Community Chat

[CelticCrafter]

My daughter was a manager in a corporate owned chain. 

I say was because she has a 4 month old baby and has the decision not to go back because it's not the type of job for someone with a new baby.  Long, crazy hours, late closings, early openings.

She has said that even though she really loved her job and did put her heart and soul into it, it's so nice not being screamed at numerous times during the course of a shift.

[stevieb]

I don't think most of us would condone outright rudeness, though at times it might be a challenge not to demonstrate a little impatience, especially when we see things like restaurant prices skyrocket and when, for example, you go into a fast food restaurant and encounter one person taking orders and four or five seemingly doing little more than milling around in back. Still, civility should be the norm.

It's also noteworthy that virtually everyone wants to be paid more and nice tips should be a kindness for a job well done, but when it gets down to it, who's doling out all those extra dollars to the customer to cover those higher prices and great tips.

It's a fine line and one might assess that folks are getting a little weary of being encouraged to accept mediocrity when we know that we've done so much better in the past, and really, if competence were more of a factor, there's been quite a bit of time to have addressed a good bit of what ails us as a country.

[chrystaltree]

It's not just restaurants there's a labor shortage in many businesses so things are taking longer.  We all need to be patient and understanding.  

[CrazyKittyLvr2]

@Jacie  I've said the same thing 100 times.

Many times I mentally debated if I wanted to say what I wanted or to keep my job.

Before no smoking went into effect we a smoing section and a non-smoking section.

A man waiting for change lit a cigarette and when I nicely said "I'm sorry sir this is the non-smoing section" and indicated the receptacle to put it out, he looked at me, smirked, dropped the lit cigarette on the 100 yr. old floors and crushed it with his foot. He kept looking at me like he was daring me to say anything. Man, I wanted to but didn't.

[chrystaltree]

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@Jaspertimes wrote:

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@kaydee50 wrote:

I wonder what all the people who were servers before the pandemic are doing now???

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I wonder that all the time in every occupation.  How do they get by not working?

When the Big Resignation/Retirement  started, it opened up many job opportunities and workers were free to leave the jobs that didn't pay enough and treated them poorly and didnt give them a future and find employment elsewhere.  Restaurant is a particularly way to have to make a living.  Having to depend on tips, irregular hours, customers who verbally abuse servers, supervisors who verbally abuse workers.  So workers took other jobs and people don't want those jobs now.  

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[racada]

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@Jacie wrote:

I have always believed that at some point in a persons life, you need to wait a few tables. It's eye-opening.

I also beileve the customer is not always right and owners need to back their employees on that one. The rude people in life today need to be called out.and not get away with it.

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I agree completely....but I have always said that about working retail, which is what I did in my younger days.  Waiting on the public in either line of work is eye opening!  

and I also agree completely that the customer is NOT always right and employees need to be supported in that by their management.  

[Tinkrbl44]

This is slightly OT, but I have to ask ......    before covid, we had a very nice buffet chain in SoCal called the Soup Plantation.  Wonderful for lunch with a large variety of salad greens, veggie options, soups, bread, rolls ....  really great.  One price for an all-you-can-eat meal of fresh ingredients.

Enter covid and every buffet restaurant I ever knew about either closed voluntarily, or went out of business due to changing health regs.  

Anyone think we'll EVER get great buffet restaurants back again?

[Spurt]

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@CrazyKittyLvr2 wrote:

@Spurt  The waitress who made the remark about large groups should have never said that. Having worked has hostess/dining room manager  for 8 years I can say this,

Every Christmas we would have a group of women from the town, 15 to 18 people. Without fail it was separate checks. Like clockwork they all ordered the same thing, a chicken dish that was $7.99 (this was 1980s) and coffee or tea $.50.   No one got booze, appetizers, or dessert.  The checks were always the same amount. So the server had to juggle 15/18 separate checks.

By the same token, a table of a lot of men said one check. They looked at the check and threw money in for their share. They tipped well too. 

If some get extras, yes, go separate checks.

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@CrazyKittyLvr2 

Perhaps those diners that ordered the exact same thing wanted to pay separately because of something that happened in the past----we had a situation like that where we paid with one person's debit card and everyone gave her their individual money for their dinner. But the debit card person got short changed because one person didnt include a tip, and the debit card person  didnt realize it until later, (she had trusted everone to do the right thing and everyone was advised to also add in a 15% tip).....so in the future it became INDIVIDUAL CHECKS PLEASE!!!! 

What was bad in the restaurant I was talking about was a policy that any parties over 5 people were automatically charged a 20% gratuity---so the waitress got her money while we got poor service, she forgot the appetizer, messed up on the salad dressing on one order, and messed up on the veggie side on another, and yet she got a nice tip......

[new nickname 4]

On the pay side though, the initial wage isn't that much, but my grand niece worked as a server and also a bartender in an Old Chicago in our town.  On weekends she would make over $400 a night.  She would work a couple of weekends and that would pay her rent for the month.  Of course that was mainly tips, but I always tip 30% of the bill, and everyone that I've ever been around, also tip well.

A lot of wait staff in our college town have not returned to the wait staff industry.  I recently saw a server from a year earlier, we talked, I asked her what she was doing now - She replied - nothing.  It seems her and her friends have found out that their parents pay their phones, rent, and schooling and they don't want to return to work to help out.

I see both sides, a very small town near me has the same staff they always had.  And the little lady that waits on me has problems with her legs, so she always sits down when I come in.  She knows I don't care.  But I also see hard working younger people starting to work again.

As far as rude, no one should be rude to another, but it goes both ways.  I dislike going into a grocery store, going through the checkout line which still has clerks and sackers in it, and being completely ignored.  I mean - nothing is said to greet me, or ask me if I found everything I was looking for.  They just continue talking between themselves until the clerk finishes, she tells me how much and that's all.  I will smile if they greet me with a simple hello, but if not, then I don't even bother. 

[Spurt]

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@stevieb wrote:

I don't think most of us would condone outright rudeness, though at times it might be a challenge not to demonstrate a little impatience, especially when we see things like restaurant prices skyrocket and when, for example, you go into a fast food restaurant and encounter one person taking orders and four or five seemingly doing little more than milling around in back. Still, civility should be the norm.

It's also noteworthy that virtually everyone wants to be paid more and nice tips should be a kindness for a job well done, but when it gets down to it, who's doling out all those extra dollars to the customer to cover those higher prices and great tips.

It's a fine line and one might assess that folks are getting a little weary of being encouraged to accept mediocrity when we know that we've done so much better in the past, and really, if competence were more of a factor, there's been quite a bit of time to have addressed a good bit of what ails us as a country.

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@stevieb 

Well said!

I got a survey and it asked, did any of our employees do anything extraordinary or went above and beyond when serving you?.....My answer was----"I got good customer service and in this day and age THAT IS EXTRAORDINARY!"