Why aren’t waiters given the respect – or salary – they deserve?

Level 2 l Upper intermediate

1 Warmer
Put these in order from 1 (your favourite) to 5 (your least favourite).

1. ____________________________ a. eating at home

2. ____________________________ b. eating in a fast-food restaurant
3. ____________________________ c. eating in a formal restaurant
4. ____________________________ d. eating takeaway food
5. ____________________________ e. eating at a street-food stall

2 Key words
Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text. The paragraph numbers are given to help you.

antipathy maitre d’ foodie unsociable hospitality

implausible stigma vibe menial arrogant

1. A ____________________ is the person in a restaurant who is in charge of the waiters. (para 1)

2. A ____________________ is a feeling that something is wrong or embarrassing in some way. (para 3)
3. The ____________________ industry looks after guests in hotels, restaurants etc. (para 3)
4. ____________________ is a strong feeling of not liking someone or something. (para 3)
5. A ____________________ is someone who enjoys eating different types of food and who talks a lot about
food. (para 4)
6. A ____________________ is a general feeling you get from a person or a place. (para 5)
7. A ____________________ job is boring or dirty and is considered to be of low status. (para 6)
8. If you have an ____________________ job, you have to work at unusual times of the day so that you do not
have much time to spend with your family or friends. (para 6)
9. An ____________________ statement is difficult to accept as true. (para 8)
10. An ____________________ person is someone who thinks they are better or more important than other
people. (para 10)

3 Find the information

Find the following information in the text as quickly as possible.
1. Which four European capital cities are mentioned in the text?
2. What is the annual percentage of staff turnover (people leaving their job and being replaced by new staff) in
the UK?
3. Which country is described as having ‘famously friendly service’?
4. What are the three main reasons that people leave their jobs in hospitality in the UK?
5. How many new UK workers will the hospitality industry need to recruit?
6. Which country sees serving in a restaurant as ‘a poor person’s job’?
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NEWS LESSONS / Why aren’t waiters given the respect – or salary – they deserve? / Upper intermediate
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Why aren’t waiters given the respect – or salary – they deserve?
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
Why aren’t waiters given the respect big theatre, and if we want kids interested in this
– or salary – they deserve? as a career, we need to show them that.”
Clare Finney 6 Of course, one reason we have the image in the
UK of service as undervalued, low-paid menial
15 January, 2020
work is mostly because it’s true. “The working
1 Most British people could name a successful conditions are pretty bad, and the money isn’t
chef but would find it very difficult to name a great,” Slegg says. According to a 2019 study,
successful maitre d’ or waiter. Despite all our staff turnover in hospitality is 30% a year – twice
celebrity chefs and our love of food, most Brits the UK average – with unsociable working hours,
still think of any restaurant job that involves low pay and lack of prospects the top three
dealing with customers as either temporary or the reasons for quitting.
worst kind of job. 7 You could say the tipping culture in the US that
2 In continental Europe, waiting is a respected fuels the famously friendly service there is a
profession: many kids grow up in their parents’ good thing. However, it can sometimes seem too
restaurants and see no shame in following friendly and therefore fake. But without the tips,
in their footsteps. In Madrid, Paris or Vienna, the wages of most waiting staff there are very low.
says restaurant manager Tom Slegg, “you see 8 In the UK, something needs to change and fast.
60-, 70-year-olds waiting, doing it with skill and Brexit is here, and already the European staff
knowledge.” Slegg himself has managed a the industry largely depends on are leaving
Michelin-starred restaurant, started two of his the country. A report for the British Hospitality
own and now manages a four-star hotel – but “99 Association concluded that, “with free movement
out of 100 people will look disappointed when ending and no new immigration into the sector
they ask what I do in restaurants and I tell them I allowed, the industry will need to recruit an
work on the floor.” additional 62,000 UK workers each year” – a goal
3 This stigma starts at a young age. The British it thinks is “deeply implausible”.
Hospitality Association says there is “a deeply 9 “You can sit around and complain, or you can be
held antipathy towards the sector from too many proactive,” says Zuleika Fennell, the managing
parents, careers advisers and teachers”. “At director of Corbin & King, a restaurant group
school, the idea of hospitality as a profession that is trying to change the sector. “We have
is not even thought of,” says George Hersey, to capture kids’ imaginations and keep staff.”
general manager of a restaurant in London. “You With school programmes, a £30,000 starting
are told to get a degree and in the meantime get salary for senior waiters and regular “rewards for
a job in a pub or restaurant.” excellence” for employees, Corbin & King puts its
4 Few British families can afford to show their money where its mouth is.
kids a good waiter or maitre d’ at work; nor is it 10 Handling, too, is optimistic – but believes we need
something we see much of as adults, in a culture to celebrate a British style of hospitality. We’re a
that prioritizes speed over service. Many of us “young cuisine” and “an arrogant people, who see
say we are foodies, but the pressures of time and serving as a poor person’s job,” he says, but at its
money mean that foodies often choose street best, “British food is about personality, rather than
food or no-reservations places rather than top discipline. It’s exciting, it can be spectacular, but
restaurants. “People want to be fed,” Hersey it’s relaxed: there’s no looking down on people.”
says, “and they don’t want conversation.”
11 Hillary Reinsberg, the editor-in-chief of a New
5 Good service is a joy for everyone concerned, York-based restaurant guide, says: “Service
says Hersey. “The guests get into your vibe and these days isn’t about the formality of a meal –
then you have a better time because of it.” It’s also it’s about paying attention to what diners actually
inspiring: “One of my most motivating experiences want and making them feel welcome. When you
when I was younger was going to the Waterside get it right, it’s like hosting a dinner party every
Inn in Bray, where Diego Masciaga was general night, without cooking”.
manager for 30 years, and being completely
© Guardian News and Media 2020
blown away by Diego’s presence.” As his boss,
First published in The Guardian, 15/01/20
the chef Adam Handling, puts it: “It’s about the
showmanship, the interaction. A restaurant is one
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NEWS LESSONS / Why aren’t waiters given the respect – or salary – they deserve? / Upper intermediate
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Why aren’t waiters given the respect – or salary – they deserve?
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
4 Comprehension check
Are these statements true (T) or false (F) according to the text?

