When I was in the military I worked in the dining hall for the majority of my enlistment. It was a love-hate relationship. I liked bakery and the breakfast meal. After a couple of years, I liked the grill too. I didn't see it so much as a punishment after I started getting several compliments and started to pride myself on my omelet making abilities. I did not like lunch hour, the busiest hour, and it seemed like that was when the jerkiest of customers arrived. When I worked on bakery, which was a shift done over the midnight meal, I found it reather theraputic. I could zone out while making 400 cookies and found some creative outlet in how I poked holes in the pie crusts. I still find some comfort in baking now. Not necessarily eating them (although the products are pretty tasty), but the comfortableness of routine, I suppose. My sister is now a waitress and told me a horrifying, yet, unbelievable story tonight, and well, since I really don't have anything better to do at 10:33 p.m. while my husband is WOW'ing (see previous post), I figured I share some of these stories.
My sister's stories are as follows:
She works at an Olive Garden. Earlier this week a lady showed up for a TO GO order, but at the last minute, added a dessert and extra bread sticks. While they went back to ammend the order, she got impatient, mentioned she was having her carpets cleaned and she needed to get going. When they got her order complete, she snapped that they took too long and so no tip for them preparing the order and stomped out of the restauraunt. Two days later this same lady was back, in the TO GO line again, and USED THE SAME EXCUSE!! Only this time it was a different waitress. My sister's advice: if you are in that big of a hurry, use a fast food drive through.
This reminds me of a dining out experience with my ex. He would gulp down a glass of water as soon as it was served and time the waitress for a refill. If it took longer than a minute, she didn't get a tip. That's sabotoge.
Today my sister was working again. Two ladies were seated and insisted on being next to a table of three ladies that they knew. The waitress asked for their order, which was something like this:
L "We want to split an entree. Do you have lasagne?"
W "We do. Do you want a lunch portion or a dinner portion? The lunch portions are smaller."
L "Well, do you have a kid's meal with lasagne?"
W "No."
L "Ok, well, we'll just do soup. Do we get a salad with that?"
W "No, that actually comes separate with just a soup."
The woman actually turns around to the table near them with the 3 ladies and asks if they are going to finish the refill salad on their table! The ladies knowing these two women let them have the salad. Because of the loud talking this woman did, her situation started to become apparent to other patrons. This continued on. Eventually the two ladies managed to get a left over appetizer, an extra soup (one of the 3 ladies wasn't going to finish her soup refill), and a half eaten dessert!! For the dessert, she got up and approached the table after the 3 ladies had left and took it off the table, remarking "They looked clean enough."
By now, the other patrons were horrified and disgusted and starting to complain. Evenutally the management asked them to leave. Their tab came to 8.00, and after being asked to leave, they exclaimed they would not be leaving a tip. The three ladies had already left a large tip when they checked out, explaining they were ashamedly acquainted with these two women but embarassed for their behavior and knew they wouldn't leave a tip and knew they were trying to pull a scam.
A more gracious person would sum this up to possible economy downfalls, but I think this is just in a category of pure ignorance and misbehavior. They got out of Olive Garden with a 3 course meal for 8.00! Does anyone realize that most waitresses work for about 2.13 an hour, plus tips? My sister walks about 6 miles a day just doing her waitressing, plus carries up to 60 pounds on a tray, with one hand and her shoulder. It is not easy work, and not just physically when one would have to deal with customers like that.
My ex was one of those types. Denny's was his prime target. If his eggs, ordered as over easy, were served with a trace of browness, he threw a fit. He would make waitresses cry, he'd get the manager involved, and I don't know how many times he got away with a free meal from Denny's. More than he should have, that's for sure. I think it is one thing to be served a bleeding steak when you ordered it well done, or bread that is raw in the middle, or a salad with slimy, frozen leaves, but I'm sure a little bit of politeness goes a long way for a waitress/waiter to WANT to serve you, correct mistakes, or earn a tip. I don't want to think of how many times he might have been served food that had "special ingredients" added or "alterations" made for being a being a major jerk. It was like he made it his purpose in life to criticize all food service workers. Of course, it was never a job he had held.
Some other stories I've heard might be urban legends. In the dining hall before they got the protective glass barriers, customers would line up waiting for their grilled items. Bacon, pancakes, eggs, and french toast were cooked on an open grill. Sometimes customers would reach in and snitch a taste. Knowing that one, that can contaminate the food, and two, they could get burned, it irked the cooks to no end. One day as a guy reached in to sample some bacon, the cook flattened his hand to the grill and asked politely if he could help the guy. I don't think he sampled anymore after that. I'm going to assume the cook probably got in some major trouble for that.
One time when I was on an annual tour, the civilian cooks pulled some pork chops from the refrigerator. Ugh...we could smell them before they were even cooked. They were green and fuzzy. MOLDY! We tried to convince them that they needed to throw them away and we could come up with some other recipe. Nope, they insisted they could wash them off and cook them up and they would be just fine, and they did. That day a couple of us insisted on serving on the line. When people would come up and order a pork chop:
Customer: "Yes, I'll have a pork chop..."
Us: "No, you won't."
C: "But, their sitting right there."
U: "No, how about some chili mac?"
C: "I want a pork chop!"
U: "No, you don't." By that time we are staring at them with big eyes and shaking our heads, trying to convey a message in code that YOU DO NOT WANT TO EAT THESE PORK CHOPS OR YOU WILL BE SICK!
C: "Oh. Well, uh...I guess I'll have that, what is it? Meatloaf?"
U: "Oh, wonderful selection! Here you are! Enjoy your meal"...and send them off with a big smile.
In the back we could hear the civilian cooks questioning why the pork chops just didn't seem to be selling that day. I wonder why.....
I guess my thoughts tonight are to be kind to your servers. I have never been able to understand why someone would think they would get great service acting like a psycho-maniac. Is there really some kind of trophy to be won by making a server cry, or seeing how many meals you can scalp for free by complaining or being ignorant?
Listening to my sister tonight talk about her experiences makes me cringe. Partly on her behalf, partly on behalf of what COULD happen if you make the wrong server mad, if you get my drift.
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