Jersey Girl wrote:
[...]
Preparing and serving food to order is some of the most demanding work you'll ever do in your life, it will teach you about human social behavior like not many other jobs will (John Q. Public can be incredibly rude when it comes to food or take out their troubles on you simply because you are "there"), make you become adaptable, it requires the ability to multitask like a demon, stay on your feet for long hours because good luck getting a break when you're working with a skeleton crew.
[...]
And then there are naïve people on the internet who think that taking a swipe at a whole profession and the people who engage in it, makes them look smart. When what it really does is make them look like a complete ass who doesn't know ____ and has no insight to draw from.
Couldn't agree more. It's very hard work, and the people who do it for us deserve to be spoken to like human beings rather than the vending and serving machines that all too many people treat them as.
Chap wrote:On the other hand, I would always think it better to avoid provoking or insulting the staff of a restaurant where I am eating, because:
1. [99% of the reasons] That kind of confrontation spoils most of the pleasure of eating a meal prepared and served by others, and in general I find that a little time invested in being nice to often overworked and underpaid service staff pays a big dividend in reciprocal niceness. And in any case (as the Buddhists know) being nice to someone else is good for you, whatever the reaction.
café crema wrote:There is more than a pinch of condescension in this part.
Puzzling. So to avoid condescension, I have to do what, exactly? Stop showing appreciation for people who do a hard job well? Because they'd be happier if I received their good service in stone-faced silence, paid, and left without a word of thanks, or any acknowledgement that I was encountering another human being?