1. People in the UK generally think working as a waiter in a restaurant is low-paid menial work.
2. Careers advisers and teachers often recommend hospitality as a profession.
3. The famously friendly service in the US can be fake because the waiting staff just want you to leave them a tip.
4. Waiters in the US are well paid.
5. The managing director of Corbin & King recommends better training, higher salaries and regular rewards
for excellence.
6. Hillary Reinsberg wants restaurants to be more formal.

5 Find the word

Find the following words and phrases in the text.

1. a four-word verb phrase meaning do the same work or achieve the same success as someone before you
(para 2)
2. a verb meaning treat a particular issue as more important than any others (para 4)
3. a two-word adjectival phrase meaning very impressed or excited (para 5)
4. a noun meaning the ability to do things in a lively and enthusiastic way that attracts attention (para 5)
5. a two-word phrasal verb meaning spend time doing nothing (para 9)
6. an adjective meaning taking action and making changes before they need to be made rather than waiting until
problems develop (para 9)
7. a seven-word verb phrase meaning do something to show that you mean what you say instead of just talking
about it (para 9)
8. a three-word phrasal verb meaning think that you are better or more important than someone else (para 10)

6 Two-word phrases
Match the words in the left-hand column with the words in the right-hand column to make expressions
from the text.

1. working a. manager
2. staff b. food
3. general c. service
4. starting d. conditions
5. friendly e. turnover
6. street f. salary
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NEWS LESSONS / Why aren’t waiters given the respect – or salary – they deserve? / Upper intermediate
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 Why aren’t waiters given the respect – or salary – they deserve?
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
7 Word-building
Complete the table using words from the text.

noun adjective
1. addition
2. success
3. respect
4. optimist
5. spectacle
6. arrogance

8 Discussion
Discuss the statements.

• Waiters are important people. What’s the point of good food if the service is bad?
• It’s better to eat at home.

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NEWS LESSONS / Why aren’t waiters given the respect – or salary – they deserve? / Upper intermediate
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Why aren’t waiters given the respect – or salary – they deserve?
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
KEY

2 Key words 5 Find the word

1. maitre d’ 1. follow in someone’s footsteps

2. stigma 2. prioritize
3. hospitality 3. blown away
4. antipathy 4. showmanship
5. foodie 5. sit around
6. vibe 6. proactive
7. menial 7. put your money where your mouth is
8. unsociable 8. look down on
9. implausible
10. arrogant
6 Two-word phrases

3 Find the information 1. d

2. e
1. Madrid, Paris, Vienna, London 3. a
2. 30% 4. f
3. the US 5. c
4. unsociable working hours, low pay, lack 6. b
of prospects
5. 62,000 7 Word-building
6. the UK
1. additional
2. successful
4 Comprehension check 3. respected
4. optimistic
1. T
5. spectacular
2. F
6. arrogant
3. T
4. F
5. T
6. F
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NEWS LESSONS / Why aren’t waiters given the respect – or salary – they deserve? / Upper intermediate
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