Waiting for a change

The inside story of the women waiting on your tables

"I never wished to be mopping floors, cleaning tables or serving food to strangers with a fake smile plastered on my face but I was left with no choice,” says 20-year-old Mary Lee*, who took up waitressing last month to make ends meet.

The youngest of a family of three brothers and two sisters, Mary studies, works and even pays her own school fees without complaining to anyone. “After completing my intermediate studies, it was difficult to find a stable job. My dream is to study further and one day, become a reputed teacher. But my family cannot afford this dream so I decided to take matters into my own hands.”

Taking Mary’s example into consideration, it seems that waitressing in Pakistan, as a field of work, has undergone a massive overhaul in terms of gender neutrality. What was once the preserve of unemployed young men from the lower echelons of our society has now become a viable occupation for young women to earn themselves some money. Financial constraints and a desire to improve their lives has encouraged many to adopt short-term jobs like waitressing. In fact, for those like Shabana Parveen, mother-of-three, dirty cutlery and leftover food have become a way of life. “My life is to earn for my children and I am not ashamed of what I do,” says the widowed Shabana, who is a tailor by day and waitress by night. The combined income from both her jobs helps pay rent for the two-bedroom house in Shah Faisal Colony in Karachi that she lives in.

Arguably, this trend sparked from a need for female wait staff at functions where the male and female guests sit separately. Conservative families are often uncomfortable with the idea of a man serving a hall full of women (and vice versa), regardless of the type of event it might be. “It’s a matter of privacy and comfort for women,” says housewife Saira Iman, who feels that having a man amongst so many women simply does not ‘look good.’ Therefore, female staff is the ideal solution for segregated weddings and dinner parties such as those held by Saira and her family.

It is interesting to note that what started as the need for female servers has now evolved to female ‘helpers’ - this job description includes decoration, food presentation and even babysitting the children of guests. “Helpers can look after the youngsters while their mothers socialise and enjoy themselves,” explains Akbar Ali, who has been running a waitress agency in Karachi for the past seven years. “Most customers wanted helpers for their events so we thought of setting up a proper service,” Akbar says. “Sometimes, during the busy wedding seasons, we have to arrange up to 25 waitresses daily as each of the catering services we provide to are conducting multiple functions in a day.”

However, in spite of this, neither Akbar nor any other agent operates from an actual, physical workplace. Many of their orders are finalised via online bookings or contracts with caterers. “It isn’t an evergreen business so investing in an office will only cost us a lot of profit,” explains Muhammad Qazi, another agent based in Karachi. The agents and their clients maintain regular correspondence as none of the local caterers employ waitresses of their own. “Whenever there is any event that must be arranged, the caterers simply inform us of the date, venue and number of women they require and the rest is up to us,” adds Muhammad. “Very few of the bookings are done online. The second source is word of mouth.”



Once an order is in, Akbar and Muhammad begin the organisation process. “They call us to explain the type of event, how we should dress and the time we must reach the venue,” says 18-year-old waitress Shazia Ahsaan. “We aren’t hired but called in on an ad-hoc basis.” Some agents like Shazia’s also provide the staff with tips on how to converse with guests and look good while on call. Shazia is also amongst the lucky few whose agents shoulder the responsibility of transportation to and from the meeting point, event venues and even the staff’s homes post-midnight. “The organisers arrange for us to be dropped home safely,” adds Shazia. Public holidays are not given as these are generally people’s desired dates for big events. In the likely event of a large, VIP function, some agents give the staff clothes as well. Shazia receives about Rs200 for a regular event to Rs400 for large, VIP gatherings. “Remuneration is subject to the scale of the event and the profit earned from it but it remains between Rs300 to Rs500 per day,” informs Muhammad.

Of course, there is much these women have to make up for when compared to their male counterparts. They also pose fewer security costs for the agents compared to women for whom, the latter must provide adequate safety measures. “Women are called in for a maximum of five hours which includes travel time. They are also not hired full-time as we can’t pay them on a monthly basis,” says Akbar. Males, on the other hand, are often official employees with a stable income although they have longer working hours and no pick and drop services to benefit from.

But even extra assistance from one’s employers isn’t enough to appease the employee. Sanober Ali, for instance, complains that her job at a local eatery involves much more than she had signed on for. “My job description simply asked for greeting customers at the door but here, I have to serve and clean when someone else takes off too,” she says angrily. “This isn’t what I want to be doing, nor am I compensated for the additional responsibilities.” Mary is also made to work much more than her gross monthly income of Rs12,000 warrants. “I don’t feel discriminated against here,” she says, “But the working hours exceed the pay I get.” Farzana Ali*, an evening worker at a local pizza joint, faces a constant commute to her work and back, losing up to Rs60 on transport out of a monthly salary of Rs10,000 daily. “There is no pick and drop facility for us, no matter what time we finish work at night.”

And yet, logistics are the least of the worries for most of these hardworking women. The rising demand for female waiters has, sadly, had little impact on their social standing. Many of them have been subjected to rude and inhumane treatment from those they serve but they are forced to swallow their pride. “Just yesterday, a young boy shouted at me publicaly because his order was late,” shares Farzana. “We couldn’t tell him that the food wasn’t ready yet so I just listened to him for five minutes, feeling humiliated.” Event helper Naila Asad echoes Farzana’s sentiments, saying, “The attitude of female guests is very upsetting. They sometimes treat us like beggars or as if we are earning by dishonourable means!”

Nonetheless, it is commendable how these underprivileged Pakistani women have arisen to secure their futures, albeit via a career path that isn’t too economically feasible. Only time will tell how far it can take them.

*Names have been changed to protect privacy.

Yusra Salim Is A Reporter At The Express Tribune’s Karachi Desk. She Tweets As @Yusrasaleemkhan

Published in The Express Tribune, Ms T, June 14^th, 2015.