Years in hospitality, there's so many! People can be bat shit crazy.
Oh also had a complaint the staff seemed to happy!
Yeah, I've had that one, some people think that they're not getting good service if the staff seem to enjoy their job and they can't possibly be doing it right unless they're miserable which they'll then take great delight in complaining about. I was observed by a customer singing to some of the songs on the playlist - not while I'm serving and not karaoke style just while I was busying myself around the place doing bits & pieces and it was probably only evident because my lips were moving at times, or I'd be nodding slightly in time to the beat, I wasn't actually singing out loud more mouthing along - apparently the music was clearly for the staff and not the customers, and that conclusion was drawn simply because I liked some of the songs. It's a generic playlist put together for different times of day from all different era's and done very much in tone with the place and not done by me, or in fact anyone who works there.
I've been accused of 'chatting to my mates and ignoring paying customers' because shock horror I'm actually nice to customers and engage in friendly conversation should they indicate they want to while I'm serving them. When I've finished with them I politely excuse myself and move on to the next customer, but some people cannot stand it when someone else gets good service, even if exactly the same is on offer to them.
In fact some people can't stand it when other customers have your attention full stop, butt in, talk over you and them during orders and expect you to break off what you're doing to deal with them, because for some reason their money is more important 🤷🏼♀️.
Then the customers who lie and embellish for a bit of attention and a freebie and walk away feeling like they've got one over on someone else just for the kicks.
Some of these stories are funny, but there's a serious side to it as well, it can really affect your mental health being treated badly, being regularly put down, humiliated, shouted at, called names. In any other relationship except staff/customer it'd be considered abusive. It's incredibly demoralising and one of the reasons that hospitality is short staffed - people don't last long in that environment before they burn out.
It's getting more and more like we're resented for doing the job we do, like people can't stand that they need someone so lowly to enable them to enjoy their leisure time. It's always been there, but in recent years that attitude seems to have increased a lot. It's very hard to please someone who has already decided they're not going to be happy about anything you do.
I love my job, I've done it for years and progressed through the ranks, I'm good at it, but in recent years I'm getting closer and closer to burnout and caring less and less because no matter what mountains you move, it's never enough. Killing people with kindness doesn't work they just take advantage, you get personally ripped to shreds on public forums, lied to and about with no way to defend yourself. One of my colleagues has been subject to a witch hunt on SM - and 95% of what was posted was made up and embellished, but the comments were everything from laughing at someone doing the job in the first place to threatening violence if this made up scenario had happened to them. Soul destroying when the basis of it wasn't true.
It's long hours and not well paid, and people may have the attitude 'that's not the customers problem' but when there's less and less people willing to be treated like that on an increasing scale then it will be the customers problem when there's less choice to be had, because staff are scarce and higher prices to pay because the only way to get and keep people is to pay them more, and it will be staffed by people who don't actually give a shit because it's the only way you can stay sane.
I'll be another one gone before long, because I'm either going to go back at someone one day, or the toll on my mental health will become too much.