8 Key Attributes Dining Room And Cafeteria Attendants And Bartender Helpers Need To Succeed In Their Career

by Olivia Williams

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers facilitate food service. Clean tables, remove dirty dishes, replace soiled table linens; set tables; replenish supply of clean linens, silverware, glassware, and dishes; supply service bar with food; and serve items such as water, condiments, and coffee to patrons.

The core tasks that dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers are likely to carry out include:

Wipe tables or seats with dampened cloths or replace dirty tablecloths.
Set tables with clean linens, condiments, or other supplies.
Scrape and stack dirty dishes and carry dishes and other tableware to kitchens for cleaning.
Clean up spilled food or drink or broken dishes and remove empty bottles and trash.
Perform serving, cleaning, or stocking duties in establishments, such as cafeterias or dining rooms, to facilitate customer service.
Maintain adequate supplies of items such as clean linens, silverware, glassware, dishes, or trays.

In order to successfully forge ahead with their careers, analysts in a survey carried out by U.S. Department of Labor (via O*NET) have marked out the following as important attributes that dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers would need. These attributes have been selected from characteristics and requirements strongly associated with the occupation. They are

Abilities: Enduring attributes of the individual that influence performance
Interests: Preferences for work environments. Occupational Interest Profiles (OIPs) are compatible with Holland's (1985, 1997) model of personality types and work environments. Six interest categories are used to describe the work environment of occupations: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. An OIP consists of six numerical scores indicating how descriptive and characteristic each work environment (or interest area) is for an occupation
Knowledge: Organized sets of principles and facts applying in general domains
Skills: These include basic skills, which are developed capacities that facilitate learning or the more rapid acquisition of knowledge. Plus cross-functional skills, which are developed capacities that facilitate performance of activities that occur across jobs
Style: Personal characteristics that can affect how well someone performs a job

We have listed out attributes which were scored 80% or more in terms of importance by the analysts.

Having a strong preference for realistic work environments. Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.
Attribute Type: Interests Score: 100%

Being pleasant with others on the job and displaying a good-natured, cooperative attitude.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 90.8%

Being sensitive to others' needs and feelings and being understanding and helpful on the job.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 89.8%

Maintaining composure, keeping emotions in check, controlling anger, and avoiding aggressive behavior, even in very difficult situations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 86.4%

Being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 85.4%

Accepting criticism and dealing calmly and effectively with high stress situations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 82.6%

Being honest and ethical.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 81.8%

Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Attribute Type: Knowledge Score: 81%