"Hey, miss, I ordered my coffee 5 whole minutes ago! Where is it?! I used to hear from my surly customers and every single time, even though I felt like personally beating them with their car antennae, I remained calm and smiled politely.

The trouble is that waitressing is in fact a very hard job; customers can be as mean and horrible as they like and yet somehow that phrase 'the customer is always right' manages to win the fight over. Meanwhile, the lovely waiter/waitress who is only trying to do their job gets beaten down by these customers and seems to get no right whatsoever to fight back.

"Just smile sweetly" seemed to be our motto.
"Pull that stunt again and you'll lose your job," My boss told me after I refused to serve this one lady. (I'm so glad that coffee shop was shut down after a health inspection a week after I resigned).

I was 18 when I did this job, trying to fund the ever so important University life and even though I only did this job for a mere week, it possibly has to be the longest and most stressful week of my life.
Waitresses are always on their feet.
Waitresses are always pushed around.
Waitresses are always gawped at by sleazy men.
Waitresses are expected to know everything - whether it's to do with the place they are working at or not.
I remember this one guy asking me what was happening with the development across the road and when I responded with "I really don't know", he clasped his eyes on me and once again I felt like I was a 6 year old being told off for breaking the vase.

It's just not needed. Just let us do our jobs.

Learn more about this author, Kledi Genie.
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