I received horrendously poor service from a waiter at a pub and restaurant a few years ago. It was during thirty-cent-chicken-wing happy hour, the place was just starting to get busy for dinner, and I was by myself. After a very long wait to be waited on, I ordered ten wings and the cheapest beer on the menu. The waiter looked annoyed every second that he waited on me, and my meager order was obviously a huge disappointment to him. It was clear that he had instantly written me off, knowing that his 20% tip would be very small.

After what felt like an eternity, he dropped my plate of wings in front of me and walked away in silence — no napkins, no beer. I waited for several minutes after that, looking around for him, but he had disappeared. Eventually, I spotted him on the other side of the restaurant casually chatting with another employee. I got up, walked over, and politely asked him for my beer and some napkins, and he actually scolded me for leaving my table.

Finally, having waited for what felt like twenty minutes after finishing my meal, I got up once again and found the waiter to ask for the check. Again, he scolded me for leaving the table. When he came back with the check minutes later, the bill was for $7.50.

That’s when I decided to turn this into a teachable moment. I handed him a $20 bill and told him to bring me back $5 in change, giving him a 100% tip. He stood there frozen for a few seconds, looking confused. Then, he turned completely red and lowered his head in shame.

Waiter: “I am so sorry… I’m so sorry. I’ll be right back with your change, sir.”

He turned and literally RAN to the bar to get my change and RAN back. A few seconds later, he presented me that five-dollar bill with both hands, arms outstretched, and actually BOWED as he handed it to me, saying again:

Waiter: “Oh, my God, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Me: “Yeah, you were terrible.”

Waiter: “I know… I’m sorry… That was… really bad.”

He looked like he was about to cry.

He was utterly humiliated, and I walked away with a big smile on my face. That tip might have been the best $7.50 I ever spent.

When I arrive at the pub where I work, two of my coworkers are already there. As I’m washing my hands, [Coworker] spots me.

Coworker: “[My Name]! You’re here! Please, can you make the new microwave quiet?”

I go and press the buttons to make the “I’ve finished cooking food” beeps quieter to match the other two new microwaves.

All whilst I’m doing that, [Coworker] is talking to [Coworker #2] about how she’s so glad I’m here, how annoying it has been to deal with the microwave since it arrived on a day I had off, and on and on.

Me: “Okay, done.”

Coworker: “Oh, you’re a godsend.”

Me: “Well, I only knew how because I read the instructions when the first new microwave came. This one should have had some, too.”

Coworker: “I know, but no one reads them.”

Me: *Petulantly* “I read them.”

Coworker: “And that’s why I love you.”

Considering I’m not her preferred gender, I assume that was meant platonically. But it’s still nice to be appreciated.

The board game café and pub I used to work at taught me many things, and one of those was to never mix business with pleasure without some strong guarantees.

The place’s owner had only me, his sister, and two close friends on call, with various flaky part-timers going through revolving doors for various reasons. Somehow, despite being placed fairly in the way of nightlife, and advertised in English, too, this was more than enough.

Then, one day, [Owner]’s sister found herself a girlfriend. Said girlfriend was at first merely invited to hang out at the cafè, but soon enough, she had started to invite friends over… and let them eat and drink for free.

The tales of [Sister]’s generosity soon spread to the extended friend circles, increasing the number of people occupying tables and eating or drinking for free little by little.

Things came to a head when, one Saturday night, the number of [Sister]’s friends and “acquaintances” was enough to occupy all but two seats, and the overall bill, by all accounts, should have been around 1,100€, instead of 0€. This was made worse by the fact that the people got hostile with patrons who did intend to pay to stay there and that [Sister] had forced me and a poor b*****d expecting an easy job to rush around to all the tables while being treated like dirt for not conjuring food out of our behinds.

The next week, the owner saw the expense ledger and demanded an explanation. Let’s just say it’s lucky he didn’t try to bite his sister’s head off.

As soon as [Sister] told her girlfriend that she was going to charge her for food and drink, she got ghosted.

I work in the kitchen of a pub. Because I’m autistic, I need earplugs to deal with the noise of the kitchen. My immediate boss informed me that is their responsibility as an employer to supply them.

Actually getting them has been a bit of a nightmare. 

The first type I was given didn’t work, but I was told (by the pub’s deputy manager) that there was another version they could order. 

On a Saturday several weeks ago, I had a small meltdown. The team lead let me know she had spoken to one of the managers, and one of the bar coworkers was being sent to [Store] to grab me some earplugs to use for today. They worked great! They were kept in the office, so I had to keep asking the manager on duty to get them, and not all of the managers knew the password for the safe they were kept in. When I had about a week’s supply left, I let managers know, “Hey, I’ve got [number] of these left until I’m out.”

The shift after I ran out, I asked where they were, and the manager on duty said that he didn’t know. I tried to power through my shifts without them until I was on at the same time as the deputy manager who was ordering them. When I was, I asked her and was told they were arriving “tomorrow”, a day when I wouldn’t be working. When I asked her what to do for today, she suggested I use blue roll (a harsh tissue-like paper) and complained that she couldn’t keep sending people to [Store] because their earplugs were too expensive. I tried to power through my shift, though she came up sometime later to give me some [Store] earplugs. She also told me to hold onto them myself.

That was two weeks ago.

On Monday, I asked a manager where they were. He looked around the office but couldn’t find any.

On Friday, I asked a manager I like better. He said he didn’t think they’d been ordered. I kind of had a bit of a freak-out because they were meant to have arrived a week or two ago (I couldn’t remember on the spot), and while I did still have the [Store] earplugs, I wanted to keep some as a backup in case these new ones don’t work like the first ones didn’t, and if I used up all the [Store] ones again and needed to ask the deputy manager for some, she’d sulk at me again. He reassured me that he’d look into it and sent a message in the manager chat asking about them.

Yesterday, the deputy manager came into the kitchen to say goodbye to people at the end of her shift. People were giving her hugs, which I thought was weird, but I was too focused on trying to ask her where these flipping earplugs were. I was told they’d arrive “tomorrow”. I gave her an eye-roll and said, “Whatever,” because I was getting a bit fed up.

This morning, I received a group text from the deputy manager about how she’s leaving for good (which explains the hugs) and she’ll miss us all.

On the one hand, I feel a little bad that I was kind of rude to her as she was leaving. On the other, she started the message with, “Morning, my work family :)”, so eff that. Hopefully, whoever’s replacing her is more competent.

Many years ago, I worked at a pub chain. We had checked (sort of) that everyone had left. We had locked the doors and were in the process of cashing up when my manager spotted movement on the cameras. There was a woman passed out or asleep on one of the benches at the front of the pub. She had her coat on top of her, which was the same colour as the seat cover.

We finished our cash up and went to wake her. She mumbled, told us to f*** off, and went back to sleep. This was a problem.

The solution:

Step 1: Open the front door and be ready to lock her out.

Step 2: Get the ice bucket and add some extra water.

Step 3: Move the table out of the way and apply “the ice bucket challenge”.

She shot straight up in the air and then out the door.

I’m not terribly proud of that now.