Your opinion on this piece about food service professionals

In My Humble Opinion
61

Not at all. Ya see, some people practice something called “courtesy”, whereupon they take the effects of their actions on others’ lives into consideration. Notice I did not say “base every action you take upon whether or not it will inconvenience someone else”-- just simply think about how you would feel if you were the person directly affected by said actions.

Then you’re inconsiderate and self-important. “MY pleasant experience is FAR more important than someone else’s ability to make a living!” That attitude is just so unbelievable. What is it about being a customer that makes people think they’re suddenly God? Here’s my theory: it’s a way for unimportant people to feel like they somehow matter.

Really, does every restaurant need to post the implicit policy that you’re only welcome there as long as you’re spending money? Would you or would you not expect to be asked to leave if you walked into a restaurant, asked to be sat, and then refused any drink or food? It’s the same damn principle. As long as you’re buying stuff, they’re happy to have you. Once you’re done, you take your five or so minutes to let things settle, and then you are expected to pay and leave so they can make room for new customers. Them not saying anything to you when you don’t follow this guideline means they are polite and afraid to lose your repeat business, not that you are in the right.

muldoonthief:

Honestly, as a former server I don’t have a problem with any of the things you insist are acceptable and expected customer behavior. I was always perfectly willing to accommodate switching seats, order modifications, and even running me around like a chicken with its head cut off. Sometimes these things just can’t be avoided, and when they happened I just did the best that I could. Sometimes I even have to ask for things serially, but I do try to remember everything I’m going to want in the near future when the waiter comes by.

What I took issue with was your assertion that your needs always trump the waiter’s, because that attitude fails to acknowledge that the waiter’s needs ARE meeting his customers’ needs! It just seemed like you were saying “I’ll do what I damn well please when I damn well please and not even let it cross my mind that I’m one of MANY customers whose needs are equally important to my waiter, and therefore not make any sort of attempt to think ahead so he can consolidate tasks and be efficient.”

62

Whaaaaaaaaaa! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

The only reason people like this call it “cowardice” is that you have no other recourse against this, and it scares the shit out of you. You want to be able to treat waitstaff like subhuman garbage but you also want to live in a happy world where they will never do anything to get back at you for it.

Fuck you. We will. You will be deprived of your property. Your food will be tampered with. You will be fucked over in ways that you’ll never know.

And that’s what makes it great. It’s not cowardice, it’s fucking SMART. Because we get to have our cake and eat it too - we get our revenge, and you never know. It’s brilliant. We get to keep our jobs. We get to keep your property (I’d have pawned that ring instead of tossing it in the dumpster, but to each his own). And we get to laugh and laugh and laugh.

63

No, it’s more like “providing a pleasant experience to me is how someone else makes a living.” Really, it would be just keen and massively improve my productivity at work if clients didn’t keep requesting changes long after a given project was completed to their original specifications. Doesn’t matter. My job is to continue editing a given project until the person or entity who has requested it is satisfied with what they receive. Similarly, your job as a waiter is to continue providing service until the customer is satisfied. This is not me expecting to be god; I hold the waitstaff at a restaurant to exactly the same standard of professional behavior to which I hold myself.

Yes. Because in my experience, this is not the default. If a group of 30 actors goes to Applebees (let’s say) after a Friday night performance (we always call ahead), and gets seated, and orders and eats, we will spend a considerable amount of money at that Applebees. We will also very likely return the following night, and after our Sunday matinee, and again three times the next weekend, spending craploads of money each time. We will also stay long after our dinner has been finished, talking and enjoying one another’s company. The waitstaff will not ask us to leave because if they do, we’ll choose a different restaurant at which to spend our collective money the following night - one that isn’t rushing us out the door the minute the last bite of steak is finished.

