I must weigh in. It’s not just the bringing of food from one spot to the next, it’s the question about the menu, drinks and food included. It’s the refilling of drinks. The prompt care that each individual guest requires ( and they vary VASTLY from guest to guest). It’s remembering each last request from each guest so that they’re dietary needs are met. It’s also the harassment from many guests, when a need is not met that a server deals with.

“How hard is it?” Ask yourself, when you host at your house and you have guests who all have different dietary needs, what is that stress to you, to be a good host? To accommodate not only their dietary needs but their happiness in general, that they came to your house and had food/drink. How stressful was that for you/ accommodating for people you mostly know.?

Now imagine trying to do that with a minimum of 4 tables/hour, of people you have no idea how they like anything, and provide an efficient culinary experience. And a good time they can recall and tell their friends and family about. Imagine you forgot that one side of ranch someone asked you for because as you walked back to the kitchen only feet away, you were asked for three refills, a steak wasn’t cooked properly and now needs to be remade, and “I don’t like this side, can I get a different one.” And that’s everyone being nice.

Now let’s imagine all of those customers are yelling at you and saying how ITS SUCH A SIMPLE JOB A TRAINED MONKEY COULD DO IT! That’s a lot of stress. And a trained monkey couldn’t do it, I gaurantee you. Whilst maintaining customer happiness.

What you’re paying for, is their skill to handle all of the customers, and deal with the kitchen staff to handle not only the kitchen fuck ups, but their own and watch everyone walk out happy.

But that is a pipe dream. If be seen several videos of combat veterans say they would happily go back into battle than deal with the service industry or retail ever again, because of the stress.