Over the past year, you’ve likely noticed that the service industry (and particularly the food service industry) has been at the center of a lot of public discourse.
This is partially because it’s largely considered the epicenter of the labor shortage affecting the United States, but there’s also the fact that renewed discussions about tipping culture are obviously going to heavily involve the plights of servers.
And when we get down to a more granular level, we can get a sense of why so many restaurant employees are quitting from their tales of exploitative tip-splitting practices and other questionable requirements.
But of course, in the midst of all of this high-level discussion, one former Hooters server’s story does a lot to remind us that all of these others problems are only made worse by the customers treating wait staff like garbage.
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Be advised that the video featured in this article contains explicit language.
On October 1, TikTok user @keylamxo posted a video in response to a viewer asking about a time when a customer made her cry.
While she said there many times where this happened, one of the worst incidents happened when the family of a girl she knew from high school came in to celebrate her dad’s birthday.
Soon after the family of five adults and four children sat down, the mother said, “Bring us some Don Julio, we’re drinking good today.”
And as @keylamxo explained, she wasn’t wrong because each shot of Don Julio cost $18 and the family ordered 25 of them.
After combining this with all the food that everybody had, their bill ended up totaling at $624.
But while this would normally be where buyer’s remorse sets in, it seemed the mother blamed @keylamxo for this big expense, telling her that if she told them how much what they wanted would cost, she would have received a tip.
If getting stiffed wasn’t enough, the woman proceeded to make the server’s day even worse by spreading ketchup all over the table and knocking the drinks over.
As @keylamxo said, “Like ma’am, I just work here! I’m not pocket watching, I do not know how much is in your bank account.”
And as we can see from her video, this angry customer saw fit to write a rude message and draw a draw in a middle finger for good measure.
Considering this blatant disrespect, the lack of tip, and a whole new mess to clean up, it’s hardly surprising that the server would start to feel the tears flow after this.
But while that was obviously a demoralizing experience, it seems that things wouldn’t be all bad for her that week.
As she shared in a follow-up video, word of the incident seemed to spread to her regular customers, some of whom tipped her over $100 the following day.
Still, considering that this was only one of many stories where a customer brought her to tears, it seems we have some insight as to why she no longer works at Hooters.
