To think food service employees shouldn't mess with peoples orders?

[LucyLeblanc]

Saw a Tiktok earlier of a barista claiming she "messes" with the orders of "rude" customers. And there were thousands of comments in agreement with her and saying they also do similar 😧

The examples she gave were: Putting full fat milk in the customers coffee, rather than semi-skimmed. Giving them regular coffee rather than decaf, and vice versa. Serving them carrot cake rather than the chocolate cake they ordered. Etc...

I know she's not necessarily contaminating the food as such, but I think petty acts like this are totally unprofessional.

I understand some customers can be rude, I've worked in retail, but I just got on with it, I didn't feel the need to mess with anyones food for 'revenge'.

AIBU to think this is petty behaviour and food service employees should maintain some professionalism?

When the body absorbs food, blood sugar goes up and the pancreas releases insulin so the food can be digested and converted into energy. YaY!

You’re diabetic, so you either don’t produce insulin (type 1) or doesn’t respond to it (type 2).

Ergo, eating too much sugar does not cause hypoglycemia, it produces hyperglycemia.

There are a lot of professionals and educated people on Mumsnet and a few bullshitters. You appear to be the latter.

Try being a lollipop lady. That's fun.....said no one ever!
I love retail and hospitality staff because without them we would be a bit stuck.
There is absolutely no reason to be rude or nasty to anyone, particularly towards someone who is just trying to do their job.
It's not a job that I could do and I don't envy those who do.
Thank you.

You can think what you like, but you won't stop it happening! Be polite to people serving you food and drink.

I regularly get called a thick cunt for working at McDonald's. Or have people screaming at me because they're not happy, or service is too slow, or the delivery orders are going out first (and people really don't like being told that there's a good chance that the delivery order was simply placed before theirs 🤷🏻‍♀️)

One man tried to jump over the counter to attack a 16 year old girl because she'd misheard him and had put his order through the till slightly wrong.

Food service is a fucking awful job.

I don't act like a dick or condone anyone else doing so; but it doesn't deserve the death penalty without a trial - which giving allergic people nutty food without telling them COULD be.

I used to work at Burger King as a teen and the things I saw!!! I can't eat there or Macdonalds or similar now.

Worst case is giving someone something they are allergic to, and you know death…

McDonald's hygiene standards are very high. I've never seen anyone tamper with food or drinks. It's all on camera too so you'd absolutely be found out and sacked.

If customers piss me off, I make sure their kids go home with as much colouring, crayons, flags, balloons etc as I can. Or if they're child free, I'll just hand out one sauce rather than the handful I usually hand out 😂

I have witnessed this being done in real life. I worked for a well known pub chain whilst I was at uni and if a customer was extremely rude they would definitely be messing with the order. There was once a really horrible customer who was very very mean to a member of staff. I witnessed the chef getting everything he could off his chest and spitting it up into a customer burger. Absolutely revolting.

I remember it couple of decades ago "did you just touch your face? Go wash your hands" after I moved strand of hair off my face (got loose, had to have tight hair)

And to add I worked in retail and a pub when I was in 6th form / uni and had some horrendous customers. Aged 16 I once had a grown man with his wife and two children telling me he was going to 'fucking ruin my life' after I couldn't process a refund for him as the item has been worn. I had a man threaten to shoot me and would be waiting for me after my shift because I couldn't refund charges for him. I had a woman tell me not to come near her as I clearly had chicken pox (embarrassed 16 year old with a few spots) some people are really horrible.

BECAUSE THEY ARE A HUMAN BEING!!!

I'm an employer, understand unless you disagree with the above???

This is it really

YANBU. I've frequently heard that if you're rude, waiters and other restaurant staff will do disgusting things to your food, and while the rest of the world seemed to laugh and applaud, I thought less of the person who claimed to have done it and everyone who thought it was funny.

People shouldn't be rude to the people preparing and serving their food, of course, but it's no excuse for that kind of behaviour, and who's to say what is or isn't rude enough to merit having your order messed with? There are some strange people who frequently perceive insults or slights where none were meant! These days, when every third person seems to be a lunatic with a massive chip on their shoulder, it's even more likely that someone will be offended by nonsensical things.

Worked in a few restaurants, I’ve never seen anything gross done to food. I’m sure it happens in some places but in my experience it’s not the norm.

I agree there are some appalling, rude, ignorant people out there who thoroughly deserve to get minimum service, their table served last, their glass not filled fully etc

There are also some aggressive lunatics who should be escorted off the premises, banned, and reported to the police.

But doing disgusting things to people's food and laughing and boasting about it makes you no better than the ignorant customer.

Entirely agree.

Back in my cheffing days I took great pleasure in severing a hated customer a 'bin burger'. Wiped the chicken burger round the bin, threw it in the bun and off it went!

Management won't protect their staff in most situations because of profit and the tendancies of these kinds of customers to lie to add weight to a complaint, in fact quite often the customer is apologised to and then compensated for behaving like a complete arsehole - I walked from one place that insisted I apologise to a customer that I asked for ID and refused to serve because they refused to produce it, though they had it. The companies own policy told me I could be sacked for not doing so and the law says I can be prosecuted if I get it wrong - and the guy was a few days over 18, and had ID, he just wanted to prove his superiority and create a problem that made out like he'd been unfairly treated. And the company wanted me to apologise for the job they employed me to do. Don't think so.
And as for the professionalism - that's the point isn't it? Professional behaviour is being expected from people who aren't trained, paid or treated like professionals and slated when they're not - how can you expect professional behaviour from people who aren't actually professionals?

