Hey all of you Haligonians who eat out:
After explaining something stupid to your server, don’t be surprised if he or she pauses before responding or asks you to repeat what you said. He or she is not pausing or wishing to hear your stupid words again because he or she does not understand.
WE UNDERSTAND.
We are pausing or asking for a repetition of your words because you are stupid. If we however let on that we think you are stupid we could get into trouble.
P.S.: I am smarter than the very simple man who treated me like an idiot last night.
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2008.
if you are grad school worthy but working as …ahem…a server, then the benefits of, and cost of education has been lost on you. stay a server longer than two years, and it’s called career opportunity.check out the grad schools.
If you are so fucking smart, what are you doing working the counter at McDonald’s…
Ha Ha! You said “eat out”.
Do us all a favor and let us know where you work so we can avoid it, thanks.
OP, yes it does. It really does.
Aside from the guy being a bit of a dipshit and therefore fun to rag on…..you guys are aware that there are a lot of smart people who work at McD’s to help pay their way through university right?
Jammie! You do know that the majority of servers in Halifax are university students, don’t you? I teach at a university in Halifax, and the vast majority of my students – those who need to work, at least – work in either restaurants/pubs, or call centers. And David, FYI, it takes FOUR years to get a bachelor’s degree, and at least two more for a master’s. If you had actually gone to university yourself, you would know that. Two years. pfft.
Jeez we were just trying to have a bit of fun at the expense of this poor sap, and then Miles and Miranda had to come by and pour cold water over everything…Thanks a LOT guys…
I remember back in the day, when I was working on my MSc, and waitressing in a certain long lived Chinese restaurant on Quinpool. Some fucking tool of a customer, (maybe it was David) said to me, “I guess you should have stayed in school.” If there’s any justice in the cosmos, that bastard’s kid is currently failing my physics class.
Who the heck are these people who look down their noses at the servers? Like the customer’s career is going so well that they are going out for a nice dinner at McD’s or some crappy chinese food place? Maybe they should have stayed in school a little longer too. I hope that guys kid is phailing fysics, and inglish too.
Miles, have I told you lately that I love you?
Aw shucks, thanks Miranda. Guess this one is a touchy subject for both of us. Sorry to be a wet blanket there Floyd, though I do agree that this OP is a little cocky and douchy with his “i’m smarter than you” routine. (tee hee, I said “little cock”)
I’m going to have to put on my ” softer fuzzy humanistic” hat for this one. I would normally slag the OP:p, but I have to have some sympathy here. It’s a tough industry having to cater to all those different mentalities, the assholes, the people that are only happy when they make them around them miserable, no matter what the occasion. Keep a stiff upper lip OP, and hope they slip / fall and break a hip after they leave, Oops, I must have lost my hat, whew, just in time.
MIranda,Reading for content, its a job skill, sadly misplaced in modern society. degrees, yup, two of them. technical schools, specialist schools totaling 17 years (count them) beyond high school graduation either full or part time. two years as a server, again, two years as a server make that a career.try again love.
My problem is not with food servers per se… It doesn’t matter to me whether the person is a nucular scientist working on his feces or a career team-dude whose McNuggets don’t quite fill the kiddie-pack.But when any food service individual pulls the kind of bullshit as the OP, well they get what they get…Likewise, the haughtiness of my friend david here, is indicative of that “I’m smarter than you” attitude, which makes anyone who behaves this way, look like a total fucking tool…
I paid my way through university by working in hospitality and after working in ‘professional’ jobs in my field, I can honestly say hospitality was the hardest job I’ve ever worked. It’s physically and mentally exhausting work and people treat you like shit. I always tip well above average because I know how tough it can be.And I don’t drink anymore because the drunks I served drove me batty. People are assholes when they are looking to eat or get drunk. Somehow people think these needs give them to right to treat servers like shit.And for a lot of people hospitality is a career choice, and can be very profitable.
David, you’re hilarious. And the most entertaining thing is that the irony of posting on an on-line bitchboard, and trying to put on an air of superiority with all the credibility of a high school student reading aloud from Proust, is completely lost on you. It’s like, double irony! Love. It.
Servers are people too. I find it funny when I read these bitches about food servers and so many people expect them to hold their job in such a higher regard then most people. They are paid less and put up with a lot of shit.If someone has to go to a restaurant to disrespect someone, it probablly means that they have no control or authority in real life and have to take it out on someone who has to take it.
also, food servers can make a ridiculous amount of money, which, in a province with huge tuition, means it’s actually the best job a student could have! Flexible hours, lots of evenings, and big wads of cash, untaxed and instantaneously? I went to school, finished, have a professional career. but my friends who wait tables make far far far more than me. So I really don’t understand how people can look down their noses at them.
i work in a bar part-time and i go to law school. i am sometimes treated like an idiot. i am not an idiot.i agree OP, some people suck, sometimes you must accomodate these sucky peopleit is frustrating, so why do it?money. earning tips means we make more, often much more.simple, no?
Oh boy. If “server” didn’t clinch the argument, “law student” sure did!*insert stupid slyly-winking emoticon to show that I am teasing*
dear Miranda,you’ve highjacked the thread but here it is. the fundamental point is the employment market for “servers” is a voluntary one, if she doesn’t like it, and I would not blame her, she is free to search for other suitable employment. if she is truly grad school material, (that criteria being not that high any longer mind you), then I would suggest that she owe that to herself and relieve the job stress.as for yourself love, I have an image in my head, I bet I could guess from commentary which of our no longer esteemed institutions you “teach” at, rather doubt you are a professor but rather a hired for the season instructor, and that you are in fact very little older if at all than your quote “students” end quote. in short love, i think your entire posture is rather let us call it “grey”.. .perhaps to supplement income your primary work is as a server too, who knows? to put it more bluntly, who cares?should she choose by her own free will to remain in her present position, she will end up bitter, under-recognized, unable to support a viable relationship with anyone but her cat, and probably barren. you’ve made the office post board this morning but then it’s my office, and i can admittedly be at times a bit of a bully so i post what i want.ttfn
Despite David’s arrogant affect, I agree with his basic premise that if you are indeed grad school worthy and choose to remain in a service or support job for too long, you are endangering your future opportunities.While working THROUGH school in the service industry is fully expected, and really pretty smart, but working AFTER school in a support role for too long can be a mistake.I’ve never worked in the service industry but I did accept a rather technical job after finishing grad school, because, hey, we’re in Halifax and you never know when the “real” job is going to come, and because it paid well. I stayed in it for four years; I regretted it for as many years after. Because it was a techie kind of job, I found my options limited for quite a few years, because that sort of job results in your resume being thrown in the “useful skills but not a leader” pile. Even when I did get more “professional” jobs, I quickly found bosses expecting my technical skills to be in full use. I felt guilty saying no, so I let them keep me in the techie role. Until I started refusing. It’s no longer much of an issue for me; I am now a fairly well recognized leader in my field, but I still feel my first job handicapped me for a good long while and i wonder where’d I’d be now if i had stayed there for a shorter period, or held out for a better job in the first place.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if real life transactions worked like EBay, so that both the buyers (customers) and the sellers (customer service /servers) were rated after each transaction. This way as a customer in a restaurant not only would I be evaluating my server on whether they deserved a tip, but they could be evaluating me on whether or not I say, deserved a discount, or to be banned.Because the customer is NOT always right, they are quite often wrong, rude, and expect far too much by way of service for what they give in return. Money is too powerful in our society, because we think that just because we’re paying for something, we deserve to be treated like royalty even if we’re acting like pigs.
Does anybody else think it’s hysterical how Davey gets more and more puffed up with every post? The more I mock him for his arrogance and pedantry, the more arrogant and pedantic he gets. The thing is, Davey Boy, smart people don’t feel the need to try to convince other people how smart they are. Also, it’s a common habit of the intellectually insecure to try to cast those they see as their competition in an unflattering light. I think you’re silly. But highly entertaining. Best troll we’ve had around here since Ali G. Keep up the good work.
I see your point Jammie, and I agree. I assumed our server here was actually in grad school. If he isn’t, then you’re absolutely right. I once worked with a guy who quit his job as a waiter, and took a significant pay cut to work in the biotech industry for exactly that reason.
Yup, david is a barrel of laughs, especially if you were around for some of his earlier works like: “i’d rather my daughter be in prison than be a hair dresser”. He and Frannie should totally hook up.
ah Miranda darling, I used to have a terrier like you, he bit now and then, but then he was never bred…sorry if my academics is threatening, i own an IT company in town and unfortunately, you brought it up, I did not.for Jammie. in some respects you are right. I do hiring personally, and when an IT candidate resume in hand sits before me and delivers his job experience if they have been in one place more than three years my first question is why? IT pays enough, (not with some of the small service in your home outfits here in HRM but generally) that individual RRSP contribution and benefit outperform most firm plans anyway so its not an issue. so why are you sitting in one place with technology turnaround running every 18 months? what are you doing besides working, career wise? remaining under employed is not very much different from being unemployed and it shows employers that they have pegged you right. by continuing skill acquisition and letting employers know it, come employment term time your bargaining position becomes much better, if you are prepared to risk moving on. that I am sure Miranda would agree is how service industries retain their employee base. if you settle for less than you are worth, you have no one to blame but yourself. I know physics grads whom have worked as servers at one of our tourist traps because they don’t like getting up early in the morning. their choice.there are no repercussions to that ideology really, until the bank tells you that you cannot have the financing on that blue volvo you want. resume time passes quickly.I have a 22 year old son making in excess of 70 thousand this year, but not in NS. my commentary to him was if the worst should come to pass, go hungry, swallow your pride and ask dad for money before taking a job in a call center.cheers
David – frequent changing of job / employer can be a double-edged sword. In my field, which involves long term planning and requires ongoing leadership, if I had a resume showing that I moved every two years, the questions would be “why can’t you stick around long enough to finish what you started? Why are you always jumping ship?”Finding new challenges to grow is viewed one way, but flakiness is viewed quite another. Depends on the field I guess…
So I guess that tells me that I shouldn’t take the drugstore.com job I know they’re gonna offer me, even though it sounds good and I’m getting poorer by the unemployed day, but I know i’m gonna hate it.
David, can I have some money?