Purposely embarrassing diners in front of their guests and intentionally delaying the arrival of a meal are some of the ways hospitality staff get back at rude and nasty customers
, according to Australia’s self-confessed worst waitress.
If you have experienced incidents similar to these when you were dining out, then they might not have been as unintentional as you initially thought.
The author of Prick with a Fork, Larissa Dubecki, might now be a successful restaurant critic and a well-known food writer, but she has just admitted in her new book to spending more than a decade working as a truly ‘awful’ waitress.
While Ms. Dubecki says that the best wait staff are able to laugh-off the rudest of customers, there are some that can’t and will instead find sly ways to exact revenge.
Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold
After spending more than ten years working in nine different restaurants across Melbourne Ms. Dubecki witnessed a variety of different methods workers in the industry used to carry out revenge.
'Everybody I know kicks chairs, every waiter will kick a chair, that's the most popular move of all,' she told reporters from the Daily Mail Australia.
'It's just so effective if you just gently kick someone's chair every time you walk past them, it just adds up to this kind of Chinese water torture.”
Intentionally embarrassing customers in front of their guests by pretending their credit card has been declined is also a popular revenge tactic. As well as ‘silently farting’ beside a table which Ms. Dukecki says is awful and disgusting and she herself has never done.
So, is it Safe to Dine Out?
Those working in a customer service role will likely experience more than their fair share of rude and obnoxious customers, but does that give them the right to enact revenge on them?
While these allegations of revenge might cause you to think twice about whether it is safe for you to head out for dinner or maybe you're just better to stay in and cook - Ms. Dubecki says that not all hospitality workers are bad.
'Not every customer is an a***hole, some are lovely, but I always had a chip on my shoulder that I was essentially being a servant.'
'There are just so many people that really shouldn't be waiting tables but unfortunately, it's the most obvious job you can do when you're a student,' she said.
Perhaps the safest way to ensure that your meal comes on time and your credit card works when it comes time to pa, is to be polite and understanding to the person serving you.
If wait staff are taking steps to intentionally ruin a diner’s experience, maybe those customers who take the time to be especially kind to their server might actually receive their meal faster or get an extra chocolate with their coffee - After all, they do say you catch more flies with honey!
