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How about only seconds after she puts the food in front of you?
That’s what tends to happen to me. I mean, I almost always am interrupted while I’m talking about some big story or important issues, but I talk a lot as a human being in general… so ya know, I understand the likelihood of interruption there. But more and more often lately, I find myself in the situation in which someone brings me my food, I happily accept and thank the person, I pick up my fork, and then the waiter/waitress/waiterress comes up and asks, “How is everything?” Uh…it looks fine, I guess… no obvious pubes or loogies on my food… o_O
I used to be a server and I did it sometimes, but not on purpose. I usually avoided interrupting those who looked to be in deep discussion, and just filled their drinks, assuming they’d tell me if something was wrong or they needed something.
Another thing that’s annoying is the fact that if there is ONE dirty table in the whole place, that’s where the party is going to want to sit, even if the place is emtpy and all the other tables are clean. One time I was the only person in the dining room and a group left, then these people sat at a table with food on it and complained that it was dirty when there were plenty of clean tables every where else. Ugh! I can go on and on. People kind of look down on servers (here, anyway) but they really have to be patient and put up with a lot of crap.
It’s been 2 1/2 years since my 4-year run as a server ended. I forgot all about that “sitting at a dirty table” thing because my last restaurant stopped letting people seat themselves a long time ago, but I totally know what you’re talking about.
What made it worse is when it’s relatively busy, there are like 4 clean tables, they sit at a dirty one, but no one sees this happen, and no one knows they haven’t been helped because they have used plates in front of them, and then they complain, “Hey! We’ve been here for 10 minutes and no one has helped us!”
I always tried to keep my “check-up” questions in a yes-or-no format so that nodding when I ask is a reasonable response.
Well, when you are a waitress and you have 10-15 tables in the middle of lunch rush, you do not really have time to observe the behavior of you customers to pick the exact right moment to ask them how the food is. Feel lucky that we talk to you at all for the dollar and change you will leave us at the end of the meal, if we are so lucky.
back to the kitchen women
lol! Rofl!
P.s. First!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Of course the waitress asks you how the food is when your mouth is full. You can’t complain, and she’s done her duty. =)
I think they really do wait for the most inopportune time to ask because they either have low self esteem and don’t want negative comments or because they are in a hurry and they know that you won’t waste their time with a long reply
um excuse me, but i am a waitress and if we dont ask how your food is, you leave us a crappy tip because we weren’t checking on you enough. but you come to a restaurant to EAT. so you’re pretty much guaranteed to be asked how your food is while you’re eating. try waitressing before you label all of us.
lol First Fail ?
OH MAN THIS IS SO FUNNY BECAUSE I WAS ASKED HOW MY MEAL WAS BY MY WAITRESS WHILE MY MOUTH WAS FULL SEVERAL TIMES IN REAL LIFE AND SINCE IT WAS EMBARRASSING I CAN MORE EASILY REMEMBER SAID SITUATIONS OVER THOSE IN WHICH MY MOUTH WAS NOT FULL, THUS LEADING ME TO BELIEVE THAT THIS GRAPH IS CORRECT THAT IT HAPPENS SUCH A RIDICULOUS PERCENTAGE OF TIME EVEN THOUGH IT REALLY DOESN’T, THEREFORE MAKING ME LAUGH SINCE I CAN SEEMINGLY RELATE.
tl;dr: HAHAHA. IT’S FUNNY BECAUSE IT’S TRUE (BUT NOT REALLY).
I did a research study on this, and actually it’s only slightly exaggerated. It’s quite simple – if you are at a restaurant you are usually eating or talking, therefore the chances of a waitress checking on you while you and interrupting either your sentence or your chewing is very high.
And having been a server myself, I found it’s better to ask a yes or no question rather than one that requires an answer, such as “And how is everything?”
But I think you were just trying to be an ass, so you succeeded. And no one who reads what you put will think you are cool.
I was actually going to say the same thing… just not so jerk-like.
I didn’t write that to be cool, I did it for the lulz, and considering the fact that my post follows the same “IT’S FUNNY BECAUSE IT’S TRUE (KINDA)” formula as the countless graphs here like this one, I’m certain said lulz shall be had.
Also I do not believe that you “did a research study on this”, because that is completely ridiculous.
Good day sir.
