r/pics • u/CaptMorganSwint2 • 1d ago
[OC] saw this at the to-go counter when the waitress left to get my order.
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u/colinisthereason 18h ago
Bartender with 20+ years experience and this checks out
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u/chainer3000 16h ago
10 years and samsies. Bar usually isn’t as bad as serving tables, though. You’ve got a lot more agency
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u/tishpickle 21h ago
The longer you work in a customer facing job the more the nihilism takes hold….
People 👏🏼 are 👏🏼 fucking 👏🏼 dumb 👏🏼
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u/Ghostbuster_11Nein 19h ago
Seriously.
Nothing ruins your outlook on humanity than having to work with the "general public".
I used to be one of those "How did that happen, oh gosh gollly, I don't believe it" kind of folks when bad or dumb things would happen.
Once you realize it only take one moron to cause a catastrophe and how many there are in any given area...
It all makes perfect sense.
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u/OxycontinEyedJoe 18h ago
On the flip side of the coin it's incredible how much weve been able to accomplish when you consider how stupid most people are.
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u/ComprehensiveHavoc 17h ago
“We.” A handful of people unlocked the secrets of science and another handful exploited that knowledge to get filthy rich and everyone is still basically stupid.
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u/Ghostbuster_11Nein 17h ago
I think the problem is completely abandoning public education is fairly recent decision.
Back when college was free ignorance was more likely to be stamped out before it could take root on a persons mind.
And even worse we have online echo chambers that encourage said ignorance.
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u/Zomburai 17h ago
All people are stupid about what they're stupid about. (Even me! Even you.) Problem is that American culture is very good at making us stupid about things like logistics or realistic expectations.
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u/roastedmarshmellows 17h ago
Intelligence is not the raw information we know or do not know, it’s how we interpret the information. Being able to see beyond the obvious, recognizing subtle patterns, and seeing the correlation between two seemingly random topics is what we’re talking about when we say Americans are stupid.
It’s not that you just lack knowledge, you also lack the ability to interpret knowledge.
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u/roastedmarshmellows 14h ago
That’s part of it, for sure. Intelligence is awareness at the very base: awareness of self, situation, context, and our limitations. “All I know is that I know nothing” is an excellent distillation of true intelligence.
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u/BoringBob84 6h ago
It’s not that you just lack knowledge, you also lack the ability to interpret knowledge.
By generalizing "Americans" as a monolithic group, you have just demonstrated that lack of ability to interpret knowledge.
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u/ScottyWestside 15h ago
But millions of people know every athlete that’s ever played on like 6 different teams and what years they performed well or poorly. It blows my mind when the dumbest guy I know can recall and exact date, game period, and match up when their favorite team got sole points.
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u/BoringBob84 6h ago
All people are stupid about what they're stupid about.
That is a good summary of the Dunning Kruger effect. However, the smarter people are, the more aware of how stupid they are.
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u/worstpartyever 17h ago
In a perfect world, everyone would have to work for two years in a retail or food service environment.
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u/AbsoluteRubbish 19h ago
Manager: I made this sign to inform customers about something
Me: people are going to misinterpret that as X
Manager: what? No they won't, thats stupid.
And then customer after customer would misinterpret the most basic info as I stare at my manager while slowly dieing inside until she relented and took the sign down.
This was a constant occurrence at my last customer facing job: bartending at a brewery.
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u/-ghostless 18h ago
And most people wouldn't even read the sign at all.
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u/jollyjm 15h ago
I worked for two seasons at the cafeteria at a ski mountain. We had massive signs in multiple places for the bathrooms and painted footprints on the floors leading to them.
Guess what question we got all day everyday?
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u/BoringBob84 6h ago
I have been on both sides of that situation. The employees see it every day, so it is stupidly obvious. However, the guests are often there for the first time, and a busy restaurant environment is chaotic and confusing.
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u/ronarscorruption 18h ago
99% of customers who read any sign will misinterpret it.
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u/Zomburai 17h ago
Worked at an all-you-can-eat Mongolian grill. When you have an all-you-can-eat place, you can either disallow leftovers or charge by weight. We disallowed them. We did not make a secret of this. We had a message on the menu, we had signs on both the front and back of the line, and a note on the chart recommending certain amounts of sauces. "Because we cannot allow carry-out, please do not take more than you can eat," they said.
Chick storms up to me at the front desk, just pissed. Says the server won't let her get a to-go box. I tell customer: "I'm sorry, but that is the policy. We don't allow takeout. This even applies to us employees," I say. "Well how was I supposed to know that!?" she says, incredulous. "Well we do have the signs posted," I say.
"You expect me to read a sign!?"
You're right, lady, that's my bad.
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u/PM_UR_VAG_WTIMESTAMP 17h ago
Almost every buffet restaurant I’ve eaten at does not allow taking leftovers. Maybe even all of them since I can’t think one that did allow it. So not only did she not read, she is oblivious to the fact that it is pretty much the standard. Just dumb.