Well, sort of. The waitstaff doesn’t say anything because (in most cases) the policy of the restaurant is not to boot paying customers out after they’ve finished their meal until those customers are ready. The reason behind this is, as you say, to maintain repeat business. The waitstaff’s wishes are not the primary concern here - the business practice of the restaurant’s owners and managers is. They have made a competitive decision to say, “let the gaggle of actors stay, because they will be back spending hundreds of dollars tomorrow night.” The waitstaff doesn’t get to change that policy just because they don’t like it, any more than they get to raise their own salaries, much as they might like to.

Hell, if you create Chez Nevermore, and want to implement a policy that all guests must evacuate the building within fifteen minutes of completing their entree, you may do so, and I will leave in this time frame if I eat there. I will also not visit your restaurant at a time when I want a more leisurely dining experience, which is fine and good for all of us. But if I go to Applebees, then part of the reason I’m going there is that they have demonstrated that as an eating establishment, they will not rush me. I will not apologize for patronizing a business according to the standards and practices set by that business.

64

Then you are sociopaths. Seriously.

For the record: I have never been even slightly abusive to any waitstaff. If you have ever been my waiter, you probably told your friends how freaking awesome a customer I was. I was friendly and to the point. I ordered something that was on the menu, and asked for no substitutions. If you made a mistake I not only made no stink, I ate whatever you brought me without even mentioning the mistake. I asked for one refill on my soda, made no other requests. I paid my bill with a credit card but left the tip in cash. The tip was 20% if you were even barely adequate, even with the mistake. If you bothered to be even slightly friendly or made a suggestion, the tip was probably 30%. If the check was small because I wasn’t very hungry, the tip was 50%. This is my standard practice at every dining establishment at which I have ever eaten. I castigate those who are rude to the waitstaff; I hate rudeness. I fear no reprisal.

And I say that anyone who does the things described above - who throws away or even steals a piece of private property from another, or who adulterates food on the sly for a juvenile giggle - is a sociopath, a criminal, and absolutely, positively, a coward.

A coward because you take your pathetic retribution in pitiful silence, cowering from the consequences of your behavior. A coward because you lack the confidence to actually address those with whom you have problems. An adult, a person with a tiny shred of actual courage peeking up above the adolescent revenge fantasies, meets rudeness and unpleasantness directly, not snorting and giggling from the shadows.

“Fnurh fnurh, I spit in that guy’s burger. Isn’t that hilarious? Fnurh fnurh.”

“Oh yeah, well I stole that bitchy girl’s engagement ring and sold it. Got $5,000 for it, too. That shit probably meant a lot to her, and to her fiancee, who did nothing to me. Guess I could have just told her that she was being rude, or faced the problem directly in some other way, but this approach ROXXX. Fnurh Fnurh.”

That’s “smart,” to you? Hell, that’s revenge? Please.

65

You know, I was about to reply to this post that, taken charitably, Shamozzle was simply saying it’s not wise to be a jerk to someone who has the capability to do that. The chance may be low, but why take the chance?

And then VCO3 posted.

66

storyteller, actually, many busy restaurants DO have a 60 or 90-minute dining limit during peak times. Of course it’s unreasonable to ask guests to leave if there aren’t more customers actively waiting around to be seated, but I’ve had managers do it before when it’s busy.

Also, a group of 30 is going to be pretty lucrative for the restaurant and whoever is waiting that table, so they won’t be inclined to complain, and anyway you really can’t expect a group that large to eat and leave in 45 minutes. Most of the time, campers aren’t in the huge, profitable groups you’re referring to, but smaller ones, like 4-6. The waiter will make ten or fifteen bucks off the table and then they’ll sit there for two to three hours while the restaurant is on a long wait. Not only is it depriving the waiter and the restaurant of money, but it’s rude to the other customers.

Bottom line, you’re never going to be rushed unless there’s a reason for it. But yes, it is considered outlandishly rude (by servers AND managers) to fasten your butt to a chair for hours in a busy restaurant after you’re done spending money, unless you’re planning to compensate for the loss.

