Photo: House of Sims, Flickr.
But while official dress codes may have relaxed nearly everywhere, most restaurant servers are still expected to wear a uniform. Even workers allowed some sartorial leeway -- many employee manuals call for any jeans, any black pants or any red bandanna – are typically issued a standard apron. Uniforms connote professionalism, cleanliness and discipline; all fine server attributes, and all apparently forgotten come holiday time.
Whether it's a show of spirit or a cynical ploy to remind customers there's somewhere else they'd rather be, servers can be counted upon to modify their uniforms in keeping with the season. I'm guilty of wearing knee socks with jingling bells in December and heart-shaped jewelry on Valentine's Day. Still, I'm stunned by what some of my colleagues wear on Halloween night. Are customers really pleased when their servers have fake blood dripping down their faces or elk-sized antlers on their heads?
While I don't begrudge servers who work in party-minded places the right to wear whatever crazy costumes they choose, I can't believe devil horns and green makeup are compatible with sparkling wine and lobster Newburg. To me, such elaborate masquerades suggest a server is thinking about something other than serving the customer (a job undoubtedly made more difficult by the lion's tail swinging between his legs).
Am I being too hard on Halloween celebrants? Should servers get to dress up like everybody else?
10-28-2009 @1:37PM Topher Laidlaw said... Hi,
I work in a Japanese restaurant and at a coffee house. I was expecting to have some sort of costume at the coffee house, but I would never dress up at the restaurant. I was talking to the assistant manager at the restaurant, though, and he asked me how I would be dressing up for halloween. He and the manager encourage people to dress up. I think, as long as the costume does not interfere with serving, that dressing up is fine. I would never have blood dripping off of me, but wearing a suit and a gigantic hat, I think that would be fine.
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10-28-2009 @12:40PM Areyou Serious said... Somebody quick! I must be ill -- I finally agree with this author!
Personally, I'd be happy with Servers dressed as Servers going a Server's job.
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10-28-2009 @1:04PM Gary said... I was thinking the same thing! Finally a post in this series where the author isnt bashing her customers or crying about how tough she has it as a restaurant server
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10-28-2009 @2:49PM Numb said... Yeah, I was waiting to hear something about how customers don't tip enough to cover the costs of the costumes or something absurd like that. That being said - nobody every wore any sort of halloween costume in any of the three restaurants I've worked at. Or any costume for that matter... at best it was wearing something green on St Patty's Day or maybe a tie with a heart on it for Valentine's. I'm really starting to develope a pretty terrible picture of the place Hannah works at.
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10-28-2009 @3:52PM CupcakeKelly said... I went to Dick's (the restaurant where they are- you guessed it- complete dicks to their patrons) a few years ago when ComiCon was in full swing. The waiters had dressed up in mockingly ridiculous "super hero" costumes like Toilet Paper Man, Molested As a Child Boy, and The Vag Commander. I loved it and thought it was hilarious. Other times though, I just want to eat my meal without some creepy guy in a clown mask serving me.
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10-29-2009 @2:20PM Megan said... Whatever. I don't see the big deal. I'd rather have a polite server with a little Halloween hat or whatever than one with a snotty attitude.
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