While it's easy to agree with the sentiment that “You shouldn't be eating out if you can't afford to tip,” the last person you want to be hearing that message from is their boss who refused to pay them a living wage in the first place.

Working in the customer service industry, you've got to be tough as nails, as you will be constantly and consistently tested without fail. Every day you'll need more and more patience as Karen customers become less daunting, and more of a nuisance. OP was working as a front desk clerk at a hotel that was holding a very expensive, corporate event, resulting in most of the rooms being taken by said event. The last ten or so rooms were reserved by construction workers who had a contract with the h…

Giving notice to a job is the right thing to do—when you have the right employer. Like any relationship, the working relationship is built on trust, and a strong relationship that is filled with goodwill should always be honored. But when you know that the person employing you is prone to petty fits of rage—which often include firing people on the spot with no prior warning—maybe it's best not to let this person know that you plan on leaving their business in the next few weeks. After all, they…

It's often said that you should never break two rules at the same time, lest you run the risk of being caught for the more serious rule after calling attention to yourself through the less serious. You can probably find that phrased uttered in a similar fashion throughout the ages of this site. When we mention this, we're usually talking about driving with a broken headlight on your way to rob a casino with your ten closest friends. You could be pulled over on the way and have the entire heist…

Fighting back the urge to laugh when an adult is having a full-blown meltdown right in front of you over basically nothing is one of the most challenging parts of working retail—but you only reach this level of reaction when you've put up with it enough times that you no longer have the ability to experience the trauma of being shouted at that you did when you first started. Not only that but—when they're making obscene demands—you have to fight every muscle in your body that wants to do precis…

When a restaurant owner keeps their place in atrocious conditions and assume their staff will keep their mouths shut about it, how can they possibly think it's okay to pull one over on any of their employees ? That's just poor planning on their part. Why would they think for one second they won't get reported? Well, that's exactly what went down with this particular restaurant. The chef had just been hired and was working hard to whip the place into shape. And it need a lot of work. There were…

Starting a new job is always tough. Sure, you might have tons of knowledge and industry experience, but there's always a different way of doing the same old thing at every new organization you walk into. You might think that a square peg would always just fit into the square hole, but your new job may require you to revolve the square 360 degrees clockwise, counterclockwise, and then on a vertical axis—all before putting it in the same square hole you always did before. Sure, it may be stupid,…

When the dish you order is specifically known and named for the style of spice that it uses, it would be foolish to request that dish without it. Sure, you might have meant that you just wanted it to be less spicy, but if you're going to be rude to service staff, you should be careful what you wish for and choose your words carefully. Or, how about we treat service staff with the respect that they deserve? This Karen unwisely demanded exactly this after being rude to staff during her trip to th…

Customers often demand items that aren't on the menu, or at the very least expect servers to reinvent entire dishes catering to their own personal preferences. OP relayed the time customers physically cornered them when they were on shift at a restaurant they worked at after the customers were denied ‘tea’, as it literally wasn't on the menu. The story begins with the three customers who came to the restaurant with no prior experience in eating sushi, the dish that the restaurant excelled at. O…

After working in customer service, you quickly come to the side fo abolishing the “customer is always right” mentality. Why? Because the customer most definitely is not always right. In fact, it becomes pretty obvious that the customer is usually very wrong. Unfortunately, many customers going into a customer service based establishment still think they can't possibly be wrong and that they need to be waited on hand and foot. God forbid you get one tiny thing wrong—if these customers had their…

Managers who don't know how to maneuver workplace issues that pop up can often be as daunting as they are annoying, making employees wish they never would have joined the establishment in the first place. Sometimes this leads to a last straw or two, causing the employees to say 'adios'. In this case, OP took to r/Serverslife to complain about how the management at the restaurant he was working at was dragging their feet to fix literally anything. Among things that weren't working, there were 2…

If you work in retail, customer service, or the service industry, sooner or later, you're going to run into a confoundingly indignant and angry individual who is going to ruin your day—leaving you thinking about this interaction for years to come. It's just a matter of sheer statistics; talk to enough people in a day, and sooner or later, at some point, you're going to have a grown adult having a full tantrum in the center of your store like it's some kind of performative art piece. This Karen…

Toxic organizations breed toxic behavior, begetting toxic people. Unfortunately, those that conform to the organization's less-than-ideal ideals tend to do better and prosper, rising far above their deserved rank and encouraging their unfavorable behavior towards others that would ideally be derided. We've seen stories like this before, where an employee is singled out and collectively gaslit by their coworkers on behalf of getting them to conform to bizarre organizational directives. In this c…

There are many different kinds of nightmares that can happen while working in the service industry. One that is a guarantee you will encounter while working in a restaurant is a family who allows their kids to run wild while they dine. This is a nightmare on so many different levels. For one, if you work in the the restaurant, an unchaperoned child running around like they own the place can be very dangerous. There are servers, busers, and all kinds of employees running around a restaurant and…

One of the worst parts about working in the service industry or retail is “blackout” dates—where no one is able to take days off—these always line up with precisely the days you'd want to take off. Holidays, long weekends, and anytime between Christmas and New Years—pretty much any time you might want to see family or friends (who are all off work.) These have all been deemed as days where all hands are needed on deck due to high volumes of trade. But the worst part about blackout dates?.. Hypo…

Everyone knows that person who treats their tolerance for spice like it's a personality trait. I used to work with a friend who was practically immune to spice and would always throw out taunting requests like this to wait-staff, insinuating that there was no way their chef could placate his lust for the fieriest of infernos. We had a Thai place near the office that we would frequent for lunch, the pair of us would always order the same dish (pad thai), and my friend would submit his usual requ…