Service positions at Beijing's small restaurants are notorious for their paltry wages and hectic, unfeeling workplace. Offering virtually the same salary and benefits, do foreign food chains really offer a superior alternative to the migrant laborers who wait tables in Beijing? If you stop to ask the waitress behind the counter, you would probably be surprised to find that the hierarchy and mechanical social environment of these international chains often adds psychological stress, and can be linked to the difference in Chinese emphasis on the collective and Western emphasis on individuality.

Two Lives, One Big Difference

At almost midnight, 22-year-old small restaurant waiter Yin Yalin leaves work for his closet-sized one-room unit in a crowded pingfang housing district, one of the many shanty towns swelling with Beijing's migrant workers. About 300 yuan of his 1,000-yuan monthly salary goes towards renting his room, which is just large enough for a bed, a desk, and a bucket that he uses as an all-purpose bathroom. Though gusts of wind tear through the broken windowsill, he only has an electric blanket to fend off the oncoming winter.

Yet, despite this, Yin still claims that he is happy and confident. "If you have to live life," he said, smiling, "You might as well do it laughing instead of crying." While Yin misses his family, and hopes to someday return to his native Gansu province a richer man, he enjoys his work. He says that his boss is nice, he is friends with all his coworkers, and the customer flow means that he is constantly meeting new, interesting people. Yin's confidence and optimism remain virtually unimpaired by his economic stresses.

Twenty-year-old sandwich worker Xiao Long, who works at American fast-food chain Subway, has the same salary and lives in a virtually identical one-room apartment. "I'm not happy with my life," he says bluntly. "I wake up in the morning, go to work, and come straight home only to go back to work again the next day- what kind of life is this?" Long says he has no friends, and that he plans to return to his native Shanxi province after the Chinese New Year.

Both Yin and Long are migrant workers married to an approximately 12-hour workday, the same stark living arrangements, and no benefits. But they are different in two important ways: 1) One works for a small local business, and the other for an American conglomerate, 2) When they discuss their work and living conditions, the former prefers to laugh, and the other is on the verge of tears.

Why such disparity? It's not about income and benefits- but the psychological and social effects of working for small, traditionally-run businesses and large, often foreign-owned conglomerates with company-wide standards.

And while this phenomena is something food service workers all over the world confront when working for international chains, the difference between Western emphasis on individuality and Chinese emphasis on group harmony seems to make this stress less bearable for Chinese service people in these international chains.

Talking Back

Beijing's small restaurant wait staff is infamously unfriendly and unresponsive. In contrast, friendliness is usually a prerequisite for work at international food chains adhering to foreign customer service standards.
Small restaurant waitress Cai Yun won't be scolded or belittled by her boss and customers. "If they want to scream, I let them scream," Cai said. She describes her reaction to her boss and customers' often demeaning behavior with an impish grin: "I might talk back or make them wait forever for their plates."

Observing her at Jiu Dian, her small Hadian District restaurant, Cai Yun stands chatting with her coworkers. When her boss screams at her in front of everyone in the restaurant, she is unembarrassed. She ignores the shouting, finishes her conversation, and then drags her feet to attend to other customers.

A four-year veteran of the food service industry with much experience in small restaurants, Cai Yun explains that, as a service or manual labor position, waiting tables is looked down on by much of Chinese society. Still, her self-image remains unaffected. Speaking of the the social stigma she faces because of her job, she says, "I won't accept it. Ever since I started this job, I've always known who I am. I won't accept lesser treatment."

Cai's bold protest is foreign to fast-food chain workers. One Subway chain manager, Yuan Yuan, explained that conditioning employ attitudes is entirely in her jurisdiction. During training, employees learn that they must smile and serve customers with a positive, helpful attitude. Voices must remain at a certain pitch- not too loud or soft. Yuan Yuan believes that happy employees, genuine or otherwise, "mean a clientele, which means good business." Encountering disrespectful customers, employees are still expected to maintain a positive and helpful attitude at work.

McDonalds employee Xiao Xie, whose manager constantly ensures that she greets customers with a smile, would never react to an irate or abusive customer. Asked how she would respond, she said, "We can't let our personal emotions show in our work. A few customers are rude, but I put it aside and continue." Part-time Pizza Hut employee showed similar self-control. "I would never talk back," she said, shocked by the prospect, "They told us to never do that."

At one Starbucks location, employee Xiao Kang "He was very rude to me, so I raised my voice a little..." Kang said, "but then I realized that I had spoken back to a customer, and I quickly apologized." Xiao Kang's example of her reaction to a disrespectful customer illustrates a cornerstone of the big company food service job: suppressing one's natural reactions to frustration.

Yang Yangzi, a Peking University researcher specializing in Organizational Psychology, claims that Xiao Kang's self-restraint may gradually result in poorer mental health. "In clinical psychology," Yang said, "the subconscious is what really controls our actions, and the more you try to control the subconscious, the more you need a release." He later explained that the sudden release of a suppressed subconscious may manifest itself in nightmares or acts of violence. With the introduction of foreign food companies, the Beijing waitress' repressed anger might eventually take a more serious, tangible form.

Establishing Rank

What allows waitresses like Cai Yun to talk back? Cai's coworker Hai Yan suggests that small restaurant bosses tolerate insolence because, "[They are] afraid that they would close if we all left, whereas, if an entire fast-food branch closed down, it might not really affect a big company." Cai agrees, saying that, in her experience, the larger the restaurant and staff, the stricter the boss-- and the more devalued the employee.

