Talk:Busser

Possible graffiti

"On the other hand they are generally responsible for all assistant activities in the dining hall like resetting tables, clearing dirty dishes from the guest's tables, clearing spilled items, shining cutlery, refilling guest's water and/or orange juice, restocking waiter stations with water, semen and/or orange juice and cleaned dishes like plates, cups, glasses and utensils to be used later." I'm going to assume that that word's not supposed to be there... 212.192.251.36 (talk) 13:20, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

UK?

Busboys don't really exist in Britain, because the waiter clears the table. 81.158.1.246 00:21, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I was about to say the same. Also, I think that this article is really too specific to generalise - very large amounts of it (e.g. precise duties in different kinds of restaurant, proportions of tips) are clearly specific to one culture.

I think I'll be bold and mark this as "in North America...". If anyone else wants to argue that this article does represent a global perspective they are welcome to. TSP 12:52, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Table clearers / cleaners do exist in the UK (I've done the job myself as a student), but generally only in self-service-type cafeterias, and therefore on a far smaller scale than in North America. In the UK, as noted above, at establishments employing waiters/waitresses it is those same servers who clear the tables. -- Picapica (talk) 12:54, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

Etimology?

Does anyone have ideas or information on the origin of this word, please? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.101.140.30 (talk) 16:00, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Not just that, the article refers to busboys as S.A., yet there is no explanation for what that abbreviation means. I've tried to find out myself, but found absolutely nothing. Kevertje (talk) 16:41, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

server asistant —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.85.126.51 (talk) 09:41, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

So DOES anyone know how the word came to have this meaning in American English ? I have never heard it used in the U.K. RGCorris (talk) 18:47, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

Online Etymology dictionary gives an (unsourced) origin date of 1913 from a combination of "bus" and "boy" here. Reader's Digest Asia pushes back the origin to the 19th century (1888) as a shortened form of "omnibus" ("bus") added to "boy" with the claim that the original term was "omnibus boy", for one who does "all the tasks that might be useful", here. Webster's seems to mirror the Online Etymology description of origin here. Geoff ^{Who, me?} 20:08, 17 July 2013 (UTC)

Money

"Bussers receive varying salaries. Generally they get a low hourly wage (often the minimum wage), but also earn tips—usually a percentage of tips left to the servers for that shift. (If they are a trainee, often they receive no tips for around three days. Trainers typically take those tips as their "Training Wage." In a busy restaurant that might be between $10 to $250 for a shift. Therefore, a busser who works alone can make more than a server, but generally makes a little less. Bussers may also wear slightly different clothing to differentiate them from servers. For instance, they may wear a black apron while the server wears a white apron."

That's not true. I worked as a busboy in different places and they ALWAYS pay you the lowest state wage and you never get any tips from the waitresses (despite the fact that they should give you some from their earnings). Basically everybody treats you like a slave and you make weekly as much as to pay for one bill. Terrible job. The very bottom in the restaurant ladder. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.243.165.125 (talk) 07:06, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: No consensus to move. (non-admin closure) Hot Stop talk-contribs 15:22, 13 July 2013 (UTC)

---

Busboy → Busser – Gender-neutral term J 1982 (talk) 21:45, 4 July 2013 (UTC)

• Oppose. No indication that busser is more commonly used than busboy.[1] Apteva (talk) 02:29, 5 July 2013 (UTC)
• Oppose. There is no indication that this term is more commonly used than busboy. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a vehicle for political correctness. Taroaldo ✉ 04:27, 5 July 2013 (UTC)
• Comment: 'Busser' could be someone who kisses people or drives people around in large vehicles, and I haven't personally encountered it. Is the term actually used much? How about "Table busser" or "Table bussing"? —BarrelProof (talk) 21:57, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Busser/buser

