Time for a new job? (waitress)?

So I've been working at the same restaurant for a year now. I was told that once I was proven to be a rock-star server I'd get better shifts (evenings, etc) I often work 10 days in a row, but I only work the restaurant opening shift which means I arrive at 10:30, work until about 1 and go home with $18. My schedule is not set like 97% of the other workers. If someone takes off, that's the shift I work. The only set shift I really have is all day Mondays. But as a comparison to how horrible of a shift it is... The best all day shift and section is Sunday which the one server will walk home with approximately $300 - $400. My Monday all day shift has me walk with about $70 with only around $400 in sales. There's no way for me to get the best shift as the person who has it makes the schedule and no one has had that shift in six years.



I am not trying to snag all the best shifts, but I have been working for this restaurant for 11 months and my shifts are based on when everyone else takes off or where no one else is there to fill the gaps. I have been basically opening the restaurant 5-6 days a week for almost a year and I make very little doing it.



No one quits at this restaurant. In 11 months I saw one server quit, and 1 get fired so there's hardly room to move up and snag new shifts that need to be filled due to someone quitting.



Secondly I feel the restaurant I work for is doing a lot worse than others in the area. I heard a few years ago we'd have an hour wait on Fridays and Saturdays and you almost always went home with $120. Now you work a Saturday night and go home with $30 after four hours of pacing waiting for tables. I know the economy is bad but my sister works at a restaurant not that far from me and she can make $250 in a weekend while I am making maybe $90 working a Saturday night and Sunday morning. (I never get scheduled Friday nights because the servers that have been there longer get that)



It's not that I'm a bad server. I have been asked to even train people and they do not hesitate to give me difficult sections and shift when others take off work. But that's the only time I get them, is when someone takes off..



I haven't left my job yet because I spent the last 4 years a pretty unhappy person with very little friends and this job was the first place that really made me happy and I made a lot of friends. I like the flexibility of hours unlike what some jobs are like and it's not like a super strict corporate type place. It's very laid back and fun. But money wise, I feel like there are so many other waitressing jobs with better tips. It's frustrating to have a table of eight get two deep dish pizzas and waters and have them take up half your section for a $30 tab or having two couple come in with free meal coupons and splitting two meals between four people, so their tab ends up being $14 for 4 people. The cost and promotions and portion size at the restaurant I work at is ridiculous for servers to make any money.



Maybe all servers are struggling I don't know. But I know close by Famous Daves, TGI Fridays, Ruby Tuesdays, Red Lobsters, Olive Gardens, or Buffalo Wild Wings I could apply for. In addition there's a few other small name restaurants in my area that I hear the typical dinner for two will have tabs reach $100. I just don't want to end up in a stuck up, big corporate feel restaurant necessarily. suggestions? Time for a new job? (waitress)?
Get another job for the weekends and if you find your self liking it more/people than quit and keep the new jobTime for a new job? (waitress)?
Apply for another job. Once you get it, quick your current waitressing job.