Most “unskilled labor” is heavily skill dependant. You wouldn’t want a chef, builder or plumber who didn’t know what they were doing. And for production: machinists, mechanics and foremen make or break profit with their skills.
So what’s a better name for these jobs?
None of what you describe are unskilled labor. The term I’d use is tradesmen.
Unskilled would be cleaners, grocery clerks, waiters etc.
I’d even prefer “entry level” for that, because it’s not skill-less, it’s just easier to get without prior experience.
Even that doesn’t sit totally right with me. Gotta be a better way…
A lot of places won’t even hire wait staff without prior waiting experience, so “entry level” still doesn’t cover it very well.
Maybe “specialized service work” or something.
That’s already better than entry level, yeah.
Work six months as a waiter, and tell me there’s no skill involved.
Like what?
They carrying of a lot of plate at once sure looks impressive, but I’m sure most people could learn that technique in a day or two. What else is there?
I served for about 7 years. None of the individual tasks are particularly difficult in isolation. The skill is juggling a couple dozen simple tasks quickly and efficiently in a chaotic environment. That is much more difficult than it seems.
Found the non-tipper
You mean the non-American? Indeed.
It’s more of a mindset issue.
I agree. Having people’s compensation rely on tips is a very problematic mindet. Glad we don’t have that here.
I agree but if I went to a country that expected it I wouldn’t suddenly choose not to participate in some arrogant, self serving display despite knowing that all I’m doing is ruining someone’s day/hurting them financially to fuel my own sense of moral superiority without changing a goddamn thing.
And I certainly don’t feel the need to shit on someone’s job.
There’s a lot more to it than “carrying a lot of plate at once”.
First, you have to memorize the menu backwards and forwards. Not just the items, but also the ingredients and the cooking techniques. A customer is allergic to everything in the nightshade family. Do you know what you can’t offer them? Better learn it. Someone has never eaten smoked chicken and is concerned with the pink color of the meat. You better know how to explain the smoking process and how it affects meat color. What is the temperature difference between medium and medium-rare? Are your oysters local? What’s in rice pilaf? Why is it called “she-crab soup” (it’s not why you think)? You have to know all of this and about a million other things, and be able to recall it on the spot without hesitation and with full confidence, every time someone asks.
Second, you have to be a salesman. You need to be able to know how to convince people to buy something that they may not have considered buying when they walked through the door, and you have to know that they will not only thank you for it in the end, but financially reward you for it.
Third, you have to be cool under pressure. You might think you are, but until you’ve worked a dinner rush, you have no fucking idea. It is non-stop, go go go, and you need to time everything just right. You’ll also be talked down to by customers, yelled at by cooks, burned by hot plates, sexually harassed by both customers and coworkers, while fielding complaints and mistakes, and you have to do all of this while looking like you’re having the time of your life. A sour expression or a snarky comment will get you pulled from the floor, and if you’re waiting tables in the US, there goes about 20% of this weeks income.
Fourth, you need to be able to get along with everyone, or at least be such a convincing liar that Ted Bundy would be impressed with your sociopathic people skills. I am not kidding. You have to be able to ingratiate yourself like family with the drunk college bro table just as well as the black church group table. If you aren’t a social chameleon, you need not apply.
I could go on and on, but I hope you get the idea. Waiting tables is not easy, it’s not “unskilled”, and it takes a very specific personality type to do it well. The job has a high turnover rate because most people can’t do it.
The servers in the local resurant here have a small tablet and can just look this up on the fly. No need to memorize anything. Not quite sure about the allergens, but that could easily be solved with software.
I can see how this could be a required skillset for a waiter in a super high-class restaurant where it would add to the prestige and professionalism, but in a average restuarant I’m totally fine with the waiter having a look at the tablet before answering a question about the menu.
I guess being annoying is a skill. But I absolutly fucking hate when people do that. The job is to take the order, not suggest one.
Again, outside of super-fancy restaurants, I’d think that’s actually quite inappropriate.
So the skill to cope with a shitty work environment. I’m not trying to diminish that, it’s a serious skill. But also one that is require in almost every job these days. But I guess it’s particularly important in the gastronomie, I give you that one.
Disagree.
The entire fake-friendly act with a fake-smile is a very annoying American thing. Your job is to take the order and bring the food. After that I really don’t want to hear anything else but “Enjoy your meal” and “Was everything alright?”. Talkative waiters are the worst.
Knowing the menu, reading your table/having people skills, juggling 4-5 tasks at a time.
I’ve never been a waiter, I could start doing the job tomorrow, but it would still take a few weeks to get really good at it.
The waiters here carry a little tablet that contains the menu, can store orders and even does the maths in case you want to split-pay at the end.
That leaves being “somewhat sociable” as the remaining skill. True … I definitly couldn’t do that. I’d probably throw a drink at an annoying customer after a few days.
That, and dealing with dipsticks who think your job is easy
I’ve done one or two night of hospitality work. It wasn’t fun, and I had fairly easy roles. I appreciate it when others do it for me.
Surgery is just cutting people. I’m sure i could learn it in a day.
Try it, then shit talk
Let me ask you this. Would you rather your surgeon deliver your food or your waiter perform surgery on you?
How long was your training as a waiter?
Generally, restaurants won’t let you talk to a customer until after at LEAST a week of training and shadowing. Most are more like 2-4 weeks.
Yes but compare that to a ‘skilled’ profession. 4 year degree, 5 years training under a licensed professional, series of examinations, and continuing education requirements.
It’s not that one is ‘unskilled’ in a vacuum, it’s that it has relatively less time/effort investment to reach ‘acceptable’ performance
Depends. Fast casual, usually just follow someone on the floor for a shift. Fine dining on a cruise ship? That was three weeks, minimum.
So, all in all, roughly triple what your average, “skilled” law enforcement officer gets here in the states.
I did not say you were unskilled or that police were skilled. Everything is relative.
I checked training time at for some of the occupations that OP mentioned. I don’t live in the US so ymmv.
Car mechanic: 1 year. Painter: 1 year. Chef: 70 weeks. Plumber: 60 weeks.
Extra because you mentioned it: Police is 2 years in the school bench and 6 months of on the job training.
I’ve worked for about a year as a waiter when I was younger. Compared to what I do now, there was virtually no skill involved.
I was a waiter in and out for a year. It’s tiring and you can end up exhausted.
But the needed skills were very simple.
Maybe it depends on the type of waiter? I served on the bar and only drinks, which was fairly easy. And of course I didn’t own the place or anything. We also didn’t serve any special cocktails or weird drinks. I didn’t think that a special skill was needed to do what I did.