Someone changed "busser" to "buser", someone else reverted it saying the source (a Chicago Tribune article) says "busser" was correct, and the original editor changed it back to "buser". The Tribune article from 2007, specifically about the term, says that busser was not in "the dictionary" (presumably the American Heritage Dictionary referred to two paragraphs prior), but still makes the case that the word is used, and spells it with two S's. I also found two sources which were probably not available when the issue was last checked: MacMillan Dicationary and Oxford Dictionaries both include busser. I was unable to find buser in any RS dictionaries. Buser did turn up in Carnegie-Mellon University's open-source pronouncing dictionary, used primarily for computer speech research, but I wouldn't interpret that as an endorsement of correct spelling; it could well be that the dictionary includes common mis-spellings with rule-defying pronunciations to improve speech synthesis software regardless of the mistake. Agyle (talk) 08:10, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Thank you for researching this issue, @Agyle:; your due diligence is greatly appreciated! – voidxor ^{(talk | contrib)} 05:29, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

I corrected the spelling. I have been an English teacher for many years and am shaking my head over the confusion about "buser" and "busser." There are two similar words in the English language: "bus" and "buss." The former refers to transportation (including those who "bus" tables), while the former means kissing. I almost laugh when I see ads for people "bussing" tables, because that means kissing tables! You see "table bussers wanted" ads often, which just goes to show how ignorant so many people are about spelling and semantics. So, we'll keep it as "buser" and if this dispute continues, we'll see about getting the article protected. "Table bussers"? That makes us look dumb. SnoozeKing 02:55, 12 June 2014‎

SnoozeKing, did you read my comment above? Two dictionaries contain the word busser, both defining the term as used here, not as kissing. Bus, the verb associated with mass transit, has both single-S and double-S variants in its English conjugation; bused, bussed, busing, and bussing are all in the dictionary as forms of bus. It would be consistent to think that both buser and busser would be acceptable spellings, but the only reliable sources we have show "busser". Wikipedia requires references to verify information in articles, and you have not cited any for your proposed buser spelling. I am reverting your change, as you don't seem to have addressed the issue of references. If you change it back without correcting that obvious problem, and before a consensus of other editors is reached here, then this issue will require outside intervention. Agyle (talk) 07:30, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

SnoozeKing, please stop repeating these edits. I've added longer excerpts from the existing dictionary citations, to include the precise spelling they use, and added two other dictionary references supporting the spelling "busser". I am unable to find a dictionary that includes "buser". ––Agyle (talk) 07:57, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Busboy. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20131111201025/http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/al-pacino.html to http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/al-pacino.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 19:29, 4 June 2017 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Busboy. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110108022933/http://www.oregonbusiness.com/articles/94-january-2011/4584-tip-pool-ruling-cuts-restaurant-costs to http://www.oregonbusiness.com/articles/94-january-2011/4584-tip-pool-ruling-cuts-restaurant-costs

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 21:37, 27 July 2017 (UTC)

Requested move 14 April 2018

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: moved as requested per the discussion below. Dekimasuよ! 20:37, 20 April 2018 (UTC)

---

Busboy → ? – This should use a gender-neutral term. Gender-specific occupations are redirects to the gender-neutral term. Examples: Waiter redirects to Waiting staff, Bellboy redirects to Bellhop, and Policeman redirects to Police officer. 2601:183:101:58D0:E9B0:BDF:453F:3E4C (talk) 01:47, 14 April 2018 (UTC)

• Move to busser Which is predominantly used in the article anyway. Even if it is a more commonly used term, it would be ridiculous to call a woman a "busboy", so I support the gender neutral term. There could be a hatnote pointing to bus driver to avert any confusion, but I'm not sure that's really necessary._{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 11:32, 14 April 2018 (UTC)
• Busser - It also solves the problem of calling 67-year old man a "busboy". -- Netoholic @ 18:57, 14 April 2018 (UTC)
• Support Busser - Whilst I'm no fan of this gender neutral bs as noted above you wouldn't call a Woman a "busboy" and so in this instance it makes sense to move. –Davey2010^Talk 18:14, 19 April 2018 (UTC)

---

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

steve-o was a busboy — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.195.57.228 (talk) 16:56, 8 February 2019 (UTC)