10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Becoming a Hooters Waitress
What everyone else thinks of Hooters girls versus what it's actually like to be a Hooters girl are two very different things. Cosmopolitan.com spoke with a former Hooters girl to find out what she wishes she'd known before taking a job at the infamous restaurant.
1. Some people really do come to Hooters for the food, but mainly because it's cheap. On Sunday nights, a lot of families come in looking for affordable meals for their kids. The food isn't too expensive, and families are allowed to be loud and messy, and everything is plastic so nothing is breakable, which makes it super family-friendly.
2. Customers are so much more ~*rEal*~ than they would be at any other restaurant. Being in a place like Hooters makes people feel like they can let their guard down and ask us whatever they want. In any other restaurant, you wouldn't ask the waitress why they work there, because you'd assume it's not your business. In Hooters, it was a very common question and made sense as to why they'd want to know because it's not your usual waitressing job. My answer was always, "It's good money." During October to April when tourists would come in to my location, I'd make $500 in tips most nights.
3. You will definitely feel objectified, but you will also develop skills to be able to ignore it. Every now and then, guys would just make casual jokes while placing an order or walking out the door. One time, I had a man who was leaving with his wife who stopped and looked directly at my breasts (which are a natural 34D) and said, "Now, those are too big." I felt like first ripping off his face and then my own breasts after that. But then I reminded myself that I shouldn't feel bad about myself just because of what some jerk thinks. Most of the time, guys didn't say anything, but you felt like you were being undressed with someone's eyes, which does make you feel vulnerable and violated. There wasn't much I could do, other than to call out the guy or laugh at him, which always helped. Our location had a no-camera policy, so patrons were not allowed to take photos or video of us unless we agreed to it, and we also had the right to ask someone to stop filming if we noticed them videotaping another server.
4. The women who work there are all super-empowered badasses. So many of the women I worked with were paying their own way through grad school or nursing school. Of course there were also girls who were working there so they could go to Colombia for cosmetic procedures, but no matter what their goals were, they paid for all of it themselves.
5. The uniforms aren't as uncomfortable as they look. I wish I had kept my old one around for Halloween costumes because they're really comfy and cute. The socks were thick and fluffy, the tank tops were soft and thick and stretchy. The fabric felt good and was easy to move in. The pantyhose were also thick and very tight, so they were warm, and the combination probably did increase the circulation in our legs while we were on our feet for hours on end.
6. This job will put your relationship to the test. Working at Hooters definitely revealed a lot about my then-boyfriend. Even though he was "supportive," after we broke up, I found out that he never talked to his friends about me because he was embarrassed about where I worked and didn't want to tell anyone. No matter how much nonprofit work I was doing, all he saw was "Hooters waitress." I saw it as something I did to support myself while I pursued my career goals, and I worked really hard, but he couldn't see past it.
7. You will be judged for your Hooters past for life. If you worked there once, you will always be judged for the simple fact that you were a Hooters girl at one point. When I was in my early 20s, it seemed so cool, but then once I hit 26, I realized I had to keep that information hidden forever because otherwise I'd feel judged and objectified by anyone I told. Not only did my boyfriend refuse to tell people where I worked, but I also competed in pageants while I was working at Hooters, and some anonymous Internet trolls flipped out on the pageant message boards when they found out I worked there, and said I was a poor role model and they didn't want their kids looking up to me.
8. No one will care if your breasts aren't that big. Before I got hired, I worried they wouldn't hire me because my boobs weren't the size of my head, and if they did hire me, no one would tip me or want me to serve them. But really the girls who I worked with at Hooters were just super sweet, down-to-earth, and just your average girl next door (with breasts of all sizes).
9. Your uniform better be kept spotless at all times. Hooters may seem tacky, but they make a real point of making sure no one looks trashy. And like in any uniform-centric job, you're expected to keep it up, so if you had a tear in your hose, you had to go buy another pair from the uniform supply store in the restaurant and go change as soon as possible during your shift. We also had to change our shirts if we got wing sauce on them.
10. Just because it's a gimmick doesn't mean it's not a business. Hooters definitely looks for strong servers to promote and focuses on food service and food quality just as much as anything else. The company even paid for secret shoppers to rate us on upselling, attentiveness, etc. and if you scored low, you'd have a talk with management about where you scored low and any positive feedback they could offer. Plus, none of the other waitresses want to do extra work, so if you aren't pulling your weight, the other servers won't want to work with you. This is a job you can't do alone, so relationships with the other servers are key. I did my job and I did it well. I aimed to gain everyone's respect as a reliable coworker. As a result, customers tipped in addition to the 8 percent automatically added (at our location anyway, because it was in a tourist area) and managers trusted me with extra responsibility. Boobs or not, it's still a waitressing job and a career if you want it.