Personal Narrative: My Job as a Waitress in a Chinese Restaurant

The most significant job that I have held in the past was being a waitress in an Chinese restaurant. In the middle of June, I saw they were looking for bus waitress, since I was looking for a job so I asked Ms Ling - the gaffer of the waiters and waitress - to hold the position for me until after my graduation. And a week later as expected I became a?waitress?in the A Hong Hong kong & Vietnamese restaurant.

As a waitress, I worked there part-time. My basic salary was $10 a day plus tips. Tips were paid daily and basic salary was paid every half a month. I get about $40 for tips everyday for 12 hours working from 1:00pm to 1:00am and I have to stand all day except 15 minutes’ sitting down for dinner. I got less tips than others because I’m new here. Still, that’s not a satisfying salary.

The boss owned the restaurant. The boss was from Vietnam, but he could speak Chinese, both Mandarin and Cantonese. He could even read newspaper in Chinese. His business was so good. Sometimes the seats were full even at two in the morning. At first, I felt envy. He must have earned a lot of money from this! But then I felt different.

I saw him in the restaurant all day. He’s always in the restaurant, either upstairs or sitting in his narrow office down stairs in the basement. I knew he has a monitor there but I didn’t think he’s really keeping an eye on it. When I finished my work for the day late at night, he would drive me home and then go back to the restaurant. Then I started to think, though he might have earned a lot of money, when would he have time to spend it? His life was confined in a restaurant which was brim with the smell of food all the time. The smell made me feel hungry at first, then made me feel full, then I had enough o...

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...ork hard and get a lowest wage and live their life. I feel sorry for them. They worked 12hous a day, 6 days a week, to earn some money to support their family. What a life! I was surprised that they were willing to do a job like this. If I were them, I would try every mean to jump out of a hell like that. There was a girl who’s 18 years old. She quitted high school and started to work there one year ago. I encouraged her to go back to school. She seemed interested. But I felt she’s not really going to change her life by getting a higher education.

It’s lucky for me to have parents who can support me to go to school and have a happy life. I see the miserable life of those people and I feel more than ever that I should work hard so that I’m not wasting my advantages. That’s the most important thing I learnt from this job. And it’s good to learn it before too late.