Opinion: Much to be learned from working in food service

Brian Morales-Marroquin, Staff Reporter

In August 2021 I started working my first job at a Guatemalan restaurant not far from where I work now. 

I was so excited to start working, as I tried to fit in as many hours as I could a week. I learned the basics of working at a restaurant, and the staff were pleasant to work with. 

But after a couple months, I found out about a new job. I would be getting paid $4 more an hour, and it would be more hours. While I thought about working both jobs, I realized that just working as much as I can at the new job would benefit me more. I didn’t want to quit over the phone, so when I officially got the new job at a different restaurant, I went to my workplace and told them I was quitting and why. 

And when I was doing so, I found myself feeling a little emotional. These were the first people to give me a job when nowhere else was accepting my applications.

Currently, as I work full-time, I am confident in saying I feel like I excel at my job. I get constructive feedback from customers daily. My boss has had a big impact on my work at my new restaurant, and he is a very hard worker alongside his brothers who own the restaurant with him. While being in school and working a full-time job, he has shown me the way to balance my life. He takes his work very seriously and he tries to teach us about life as an adult through the work. 

If my coworkers and I are not doing our job and fooling around even for a second, he sends us home, not to punish us but to teach us a lesson. 

And it has. 

He always says work is simply for work. You come and do what you need to get the job done and put money in your pocket. My boss cares about the wellbeing and joy of workers more than anything else. 

At our restaurant my boss holds trivia night for families on Tuesday nights and karaoke on Thursday nights. My boss mentions how he wants the restaurant to feel like home for all of his customers, and he does make it feel that way. if someone wants something cooked a certain way he’ll do it however they want no matter if we have that dish or not he’ll make it. 

I think this shows how much my boss cares about people’s well-being, and how more employers should act like him. By working in the restaurant business, I’ve learned many things. I’ve learned how to deal with all kinds of people, how to balance out my time, work ethic and so much more. 

But by working at my current job for my current boss, I’ve learned a lot about owning a restaurant as well. He always lets me know that if I ever want to learn more about owning a restaurant for the future that he’d always be there to help guide me. 

Not only has this job given me the opportunity to make a very good amount of money to save up for college, but I’ve also learned so much that I will take with me in my future.