Myca Scaglione

UWRT-1101-002
Olivia Rines
23 March 2015
Applebees Employees Micro-Ethnography
Working in a restaurant is like being in a new world of itself. Every restaurant has their
own unique characteristics to them which that you begin to learn when you start working for
one. Applebees is no different and has those various characteristics that are particular to
Applebees. The main goal of all Applebees employees is to give the guests a great dining
experience and invite them to come back and see them again. As this is also the goal of several
other restaurants, Applebees does a good job at working as a whole. The way I saw it was
basically like a machine and each part has to be working correctly for it to be running smoothly.
The Applebees at Concord Mills employees served as my discourse community for this
analysis. While I observed the employees as they worked I noticed that there are 4 main groups
within the community: Hosts, Servers, Bartenders, and Managers. If I was able to have observed
the cooks a little more than there would actually be 5 groups within the community. Each group
has its own special responsibilities for throughout the work shift. Hosts and Servers wear black
dress pants and black button up shirts. Bartenders wear black dress pants and red button up
shirts. Managers and Cooks basically get to wear whatever they want to wear to work that day.
Just like the dress code is specific to each group the tasks of each is specific as well.

The beginning of a Hosts or Hostesss shift usually begins at 10:30, if a morning shift, or
5:00, if a night shift. When I went to observe at Applebees I observed a Host during the night
shift. They came in right at 5 oclock and the first thing they did after clocking in was walk
around the entire restaurant and get all of the menus to bring back up to the host stand. The host
stand is at the very front of the restaurant right when guests walk through the front door so the
host can greet them as they come in. The Host then checked and cleaned the bathrooms making
sure everything was stocked such as toilet paper or paper towels. The main job of the host is to
greet the customers as they walk through the door and take them to their appropriate seating.
When seating the guests it important that the Host try to stay in rotation which means trying to
give each Server an equal amount of tables. If you walk to a table and when you get there the
guests dont want to see there, bring the guests to wherever they would like to sit in order to keep
the guests happy. Keeping the guests happy goes back to the main goal of the restaurant as
working as a whole.
A Server shift usually starts anywhere from 10 to 12 for a morning shift and 3 to 6 for a
night shift depending on which Servers are opening and closing and if any of the Servers are a
double, which means they work both the morning and night shifts. The first thing each of the
Servers did after clocking in was go up to the host stand and check the floor chart to see what
tables they have for their shift. Once guests are seated at the Servers tables, the Servers
introduce themselves and starts off by getting those drinks. Since Applebees is a Bar & Grill
alcoholic drinks are usually pushed as option by the Servers. After the Server gets the customers
there drinks they then ask them if they need a minute to look over the menu or if they are ready
to order. If they are ready to order, the Server goes ahead and takes their order then takes the
menus back from the guests. I noticed the Server checks on the table while it waits on its food

about twice just depending on long the order takes to be made. Whenever the order comes up, the
Server brings the food out to the table plate by plate instead of on trays like some restaurants do.
The Server then checks on the table periodically through their meal making sure they have
everything they need. As soon as the customers ask for their check or look like their ready to
leave, the Server brings them the check and checks one last time to make sure they have
everything before they go such as, to-go drinks. Finally the Server rings up the check, whether
cash or credit, brings the table their receipt, and thanks them for coming to eat at Applebees. The
Applebees slogan only said by very few ServersServers, I noticed, was See You Tomorrow.
During my observations I was mostly able to watch Hosts and Servers at work, not
Bartenders or Managers. I did observe both as much as I could throughout the shift and I noted
down the main jobs of each. For Bartenders there their main focus is making all alcoholic drinks
for the whole restaurant. They also make flavored lemonades, chocolate milk, and juices for the
kids. The Manager is the boss of everyone throughout the whole shift. Their role is to focus on
each employees abilities enable to direct them in a positive way to achieve the main goal of
working as a whole. During a Managers shift they supervise the other employees working, make
table visits to guests, and expo in the kitchen. Expo means pull food in the window and prepare it
for the Server to bring out to their table. It is important that the Manager get along with Hosts,
Servers, and Bartenders to keep the restaurant running smoothly.
In The Concept of Discourse Community by John Swales he states the 6 main
characteristics of a discourse community. Swales says that the discourse community must
contain each of the 6 characteristics to be considered one. The first characteristic is A discourse
community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals. As I said before the main goal of

Applebees is to keep the restaurant working together as a whole. Everyone works towards
making sure the customers are happy and satisfied when leaving.
The second characteristic that Swales names in The Concept of Discourse Community
is A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members. The
only form of this I really noticed while observing Applebees was that when they start getting
busy they use walky talkys to communicate throughout the restaurant. Both Hosts, all managers,
the bartender, and the person running expo all have their own walky talky and headset. This is
really helpful in communicating with each other from different parts instead of walking back in
forth from place to place to talk to each other.
A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide
information and feedback. Is the third characteristic that Swales states. On the bottom of the
receipts given to customers there is a number to call if the customer wishes to take a survey on
their service and their Server. By completing the survey it enables the managers to give the
Servers feedback of how they work with customers. Usually are manager prints out comments
from the online surveys and hangs them in the back by the kitchen for the Servers to see what
people have said about them.
A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the
communicative furtherance of its aims. Is the fourth characteristic mentioned in The Concept
of Discourse Community. After observing through a shift I really had to go back and think
about things that could be considered a genre. The major genre I found at Applebees was menus.
Every guest is handed a menu to read to order there food from. The order is then written down in
the Servers book which could also be considered a genre at Applebees. The Servers have to be
able to read the orders from their books to be able to put the order in the computer. Inserts that

are placed inside the menus when something new comes out or the foldable placed on the table
can serve as genres at Applebees.
The fifth characteristic that John Swales talks about is In addition to owning genres, a
discourse community has acquired a specific lexis. From being around the employees after
observing them I noticed that they said things I had never heard anywhere but Applebees before.
BOH, back of the house, and FOH, front of the house, are two acronyms often used around the
restaurant. POS is another acronym used that means the computer system we use to put the
orders in the computer. Open Menu Count and 86 are two of the words that I noticed being
used around the restaurant also. An Open Menu Count is a total count of each person with a
menu in front of them. 86 simply means that they are out of whatever they 86. If I was able
to spend more time around the Applebees employees then Im sure that there would be more
words specific to Applebees.
The last characteristic mentioned by Swales in The Concept of Discourse Community
is A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant
content and discoursal expertise. At Applebees there are several various levels of employment
ranking from the top to the bottom. The top three positions offered at Applebees are District
Manager, General Manager, and Assistant Managers. These people have the highest authority
over the rest of the employees and are considered the boss. After the Managers goes the
Bartenders and Servers. Below the Bartenders and the Servers is the Hosts and then below that
the SAs, which means Server Assistant. The higher your position the more experience you have
had working at Applebees.
There are very few things that I would change about the paper. You have detailed every
part of a discourse community and gave an example of each one. One thing I would elaborate on
is a few of the jobs that you did not give the most detail on. On the second page you said that the hosts

check on the bathrooms, maybe elaborate on if this it is part of their job to clean it. You gave one
example for each thing maybe give at least two. You said that the drinks are pushed on customers but you
did not explain how. If you could go back and detail each example I think it would make your paper even
better. The only other concern I have with the paper is that some things could be reworded. Overall the
paper is really good. One thing to watch out for is making sure you have everything in MLA format. I
noticed some of the quotes are missing in text citations. You also did not include the interviews which are
a big part of the ethnography so make sure to put that in. the thesis statement is clear and everything else
is following the rubric.