Oh, no, I did do a research project on this very topic for a statistics seminar I took my last semester of college almost 5 years ago. The class had a whole section on the type of statistical misunderstandings that you mention, such as people who have a “bad feeling” about a flight, cancel their tickets, and then that very plane crashes and they think they had some kind of premonition, and how it’s shown, as you said, that they forgot all the OTHER times they had the same feeling and the plane didn’t crash or they didn’t entertain the thought as much. We divided into groups and did projects on simpler-but-comparable assumptions. I was a server at the time, and had been annoyed many times by this very thing, so I took interest in it. We went to 6 different restaurants over 3 weeks and kept track of how many times we were checked on and what we were doing each time, such as talking, chewing, etc. When we got the results and finished the project we went over the possible reasons why we found that it was an accurate assumption that a waitress will ask you how your meal is while you’re chewing it.
But you probably still don’t believe me. That’s fine. You’d probably know better than me, anyway.
Not sure ending on a negative note is needed here.
It’s possible to get into a discussion without wrapping one’s psyche around it.
This may take practice, but it can be done.
Oh I believe you, but it’s still completely ridiculous when you could really just use logic to reach the conclusion that if you’re at a place to EAT you will, for a good majority of the time, be EATING. Also asking “how is everything?” wouldn’t make much sense at the END of a meal, so naturally there is a high chance that it will be asked in the middle while you’re still consuming it.
My point is more about, as you mentioned, the whole “only remembering the rare instances that graphs like this emphasize merely because they are out of the ordinary or inconvenient” thing. There are too many of these graphs, and while some are genuinely funny, others just play on things that RARELY occur but people laugh at and go “LOL SO TRUE” because it is extremely unlucky to the point of being slightly comical and sounds like something that MIGHT happen. Then they just throw in some arbitrarily made-up statistics into a graph and call it funny. It’s hard to explain, but you can practically make them up on the spot without thought. For example: “Chance of forgetting your room keys in your room: Regular Day=0%; Pouring rain, you’re late for class, you’re halfway there, you forgot your bag and your final assignment is due in 5 minutes=100%”.
LOLOL!!! OH MAN. SO TRUE, SO TRUE. They’re really getting dull.
well, at least you’re not bitter…
Well if the graphs are so boring why are you bothering to still look at them?
And if the comments are even more boring and dull then don’t bother reading them. I would say that most people would just see your original post as you being one of those people who just likes to write in caps, not someone making fun of all the people who just write something generic and boring for a comment.
Actually I just made that up. But it’s been fun getting you to rant about stuff that doesn’t matter. Have a good one!
laughed way harder than i should i this …
idk, man funny shit, funny shit
Who is being an ass?? The guy who wrote the thing before you or the person who created this graph??? Hmmm?? Because the one who created this graph is definitely not an ass!
. . . yeah. You’re probably right.
WHAT??
I’M SORRY, I CAN’T HEAR YOU
PLEASE WRITE LOUDER
Yeah, it needs more exclamation points.
I don’t think I’m out of line in saying that this comment is the greatest piece of writing that has ever been written. I, for one, welcome our new Caps Lock overlords.
good job…. you got first……. (not)
ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I remember a Far Side, or something like that, with the title of “waiter training program” and in the panel, the trainer said to the trainee, “Okay, his mouth is full. Go ask him how his meal is NOW.”
Why does it have to be a waitress? Why not a waiter? Sexists.
Why do you want “waiter”? What’s wrong with “waitress”? Sexist.
Apple pie.
Umm…guyth?
The PThee term now ith “Therver”…? Uth it…?
(Thexithtth)
I think it’s cruel to have an ’s’ in the word lisp
So true. I’ve learned to give a thumbs up whenever she asks. It does seem odd, though, about the probability thing, because waitstaff only ask how things are when I’m the only one chewing and my eating mates are talking.
We do this on purpose actually. We know how much it pisses you off.
Personally, whenever someone asks if I like the food I’m eating, the best response I can give is to, smile, nod, and keep eating.
Nodding, trying to smile, and saying “mmhmm” is generally the best you can do, I find. However it happens surprisingly little from the other side of the coin, when you’re doing the asking!
Conversation at Macaroni Grill tonight:
“Do you want a box for that?”
“…Nah.”
“Was it not that good?”
“…”
“…”
“…Not really.”
“Do you want me to get the manager to talk to the cook?”
“No you don’t have to do that.”
“Well I know you don’t want me to, but I’m going to do it anyway.”
well no wonder it wasn’t that good. how far away do you live from civilization? macaroni grill… really?
Woah woah woah woah woah. Macaroni Grill is good. And a bit on the pricey side.
K2M, that’s some funny stuff. Sounds to me like the server might have had continuing problems with the cooking staff.
