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Job Description-Food and Beverage Server Food and beverage server (waiter) is a rather complicated occupation, not only the array of responsibilities is quite large, but also ones success depends a lot on the personal qualities, since the clientele always has a final say. Within the course of the paper, we will try to come up with the full job description for a food and beverage server, and in order to do so, we will first talk briefly about some aspects of the job at issue, to be followed by more close elaboration on the questions that interest us the most. A career as a waiter has its benefits: you can make tons of money on tips, your schedules can be flexible, allowing you to attack other projects, and you get the chance to talk to people all day long. Landing all of these benefits is not easy.
To get the job, the flexible schedules, and the high tips, you need to be good at it, and being a good waiter can be incredibly tough. Not only does a career as a waiter have its perks, but it also has its downfalls. Being a waiter is work. You will be on your feet for hours, carrying heavy items, and managing many requests at once. While doing all of this, you need to have a smile on your face as if you are happy doing it. This is not a good job for people with high-strung personalities.
You have to be able to multi-task. As you walk down through the tables, people will be calling out for more coffee, a clean spoon, pepper, ketchup, a toothpick, and the tail of a Brazilian Mooney bird. You have to be able to remember and accomplish these tiny things without getting panicked or stressed out. You may have to memorize the menu and prices too, as well as daily specials. You should master your list of daily chores as soon as possible for two reasons. The first reason is that your chores will be relatively easy to do - albeit gross at times.
The second is that if you mess up the chores, you will at least want to prove that you were trying and that you are a hard worker. Going over your chores with your manager or another waiter will help out with the stress of the job. During your first month as a waiter especially, unless on break, you should never stand in a corner doing nothing. If the restaurant is slow there is always work to be done such as refilling salt shakers, wiping down tables, taking out the garbage, or whatever other task needs to be done. If you are unsure of what needs to be done, then asking your manager will never hurt.
It will show that you are a hard worker. Essentially, exhibiting patience, poise, and the ability to control your facial expressions whether too happy, or too miserable is a great part in the image of a good waiter. Smiling and breathing are major tips that all waiters give one another. Dealing with customers can be difficult at times, but if you follow a few guidelines, you should be able to handle any situation. You should never run and complain to your boss or co-workers whenever a customer acts obnoxious. Being courteous no matter how many times a customers kid spills the milk, will be recognized.
If a customer ever starts to pick a fight, then merely say I think the manager would be able to help you better than I can and go get the manager. Friendly waiters get better tips, and you will enjoy yourself more if you are being pleasant. Being a good waiter entails paying special attention to your regular customers. Learn their names and their peculiarities. The most difficult task you will have to master is carrying plates to and from the tables. You should not carry more than you can handle.
It does not matter if you have to make six trips from the kitchen to the table. Your customers may get annoyed, but they will be a lot more annoyed if you spill scalding New England clam chowder into their laps. You will eventually learn the best way to carry your restaurants trays and plates, and you will be whisking around the restaurant- a tray balanced on each pinkie like the rest of the pros. Working in a restaurant, despite its sometimes grueling nature, is a social job. Customers change their minds, lie, do not pay bills, yell, spill things, harass people, and generally act like animals.
Most customers will never think that your service is fast enough or that their food is not hot or tasty enough. But that is just how things work. Much of the time it will not be your fault. The most important thing to remember though is that the customer is always right. A waiter should be able to handle any task of a waiters complex and demanding job. They should be experienced in all aspects of being a waiter such as seating and greeting.
A waiter should be able to explain the menu, and be able to write fast and legible. A good waiter is expected to handle himself in any situation. The bottom line is, if you do not have the patience, endurance, or ability to flash a fake smile, then you should save yourself the time and find a different career. Now, after we have discussed the situation and responsibilities of the food and beverage server in general, it would be much easier to elaborate on our particular case at issue.
