A lot of us look forward to going out to eat, but it’s obviously a much different experience for those working at whatever restaurant we find ourselves at.
Because while there are some ways a service job can be rewarding , it often leaves employees wedged between the rock of difficult customers and the hard place of unhelpful and sometimes predatory management .
As for who the worst and most demanding customers tend to be, that seems to be a matter of some debate. And while 2019 seemed to mark the crest of the “OK boomer” wave, one video makes it clear that this debate has neither ceased nor stopped being fought along generational lines.
On September 9, TikTok user Sally Loeza posted a video comparing how two groups of restaurant patrons from different generations left their tables.
First, she showed us the group she’s marked as the “younger generation,” who left their plates neatly stacked and their drinks lined up at the edge of the table.
That one glass is a little too close to the edge for my comfort, but the clear implication is that this group showed a lot of consideration for their server.
This was quickly compared to the table a group that was supposed to exemplify the “older generation” left behind.
As we can see, the diners in this group left their plates and drinks right where they were, which Loeza seemed to imply was less considerate.
This was confirmed in a statement she left in the comment section clarifying that she wasn’t the server, but rather a member of the first group.
In her words, “Even though it’s not ‘our job’ it takes 5 seconds to pick up after yourself and requires 0 effort.”
But while some commenters shared that they’ve also made a habit of stacking plates, others couldn’t agree that there was a generational divide between those who do this and those who don’t.
As one user said, “Weird – everyone I know (Gen X) does this and none of us are servers or ever have been. But I’ve never seen anybody under the age of 30 do this.”
Another person explicitly argued that this was more about how a person was raised than which generation they happened to be raised in.
As they put it, “Literally stop blaming generations and blame the way someone was raised… I’m 28 and clean up and so does my 17 year old brother.”
But while this debate continued, the video’s comment section soon started to feature actual servers who thought this was a non-issue.
As one of them said, “I worked in restaurants and literally never once cared if someone left a table looking like either of these.”
If anything, it seems that servers who had any kind of opinion on plate stacking actually preferred when customers don’t do it.
As one put it, “As a busser I kinda don’t like when people stack cause it ruins my flow and the way I do it. Best to just tidy it up instead.”
So not only is the generational basis for this difference hard to determine, but it sounds like it’s not really worth congratulating ourselves over.
h/t: Ladbible
Last Updated on September 14, 2021 by Mason Joseph Zimmer