People need to consider their server’s feelings
Not tipping, making inappropriate comments and ignoring your server are all ways to make him or her feel uncomfortable.
COMMENTARY
Sarah McClellan

Nothing is more frustrating than being on your feet, working like a Middle Ages serving wench for hours, lifting trays, filling drinks and consoling crying children for people who are rude to you while you do it.

Some nights, the cash in the restaurant business makes up for the bad shifts. But even one inconsiderate patron can ruin a server’s night.

I have been working as a server in a popular chain restaurant for almost a year and a half, and have encountered more rude people than I knew existed.

Some thoughtless things restaurant patrons do — that they perhaps may not even realize are irritating — include: drinking 10 glasses of tea in 30 minutes (How is that even physically possible?); snapping their fingers to call servers to their table; or answering, “two margaritas” when a server approaches the table and asks how they’re doing today.

And some behaviors are blatantly (and purposely) mean.

Some people exaggerate the enunciation of their orders as if their food came out wrong the last time they were there or as if their server is too stupid to comprehend English. Some people complain to a manager if their glass is half-empty for only a few minutes.

Some people roll their eyes at servers when asked how things taste and if they need anything. Some people leave less than a 10 percent tip. That’s an insult. Some people — and this is one of the worst things — just ignore servers unless they need something. What can make someone feel smaller than being ignored?

Sometimes the behavior is so bad that new waitresses spend part of a shift crying in the kitchen. Sometimes the behavior is sleazy — something you might expect in a strip club, not a family restaurant.

Kristin Campbell, a senior broadcast journalism major who has been a server, said men will “hit on you relentlessly to the point of making you uncomfortable. I’m not going to give them my number, but then I know I’m going to get screwed on the tip. If you want a decent tip, you have to flirt back.”

Among the behaviors that make servers uneasy: physical touching (Never, ever, do that); inappropriate conversation (“What color are your underwear?”); leaving phone numbers and hotel room numbers on the table (I always love the occasional rendezvous with a possible serial killer); repeatedly asking for a server’s phone number (How stupid do they think we are?); and, most scary of all ... waiting at the restaurant until someone’s shift ends (Can you say, “restraining order?”).

Do people act like this elsewhere?

Do they drink pitcher upon pitcher of liquids at home? Do they slap the bottom of the person who delivers their mail or walks by at a coffee shop? Do they demand things every time one of their employees walks by? Do they ignore their wives or husbands when they ask how their day was? Do they treat their work colleagues like they’re stupid? Do they sexually harass gas station attendants?

Or does this just happen in restaurants?

Maybe people just don’t think about these things.

Maybe they think they have a right to treat someone they’re going to tip — or who thinks they’re going to tip — as less than human. Maybe restaurants are an outlet for them to release anger or stress.

Regardless of the reason, thoughtlessness is unbecoming.

Servers are just people working a difficult and tiring job and just trying to get by. Sometimes they are students just trying to pay rent and living expenses while taking classes.

Just think about what you are doing.

And always tip 20 percent.

Photo editor Sarah McClellan is a senior political science major from Canyon.