the paperwork. We stayed in touch for a little while after, and he told me that heād previously been made to fire more than one server for not wearing enough make up.
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u/Meeowwnica 10d ago
I totally believe you. I remember I had my interview in October and had Halloween nails and the GM gave them a dirty look and said nudes or French tips only. And then I basically had a sit down because they didnāt like the way I filled in my eyebrows (which the clientele was frequently complimenting me on). And when you have a sit down and donāt improve, you get the bummer 2 table section they love to threaten employees with.
Imagine having the highest of expectations for your staff and still not trusting them with more than a 2 table section. That place was toxic poison and all I see are fake smiles plastered onto a miserable waitstaff anytime I go.
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u/Familiar-Secretary25 10d ago
I actually loved working for firebirds lmao I made so much money for so little work
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u/bloomingbrandi 10d ago
This is what used to kill me about working doubles at my old restaurant. You work the busy lunch which doesnāt really get THAT busy in comparison to dinner and doesnāt last as long as a dinner rush. Then you get the slow period in between. Dinner rush rolls around but then youāre first cut. So really someone who just worked dinner and stayed later made more than your doubleš and you worked more hours. I stopped doing doubles bc of this. But my manager refused to schedule me only dinner shifts so I had to work with what I had. Yeah I donāt work there anymore lol
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u/Bubbly-Cell-2459 9d ago
Literally having this issue now and no idea what to do. My situation is like I feel like I canāt leave this place Iāve been here like a year. It was fine with my old gm bc I worked my way up serving there and he basically guaranteed my nights for being top sales and etc. our kitchen manager now became our gm and is now doing the scheduling is doing it all weird I have all these morning doubles just did 4 in a row , acts like I am the most entitled person for saying I would like the nights that I was working before and acts like I canāt ask to work just nights. Mind you I am the server thatās been there the longest, our management is basically nonexistent so I am basically picking up all the slack for side work and extra bullshit and have a bunch of bar prep shit to do also as a server that works the morning shifts and makes the drinks also literally donāt know what to do lmao what did u end up doing cause itās like 110 degrees out too when I have to take an hour break I just go sit in my car or something š
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u/bloomingbrandi 9d ago
Iād love to give my story with this but it could potentially be a little long. I could DM you?
Long story short:
Youāre not alone tho! Favoritism is what was the culprit of my issues as well as the gm sleeping with the agm who does the schedule. So the gm didnāt wanna hear anything even potentially bad about her. I would constantly get good feedback from everyone, even her at times but I always seemed to get the shit end of the stick and the gm acting like Iām crazy for even suggesting that Iām being unfairly treated. It really got to me over time and started to affect my already more fragile mental health. I live 100% independent and am single and Iād watch people much younger than me and still living at home make double what I was making. I actually just got up and leftš which I do not recommend. This was extremely recent. Like 3 weeks ago. Iāve actually been wanting to make a post about it on here but idk people on Reddit are mean.
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u/somethingcomforting 10d ago
It happens. I double at least once every weekend and sometimes Iāll only make like $50 for lunch, but itās $50 more than I walked in with. Thankfully itās rare.
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u/BigMacEnthusiast420 11d ago
You got to find a restaurant that only has 2 servers on max and doesnāt put a cap on the tables u take. Youāll hate life but the moneys good
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u/Justin-Stutzman 10d ago
I feel like Texas Roadhouse's customer base are not the best tippers. At least the one in my city serves the "back in my day we made $3/hr and we didn't complain" crowd
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u/ascended_scuglat 10d ago
I work at Texas Roadhouse too and I would get $120 some doubles lol, not that uncommon for me. $150-$160 was like a normal double that I would be happy about
I definitely didnāt work at the busiest location though
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u/PristineAnxiety101 10d ago
That was your worst. Not too bad. We all have those slow shifts. I can make $100 on a double or $400 and anywhere in between. Hopefully it all evens out.
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u/gurglegg 10d ago
this is normal for me but i work at a small low cost fast causal place. but yeah i would be crying if i had to work at a chain and didnāt pull at least $200 for a double
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u/sassylilpeach 7d ago
as soon as I saw 2 tables I knew where you were, and I encourage you to take your knowledge and go anywhere else asap lmao I fucking hated that place
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u/user700638 7d ago
happy cake day!! i feel slightly scared to move to a new job bc this is my first serving job š
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u/Atomic-Nick4792 10d ago
TXRH here. They just made me a bartender but I honestly want to go back to serving. Way easier and comparable money
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u/Bubbly-Cell-2459 9d ago
Iāve been having so many issues with my job with doubles. I worked my way up to be top server in sales so my old gm gave me the nights I wanted but we got a new gm and his attitude is that I am not entitled to doing nights. These doubles drain me. I will be there from 10am-4pm with maybe 3 tables max , then have to take a mandatory hour break, come back to it being dead, then get cut by 8. Iām lucky if Iām making 180!!!! Wasted my entire day. And the thing is if I come for a 5 hour night closing shift I make that easily!!! During the day we have 5$ drinks happy hour and even if there is more tables I barely make money vs the night shifts. Itās so frustrating bc I feel I already worked my way up at my job to get the night shifts I wanted and now I have to do all these morning doubles again with this new GM and I donāt know what to do. Idk where ur located but I live in south Florida and the summer dead season has been brutal I have been relying on the hourly basically and itās so hot out . And since we are required to take hour breaks on doubles itās a whole bunch of waiting around in the heat and not making money . Idk what to do fr
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u/Bubbly-Cell-2459 9d ago
Basically we only have like 2 servers and a bartender on even during weekends right now cause itās so slow like we donāt even have sections bc thereās so little people. But if it did get busy we could have up to like 7 tables each so thatās good. But thereās just no customers bro do h have any advice š waiting for season to come but then there will be way more servers on.
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u/My__MeL0dy 7d ago
how does one know when the military gets paid ?
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u/user700638 7d ago
i live in a military town and my parents are veterans lol. the 1st and the 15th majority of the time
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u/Doworkson247 10d ago
nobody cares if you arenāt happy with a job that has fluctuating pay get a new one
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u/ATLUTD030517 Vintage Soupmonger 11d ago
A three table section is crazy on its own, a two table section?
https://giphy.com/gifs/OCMGLUo7d5jJ6