An Olive Garden server recently uploaded a video to TikTok in which she shows off her day’s pay and claims she’s addicted to her job.” Viewers in the comments agreed about the addictive nature of serving.
The video comes from a server who posts content under the handle @_____222_______, and the viral clip received over 166,000 views since being uploaded in June.
In the video, the Olive Garden server holds out a thick, fanned-out assortment of dollar bills to the camera.
@_____222_______ 🙂. #servertok ♬ original sound – Brat
“I love serving ( I work as much as possible so I don’t kms),” she writes in a text overlay on the video.
The video resonated with a number of users, and they shared their thoughts in the comments.
One agreed, writing, “Literally me serving is too addicting.“
Another user, who said that they also work at Olive Garden, echoed, “Olive Garden same. But until they only get soup and salad.”
Someone else remarked, “It’s like playing a game everyday.”
But one user claimed that the TokToker could earn even more money at other restaurants, arguing that there were greener financial pastures out there.
“GIRL. Leave OG you’ll make so much more trust me,” they said, before adding that they used to work at Olive Garden themselves.
Another repeated the sentiment, saying, “Escape the olive garden promise it will be best decision ever.”
The TikToker responded to the suggestion, explaining that she took the job because it was absolutely necessary at the time.
“I was in a pinch and needed a job after moving cities,” the server wrote, before admitting that the Olive Garden was, “def a lot slower paced [than] other places I’ve worked.”
There have been a number of instances of servers taking to TikTok to show off their day’s payout, with some saying that the money gets them “addicted” to the job. Wendy De La Rosa, a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, says that this phenomenon occurs when workers receive their pay at a higher frequency, which, data has shown, leads to increased spending.
She also argues that when workers are paid with greater frequency and increase their daily spending, it leads them and those around them to perceive a false sense of wealth.
“When you get paid every day, you have less uncertainty about whether or not you’re going to make it through the month because you feel like, ‘I’m going to get money tomorrow,’” the professor explains. “You end up spending more on things you don’t necessarily need. You’re more likely to eat out or buy nondiscretionary items.”
However, this does not necessarily reflect the reality of the worker’s pay, which, De La Rosa says may be, dispensed at a higher frequency but is ultimately a smaller dollar amount.
One commenter even pointed out this discrepancy, arguing that most other Olive Garden servers on TikTok complain about not being paid enough.
“Y’all get paid so good but ppl [always] be saying servers don’t get paid anything,” they wrote.
The server responded to the comment, stating, “That’s why it’s frustrating when people don’t tip after they sat at one of your tables for upwards of an hour, when that table could’ve been used for people who will tip.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @_____222_______ via TikTok comment and Olive Garden via email for further information.
