Money for Nothing?
Waitressing in Armenia
By Nessuna
For some reason I always wanted to work as a waitress. While the roots of such a desire are yet to be explored, I was happy to finally find a waitressing job in Yerevan last summer. Of course, I did not last more than seven working days with their crazy schedule and the pressure to quit the job.
Now, there is something very wrong about Armenian perceptions of the service industry in general, and waitressing in particular. Apparently, it is not half as shameful to waste your daddy’s money as it is to work as a waitress.
In fact, one of my friends tried to convince me to give it up, because it is beyond pride “to serve.”
Others were more supportive, but they still never liked the idea because there is this image of a waitress being somewhat “easy.” This was used as an argument by the same friend to keep me away from the job. There are men for whom waitresses are not much different from prostitutes.
And if you ever wondered why Armenian waiters and waitresses do not smile, maybe I can shed some light on the issue. First, it is virtually impossible to find a part-time waitress job here in Yerevan. As a rule, the job starts in the morning and ends late at night. Thus, on the average the working day lasts for 13 hours. With a work schedule like that by the end of the day you are anything but smiling.
Of course, there is a reason for this — namely that during the daytime there are not as many customers, and since waiting staff mainly rely on tips, nobody would prefer a slow daytime to busy evenings. Of course, there is solution as well, and perhaps a few restaurants do hire part-time workers after all, but from what I can judge, it is not a common practice.
Secondly, nobody was really happy with their jobs where I worked . It is hard to be happy waiting on people for 13 hours a day, and it seemed that I was the only one enjoying what I did. The only reason and motivation for the work for everybody else was the good pay — as on a average day you can make around 4,500 thousand drams — and the acute need for money.
They could not grasp the idea of being able to find another job and yet wanting to work as a waitress. However, and while it might sound strange, there’s something about serving food to people. It’s hard to explain, I guess.
It was educational certainly. For example, the owner of the restaurant used to dine out with his friends quite often, and whenever he would order we had to tell the cook it was his order to make sure that it was madeboth fast and of a higher quality. This came as a complete surprise to me. I would think that the owner of a restaurant shoud care about their customer, and therefore his own profit, more than anything else.
Guess not. A customer can wait for his food, and why not compromise on the quality of the food for a customer? And this is a privately owned business, mind you, so it kind of gives you a picture about how bad the situation is at the governmental level. Anyway, looking back at my time spent as a waitress there is a couple of things that I have learnt.
First, I now tip more generously than before, but more importantly, what it feels like to be a waitress in Armenia. Even now, I envy every waitresses when I go out.
Great post Nessuna, and I just wanted to point out to the readers of this blog that you have both a Degree and Masters so it’s interesting that you chose to waitress for a while. In the West, many students and young professionals take up such jobs maybe for the same reasons that you did. Yet, it’s interesting to note the perception of Armenians to waiting staff, especially when the service industry constitutes a great deal of the economy in Central Yerevan.
Anyway, as you have quite a cool position in the NGO sector now, in retrospect, I was wondering which job you liked the most?
Comment by Onnik — March 15, 2006 @ 12:29 am
Thanks. I kind of wish I could balance both
Comment by Nessuna — March 15, 2006 @ 12:37 am
This is an interesting topic Hetq might have looked into…
Comment by Blogian — March 15, 2006 @ 6:38 am
Nessuna, I had a friend who I worked with at a nonprofit in Philadelphia who refused to quit her part-time waitressing even though she had a full-time position. She finally did have to give it up, but she absolutely loved doing it.
Comment by Nathan Hamm — March 15, 2006 @ 8:52 am
To work as a waitress because of financial reasons is understandable but doing it out of your volition and regarding it your dream is an exaggeration. Noone dreams of becoming a waitress not only in Yerevan but anywhere in the world since it is a tedious job with a paltry wage.
Comment by Nareck — March 22, 2006 @ 6:04 pm
Nareck, that isn’t true in Armenia as most salaries unless you get the opportunity to steal are quite low. For example, salaries average $70/month in the public sector and as Nessuna states, a waitress can make $10 in tips in just one (albeit long) day. Work 8 days and you’ve already made more than a teacher does in a month in Armenia.
Anyway, you sound like one of the people Nessuna describes as not liking waitresses, but it’s not true to say that you can earn more doing something else. Like I said, teachers earn $70 a month in Armenia. If a waitress works just 20 days in every month, she’ll make $200.
Comment by Onnik — March 22, 2006 @ 6:16 pm