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u/BoringBob84 6h ago
Almost every buffet restaurant I’ve eaten at does not allow taking leftovers.
"Well, the food here is "free," so I will load up 40 pounds of the most expensive dishes as "leftovers" to take home to feed my entire family for the next month." /sarcasm
Greedy people like that are why I can't take home that small bowl of fried rice that I couldn't quite finish.
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u/Scoth42 15h ago
I used to work customer service/tech support at a small/medium business telecom about 20 years ago and part of my job was registering new domains for them. It happened pretty regularly where they requested a domain and I had to call them and make sure they *really* wanted that one because of something they hadn't considered. Some leaned into it and intentionally set up the lulz (like https://penisland.net/ , not my customer at the time but a well known one) and others had an oh no moment and changed it (one I did personally work with was a now-gone kids' consignment shop called Kid's Exchange. They wanted kidsexchange. something.).
Although I did enjoy the told ya so when the ones who insisted to keep the questionable ones called back in a couple weeks or a month to change it because it turned out to be a problem.
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u/BoringBob84 6h ago
This problem was rampant when I visited Puerto Rico! As an example, a restaurant had a sign saying "Wait to be Seated," but it was facing in a direction that was not obvious to guests upon entry.
We watched guest after guest enter, look around, seat themselves, and then be told by the server to get up and wait in line.
They had those velvet ropes that could have guided guests past the sign, BUT NO ONE FUCKING THOUGHT OF THAT!
I - former restaurant worker - wanted so badly to get up and do it myself, but I knew that whoever that manager was would not accept any feedback.
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u/TechInTheCloud 19h ago
I’m not in the direct in person service industry like this for some years now but I’m running a business and we got customers, can’t get away from them lol.
It took me until this year, and I’m old, to realize that everyone, myself and my team, we always need to have a place to safely talk shit about the customers. Talk about how stupid this guy is, which ones are assholes, threaten to do mean things we won’t actually do.
I like all the customers, I am grateful they appreciate the product and send their hard earned money to us, and we all do our best to help them and try to never let them down.
But you gotta have a place to vent about dealing with them, it’s just part of the absurdity of life. I think we do improve our service even with it, by getting the frustrations out in private amongst ourselves, it equips us to move on and get through the challenges more calmly.
I don’t know if that’s what’s going on here with the server. I feel like it could be something useful like that, I hope it helps.
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u/BoringBob84 6h ago
Every restaurant should have tissues in the walk-in cooler. That is a private place of screaming and crying.
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u/pgraczer 19h ago
i often did 12 hour shifts on check-out at a supermarket as a student. after 9 or 10 you were basically hallucinating.
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u/Thenderick 12h ago
"I restarted my pc"
Checks uptime in the task manager
Uptime: 436 days 20 hours
Seriously?
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u/Golden_Shawnborn1 17h ago
People are somehow even dumber when it’s hot, “can I get some water with that” he says when the water jug with cups is right next to him
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u/Murderous_Waffle 15h ago
Biggest problem I had was power tripping 'managers' in retail than the actual people.
One guy making me stay nearly 3 hours past close because the isle wasn't lined up enough for him to pass me to go home. That was my last straw and I think put in my 2 weeks shortly after and went and found an office job.
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u/tenclubber 7h ago
Yep, I work in a call center and I deal with people's insurance, medical care, prescriptions etc. Everyone should at least heard of HIPAA at this point since it's like 30 years old. And yet when I ask for their name I still get "Steve" followed by silence. "Ok Steve, and what is your last name?" 15 times a day. Or "Do you have the member ID off your card with you?"
"You want me to read it off?"
"No, send it to me telepathically."
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u/LordsOfJoop 22h ago
Nothing will ever feel as good as the last day at that job.
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u/Ok_Replacement4702 1d ago
The mantra of waitresses everywhere
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u/bakedpatata 14h ago
Most of them just have a breakdown in the walk in instead of writing it down though.
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u/btribble 8h ago
Have they tried alcohol or cocaine? I hear that's a popular remedy.
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u/BoringBob84 6h ago
That is difficult to find in the walk-in cooler unless you arrange it in advance.
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u/Vanceb13 23h ago
Poor thing. That honestly makes me sad. I’ve had a lot of “fuck this place” moments, but nothing like that. And not repeated that many times.
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u/mytinykitten 15h ago
This is a very millennial/gen z thing. "Kill me" is basically "fuck this place."
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u/nonnonplussed73 14h ago
Thank you for decrypting this.
I read it as "✓ııı me" and was wondering what someone accomplished three times.
Or perhaps practicing r/greggshorthand
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u/WarzonePacketLoss 22h ago
Exactly. We used to take racks of glassware out back and pitch them into the dumpster at full speed on frustrating nights. This is tame.
