Nobody said thank you? Really? What’s up with that? Time after time I sit in restaurants and observe the interactions between guests and employees. Most of the time I watch guests leave without any exchange with the staff at all.

Say it

The guest leaves without saying it to anyone (they should). The guest leaves and no one from the staff says it (they should). The social challenges of some people really amaze me sometimes.

In the early days of this blog, I wrote a post called, “Thank the Kitchen.”

https://tabletalkpdx.com/2013/05/15/

In that post I point out how much I love it that when my kids go out for dinner they always say thank you. Almost always to the kitchen, but at least to someone. I would like to see that practiced more regularly by everyone–customers and staff alike.

Shouldn’t the customer thank those who just served them? Made them food? Shouldn’t the employees be thanking those who decided to spend their hard earned money at the servers’ place of business? It seems to me that not taking the customer for granted is sorely lacking in many of these establishments I frequent. And even those I go in to occasionally.

They are the reason you have a job

The whole take the customer for granted thing has always baffled me.  A server makes fifty bucks serving a table, and then just takes the money and runs. I have had many times when I wanted to go ask for some of the tip back because I suddenly felt unappreciated, and yes, downright abused in the end.

Look dude, I just hooked you up with a very generous tip, and you assume that you deserve all of it and more. So much so that you don’t even have the good graces to show a hint of appreciation.

You took an order, served me some food, poured me some more water, brought me a drink, brought me a check, and that was about it. I have plenty of respect for what the sever has to go through on any given night–I was a server for years, and I have not forgotten how difficult it can be, but…

But

But, is it right that as soon as you get my money, our interaction is officially over in your mind? No, it is not right. As the famous philosopher, Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over til its over.”

See it through to the end. Say ‘thank you’ and mean it. Both of you.