May 21 is National Waiter & Waitresses Day. Most of us have worked as servers at one point or another in our lives, so we appreciate this holiday. Restaurant work is really tough, as it involves a delicate balance of customer service, fellow employee communication (and tolerance) and food preparation. Also, the minimum wage for servers is much lower than for other jobs because tipping is supposed to raise their hourly rate. But sometimes it doesn’t. We’ve worked a day or two of bad tips and found ourselves earning a mere $4 an hour. So we have a great deal of respect and empathy for those who work in food service, providing us with food, drink and leaving us with not a single dirty dish to wash at the end of our meal.
Tipping is not the only important piece of wait-staff interaction, of course. Treating your waiter and waitress well is part of our creed around here. So for the single ladies, we asked around and came up with ten things a person can say to a waiter that can completely ruin a date. If you can think of any more or have a story to share, leave it in the Comments! We’d love to read it!
A man needs to be polite. Not just to me, but to everyone. I watch that. How does he treat the waiter? —Adriana Lima
10. What’s your number? Servers are there to work! Also, aren’t we on a date? Hello!?
9. Anything you can’t pronounce. If you don’t know how to pronounce an item on the menu, just point. That’s what it’s there for!
