A woman who spent two years working at Hooters says the job completely changed how she views other people after experiencing both the best and worst sides of customers.
Ella, now 26, worked at a Hooters restaurant in the US between the ages of 22 and 24 to help pay her university tuition and rent. She applied after seeing her roommate come home from a Friday shift with more money in tips than she would earn during an entire week working in retail.
Generous Tips
Her pay could be impressive, especially during football season, when she would sometimes leave work with between $400 and $500 (£300 to £370) in tips after a busy shift. While quieter lunchtime shifts were not nearly as profitable, she said the job ultimately helped her graduate from university without taking on extra debt.
Surprising Training
The former Hooters waitress took to Reddit to shed light on her experiences. Before starting, Ella expected the training to focus mainly on the restaurant's image. Instead, she was surprised to find it centered on customer service and how to deal with difficult customers.
She was also taken aback by how normal the majority of punters were. However, there were some customers who mistook her friendliness for flirting. One man visited every Wednesday for almost a year, always ordering the same meal and never causing any concern. Then one day he handed Ella a handwritten letter claiming they had a 'special connection' and asking her to quit her job so they could date. She said: 'We barely talked beyond taking his order.' Management intervened and later banned the customer from returning.
Kind Customers
Experiences like that one were overshadowed by the kind people she met along the way. She fondly remembers an elderly couple who requested to sit in her section every Friday because she reminded them of their granddaughter. She added: 'They always asked how school was going and celebrated with me when I graduated. Those are the customers I actually remember the most.'
While Ella admits she was hit on regularly, she joked that the endless stream of cheesy pickup lines eventually became more irritating than flattering. 'The "Do the hot wings come with your phone number?" joke stopped being funny after about the second time,' she said.
Assumptions About the Uniform
Looking back, the former waitress says the biggest challenge was not the comments from customers but the assumptions people made about her simply because she wore a Hooters uniform. 'The second people heard I worked at Hooters, some of them acted like that told them everything about me,' she said. 'They didn't see the engineering student working six days a week to pay tuition. They just saw the uniform.'
Despite some uncomfortable moments, Ella says she would happily do it all again. 'It helped me finish school, gave me confidence and introduced me to some amazing coworkers,' she said. 'For me, Hooters wasn't really about the uniform. It was just another restaurant full of young people trying to pay their bills and figure out life. I definitely learned a lot more than I expected.'
