Servers will eat almost anything, anywhere at anytime. They are always hungry. If a dish gets sent back to the kitchen without being eaten and management allows servers to eat it, the food will be gone in minutes. If there isn't time to eat it, it can sit around and, as long as its free, a server will finish it. Servers are like a pack a wild dogs around free food, barely chewing before swallowing. If it is free, they will eat it.
The reason behind this is servers are notoriously cheap when it comes to food (not when it comes to drink, mind you, but that is another post for another day). Why spend hard earned money on something that can be eaten for free, even if it is cold, old or made incorrectly? Even when a server does not have free food to eat, a server will, more times than not, eat the cheapest thing he can get his hands on. He will wait a long time to order food until it is discounted (happy hour, late night, "on special," etc) before ordering. As a server for a long time, I was the same way. I'd wait until 10pm until happy hour kicked in before ordering my meal, even if I was really hungry. That way, I'd get a $10 meal for the $5 Happy Hour price and a 50% discount off that.
Most servers get a discount of 50% on food items. Most items are discounted, though some restaurants limit what servers can get a discount on, how much the total discount can be and some even limit what a server can order, even if she is going to pay full price. This is something I never understood. Part of the servers job is to know the food- know what goes into preparation, know what it tastes like and know what ingredients go into the dish. Why would a restaurant limit what a server can order and why would a restaurant limit the discount for the server? These are hard working employees whose job it is to know the food and management limits the opportunity to know the food. These are the people who are taking care of the customer and you are being nitpicky about their ordering?
Below are some pet peeves of mine when it comes to employee discounts:
Discounting only certain items on the menu.
Some restaurants limit what can and cannot be discounted. Usually, it is items like steaks and lobster are not discounted. However, how often would servers even order a $22 steak even at 50% off? Probably not very often. Throw the server a bone and let him order the steak if he wants it. Plus, the more items a server is able to order and taste, the more he knows about the taste of the food.
Not discounting on already discounted items.
I understand the thinking behind this- if an item is already 50% off, why should management give a server another 50% off? The reason is the server works hard for you and this is a way to show appreciation to your server. Like I said above, servers are cheap, throw them a bone and let them get some cheap food.
Not giving the server the same discount guests get.
I worked at a restaurant where happy hour meant $5 appetizers. There were a couple appetizers that were priced above $10, so making them $5 was a pretty good deal. However, servers could only get 50% off the original price and were not allowed to order anything during happy hour. Thus the nachos that my guest was ordering for $5 actually cost me $5.75. Another place would sell $17 fajitas for $10 on Wednesdays. The discount policy for this restaurant stipulated that servers could only get up to $5 off any non-discounted food. Thus, to have fajitas on Wednesdays, it would cost me more ($12) to eat than a guest ($10). This same restaurant gave 50% off to all employees who worked at the nearby mall. This meant steaks, burgers, fajitas, salmon, fires, etc. It didn't matter what the mall employee ordered, she would get 50% off. I, the hard-working longtime employee, got less than that- $5 off. How did this restaurant survive by treating the mall employees better than it's own employees? It didn't- they shut the doors and went out of business.
Different discounts for working servers and off the clock servers.
Many restaurants I have worked for have a policy where a server who comes into the restaurant when not working gets 50% off of his and his party's meal, sans alcohol. Anything the server wants is 50% off. However, this same restaurant will limit what a server can and cannot order while working. What this tells a server is that he is more welcome in the restaurant off the clock than on it. To me, not a very good message to send. The employees on the clock should be the most important employees because they are actively taking care of customers, not taking up space a customer might be.
There is an old saying in customer service- take care of the people who take care of the customers. By setting a discount policy for FOH staff that makes servers feel taken advantage of, you are not taking care of the people who take care of the customer. My advice to restaurant owners is to set a fair employee discount policy where no server should felt taken advantage of. Think like a server when creating the policy- would you feel taken advantage of if you were the server? Does the policy make sense when it comes to food that is already discounted? Better yet, ask your servers for help in creating the policy- they will know what is fair and what makes sense.
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