Table Manners
What does your waiter really think of you? Behind that smile, and peppy attitude lies a person with grueling social experiences that some will never come across in their lives. The food service industry is a very popular form of employment for many people young and old. It is also one of the most degrading and stressful jobs one will ever have. Millions of people go out to eat daily and receive service from these individuals and usually don’t think twice about it. There is a surprisingly high denomination of customers who just lack the ability to be polite or use common sense. On a good day a server will only experience a small handful of people who fall under the category of “bad customers” among the many tables they are in charge of for the day. These bad customers have no problem pushing their server to the limits, and degrading them to the point of a meltdown. Almost all of these “dine-in deviants” can be categorized within three groups: the ignoring, the needy, and the cheap.
The most stressful and difficult brand of customer there is would have to be the “ignoring” customer. They have the ability to make you feel like a child with urgent news trying to get the attention of a parent while they are with a friend. You have to stand there at the table and wait for these people to finish what seems to be the most important conversation of their lives before they will even acknowledge the fact that you have been standing there, waiting to serve them. If you look closely at these people you can almost see the smugness seeping from their ears. After you’ve completed the task of taking the order and return with the food, they will make no attempt to clear a place for you to set down their plates. You find yourself reaching through their boring conversation of who is the better football team or...