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Dear unhappy customers:

I know I should get over it and move on with my life. I can’t.

I have been working as a hostess in a restaurant for about eight months. I’ve had my share of angry customers, but a recent encounter was the final straw.

Let me give you the context: Saturday, a UFC night, a national MMA show. A customer arrived at 9:30 p.m. – the show started at 10 p.m. – and wanted a table for eight people. I told him in a respectful tone that unfortunately we did not have any tables available. He didn’t take it very well.

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“Are you stupid or something?” I see at least five tables open. Can you just do your damn job and find me and my friends a place to sit? I bet my 10 year old could do better than you.

I have never felt so humiliated. Tears welled up in my eyes, but I had too much ego to let them fall.

Some might say, “Well, you chose this job; why are you complaining? I didn’t choose to have adults yelling at me in front of the entire restaurant. Everyone looks at you like you’re wrong, waiting to see if you’ll cry or not.

When these kinds of people come every day, it can get on your nerves. Yes, there were free tables, but if you, my dear customer, had taken the time to ask me, you might have understood that they were reserved for people who had reservations.

I have worked in the customer service industry since I was 15 years old. I dealt with a group of adults yelling at me and forgetting that I was literally a child. Many of these people are probably someone’s parents, and this is how they treat part-time workers who might be the same age as their daughter.

Like, are you okay? Were you raised correctly? Do you have manners?

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I am not the owner. We are not the managers. We are teenagers trying to do what we are told while taking care of you, our valued customers.

Flight attendants are under a lot of pressure. Choose the right table for customers; give waitresses enough customers without overwhelming them; we must always be nice – if we are not, customers may be mean to the waitresses and not tip. We have to clean the tables so that there are always some available. We need to accommodate as many walk-ins as possible while still leaving room for reservations, as if it were a game of Tetris. No matter how hard we try, there will always be someone to complain.

Being a part of the restaurant industry is exhausting enough without angry customers making it worse.

If only you could understand the distress we feel in these moments, without knowing how unpleasant the situation will become. It’s scary to be yelled at by a 6-foot-tall angry man; we don’t know if he will go further than screaming, and we start to imagine scenarios. What if he follows me after my shift? What if he files a complaint against me and I get fired? These situations are more common than you might think.

Knowing all this, maybe next time you will stop and think before treating us so badly. Is it difficult to say, “Oh, it’s okay, we’ll look elsewhere, thanks”? The problem is not that I can’t find you a table, but that you don’t take the time to reserve.

I think the first step in the right direction for customers is to be more aware of what you say to workers and how it can negatively affect them. I hope you understand how I and others feel.

Jade Séguin is a student at CEGEP Édouard-Montpetit and works part-time as a restaurant hostess. She lives on the South Shore.

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