So in my current workplace, the schedule gets made every week depending on who's able to work and such, I told my manager a week in advance that I won't be able to work on a Saturday to celebrate a family member's birthday and then when I saw the schedule for that week, I did not have a single shift at all. The workplace is your usual Asian restaurant where a single person has to multi-task and do a lot as a single person, the other workers are nice to each other and only the manager I really have a problem with.
One of the motives that made me want to quit is that on a Wednesday recently, we suddenly had more people than expected and I got the short end of the stick with having to take care of a 2 person's job alone while the others are still as normal without any rewards for doing so. Before you say I can talk to him about it, just cut that idea out since this is an Asian place we're talking about, nothing will get through.
The other motive is that we do not get the tips, not in any shape or form. I'm not even sure about the legality of this at this point (this is Canada btw). No shared pool or anything, just your hourly wage. Overtime is paid in cash in our pay envelope.
The third and final thing I want to add is the pay, on paper $17CAD an hour as a student working seems pretty good, but the workload you are under is definitely worth more than $17 an hour, a 7~11 hour shift with maybe 1 hour of unpaid break in the middle(depending on when you start) and a 15min paid break near the end. The cashiers are somehow earning just as much as us waiters without having to put in as much work, I occasionally have to even work the register on my own when the cashier is busy with something.
I am looking for other jobs but I swear companies are looking for too many qualifications when they are paying minimum wage. I've applied to over 30 places and only gotten 3 interviews and none has replied back. I have work experience as a waiter which already beat out a lot of students but it's still so hard to land a single job.