Working in food service is a job that should only be taken by students and kids that live with their parents. However, there is still a plethora of people that don't get a better job and work food service for their entire life. Here are a few things that these such people have to deal with.
Burn Out: Many food service places have a high employee turnover rate, due to the nature of the employees that work there. As a consequence of this, many food service places are understaffed for a large portion of their business hours, sometimes they are understaffed all of the time. So, what does that mean for you? That means that you have to stay for an extra hour or 2 after your shift to work, it means that you will have to do the job of 2 or 3 people/ do the job of your manager, and it means that customers will experience longer wait times, which causes them to get angry and sometimes yell at you or throw drinks/ food at you like apes flinging their feces. The culmination of these conditions causes many food service workers to work 50-60 hours a week, and if they don't stay after their shift, you can be fired or disciplined at some places for this. If not, you will be ostricized by your coworkers.
Shitty Coworkers: It isn't as bad as working in a fagtory, but at most food service places there are at least a few people that do hard drugs on their shift. I have no problem whatsover with someone smoking a joint on their break, or having a couple grams of Crouton or a couple of beer, as long as they can work as well high as they can sober and no one gets hurt, it's cool IMO. What I DO have a problem with are the people that work in a position that, if they do screw up, they could cause someone to be injured on the job. Not quite as big of a deal as it is if you are working in a factory (then if you fuck up while high someone could die), but still a problem I encounter from time to time with some coworkers.
Also, you will pretty much always be working with a group of people between the ages of 16-21, with 1 or 2 adults sprinkled in (the managers).
Cutting Corners: most food service places have a set of rules that they follow while on shift, IE food safety, cleaning protocols, etc. However, almost every food service does not follow this set of rules, either because they are too busy, or lazy, etc. Now, this is noit always a problem, however, when it IS a problem is when you are having an audit. If you never follow "da rulez", and have an audit, you have to have been working there long enough to know all of the proper protocols. If you are hired into a job, and they do not do a lot of things by the book while they train you, then by the time an audit comes around, you WILL fail.
There are 2 nevers and one always when working food service:
You will NEVER be fast enough.
You will NEVER make enough money.
You will ALWAYS be underpaid.
