Salary and Tips: How Much Can a Waiter Earn in Hotels in Saudi Arabia?
There are different types of jobs in the world of professions, some are universal, some are hard to get. And there are jobs with which many people started their journey in life as a worker, got their first salary at this job, their first experience of working with people, their first injuries, and so on. There are many such vacancies, but I want to draw your attention to one of them today, and this is a waiter job. And if you are interested in trying yourself in this job in a country like Saudi Arabia, you can try to look at waiter vacancies there at this link https://layboard.in/vacancies/jobs-in-saudi-arabia/speciality/waiter. On this resource called Layboard, all the vacancies are described in detail and you can easily contact the employer to apply for this job.
Waiter work is a fairly old profession. Ever since the establishments where people came to eat appeared, there was a need for someone to meet these people when they sat down at the table and ask what they would like to try today, for someone to bring their food from the kitchen, and make sure everything was good, and then pay these people. Since then, the job of a waiter has existed. The very concept of people who were engaged in serving tables for rich people and dealt with all issues related to serving food, not including cooking, existed even earlier. Since then, the essence of this profession has not changed much, only minor points have changed over the years, such as the method of payment, popular dishes and establishments. And today waiters can probably be found in almost every country in the world, and Saudi Arabia is no exception. Since restaurants began to appear there, working as a waiter here for foreigners has become a good opportunity to start a career in this country and gain a foothold in order to live.
Features of working as a waiter
Working as a waiter is an ordinary job, and its essence is also the most ordinary – to serve people their food. But as in every profession, there are some professional moments that are good to know if you have never had experience working in the catering industry, or directly as a waiter. Knowing such moments will help an inexperienced worker to be prepared for what awaits him in this job. A small spoiler: in fact, nothing terrible.
Main duties of a waiter
In general, I think it is well known what a waiter does when doing his job. When a guest comes, the waiter must come up and take the order from him, pass it to the kitchen, receive it and bring it to the client and then accept payment for the order. In addition, the waiter is also partially responsible for maintaining cleanliness in the room. For example, if guests did not eat very carefully after them, you may have to wipe the table, or it happens that guests can, for example, spill water on themselves or the table or the floor. The waiter can also help with this. When taking an order, it would be a good idea for the waiter to pay attention to the special requests of the client, for example, someone is intolerant to gluten or lactose, and someone simply does not like tomatoes or cucumbers. Usually, customers themselves clarify such points, but it will never be worse if you ask about special requests. But there are also situations that are not the most pleasant, when the client is dissatisfied with the order for some reason. And this leads to the next point.
Skills and personal qualities required for the job
Despite the fact that the job of a waiter is not the highest paid and is usually not considered something important, in order to work successfully in this position you need to have some qualities that not everyone has. Continuing with the previous point, you can start with stress resistance. Working with people means that not every person you meet in the work process will be friendly and treat you with respect, unfortunately. Therefore, being stress-resistant is very important, since some people can even drive a dead person crazy, not to mention a tired catering worker. You need to be able to negotiate with everyone, and if you can’t agree, resolve the situation so that everyone remains calm. From this it follows that in the work of a waiter it is important to be sociable. And such skills as attention to detail (you will notice that something is wrong with the order before it gets to the customer and he gets upset) and the ability to work in a team (the kitchen staff will not let you down and the manager of the hall will quickly come to the rescue in case of problems) will help to avoid such troubles. Working in society with people is, in principle, almost always more stressful than the average job, but if you are good with people you have nothing to fear.
Physical load
Waiters have quite a difficult job physically. Waiters have quite long shifts – about 10-12 hours, depending on the conditions in which they work, and according to some data, a waiter can walk about 10 kilometers or even more in one shift. This is quite a serious load, and in addition to the fact that the waiter walks so much, he also carries dishes, which also have some weight, and they need to be carried carefully so as not to spill a dish of salads on someone. It is important to be not only physically fit enough for such work, but also to have good coordination. It is also important to make sure that the employer gives you a good rest after such intense shifts, since without good rest, working at such a pace will be very difficult and can negatively affect the quality of work.
Financial side
On average, waiters in Saudi Arabia earn about 2500 – 5000 SAR a month, but it is worth remembering that a waiter’s salary, firstly, depends on the place where you work, and can be more or less than the average, and secondly, waiters also receive tips. And although they cannot completely replace the salary, they will be a good addition. In Saudi Arabia, tips are very popular, and in the catering industry it is customary to give a tip for a waiter of about 10-15% of the check amount, and considering how many orders you serve per day, your tips will be a good plus to your salary. In some establishments, tips are already included in the cost of dishes or are automatically added to the check, and in this case, your tips will be given to you differently.
Disadvantages
Despite the fact that working as a waiter is a good way to quickly earn the required amount of money with a flexible schedule, and usually this job is available to most workers, this job requires a lot of physical and emotional resources, knowledge of English and preferably Arabic. But if you have all this in stock, you are without any problems a suitable candidate to start working as a waiter in Saudi Arabia.