[Vocabulary] A person who serves drinks and food

[Meja]

How do we call a person whose job is to make coffee, tea, etc. and to serve these drinks to employees and guests in factories, offices, and companies (usually large ones)? I know that this is probably not a common job nowadays and I'm not sure if there's such a word at all.

I've heard the term "tea lady," but most definitions state that she serves only tea, that it's an obsolete occupation and that the word was used only in the UK.

Furthermore, I know that a dinner lady (or a lunch lady) serves food in a school, but can we use the same terms for a person who serves food in the workplace (in a canteen in a factory)?

 

[andrewg927]

Baristas make coffee. Bakers make cake and pastry. Servers serve food. I'm not aware of a specific word for someone who makes tea. I guess because you either make tea yourself or get it from a soda dispenser. You might hear "lunch lady" in a high school cafeteria.

 

[Meja]

Thanks. I meant a person who makes and serves all sorts of drinks in the workplace, not only tea or coffee.

 

[andrewg927]

Use "server".

 

[Meja]

If there is not a more appropriate word, I may use it.

By the way, can I also say "at the workplace" instead of "in the workplace" and is there any difference in meaning?

 

[jutfrank]

in the workplace is more common.

 

[andrewg927]

There is little difference between "at" or "in" but you are talking about a cafeteria that is in the office building so naturally it would be "in". "at" is used in cases where you talk about your location. E.g., "I'm at work right now".

 

[Rover_KE]

"What do we call a person ...?"

Meja, please note the correct way to ask this question. We don't start a question with "How do we call a person ...?

 

[emsr2d2]

"Tea lady" isn't (yet) an obsolete occupation. One of my friends works in a building in which a lady goes round at 10.30am and 3.30pm with a trolley of tea and biscuits, pouring a mug of tea out for anyone who wants one.

 

[Meja]

"Tea lady" isn't (yet) an obsolete occupation. One of my friends works in a building in which a lady goes round at 10.30am and 3.30pm with a trolley of tea and biscuits, pouring a mug of tea out for anyone who wants one.

Does that lady also serve coffee or they have to go to the kitchen to make it on their own or use a vending machine?

In addition, there is a number of jobs which have the word "lady" in their name (tea lady, dinner lady, lunch lady, cleaning lady, etc.) and I wonder what we call a male person who does such a job.

 

[andrewg927]

I'm only familiar with "lunch lady" and "cleaning lady". If a man does such a job, you just call them "server" or "janitor".

 

[andrewg927]

I have never heard of such a situation in the US. Generally employees will have their own coffeemaker for their group. Whoever gets there first, usually the 'administrative assistant', makes the coffee. I have been to many program reviews with contractors and officers from the USAF. The contractor will have lunch brought into the conference room, and provide doughnuts and bagels, coffee, etc. before the beginning of the review. These items will be brought in by local restaurant employees or company cafeteria employees depending on the contractor. The coffee will be in urns. Hot water in urns plus tea bags are also available.

Large corporations sometimes house their own cafeteria. In which case, you have baristas and bakers on site. "Server" is a name for someone who serves food but most cafeterias don't have a separate server. There are some white-cloth cafeterias but they are few and far between.

 

[emsr2d2]

Does that lady also serve coffee or they have to go to the kitchen to make it on their own or use a vending machine?

In addition, there is a number of jobs which have the word "lady" in their name (tea lady, dinner lady, lunch lady, cleaning lady, etc.) and I wonder what we call a male person who does such a job.

Historically, the tea lady only serves tea. You need to remember that decades ago, people who worked in factories etc didn't have any facility to make their own drinks and coffee wasn't all that popular. The workers arrived very early in the morning, were grateful for the appearance of the tea lady mid-morning and mid-afternoon, handing out steaming mugs of tea. The workers brought their own lunch in from home but there was rarely an area set aside to eat it - they would eat outside or in the factory itself.

I imagine there is also some kind of kitchen or vending machine where my friend works but I don't know for certain.

It's not that long ago that this happened. As recently as 1989, I worked in an office which, although there was a kitchen where people could make their own drinks, there was a wonderful older lady called Vi (Violet) whose job title was "Cleaner/Tea Lady". She spent most of the morning hoovering and cleaning but, at 10.30 precisely, all the staff would file into the tea room and find our drinks already made and set out around the table. She would join us for a drink and a chat for 15 minutes and then we all went back to work. She told me that her first job was what she called "proper tea lady" in a factory - she wheeled a trolley round the factory floor, serving mugs of tea from a huge urn and from proper old-style milk bottles.

In the context of this particular job, bearing in mind how long ago it was that it was a common thing, there would have been no need for a job title for a man doing this job - they simply didn't exist. We're thinking back to the days when some jobs were seen as gender-specific. Those days, fortunately, are gone except in the opinion of a few narrow-minded individuals.