Jan. 13, 2026

Episode 8: My Feet Hurt! - The Foundation of Service - Why Your Feet Matter More Than You Think

Ask any server what hurts most after a double shift, sometimes it's their heads from the craziness of the day but generally it's their feet! Your feet are the unsung heroes of the service industry - carrying you through endless hours of standing, pivoting, rushing, and somehow still smiling through the pain. In this episode, I'm talking about the body part that literally keeps us going: our feet. From finding the right footwear that actually holds up to 12-hour shifts, to that one kind table ...

Show Notes
Transcript

Ask any server what hurts most after a double shift, sometimes it's their heads from the craziness of the day but generally it's their feet!

Your feet are the unsung heroes of the service industry - carrying you through endless hours of standing, pivoting, rushing, and somehow still smiling through the pain.

In this episode, I'm talking about the body part that literally keeps us going: our feet. From finding the right footwear that actually holds up to 12-hour shifts, to that one kind table who took one look at me limping and immediately offered sympathy, to the surprising ways restaurant layout and your own body mechanics can make or break your foot health.

We'll cover:

The shoe brand that this server swears by
How restaurant flow can make or break your feet
That magical moment when a customer actually notices you're human and hurting
The small adjustments that made a huge difference in my daily pain levels

If you've ever hobbled to your car after a shift wondering if your feet will ever recover, this episode is for you. Because taking care of your feet isn't vanity - it's survival.

Perfect for servers and hospitality workers dealing with chronic foot pain, anyone who works on their feet all day, restaurant managers looking to improve employee wellness, and people curious about the physical toll of service work.

Don't forget to tip your favorite waitress! Click on the link to help out the podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/bitterwaitress

WEBVTT

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Hi, I'm Yasmin, and I'll be your server today.

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I'm a full-time waitress at a casual dining restaurant.

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I'm on foot for 10 hours a day, and I serve hundreds of customers each week.

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And these are my customer service stories.

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Hey everyone, thank you so much for joining me today.

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It is a very special episode because we are going to be talking about the thing, the body part that waitresses and waiters and bartenders and all our customer service folks need the most, which is our feet.

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And as many of you know, we spend hours and hours running around on foot, waiting for tables to finish eating, going back and forth from the kitchen with plates and drinks and what have you, and it is exhausting.

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So this story is about not a terrible customer.

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Actually, these are extremely sweet customers.

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They're regulars of mine.

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They're in the restaurant every couple of months.

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Um, it's a mother and daughter, and they are just lovely people, actually.

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So, not a horror story today, but this story is all about when your shoes do you dirty and they can no longer support those just all those steps that you put in them each and every day.

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I have to tell you, my favorite brand of shoes for um for serving, my serving shoes are sketchers.

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Um, we have to wear anti-slip shoes because it is so greasy in the kitchen.

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We have a lot of um chicken grease back there, oil from the fryers, um, and it can get quite slippery.

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So it's important that everybody's wearing the proper footwear, and on top of that, you obviously have to get shoes that are comfortable because, like I said in my intro, you hear it with each and every episode.

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I'm on foot for like 10 hours a day sometimes, and it can be so painful when I get home.

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I'm just hobbling around, I'm pretty much useless because I have to put my feet up after a long, long day.

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So this question goes out to all the listeners.

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What is your favorite brand of footwear in serving or bartending or any customer service job?

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Like, do you have a favorite brand?

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Is it a specific kind of shoe for all the ladies?

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Um, are you required to wear high heels?

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Which um, you know, can actually be quite painful after a really, really long shift.

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Um, and if you are wearing heels, what do you do to protect your feet?

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Drop it in the comments.

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I would love to hear about it.

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But um back to my story.

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Um, so I wear sketchers and they're these anti-slip um shoes.

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It is the same shoe I've been wearing for years and years.

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Excuse me, it is the same brand.

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I just I don't I don't know why.

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It's the same model.

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I go in every time my shoes like are at the end of their life.

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I go in and buy the exact same ones.

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I don't know why.

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They're easy to break in, they're reliable.

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I've never had issues with them.

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I don't get blisters when I'm trying to break them in.

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So they're just in my mind, they're the perfect shoe.

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They're crazy expensive, but they are quality, which is I think super important, especially in this line of work.

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And so the day in question, um, it was just for me one of those days where it was very evident, I need new shoes, I need new footwear.

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This is getting excruciating.

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I can no longer walk around this restaurant.

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Um, the restaurant is um is tiled and underneath the tiles or concrete, and then inside the kitchen it's like like walking on concrete.

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So it's um, you know, some some restaurants have some a little bit of padding, a little bit of cushion with the carpet, not us.

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So it hurts especially more when the shoes are at the end of your life.

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And so these customers who are super sweet, very lovely, I walk over to them and my feet were just killing me.

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Like it is the kind of it's the kind of pain where um how do I put this?

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You basically want to throw up.

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Like, have you have your feet ever hurt so much that you just you're like okay, I just I'm I'm gonna puke.

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This is this is too hard for me.

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I can't do this anymore.

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These shoes, I've gotta take them off.

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I need to put my feet up, and you don't even need to be like in customer service, you don't need to be a server, or even like let's say some of um uh you know nurses and doctors that are running around a hospital on foot all day, like any kind of work where you're on foot.

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Or if you're a female and you uh you buy cute shoes, that is also a trap.

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Cute shoes equal pain, like just forget about it.

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Um have you ever, I guess for for all the women who just buy like these like adorable shoes, they're like, Oh, I can't wait to wear them, and you throw them on, and you just you're like, Oh my god, 10 minutes into it, you're like, turn the car around, I'm I'm not gonna last the evening in these shoes.

