This is Planet Money from NPR.

Back when she was in high school, Carolyn and Zaldua was working at a McDonald in Houston,

Texas, trying to save money for college.

But all of her friends were working at other restaurants where they got tips.

They got to leave every night with cash and they would say, oh my gosh, I went in and

I made $100 on one night and I was like, wow.

So she started playing for server positions and she gets hired at Olive Garden.

I did go in with some sort of blind optimism.

I was like, oh, this is so cool because they're so busy all the time.

It'll be great.

But it was a lot harder there than I had anticipated it to be part of why it was so much harder

is because of what Olive Garden is known for.

Like if you know one thing about Olive Garden, it's the breadsticks unlimited breadsticks

for ever.

Car overload and unlimited soup.

And unlimited salad.

I think a lot of people don't realize that the servers that Olive Garden make the salad

and soup themselves, which when you have a party and you know, people want different things,

they want extra this and this on the side.

It makes it very complicated, you know?

But the money could be good on busy days like the weekends.

She could make like $25 an hour, but then there were the slow days.

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