Not officially, of course.  But servers at restaurants often labor under more rules than a slaughterhouse worker. Well, definitely more than a slaughterhouse worker actually follows.

I mention this because of Bruce Buschel’s latest post on his delightful Start-Up Chronicle blog for The New York Times. (If you haven’t read his posts yet on starting up a seafood restaurant, do yourself the favor, particularly this self-deprecating masterstroke.) In his latest post, Buschel lists 50 of the 100 things that restaurant staffers should never do. It’s a tough list, and I’m not offended by it for one simple reason: He’s the boss. He can make his employees do whatever he wants.

Some of the don’ts on Buschel’s list:

Read More “Servers May Be the Most Regulated Workers in the Country” »

As shown in this CBS Early Show report, London’s Inamo is among the first restaurants to install a table-top ordering system, which would appear to make waiters and waitresses obsolete (or at least turn their skill set into something resembling an IT person’s). I personally loathe the idea. I crave real human interaction at the dining room table. I get enough face time with the stupid computer at work.

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When restaurants can’t afford to pay busboys minimum wage, you know things are bad out there. The Wall Street Journal reports today that at least one major chain (Bob Evans) and a few franchisees from another (T.G.I. Friday’s) are axing the folks who clean up after us in their restaurants. It’s putting the squeeze on waiters and waitresses who already have to cover too many tables.

Reporter Janet Adamy writes:

“The busser is a luxury that, in this environment, is very difficult to justify,” says Mark Godward, president and founder of SRE, a Miami consulting firm that has advised several restaurants to cut busboys.

Read More “WSJ: Busboys Are the Latest Victim of the Poor Economy” »

The standard thinking (well, my thinking) about the U.S. economy has been that it’s mostly shedding white-collar jobs, you know those high-salaried, middle-management, egg-sucking gigs that stifle the life out of every company. A parallel thought to that (my) standard thinking is that, should you be one of those egg-sucking middle managers who gets the ax, you can always go find a job in the hospitality biz, which is always hungry for more and better workers.

Not anymore.

Today’s Wall Street Journal (I swear to god, I read other papers too!) reports that the “restaurant industry, one of the largest U.S. employers, is experiencing its longest period of job losses on record.”

How bad is it for the restaurant industry?

Read More “Just Get Laid Off? Don’t Look at the Restaurant Biz to Save Your Ass.” »