I’m a waitress, and speaking from my experience I personally try to catch people in between bites. Its difficult when you are trying to look after 6-10 tables with more than a couple of people on them. We HAVE to ask, because if we don’t and there was a problem with the meal we get our buts kicked. It’s called a 2 bite check.. we try to catch you not too long after you’ve started eating and if possible not too long before you finish, just to be sure that everything is okay.
If you have a mouth full or not, big deal. thumbs up or thumbs down is really all we need
Hear hear! I am a server, too, and have to do the same thing. I try to wait, but when there is an entire dining room to look after, sometimes the only chance you get is when they have a mouthful. Like you said, a nod or a thumbs up is all we need, and I always apologize if I catch someone in the middle of taking a bite.
If it annoys you, do this:
Look them in the eye and hold a finger up
while you chew your food
Continue to chew your food
until they decide they should go
If they ask again, do the same thing.
I’ve been in food service for several years.. you know we do that on purpose, right?
I always used to joke with my tables that we did it so that, if they thought the food was awful, all we’d hear was “mmhmhmh” and we could pretend that it was praise rather than judgement.
I find a bit of frantic nodding and enthusiastic fork waving usually gets the message across that I am, indeed, enjoying my meal.
Mind you there are probably not many Brits who would actually say “No, it’s bloody awful actually” anyway.
Then I need to move to Britain, because people in the States certainly don’t mind saying it.
It’s one thing to dislike the food and send it back to be fixed, that’s my job and I’ll happily do it. But it’s another thing entirely to actually yell, curse, call me names, and throw DISHES at me if something isn’t how they want it.
Yes, I’ve actually had that happen. People get really mean when they’re hungry, especially when they’re hungry and drunk.
i had a guy throw a flan at me once, Luckily i worked at a decent joint and was allowed to tell him what a pleasant gentleman i thought he was.
What a waste of a flan. :S
At my job I have now (Applebee’s) it’s actually part of our training that we approach the table when people have their mouths full. That way we won’t get stuck at the table talking, but we’re not neglecting the cutomer.
I’m a waitress. I do it on purpose. Tip better. <3
Agreeed! (former waitress, but still!)
Whenever I see the waiter/waitress coming toward me, I just abandon whatever I have on my fork or quickly swallow so I don’t get into such situations.
Whenever that happens (quite often actually) I just signal the “server” with a thumbs-up, indicating a positive response while i cannot verbally express my thoughts without losing the delicious food I am currently gorgin myself on. I also give the thumbs-up signal because it translates (in certain regions) to “stick it up your arse and go away”.
One thumb up for non-verbal response.
Two thumbs up and eye contact for a very sarcastic non-verbal response.
Now refill my water.
* gorging
lousy keyboard.
I’m a server and I try my best to catch people in between bites. It’s really hard to do, and sometimes people wont even give me their order if they are completely engrossed in whatever mundane subject is the topic of conversation. They’ll make me stand there for 10 minutes while they talk about their new BMW or the latest T.V. show they are following
. Unlike a couple of the servers here, I really don’t like asking you while you’re mouth is full! I have to ask it. I’m sorry. My best solution is:
-Walk up to the table when I hope you don’t have your mouth full.
-Ask “How is everything, is the food good?”
-Get an “Mmmhhhmm.” response.
-(Here is the best part) “I’m sorry I had to ask you while your mouth is full!”
This last bit usually ensues in a smile and a bigger tip. Honest : ).
Touche
Waitresses should get medical benefits, and sick days and personal days and holidays and overtime pay and an hourly wage. Then it would’nt be such a mindless bunch of people…..That’s what this graph says to me.
Why does my waitress seem so dumb, when she’s workng for free and all…
It’s Murphy’s Law of Serving – no matter how well you think you’ve timed it, at least one person will have just taken a bite when you ask how everything is. It’s unavoidable. It ALWAYS happens. It did during my 3 years of serving, anyway. I made it into a joke…
Obviously photoshopped!!! lol
btw people, many restaraunts require the server return within 1 or 2 minutes of serving the food. Obviously you are still eating at this point so it is hard to time it. Especially when they have a few tables they have to get back to in that 2 minutes, and if one of them asks for something it screws the whole thing up for everyone. And I do mystery shops for some restaraunts, they REALLY want their servers there in 2 minutes or less or they get in BIG trouble.
well it’s hard to catch people in between bites when the hungry cattle are constantly shoveling food into their mouths as if they haven’t eaten in days. and if i decide to let them finish their nom-fest in peace, most of the time they get pissed and start bawing that there was a problem even though they demolished their food in 5 min flat. SERVERS: THEY JUST CAN’T GET A BREAK.
This is SO true!!
good job. (: