Very hard work, Little Pay, Great for Restaurant & Hospitality Exposure, Great Management
Pros
This was a summer job for me, I did the usual busser duties. This job is no cake walk, it's a lot of hard work being a busser, but as long as you do your job well and don't complain, management will notice and they'll acknowledge you for your hard work, at least the Olive Garden I worked at did. Your hours are pretty flexible, you have different hours each week but stay consistent mostly. You can be working either the 1st or 2nd shift, sometimes if another busser calls out, you can work a double shift, meaning more money in your pocket. Even though you're doing grunt work, you don't have to deal with annoying customers. Like I said, if you do your job well and don't complain, managers won't be on your back, they're usually yelling to servers, so they tend not to notice any little things you do like stealing some breadsticks when you're hungry lol. As for the work culture, it depends on who you work with really. If you have good managers like I did, it's nice. Some servers are really nice to you, some are just horrible. You'll learn to see where you fit in. The other bussers I've worked with were hilarious and made the job fun. It's kind of a clique culture sort of.
Cons
Since it's a lot of hard work, pay is very little. I was paid like 7.50 an hour plus 10% tips from each of the servers. This is a very basic job so obviously the pay rate is low. However, a portion of your bread and butter are the 10% tips from servers. So you have to make sure you turn those tables over quickly once customers are done eating, so servers can get new customers seated. Most servers are greedy, they don't really give the full 10% tips you deserve after bussing your butt off helping them make their tips, but I've met some that were generous and awesome to work with. Since you're a busser, servers think they're above you but honestly, you're making a lot more than they are. Servers on average make $2-3 an hour, so tips is like 90% of their income, so that 7.50 an hour isn't too bad.
