Bus Your Own Table

"Work Place"

02/05/2009

Bob Evans restaurants, TGI Friday’s, and Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza are some of the restaurants that have fired busboys leaving clearing the table up to the server (some, but not all locations have fired busboys).

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, things are not always going smoothly. Plates are lingering longer on tabletops. Floors aren’t getting cleaned. And, in several restaurants, spoons are mysteriously disappearing. The theory is that servers are throwing them out with discarded food when cleaning up tables.

Firing busboys (or is it bus persons?) is pretty complicated. Besides overtaxing the waiters and waitresses, restaurants may find themselves in the middle of some legal difficulties. Busboys in some restaurants get $6.55 per hour. Waiters and waitresses get $2.13 per hour and are exempt from certain minimum wage laws because they receive tips. Now that waiters and waitresses are performing the duties of busboys, restaurants may be required to pay them an additional amount since they now have a dual position.

For many restaurants, busboy was a starting position for many high school students who wanted to move up to waiter or waitress status. Restaurants were able to test future servers by seeing how they handled their busboy positions. At times, busboys were able to help and even fill in for servers during busy and hectic periods of time.

I’m not sure that firing busboys is the best way to curb costs in restaurants. Will the time come when customers will need to bus their own tables?


To read the entire Wall Street Journal article, go to:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123302375460718461.html

Or, go here:

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/01/27/recession-hits-busboys/