The complex hierarchy of bosses, managers, and employees at fast-food restaurants contrasts the traditionally relaxed small Chinese restaurant boss-employee dynamic. Some servers at the international chains said they felt like vassals stuck in a complicated pecking order of higher-ups affirming their authority.

Until his recent resignation, Heilongjiang native Han Fei worked as a busboy at a Beijing university dining facility- a hierarchical operation not unlike American fast-food chains. His manager, surnamed Hu, often established superiority by verbally harassing employees. "He often scolded me," Han said, "He would scream at us. He just wanted to show he was higher than us." Han gave a specific example: "On my 25th birthday, when Hu was already in his 30s, he said, 'At your age, I was already manager.' This was the kind of thing that he would tell us to show that we were lower than him." The power play at Han's university restaurant meant a tense work environment that often left him mentally exhausted at the end of the day.

But pressure doesn't only come from managers. Xiao Long claims that when he first came to Subway, his fellow workers established seniority by mistreating him. "Now things are better," he said, "but when I first came, they were very unwelcoming."

Conversely unaffected by the tension of big business, another Heilongjiang native Zhu Zi works at a small family-style in North Beijing. Flipping through a tabloid during her interview, she says that, while the job is often hectic, the lack of order her restaurant allows her enough free time to twiddle her thumbs: "There's no manager here. And the boss is alright," she said,"When I'm not working, I have a lot of free time to read magazines and chat with coworkers." Zhu's boss agrees that China's small restaurants, his own included, are traditionally less strict about discipling workers or enforcing rules about polite customer service than international chains. Subway manager Yuan Yuan says that her employees must constantly provide the speedy service expected of fast-food restaurants. But for Zhu Zi, there's no rivalry, no tension, and no rush.

The Support Network at Work

The social networks among service workers also distinguish Beijing's small restaurants from fast-food giants. The difference starts at home-- small restaurant wait-staff often have communal living arranged by the restaurant owner, which contrasts sharply against the solitary independence of the fast-food chain waiter's apartment.

Most Subway and McDonalds workers live in their own pingfang or high-rise apartments. Yuan Yuan claims that Subway offers employee apartments, but her employee Xiao Feng claims he was never offered any housing. McDonalds worker Xiao Xie and the anonymous Pizza Hut waitress also rent their own homes.

Unlike her big business counterparts, Zhang Miao, a small restaurant waitress in Beijing's Doncheng district, lives with her coworkers in a typical small restaurant dormitory. Zhang's fellow waitresses are all childhood friends from the same Xian suburb. She claims that her workers are like sisters who share every aspect of their daily routine and offer each other council. "If one of us leaves, we all leave," Zhang said. She claims that working with friends often helps her cope with city living and a stressful job.

The difference is manifested on the job. While Yuan Yuan claimed that all her Subway employees are friends, Xiao Feng, disagrees, "they are only coworkers" and says that his only friend in Beijing is his fiancee.

Xiao Long also says that his coworkers are nothing more. His only friend in Beijing, a 17-year-old-roommate and former Subway coworker, returned to his home province a few weeks prior, leaving a note saying that he could no longer bear life in Beijing. Accepting an interview after 11pm at night, and agreeing to walk for 15 minutes to a meeting space, he admitted that he was "lonely and looking for some company." He said, "I just didn't want to be staring at the walls of my room alone again." Xiao Long said that his lacking social network, paired with the drudgery of everyday life at his job, has resulted in deep depression.

Yang Yangzi claims that contrast between the small restaurant waiter's dorms and the international food chain service person's apartment illustrates a difference between Chinese and Western social culture. "Chinese culture is socially collective- people depend on each other, but America is very individualistic," he said, suggesting that analogous social cultures separate KFC from the corner Chinese. From an Organizational Psychology perspective, Yang says that the restaurant atmosphere is so stressful that a social network is necessary. "[Wait staff] suffer a great deal of stress in the foreign business environment. They lack a group dynamic. So they are very stressed, because there is no one to support or encourage them."

On not living the dream-- or even dreaming it
Despite having the psychological upper-hand, the traditional Chinese small restaurant waiter are by no means better off than the food chain worker. For the Beijing waitress, a life of food service most often indicates the failure of some bigger, brighter dream. Cai Yun wanted to be a doctor. Hai Yan wanted to be a teacher. Zhang Miao still hopes that one day she will learn another, more fulfilling trade.

And compounding failed dreams is frequent belittlement in a society where service positions are degraded as manual labor. At Beijing's famous Muslim lamb kebob restaurants, waiters are often expected to remain at work while their bosses attend mosque services on Fridays. When one Muslim restaurant worker was asked if he thought it unfair that his boss cared so little about his spiritual welfare, he said, "We are workers- we don't think of these things."

A Dying Tradition?

While verbal comebacks and general disorder may strengthen the waitress' mental health and self-esteem, it's hard to say how much longer Chinese customers will put up with it, knowing that there are more pleasant, welcoming alternatives. Drinking his coffee at the Wudaokou Starbucks, frequent customer Xiao Ku has cast his vote, "Why would I give my money to someone mean?" he says. If the domestic market expects a new standard of customer service-- is it only a matter of time before the corner family-styles start cracking whips? Zhu Zi's manager is unfaced. "We're a small restaurant-- we aren't that serious about regulating our waitress' facial expressions."