There’s a diner in St. Thomas that we like to go to once in a while. The food is fresh and fast, and they serve a huge selection of all-day-breakfast items. There’s only one aspect of the experience that bothers me.
All of the servers yell over our heads to each other or to other customers. This isn’t an adorable diner-esque experience. They’re not shouting orders in a short-hand language. “Gimme Adam and Eve on a log and a blond with sand!” (Two poached eggs on toast and a regular coffee)Â No, it’s just the way they’ve learned to communicate.
Examples: Server #1 wipes a table in the booth next to ours. Facing us, she yells the answer to a question asked by diners two booths away in the other direction. YELLING. Server #2 walks past her, toward us, yelling a response to her at full voice that continues as she passes us.
It’s not just rude, it’s confusing. I’m looking down at my plate and suddenly find someone is talking in a tone that seems to be directed at me. But it’s not. It’s about which table has been cleared and when an order is coming up. Or it’s something to do with the job that I don’t even understand. Because I’m not supposed to. I don’t work there!
Noise is all around us. It’s difficult to escape. I’ve only noticed this particular behavior in busy diners. Yes, since the experience repeated in the one place, I’ve picked up on it in others. I’ve made a point of noticing whether others reacted to it and some did. There were a couple of winces and temporarily stopped conversations. And I think I figured out what’s going on.
They’re short-staffed. There’s too much work and too few people, so they overlook the rudeness of shouting in customer’s faces in order to be as efficient as possible.
A version of this occurs in many other businesses. Short-cuts are taken and too many tasks are handled by too few people. The cashier at Loblaws has to handle customer service as well as managing the self-checkout lines or lottery terminal, so someone gets overlooked. The gas station attendant isn’t ready to open on time because she’s filling the dispensers at the pumps and if she doesn’t do that before customers arrive, she’ll never get the chance. There must be a long list of instances where this happens. Quality suffers. Executives line their pockets. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Do you think a review on YELP might help them see how uncomfortable they’re making customers, semi-regulars like yourselves? My sister is working interminable hours at the Walmart at which she’s on the fast-track to management. They just don’t have the staff. Maybe if they paid more than a barely living wage, people would want to work there? But of course the Walton family needs another mansion, yacht-with-a-boat-inside, etc.. It’s ridiculous. And south of the border, they’re cutting off the flow of workers coming in who actually want to do the minimum wage jobs…it’s all insane. And retail wonders why it’s dying?
I sent a message to head office. I have to be pretty fired up in the moment to call them out in public. The workers are just doing the best they can. Here’s another one Larry Fedoruk pointed out on Facebook – servers who start clearing plates the second ONE person at the table is done. Also a no-no, but it happens a lot and I’ll bet it’s purely for efficiency because of a lack of staff.