67

Well, if that’s the sort of thing to which you’re referring, then we are in perfect agreement. Those people are jerks. Most of the “camping” experiences I’ve had have been either: (1) in mostly deserted restaurants; or (2) with extremely large groups. A group of four that camps at a table in a busy place for two hours after they’ve finished eating should be slapped repeatedly around the head and shoulders.

68

VCO3, since you’ve seen fit to include the gratuitous “fuck you,” I’ve responded to you in the Pit since, unlike you, I know what the different forums are for.

69

If I’m staying after the bill is paid, I either order another drink or tip huge. Always.

Also, I don’t expect “campers” includes known regulars. Sure, if you go in every Friday night and stay for hours and tip huge, of course they will welcome you back. But if they’ve never seen you before, and you tip 15% on your tab and then stay an hour after you’ve paid it (ordering water), then yes, you are a jerk.

As so often happens, this comes down to the distinction between things that are allowed and things that make you a jerk. Of course you’re allowed to do things that cut into your server’s income or make his/her life more difficult (just as you’re allowed to talk on your cellphone at the movies, and stop walking just when you get to the top of the escalator, etc). I think the purpose of the OP’s rant (which, BTW, I like but should be much more nuanced - I think this thread has provided a lot of opportunity for the required nuance) is to make sure you know of things that you can avoid if you don’t want to be a jerk. If you don’t mind being a jerk, then the OP is not directed at you.

I have been on both sides of the customer service counter and I can say with confidence that you (the customer) can get almost anything, as long as you’re not a jerk about it.

70

You are a thief. Period. You are stealing your server’s labor. I notice you’re in the area. You better not try this logic at any MAD dopefests, or we, you and I, will be having a very close and personal man to weasel discussion.

71

WTF? How come this thread got so hostile all of a sudden? And you’ve just dropped by to post a veiled threat, Dave?

Tipping is NOT mandatory. As a factual matter, it simply isn’t. Therefore, failure to tip is NOT stealing and a person to fails to leave a tip is NOT a thief. If you think tipping should be mandatory, or wages should be raised and tipping abolished, then take it up with your legislators. Now, you might want to argue that such a person is a complete asshole and a deadbeat and I wouldn’t argue with you, but they are not a thief.

And a person who threatens someone else for not meeting their personal behavior standards is a thug.

72

WTF? This is really really rude and I am appalled. If I was Dudley I’d probably never forget this nasty little comment. You’d get into a fight over tipping?

73

Are you serious?

Please tell me you’re not, and that this is some sort of weird joke.

I am giving you a chance for clarification before I tear you a new ass, pixel-style.

74

You won’t be suspended again; you’ll be banned. Straighten up your act, and straighten it up NOW.

75

That’s a threat to another poster. You watch it, too.

76

I could not make it through the second paragraph…Whenever a server starts whining about tips I tune them out. A reasonably intelligent person becomes a terrible 5 year old-“Buuutttt, I neeed those tiiiips.” You need a better job if money is so important to you.

77

Frank, you need a taser. Thanks for stepping in, though.

78

Frank, I mentioned this in the pit thread, but not here - I apologize. I had about 10 threads opened in tabs, and I thought this one was a Pit thread, not IMHO. Please forgive.

79

Here’s the thing that almost everyone in this thread is forgetting about tipping. In every state that I know of, waiters make less than minimum wage per hour. So while tipping isn’t mandatory, it is IMHO a seriously messed up thing to not tip.

Another important factor to consider is that many waiters are required to tip out bartenders, hostesses, and busboys. At the restaurant I worked at in college 3% of our total sales were taken out of our tips for this. This means that if a table screwed me, I actually had to pay for the pleasure of waiting on it.

When you think about it, the restaurant owners have a great racket going. They get paid no matter what, and they get to farm out a large part of their labor expences. Not bad.

80

Yeah! People who wait tables shouldn’t be in it for the money! :confused: