The Joys of the Service Industry

[foeofthelance]

Now, I work in a resturaunt. As such, I deal with all sorts of things. Thos one stands out from the crowd.

Setup:

The time: Yesterday, around 2:30 in the afternoon

The place: A quiet little Italian resturaunt, frequented by many.

The scene: A balding older gentleman departs into the kitchen, while a younger boy in a black apron (yours truly) sits down to lunch. He is accompanied by a rather rotund, beet faced man who is working his way through a Heineken and some slices drenched in cheese. Another young man is preparing to depart the premises.

The young man preparing to leave is the busboy who works with me during Thursday lunches. Im the man in the apron sitting down to lunch (in case you missed that) and the balding gentleman is my boss, who is departing to deal with the latest screwed up bill. The rotund man is a customer. My busboy was heading home for the day when I recalled I had not yet paid him his tip so I call him back. At this point the rotund man cuts in and says, "You better pay him well, or else." I nod and say "Of course" and pull out my money and count it twice. Forty three dollars, round up, forty five dollars. Normally we pay the busfolks 15%, but I did four years as a busser so I slip him $9, or 20%. Not bad, more then he made for two hours work.

No sooner does he depart, that the customer turns and accuses me of being a scumbag. I reply, "Now, I've been called a scumbag by many people for many reasons, so what did I do now?" He doesn't say word, merely scowls and finishes eating. I shrug off the incident, finish lunch, ring him up and go on with work. ah well. He doesn't seem to appreciate it when I sit down to read, so I just chalk it to him being an unfriendly fellow.

Then today happens. Im coming back from my break, with a bag full of comics. I plop myself down in the backroom, which is both out of sight of customers and more importantly, air conditioned. I'm about half way through the latest issue of Witchblade when the all day waitress comes back and asks if I deal with a customer. Asking who it is, she tells me its the rotund man, as I mentioned the previous day's events. I politely decline, and go back to my comic. Thats about when yelling starts.

Now, it wasn't apparent he was ranting about me until he called me out as "the bookworm" and "the twerp with glasses". He begins to go on about what an asshole I am, how I made my coworker beg for his money, how its not fair that I do it, only because he's black (actually, I think he's Puerto Rican) when all the poor kid wants is to do his job and get paid. Now, admittedly I didn't get the entire rant memorized, as at this point I was too busy chuckling.

However, key phrases included:

"He's an asshole."

"How dare he try to torture a working man like that?"

"Next time I see him, Im going to straighten him out!"

"Commander Kelly told me to kill him."

"Im going to tear out his heart with my bare hands!"

Now, through out all of this my boss is egging him on, while the waitress is denying the whole thing ever happened. Which seemed to just inspire him to new heights of ranting. Me? Im too busy laughing out of sight. I didn't even get to finish Witchblade!

Ah well. God grant me the patience to deal with fools, or at least a twelve gauge to speed up the process.

[StoryJunkie]

It's Friday the 13th, hon.

[foeofthelance]

Hmm, that explains it then. My family tends to have good luck, and this little episode managed to keep amused for the five hours left in my shift. Yipee!

[Guest Agaib]

Huh... that just seems odd to Me.

Was the busboy upset with you? If things happened the way you describe I can't see why either would get upset. Maybe he missed something?

[Leonhart29]

From the comments you remember the rotund one making I think he was unhinged. You have my respect to be able to laugh at that. I would have probably been in the middle of it - especially when your boss started to egg him on. What did the fatso expect you to do? Give over all of your tips? I did that once or twice when I tended bar - but only because the barbacks worked their asses off and deserved it for going above and beyond the call of duty. Otherwise they got what I had to give them - just like you I worked hard for those tips (although I doubt you wear a man's dress shirt unbuttoned to your bellybutton and flashed the customers to get better tips... what?! I worked at a topless bar! It was expected and encouraged.)