People need to have better restaurant etiquette
I really like my job. Being a host for a restaurant has allowed me to meet some great people, and attain solid experience in the service industry. Additionally, plenty of our customers are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met, willing to engage with me and maybe even telling me some interesting stories of their own. With all that said, I can’t say the same for most guests. Whether it’s cranky elderly people or annoying kids, there is unfortunately never a dull moment at my place of work. Through these kinds of people, I have found that restaurant etiquette is on a serious decline.
At my place of work, people can’t just sit anywhere in the restaurant. That’s what my job is for. I clean tables and guide our guests to them. However, I’ve noticed that people have gotten quite picky about where they sit, despite nearly all our tables being close to the same. For example, I was working a particularly busy night, when this gentleman in his mid-thirties approached the host stand. He politely said, “Table for one, please,” and I naturally smiled and led him to a booth that would seat a max of two people, as I usually do for parties of one person. However, once I led this man to his seat, he looked at me with confusion. “I-I’m sorry,” he says. “Could I sit there instead?” He gestured to the only other open table next to him. If I had more self-respect, I would have told this ungrateful schlemiel, “No. You can’t sit there. If you take two seconds to look up at the front, you might notice a family of four is waiting to be seated. If you were to take that table, I would have to go back up there and tell them that there are no available tables thanks to some guy ‘needing’ to sit here. No, sir. You may not.” However, I wanted to keep my job. I forced a toothy grin and said, “Of course, sir.”
Even when it isn’t busy, the seating requests are becoming ridiculous. People, after I’ve sat them, will ask me to move to a table near a window. Sorry, but I hate to ask: are you a plant? Do you require sunshine to photosynthesize? For what possible reason is the window so important to these people, I have no idea. Additionally strange are the customers who can’t stand the sunlight, requesting to be moved from their window seat. Many of these vampirical figures will stroll in on a daily basis, and they make a big stink about it every single time.
However, this is all without mentioning children. The dreaded children. When a large family comes in, I slightly wince for multiple reasons. The first is that kids make huge messes. Without fail, the crayons from the kid’s menus will somehow end up on the floor, scattered. Their food will be barely touched. If there’s a baby, they’re going to make a mess by accident, and if there’s a toddler, they’re going to make a mess on purpose. Secondly, most kids just have the worst behavior. Not all, but most. They’ll scream, they’ll run around, they’ll bother other guests, they’ll cry when they don’t get their way and the only thing that can pacify them is the unsanitary, fingerprint-ridden screen of their iPad. Of course there’s always been bratty kids, it’s really in a kid’s nature to be selfish. However, the kids of today have far surpassed “bratty.” I think a more proper classification would be something along the lines of “hellspawn.”
I like eating out as much as the next guy. Heck, my job is reliant on the fact that other people do too. However, this behavior cannot continue. Frivolous requests and noisy children have been just some of the issues of many on my list. I didn’t even mention the people going in the back of the restaurant or the countless times I’ve been religiously solicited by misguided antisemites. I like my job, but I would like it a hell of a lot more if people curbed some of their less desirable traits.