The job description itself is rather complicated, besides all the regular tasks a waiter has to do at the restaurant, in the case at issue food and beverage server also have to be able to prepare his / her own drinks at the bar, which is rather unusual. Besides that, the list of responsibilities include: making sure that the clients get their food and beverages in reasonable time, serving customers at the highest possible level, coming on for ones shift on proper time, making sure that walk - outs (when people simply leave without paying) do not occur, cleaning up the space before and after the shifts. Servers are also responsible for their own cash flow, which is still another responsibility that certainly should not be neglected. When there are too many customers at the restaurants, it is servers responsibility to make sure that each of them gets served appropriately and that each of them is devoted enough attention to motivate him / her come back to the restaurant again sometimes.
Those are the main job highlights of the food and beverage server at the restaurant at issue. There is a rather complicated network of relationships at the restaurant, and food and beverage servers have to fit in that network pretty well in order for the whole venture to function efficiently. The shift manager is the direct boss of all the servers when they work at a shift where a particular manager works at that time. Hostess is at somewhat intermediary position, it is hard to say whether hostess is higher at the restaurant hierarchy than food and beverage server, but the position of a hostess is certainly more prestigious. Then restaurant manager is a person that is responsible for the restaurant as a whole, therefore it is the highest rank at the restaurant. The dishwashers are probably the only people at the restaurant that have positions below that of a food and beverage server.
Food and beverage servers have specific duties and responsibilities, and the most important of them is to make sure that the customer is satisfied and will come back to the restaurant again sometimes. The direct responsibility of every waiter is to make sure that an appropriate amount of money is accumulated at the end of his / her shift, since it will have to be checked in to the manager. Still another responsibility is to clean up before and after ones shift, because only combined efforts of most of the personnel would keep the restaurant clean. The level of empowerment given to the position of food and beverage server is not that high.
If any serious problem occurs, they have to call for the shift manager, since he has the final authority in solving most of the problems that might occur during the waiters work. They might be empowered to perform limited promotional efforts, such as giving out to the clients free cocktail tickets, free or discounted dishes, etc. They might also provide the client with a discount in case a dinner is late or really does not meet the customers expectations. If we compare food and beverage servers to the hostesses, it is evident that the latest have higher level of empowerment. The standard of performance for the position at issue can be divided at six components: customer communication, mixing drinks at the bar, promptness at service, cleaning up, being able to solve problems quickly and without managerial interruption, taking care of money flow. Of those, customer communication and promptness are the most crucial, they determine the overall level of performance.
Certainly, it is not that easy to keep up to par everywhere, however those food and beverage servers that are able to deploy their skills in such a way to achieve the highest levels of performance in all the components named would certainly be the best employees in their field at the restaurant. Working conditions and physical environment are rather harsh for the job at issue. 100 seats available within the restaurant mean that sometimes there might be 100 clients waiting to be served. Working conditions are also not that good because food and beverage server is responsible for the task that is not usual mixing drinks at the bar at customers request. Usually that type of job is performed by the barmen, thus making it easier for the waiters to perform their duties.
The job environment implies that the waiters always have to be friendly and outgoing, no matter how hard the shift is, which is not possible for people with certain types of personality. The traits of a good food and beverage server are numerous. He / she has to be easy going, friendly, being able to communicate with the customers in such a way that they would like it. Besides that, he / she should be fast enough to be on time with all the orders placed and with the entire additional job that is required, such as cleaning the territory, counting the cash received, etc. Great food and beverage servers are able to serve up to eight tables simultaneously, which is tremendous taking into consideration the fact that people at those tables all want different things and want them really fast. Bibliography Creel, H.
G, Hospitality Industry and How to Survive There, New York: Random House, 1994. Dawson, R, How to Become a Great Waiter, London: Books, Inc, 1997. Merton, T, The Family Restaurant, Michigan: Zondervan Publishers, 1996. Seblonka, P, Discussion of Chosen Occupations and the List of Responsibilities, New York: Random House, 1998.
Way, A, Working in the Restaurant: What to Expect, Cambridge University Press, 1995.
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Research essay sample on Job Description Food And Beverage Server
