I saved a little clip from an article that made me think, WTF? Tell me if you feel the same. Also, please check out the poll at the bottom of this page and participate in it. If you’re not in the service industry, please don’t participate in the poll. Also, I know the poll is going to display very unscientific results. It’s for entertainment.
So, there’s the snippet. I was doing research on gift ideas for waiters and waitresses because I plan to start having contest on this site and I was trying to figure out what would be good prizes to offer to people participating, who work in the service industry. I land on suggestion #3 and my jaw drops.
We have a lot of discussion on here, about stereotyping people, and this gift suggestion definitely throws up an old stereotype of people working in the service industry. “Most waitresses inevitably drink coffee and smoke cigarettes”. Seriously? Is this true? I mean, I know we always see the homely, worn out waitress with a cigarette hanging from her lip on tv shows and in movies, but is this still the stereotype of a server today?
A little truth: I smoke. Also, my girlfriend smokes. That being said, my girlfriend is one of only three people who smoke at her work (speaking only of the waitresses). That’s only 3 out of about 12 people, or, 25% of the wait staff. At one time she was the only one there, who worked the floor, that smoked.
I work in NH as a server at an Italian Restaurant (not too nice of one… 12.00-30.00 dollar plates). Out of 16 servers employed, about 10 smoke.
It used to be true that the majority of servers smoked but just as in the general public there are fewer and fewer smokers the same is true in the service industry.