This dad was humbled after placing an order he couldn't eat. U/ClassiestRobin shared a story from her time waitressing as a 16 year old. It was the OP's first job, and though she generally enjoyed it, there was one family that stuck out in her mind due to their quirky order. Burger joints that offer up dozens of free toppings to customize your sandwich have the right idea. Most places just give you the typical lettuce, tomato, onion, and maybe some ketchup. But this place has a cool array of ot…

Quite some time has passed since I've last been fired, but the mortifying memory remains carefully carved into my awkward brain, still causing me to shudder when I think about it. I'm sure I have told this story before, but for those of you who are new, I shall suck up the embarrassment and retell it. Back in my tyrannical teenage years, I was looking for a job. Sixteen at the time, I wasn't actually all that tyrannical. I liked to think I had the guts to do anything, but the truth is I was act…

There's a certain kind of satisfaction that comes with giving demanding customers a hard time, but there's also the satisfaction that comes with giving them exactly what they asked for. It takes a specific kind of person to order food at a restaurant and immediately threaten the server before they've done anything wrong yet. It's as if they're asking to be messed with in some way, which is exactly what happened with this demanding customer who we will refer to, unsurprisingly, as Karen. Karen i…

It doesn't matter how your employer feels about it. Getting sick is literally part of what it means to be human. It's part of life and it's completely out of our control. There is a reason why employees are given a number of mandated sick days, and it doesn't matter if your boss is the King of the World; you are entitled to taking those sick days whenever you need to take them. This boss shamed her employee for not giving enough advanced notice when they took their sick day. The employee shared…

'Ask and you shall receive'. These are certainly words to live by– but when we're talking about making modifications on a restaurant order, this phrase is more of a solemn warning.

Restaurant horror stories that are not for the squeamish

How many people working in customer service, retail, or the service industry have had to deal with this exact same scenario? The closing time was 6 pm—it's now ten after—and there are still customers in the store. You're not allowed to turn customers away—management has forbidden it—still, customers continue to pour in. This same thing happens often, and management insists that every last customer be able to order, forcing you to stay late well past scheduled closing… Yet, every time you try to…

People love tacos… and people love a deal. So, it stands to reason that people would be willing to go to extraordinary lengths in order to get a deal on some tacos. If this is a small operation, then you can't help but wonder about the ethics of this story. Restaurants and bars run these deals as “dine in only” in order to get butts in seats and mouths drinking alcoholic beverages. Restaurants don't really make much money off of food anyways. With slim margins and intensive labor requirements,…

This parent has a question about their dating life , and they aren't going to like the responses he got. U/sasisgsbseb asked if they're wrong for the way their girlfriend has been treated by their daughter. The whole situation went down when the OP took their 12 year old daughter to lunch with the 47 year old OP's 33 year old GF. “My girlfriend does not particularly like interacting with waiters or waitresses ,” the OP admitted. While the GF's prior bad experiences with waitstaff might have mad…

Even the best laid plans can be stymied, as this person found out when they tried to throw a nice birthday party . This person did everything right when it comes to planning ahead for a party. As u/Diylion writes, they were throwing their in-laws a double birthday with ten people total. It's a common occurrence for large parties to book out restaurants, and this OP made sure they'd have space for the party several months in advance. Unfortunately for OP, this restaurant is seemingly having issu…

Some customers prefer to learn by experience, rather than listen to the waitstaff who know what they're talking about. This customer chose that route, and was quite displeased with her experience. You can't please everyone, which is especially true when it comes to food service gigs. No matter how long you've been waiting tables, there will always be those customers who ruin their own day by not understanding what they're ordering. Some customers will order a burger, then get upset because this…

I want to find a cave far, far away, and live in it.

If you're hired by a client or employer to pick apart their business operations and identify inefficiencies and issues—do you give them an honest answer? Even if it's an answer that they're not going to want to hear? Even if the problem is—well… them? No one would disagree that keeping a boss or client happy is a good idea. After all, these people are paying all or part of your livelihood—and if you were to be fired or dismissed for telling them something they didn't want to hear—even if it's t…

This Karen was actually the manager until the employee she fired got her booted too. That's what you get when you were the one who messed up and everyone saw it. No matter how powerful you think you are, if you've gained enough enemies, it will bite you in the butt, which is exactly what happened to Carol. Carol was the assistant manager of a restaurant that employed a high school student who wound up working approximately 60 hours each week (when did he find time to do his homework is the real…

"I used to be a server like you, and I've gotten stiffed by tables before. It just happens and you need to get used to it" were a restaurant owner's words when one of the waiters approached him after being stiffed on a $3,600 event. Talk about a good manager, huh? OP took to r/Serverlife after a frustrating incident at work happened, where he was forced to wait on a large party with a reservation booking in the restaurant's event room. Per usual, the restaurant was ridiculously understaffed, an…

These workplaces found out the hard way that you can only push your employees so far before they snap.