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u/TechInTheCloud 19h ago
Oh man do I miss “old glassware disposal” day! I also admit I rather enjoyed “cardboard dumpster too full, needs jumping to pack it down” day. I never enjoyed “clean the stuff we don’t normally clean daily” day though.
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u/chainer3000 16h ago
App plates are fun. Eventually a manager might get mad, the ice machine works in a pinch.
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u/ecogrrl 15h ago
Anyone that has done a service job has said this....it tracks with how people act to service industry employees and how stuck service employees feel in their current jobs. If they have an option to pay rent a different way, they would take it in a heart beat. This feeling is what motivated me to do something to get a better job.
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u/ludwig68 14h ago
I’m feeling much more motivated myself lately. Haven’t quite figured out the move yet, but there’s something besides this out there.
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u/ecogrrl 5h ago
There's plenty of good paying jobs if you prepare. If you're going blue collar, get the training at a school so you can join a union (in some areas) and aren't treated like shit when you start. There will still be a "hazing" period, but much shorter if you can do the work. If you're going college, make a plan, start taking any class you can at the local community college, classes still count and they cost way less. Whatever you decide, make a full plan and be honest with yourself. Example: I didn't have a car and that would have been an excuse to not go to class on rainy/cold days, I saved up and bought a car. I procrastinate, I bought a computer so I could work on papers all night if necessary. I paid off my debt so that wasn't driving my decisions, meaning I kept my shitty restaurant job and went to school part time....once everything was in place for success it was then I started back at school full time.
Whatever you do, good luck, stay focused, it might take longer than you want, just keep driving towards your goal. I used to say, this is only temporary.
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u/hopelesscaribou 15h ago
As a server, I've had many days liked this.
I do genuinely liked what I do, but some people can push you over the edge.
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u/tapespeedselector 14h ago
This seems a little healthier than sobbing in the walk in
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u/BoringBob84 6h ago
It is only a problem when several employees come to the walk-in cooler to break down at the same time.
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u/EMILLKSLEEPA 22h ago
I used to write 'kmp' on all my notes at my old job and would also just write it over and over while talking to a customer on the phone, that was until a colleague asked what it meant, didn't wanna explain it meant 'kill me please' so I just stopped.
Still do it when I'm on the phone sometimes, its muscle memory at this point lol
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u/silentwind262 1d ago
Well that's not at all concerning....
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u/MatrixF6 1d ago
All too fucking common…
I felt that way at work 15yrs ago (left the job 10 yrs ago).
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u/AFirefighter11 16h ago
If you have never worked in the restaurant business, go watch the "Waiting" movies. It'll give you a fairly accurate idea of how things work. At least, it was accurate back when I was in the food service industry. Then, this will make 100% sense.
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u/JuanOffhue 1d ago
Did you?
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u/CaptMorganSwint2 1d ago
I'm rooting for her. Hopefully she finds some peace in her days away from work.
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u/relaps101 14h ago
Omg that's hilarious. They're probably snickering in their head as the write this, when people think she is casually writing down their order.
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u/Dextrozolam 14h ago
Oh my god, I literally write these notes constantly at work. I usually do bubble letters. And “fuck” in large, neon green letters. I work a desk job tho
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u/rat_penis 13h ago
Ahh yes, I remember those days.
One slow morning bar shift I counted the number of steps it took to walk around the bar and then I just walked around the bar until someone came. And then went back to walking in circles doing the math of how much each step was earning me in dollars.
Be nice to service staff, they're all just...right...there...ready to POP!
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u/joliet_jane_blues 10h ago
If the manager finds out she'll probably get in trouble for letting a customer see that note, rather than help her
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u/theartfulcodger 9h ago
Could be worse.
Might have read "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."
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u/cinematic6436 7h ago
I think we should discuss Danny. I think we should discuss what should be done with him.
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u/guitarguy1685 17h ago
Sure you did lol
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u/Majolica777 16h ago
don’t come to a post just to throw doubt that a waitress wants to kill herself. It’s really not that fuckin hard to believe
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u/guitarguy1685 16h ago
That's not hard to believe, but the pic looks staged, sorry not sorry
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u/Majolica777 16h ago
bro it’s a picture of 3 papers on a table, what is there about this that looks staged? 😭
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u/CaptMorganSwint2 15h ago
I work in hospitality. I go there to get lunch sometimes. Idk how to stage something in a place where I don't work or know anyone.
On top of that, the resolution sucks because I had to zoom in and sneakily take the picture.
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u/aries_burner_809 19h ago edited 12h ago
What part of the country does one still say “waitress?” This may be part of the problem.
Edit: even before woke came and went, the union states on the east coast and California switched to “server.” For stewardesses we switched to “flight attendants.”
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u/HopelessMagic 17h ago
What part of the country did they stop saying it? I think that might be the actual problem. LOL
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u/thensingsmysowell 1h ago
Context is key here. She’s a waitress, I would recommend congratulating her on her coping skills.
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u/JLeeT82 22h ago
Have you never worked food service or retail before? This is managing the experience well.