You can expect decent behaviour from them as human beings, as in not tampering with food , because of the potential concequences, but not to be professional in the face of abuse and treatment specifically designed to ensure you know you're not a professional.

For me expecting that is a bit of a get out clause for those defending nasty, offensive, degrading and abusive behaviour of customers and being shocked if they get a negative response in return, it's pretty much saying that if you pay for a service you're entitled to treat the person delivering it how you please because they're not a professional, and therefore not worthy of being treated as such, but not expecting negative behaviour in return because you now expect them to behave professionally. Can't have it both ways, they're either unskilled workers or they're professionals.

I don’t care how “hard” they were - that’s totally indefensible of you

Not food but retail.

Woman comes into the shop with 2 quite big dogs on lead. It's 630am.

I say sorry but there's no dogs allowed blah blah (this was a while ago when dogs in shops were very uncommon) and she says it's okay they're good dogs. I say no again, she says yes again and walks about the shop, I tell her she has to leave, she goes mental, the dogs become excited and are barking and she's shouting and I just said look I'm not going to serve you whatever go away and she went outside and called the police and told them I kicked her dogs. When the police wouldn't come she bricked the window.

I've also worked in food service a lot and whilst I've never done a vengeful act kind of thing I can definitely appreciate how workers can get there and have limited sympathy for the people who's food is fucked with. Yeah fucking about with contents is stupid and dangerous but being grossly unhygienic is what I reckon most servers recourse is and the reality is you probably won't get ill because you ate someone's spit/piss/shit, you'll just have eaten some form of excretion and it's likely because you were a dickhead

My rule has always been, don't fuck with people who fuck with your food.

Just be a nice person, it isn't hard. When I have had to send things back at a restaurant, I have treated the person with respect and never had a negetive reaction. You can complain just don't be a can't about it.

Also everyone who has said their gran/mum/themselves had been given a normal coke instead of a diet coke, how on earth do you not know after the first sip? I only drink diet coke, when I get given normal in error or accidentally drink dp's, I instantly know it's not diet.

Of course it’s unreasonable for customers to be shitty to employees, and of course management should act to protect staff, with police involvement where appropriate. I’ve worked in retail, I know what it’s like, and I know that hospitality customers are often worse.

But bloody hell, I can’t believe the sick delight people are taking in the ways they’ve messed with food. How screwed up do you have to be that you’re proud of wiping a burger in the bin and giving it to a human to eat, FFS? Where is this rudeness boundary that someone has to cross before kitchen staff are justified in doing something which could make them ill, or even kill them in the case of allergies/ diabetes?

We need decisive action to stamp out abusive behaviour in UK culture , but trying to poison people isn’t the answer.

And if people are going on SM to talk about how they are deliberately giving people incorrect orders ( not things like charging for items they have the discretion to let people off) then they are foolish, and likely to sacked.

@Cantanka trust me, it involved knowing he was an abuser, first hand.

Maverickess, that ID instance is absolutely appalling. The company you worked for would be in such trouble if that were reported - and it bloody well should have been. What's the point having these 'rules' and sanctions-if-you-don't-follow-them - and then have useless management who circumvent them and put staff (you) at risk?

I'm honestly not having a go by mentioning 'professional' as a definition. It's always been (for me anyway), somebody who is paid for providing services. I don't see much of a distinction between serving staff (who may be considered unskilled) and say, council planning staff (as an example) who have attained professional qualifications. Neither the waiting staff or council officer would be exempt from awful members of the public abusing them. The thing in common is being public-facing.

I used to work in a council <shudder> and remember the protocol for dealing with abusive members of the public. It went something like this:

• speak politely to MOP (member of public);
• If they are abusive try to remain calm and at all times polite;
• If MOP carries on them put them through to your superior;
• Superior will deal with MOP's query and filter actions down to you;
• Back to first point... speak politely to MOP... yadda yadda.

After that merry dance, the 'superior' tends to get fed up and tells MOP that if they don't be polite then they are at risk of losing access to the service. Without detailing a vast number of pointless and repetitive sanctions, MOP would eventually be elevated to chief exec's secretary and she/he would deal with them.

All it ever needed - in any public facing service - was for MOP to be told - after first instance - to pack it in or be thrown out/lose service - and for that ultimatum to be carried through. People would behave then, they'd have no choice but to.

I don't disagree with what you say though about it being a 'get out'. There is no action taken so why should staff carry on being polite? I can't answer that one either. I don't agree with the burger-being-wiped-on-a-bin, that idiot deserved huge fine/sacking/prison even, because it's assault, but in general, the public should be stopped from abusing service providers and the management have the mandate for that.

I've read this thread and others like it and am disgusted at the levels of abuse that customers mete out to people who are serving them. It is so, so wrong because people need their jobs so they put up with it, have no choice but to do that. Perhaps the current situation of the various sectors needing employees will find themselves working harder to court and employ good people - and look after them? We live in hope but that should be the actual default.

Are you out of the hospitality/retail sector now?