Working in the service industry is one of the toughest to endure, as customers, management, and coworkers can really get under your skin. You need the patience of a sloth, the memory of an elephant, and the speed of a cheetah. Picture this: a family of eight, children sobbing whilst simultaneously drooling, parents at their wit's end just rattling off their order to you while corralling their children. Having a long list of dietary restrictions and substitutions to their order after demanding y…

Everyone's been to a restaurant before where they had a terrible server. You saw them flirting with the hostess, loitering around the bar, and rolling their eyes when you asked them to split the bill. Not to mention, they've neglected your table for 20 minutes, while you were starving and ready to order. Restaurant goers are faced with a tough decision– to tip or not to tip?

Serving one Karen at a restaurant is difficult enough. Imagine having to serve 13 of them!

Most people can't really say they enjoy dealing with long shifts, meh-money, and annoying customers on a daily basis… although there will always be exceptions. Serving can easily get tiring when you are forced to put a smile on your face and pretend to like the people you're serving, laughing at their dad jokes and complimenting their hideous striped t-shirts. But you don't have to do that everywhere… in fact, there are places where you can be borderline rude, and it's totally acceptable. Custo…

Not to yuck these peoples' yums, but why would they choose these food combos? The ones included below are truly odd — and chefs and waiters were the ones telling on their customers. The r/KitchenConfidential community answered the question, “What are the grossest substitutions you’ve been asked to make?” Interestingly, the OP suggested that they were unhappy with a customer substituting mustard instead of apple butter on a sandwich with sourdough bread, cheese, and bacon. Tons of commenters sco…

The service industry is riddled with careless, entitled, and rude customers who think you, as a server, should worship the ground they trample on. At the rate employees come and go in this industry, it's easy to decipher why nobody really likes to work as wait staff. In this case, OP was working at a pizzeria, waiting on an entire floor of tables alone, as there were no other servers on duty that shift. Running to and fro, most of the customers could recognize a damsel in distress when they saw…

When you're new in a job, you absolutely have to learn some things the hard way — how else will you learn? Fresh employees are always making lots of mistakes. They're new, they're learning, and sometimes that makes you, the seasoned employee, giggle a bit. Sometimes they don't understand rules about when to cut corners or stick to the books. Other times, they're not sure when to get a manager involved or when to handle customers on their own. At least as a longer-term employee, you've already m…

Employers don't always exactly abide by the law; some refuse tax forms in favor of under-the-table pay, which is really bad for servers in the long run. In this case, OP was working at a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant that served authentic Thai food. According to OP, her boss was actually pretty nice, but soon enough, OP realized that may not be the case. It began with less pay than usual, which OP found suspicious. OP approached their boss and asked for a tax form, which was refused upon re…

So you think you know restaurant edict but have never worked in the service industry? HA! Don't make us laugh. You might know the basics, but there are so many things that can mark you as a crappy customer. The number one thing servers are currently discussing on Reddit? Complaining about free things. So you got a free basket of chips with salsa. Okay, so? You say, “thank you so much!” and move on. You do not complain about the chips being too salty, like the server can even fix that. You canno…

A waiter shared an odd day in their life: dealing with some of the silliest and most demanding customers . Servers of America, you have my sympathies. It seems like customers are crazier than ever — but at least these waiters know they aren't alone in the war against Karens. On r/Serverlife, u/serverforadecade shared an encounter with one couple who kept them running all over the restaurant to fetch them things and wait on them hand and foot. In the comments, people broke down the servers' bull…

Hats off to this server for making sure this kid's prom night did not go as planned.

Sometimes the best lessons come from giving someone exactly what they wanted.

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…

Do people really enjoy being sung “Happy Birthday” by the staffers in restaurants ? Maybe there are two types of people: the kind who really love birthday attention and want to celebrate with everyone around, and the kind who shy away from big displays of attention, like getting the waitstaff to sing for you at restaurants. We've all seen it play out. A family will come in to dine, and one person will find the waiter in private and tell them to surprise the birthday person with cake. That often…

Every workplace has that one room that you can sneak off to to be on your phone. No matter how small your workplace is, there's a hidden corner for you to lean instead of clean , or to scroll your phone instead of having to answer the phone . You can take a minute just for yourself to collect yourself, have some water and a snack, and pretend you don't have 6 hours left of work. It's the little things that make a difference. It's good to take care of yourself, because we all know that lots of p…

It sounds like they were just looking for the smallest excuse to fire this server.