This one goes out to every whiny brat restaurant customer [View all]

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Excerpt:

. . . From customers berating me and my co-workers because we’re out of ranch dressing for their takeout order (we all know you have some at home) to being yelled at for things I can’t control (I didn’t overcook your steak; I’ve never cooked a steak, period), to closing up after a double shift at 11 p.m. and getting less in tips than you’d see in a street player’s guitar case on a Tuesday afternoon, I’m quickly running out of patience and the willingness to work.

On top of this, I’m a high school senior taking four Advanced Placement classes, dual enrolling at my local university, submitting college applications and trying to do enough extracurriculars to convince admissions officers that I’m the next Mother Teresa or Elon Musk.
Some friends tell me I should “just not work.” Really? In this economy? My social-worker mother and construction-manager father simply don’t make enough to pay — along with supporting my siblings and taking care of all their other financial responsibilities — for what might be tens of thousands of dollars in tuition. My average $350 weekly income is my measly attempt to make up the difference that federal student aid, scholarships, tuition assistance and student loans won’t cover.
Did you quit your job or lose employees this year? We want to hear from you.

My deteriorating state of mind struggles to accommodate the degree of suffering inflicted on grown adults by the unavailability of ranch dressing.

I have six co-workers in the restaurant’s to-go department. Several of them are working second and even third jobs. I’m the youngest; the oldest has two school-age children. I think it’s fair to say we’re all tired, overworked and (mentally) beaten down.

We serve all kinds of people. Some of them I go to school with; some are stressed parents; some are kind and some are awful; some are retirees; some don’t know how many are in a dozen. From the restaurant worker’s side, the impact of each interaction with customers rests on two things: the tip amount and how the customer behaves.

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