Learning to Serve: The Language and Literacy of Food Service Workers

Mirabelli begins his essay by speaking on multiliteracies, explaining how people interact not only through text, but also by reading people and situations. Mirabelli talks about how waitresses and waiters are looked at as low-skilled in society. Some economists believe that service workers could be considered “mindless”, performing tasks that take none to little education. Mirabelli’s piece explores the ways of “reading” texts, verbal “performances” and other manipulations of self presentation used by service workers, in hope to gain more respect for service work in general.

Mirabelli talks about to be literate, you must have control of how to use language, thinking, and acting that would be seen as socially acceptable. Research studies has also shown that literacy is a variety of practices specific to individuals or groups of people of different cultures, races, classes and genders. The definition of literacy continues to evolve in society’s eyes. Mirabelli focuses on how waiters and waitresses use language and literacy, to prove that they are not as “mindless” as people believe.

Mirabelli observed how waiters and waitresses interact in small diners, and observed patterns of thought and and behavior. He conducted these experiments at a restaurant that he was currently employed at, and he did most of his experimentation during the weekend, because those were the busiest shifts and considered the most challenging for the employees.

Relating to discourse communities, the menu itself from a restaurant can be considered its own genre. Mirabelli states that to be literate, specifically in a setting like this, it requires more than a ninth-grade level of literacy. It is not just about knowing what the menu consists of, but rather knowing how to modify it, knowing how the food is prepared and taking special instructions from fellow employees or customers.

Being a server does not just require knowing the menu and being able to take a customer’s order, it requires knowing how to properly greet the customers, taking food orders and being able to modify the menu if requested by the customers, and verbally and non-verbally communicating. Although it is your goal as a waiter or waitress to satisfy the customer, servers do have some control over how they respond to the customers.

Mirabelli states that age, gender, race, and class are all relevant to interactions and communication between servers and customers. In a restaurant, employees usually want to create a friend, family like atmosphere, to create a kind and successful environment for the customers and employees. Being a server, you are expected to practice various ways of kindness to your employees under numerous circumstances, even when you do not always want to.

In conclusion, there is still a lot unconsidered that Mirabelli could speak on. For instance, Mirabelli does not focus so much on the power and control of the employees, and their influence on the customers when wanting to place an order. Management was also not taken in consideration, and the influence of management over the workers. Although employees can utilize some authority, skill, and wit through their use of language with customers, they must also with other employees and management where authority and control can play out differently.

The moral of working in food industry though, is that the main goal is to satisfy your customers, so they have the most amount of authority and control. Waitressing has been seen as a job that requires little skill and knowledge to be able to be successful, but in Mirabelli’s piece, he states clear examples of when and how servers use language and skill to be able to create a successful workplace and comfortable environment for the customers and the rest of the staff.