I Work(ed) in a Restaurant, and Now I Understand...

[Alumiyum]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

My first "real job" was as a greeter (hostess) at a restaurant that was just opening. I'm pretty sure I was hired because the middle aged guys doing the interviewing thought I was cute and had a nice smile. I noticed all of the greeters were cute high school girls. These guys - the manager and owner - would always chat me up and ask me if I still had my boyfriend whenever they were in the restaurant. Ick. When they found out I was going to college in California, they tried to recruit me to work at one of their restaurants down there. No thanks.

At the same job, I sometimes helped the servers out by taking out a few lunch orders during a rush. One time I took an order out to a table of businessmen in suits (30-somethings), and when I asked them if they'd care for anything else, one of them says, "How 'bout a hot tub and a rub down?" OMG. His coworkers were totally silent and giving him looks like, "WTH you just hit on a high school girl?!" I just turned and walked away.

In college when I worked at Starbucks one summer, during the opening shift on a Sunday, a guy walked in and butted ahead of people in line to tell me that he wanted "a current scone!"
"OK," I said, "Let me just help these people out first," and pointed to the two or three people in line.
"ALL I WANT IS A CURRENT SCONE!" yelled the man.
"OK, and all they want is a cup of coffee," I said.
Then the man starts to really lose it. He's putting his hands on his hips, running them through his hair, pacing, etc. He's nuts.
"CAN I JUST PAY FOR MY CURRENT SCONE? I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO WAIT IN LINE FOR A CURRENT SCONE."
Finally the manager comes out. If you've worked at Starbucks you know that the managers tell you that you don't have to put up with rude or aggressive customers, so the manager sees and hears this guy, and immediately tells the man to get out of the store. But not before the guy can ask one more time for his current scone.

I told my mom all about it that night and she and I now compare unruly people in public to the "Current Scone Man."

The trick when an "old" guy hits on you: Tell them you're 15. They stop smiling immediately and start sidling away. I still do it and get away with it and I'm 24.