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This is awful, like that kind of pain.

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That's what was going on, and I didn't even walk up to the table, and the mom was so cute, she's like, Something's wrong, isn't there?

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And she just she's so cute, I love her, and it's just uh I don't know.

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I just I love guests that you know, of course, these ladies are regulars, but you know, they actually have concern for you, you know, people who are genuine and know that you're a human being and you're not just there just to go fetch them their food, like that's not the mentality, they're just so sweet, and she's like, something's wrong, what's wrong?

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And I'm like, My feet hurt.

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I was just like a little kid.

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I just it was like that bad, and it was the end of my shift.

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I'm like, I think they were one of my last tables too, so it was like I was it was done, like I was done for the night, and um, I'm like, my feet hurt these shoes.

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I just I need new kitchen shoes, it just feels like I'm walking on concrete all day long, and um I didn't know it at the time, but the daughter, she's like, Oh yeah, you know, I also um I also serve and I work at she told me it was like a family-owned little Italian restaurant, and she's like, I hear you, I understand.

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And then the mom was like, you know, I have plantar fasciitis, and I understand, like it.

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She's like, if it I can't wear anything other than running shoes, otherwise I'm in trouble.

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So they were so accommodating and so lovely.

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And at the end of the meal, they even like, I mean, like, it was it was two meals that were pretty inexpensive that they got, um, and a couple of I think soft drinks.

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So it wasn't like that expensive, but they tipped me like$15, and they were just very lovely people.

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So uh I guess I guess my whole thing is here is it's nice.

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It's nice when people view you as a human being who goes through pain, who you know is you know, suffering a little bit, doing this job sometimes, and and footwear, man, footwear, it can really like it can really like mess you up.

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If that footwear is wrong, forget about it.

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Go out and buy yourself new shoes immediately.

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And here's the thing, okay, with my sketchers.

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Like, I love sketchers.

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I want to tell you a story about sketchers.

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So, um, this is before I started waiting tables.

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Um, this was like 11 years ago.

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It was while I was pregnant with my son, and I for some reason, like everybody's pregnancy is different, but in my pregnancy with my son, that pregnancy, whoo wow, my feet were swollen.

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Like I hit seven months pregnant, and my feet just look like like slippers that were permanently affixed to my feet, like they were just ginormous, just these swollen, um, just elephant feet.

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I I was so sad looking at them, and then on top of that, it just it was so painful, and I would elevate them at night time and the swelling would go down, and it wouldn't take much, like I would be in the car just like sitting for an hour, and they would just swell right back up, and I'm like, I I don't know what to do.

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So I went out to the shoe store, had to find something comfortable because my feet were just I was in so much pain, and I bought these sketchers, and I have to tell you, okay, don't judge me, but I bought these sketchers, these sketchers, I've had them for since I was since the pregnancy, like it's been 11 years I've had these shoes, and I mean they're like a little bit um uh um I don't want to say dirty, but like you can tell, like like they've been worn.

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Um, but otherwise they're in like fantastic shape.

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Oh, and the treads on them are gone.

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But I think I mean I was probably 200 pounds at the end of my pregnancy.

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I just had so much swelling and water weight, and of course the baby obviously can't forget the baby that adds to all that weight, but I was like heavy, so I I really really wore down those shoes because I wore them every day.

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I couldn't wear anything else, and um those like that brand is so incredible.

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Like it took me through all those years.

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I don't wear them really that often now, just you know, when you're running just this random errand, and you know, I'm in some some sweatpants and I don't know, messy top knot, and I throw those shoes on.

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Like, that's really the only time now that I wear those shoes, but they're so like the cushion in them is is still really intact, and I'm I'm just I don't know, I'm floored by this brand.

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So I was really like it had been six months, and the sketchers that I wear to work, not the same sketchers that I wore for my pregnancy, obviously, but the ones that I wear to work, they were just like the the cushion in them had just gone, and I think part of the problem was a the restaurant had gotten so much busier because we were into our like busy season, and um the other thing is that I like gained a little bit of weight, so not a crazy amount of weight, maybe like 10 pounds.

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Um, and I'm not a heavy person by any means, but you know, like when I gain like 10, 12, even 15 pounds, like like I can really feel it on my body, so um, but I don't know, like I can feel it this weight gain, I can feel it in my joints, and my shoes just I'm like maybe that's why my shoes got worn out like way quicker, was just this like little teeny like weight gain, and all of a sudden that breaks the bank, like it's insane, it's insane.

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So anybody who's listening that doesn't really have like an understanding of like serving in the the um restaurant industry, man, you're on foot and little things that happen in in your body um will can really like affect your your serving game.

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Wrong shoes, little weight gain, like busy season, and it was just a recipe for disaster.

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So um it's funny, and and like I said, I'm really interested to know like the people listening, the people out there, what sort of footwear do you wear?

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What's your go-to?

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Do you have a favorite brand?

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Please, please let me know.

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I would love to hear about it.

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And as always, I so appreciate everybody listening.

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Um, I hope this gave anybody out there a little bit of comfort about being on foot all day long.

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Hey man, it happens to all of us.

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We all go through our shoes and get to that point where we're like, my feet hurt, I can't do it anymore.

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Um, so you are not alone.

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Please um follow the podcast.

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Um, uh, you know, leave a rating that would help me so so much.

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And um, I have a new website called bitterwaitress podcast.com.

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Check it out.

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There's the um uh each of the episodes are posted on there.

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I've got a store, you can buy some merch, it would really, really help me out as an indie podcaster.

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There's also a place to donate.

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Don't forget to tip your favorite bitter waitress.

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And uh, like I said, thank you all for listening.

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I really appreciate you.

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This is your bitter waitress signing off.