Chicana on the Edge

Mentioning the unmentionable since 2004

So tired
written by Regina Rodríguez-Martin
March 29, 2007

So tired of being a waitress. Feet hurt. Feet hurt almost all the time. Don’t like being up late. So tired of being up late.

I’m giving myself one month to find some other way of earning a living. Something I can do SITTING DOWN. My feet hurt so much from being pounded on for hours every day. How the hell do career servers do it? Those are people who wait tables their whole lives, ruining their feet, knees and hips. They’re on their feet for five or six days a week for DECADES. How do they do it? Why do they do it?

I dread Friday and Saturday night shifts the most because they’re the longest and busiest, especially Saturdays. I HATE SATURDAYS! Even if they are the most lucrative nights, I don’t care, you can have’em. On Fridays and Saturdays I leave the restaurant so late. I’m a morning person and (have tried but) can’t sleep late, so I drag around on too little sleep, feeling like crap. I hate working late nights and I will NOT do it much longer.

Who the hell wants to work in the restaurant industry? I’ve worked in corporate, academia, non-profit, childcare and as a musician and I’m telling you: no one in any of those fields works harder than restaurant people. It’s backbreaking, tedious, stressful, physically and psychologically demanding work for everyone: the servers, the cooks, the bartenders, the dishwashers the managers, the hostesses. Obviously I haven’t worked all the jobs in the world, but of all the industries I’ve worked in, this one is the most physically draining. Restaurant people work HARD.

Even the management does. Even the top-of-the-food-chain (within a restaurant) general managers are on their feet all night, putting out fires, trying to calm angry customers, coordinating food and drink orders when necessary, being the person with whom the buck stops. I’d never want to be a restaurant manager of any rank. As late as I get out of there, managers are the very last ones to leave at midnight or 1 a.m. (or 3 a.m!). No, thank you!

Oh, the restaurant industry. I’ve been a server for a brief two and a half years and I’ve had enough. This is not where I belong. I don’t like being up late and my feet hurt. I feel disappointed in myself to have ended up in this sad, physically painful situation. I’m giving myself one month to find an alternate job. Maybe office work or teaching. I doubt it’ll be the dream job, but I’ve reached a breaking point and I just need another job that I can do sitting down!

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