Let's state it here:
If someone is nice to you but rude to the waiter, they are not a nice person.
Or more formally: One's true character can be gleaned from how one treats staff or service workers, such as a waiter. This is so obvious that I simply don't have anything further to say about it. But if you are interested, have a look at the above Google search. Or read this management article from USA Today in 2006.
My father is horrible with wait staff. Always has been. For many years my mother indulged him, tolerating his completely unnecessary rudeness. But even she got to the point where she could not take it. These days, she will not allow him to even deal with wait staff or pay the bill. But it took decades.
If you put the question to him, and I have, he would say that in a restaurant, the only way the customer has to deal with bad service is through his interaction with the waiter. Whether it is within the waiter's control or not, this is the customer's only recourse.
If you choose to skip dealing with the manager, I guess this seems logical. But it is a lie. My father never chose to deal with the manager. No, the reason my father treats wait staff so shabbily is that he is simply not a nice person. He's mean and miserly. If left to him, he will gladly leave a zero tip on each and every occasion. This business of bad service is merely an excuse. Believe you me, he'll find some bad service.
This became clear to me in my twenties. I was having dinner with a middle aged couple. The man's silverware, on the table when we arrived, had not been properly washed. However this might have happened, once he noticed this, he simply and gently asked the waiter for a new set. This seems totally innocuous and of course it was. But it made a huge impression on me. Further, he went on to treat the wait staff with tremendous respect and left a generous tip.
I knew immediately and devastatingly that I had been raised improperly.
Imagine that feeling.
No comments:
Post a Comment