Fast Food Restaurant Etiquette

[Aussie_Dreamer]

I know not many people actually care about this, except for those of us who have worked or currently do work in a fast food restaurant, but I want to know what others think.

When is it okay to leave your rubbish on the tables?

I work in an inner city KFC with multiple floors and I'm sick to death of cleaning up after people. Having multiple floors means we have to hire extra staff to BE on 'restaurant' duty.
It seems to be completely random who makes the most mess. There's no pattern.

I have people who see me coming and DELIBERATELY leave their crap on the tables, saying to their friends 'it's her job'.
That may be technically true, but they needn't make it any harder than it has to be. Just last week I was mopping upstairs after clearing restaurant tables and bins, and these two guys left their tray on their table...and they were sitting right next to a brand new bin, and had to walk past two more on their way out.
FOUR bins upstairs, all empty or close to it, and they leave it for me to clean up, despite how busy I obviously am.
Grr.

I have a few exceptions for people, when they have some form of 'excuse'.

Parents with little kids. It can be hard to control them sometimes.

Disabled/elderly people. One of our semi-regulars is blind, and we have wheeled patrons almost every day. (Though this guy has friends who should have no problem taking those extra few steps.)

Full bins. If for some reason, the restaurant person hasn't changed the bins and they're all overflowing, then I understand. (But I still have people noting the full bins and taking their rubbish over and leaving it in a neat pile next to the nearest bin.)

But enough of my ranting. How many of you - and be honest - clean up after yourselves? And if you don't, why not?
And like I said, be honest. I like knowing the reasons for things.

Nicki

[Morning Dreamgirl]

I clean up after myself, so I'm sorry I can't answer the question as to why people don't.

However, I used to spend time with this one person in high school and her dad would leave the stuff on the table to make sure that the staff cleaned it up so that the next person who used the table could be ensured that it was actually clean. He told me that he couldn't count the number of times that he had sat down at a table somewhere that looked clean only to discover that it was in fact sticky or otherwise dirty - which meant he would have to get up and look for another table or have to worry about making sure none of his food touched the table (i.e. No fries trying to make a run for it please!).

Other than that, I'm not sure.

Laziness I suppose. They don't see the problem with leaving everything there. But I promise you that these people don't do it to annoy you, it's just how they are and how they live. I find that most people who clean up after themselves when they're eating, do the same with their home and (most times) their car - to a degree. (I know this isn't completely true for everyone everywhere, but still.

Also, their are people who believe that they are ensuring that the workers keep their job. For example, a couple of my family members refuse to do self-checkout at the grocery store because they don't think it's fair to fire people who need the jobs so that the customers can do it. They'd rather wait in line to check-out... a way, I suppose, of telling the management that they prefer humans over machines, no matter how much faster they might be able to get out of the store using the self-checkout.

Then there's also the fact that society has started to make us become so high-tech, and so fast-paced that we just get up and go. Think about the fast food market in general. It was developed to maximize profit, while at the same time maximizing time. You can get a quick meal, little to no clean up, for very little money. Most people just don't think about it while they're rushing around.

Other than that, I don't know what to tell you. Like I said, I clean up after myself, but if I have kids with me or something (like when my family gets together) I at least try to make sure that everything is piled on the trays so that they only have to take those and dump them instead of gathering it up too.

Sorry I wasn't of more help!

Ashley

[Lillie]

I understand your venting, Aussie_Dreamer. And while I don't work in a fast food restaurant, I work in a restaurant. Which its a pain, sometimes. You see a lot of different things, people, situations. Most people are okay, while some are flat out rude.

What I think is that people just plain don't care anymore. It's the mentailty of it's not my job, so why should I throw it away. It's HER job. She's the one getting paid for it, so why do it?

[Surfgirl02]

I feel your pain! I've had several McJobs over the past few years and peoples laziness never ceases to amaze me.

Odd sort of anecdote though...I went to the local coffee shop this morning and got a cup of coffee and being extremely over tired, I accidently knocked over the whole cup when I was pouring sugar into it. Totally embarrassing but anyway, I cleaned it up and went over to the guy at the counter to see if I could get a refill. When I explained to him what happened, he was totally shocked that I mopped up the mess myself, he gave me a free refill on the cup of coffee. I found it kind of sad that he would be so shocked that I cleaned up after myself.

[Lillie]

Oh, just today we had some rude teenagers. First of all, where are these kids parents, seeing as it was one o'clock and it was more than ten of them. There was only three of us taking care of the whole place, we were doing good. Sure we were running around because we each had at least six tables at once. I had a free moment, so I was standing at one of the computers with my friend Jessica.

I'm watching her as she's putting another table's order into the computer, when I hear someone yelling, "Jessica! Jessica!" I look over to one of the tables inside, and I realize it's her table of teens/pre-teens. A blonde girl yelling my friends name. I turn to my friend and tell her, "I think your tables calling for you." She looks to the table and says, "I'll be there in a second."

I could not believe that this child believed that what she was doing was okay. Just because a person is your waiter, they are NOT your slave. I was so angry at the disrespect that was given. It just makes me wonder where are the parents? And why aren't simple manners being taught? I was taught to respect my elders, which I do most of the time. But if someone comes at me with disrespect, than it's a different story. I'm 22, and this girl had to be at least 16. That's a six year difference. So what happened to being taught simple manners?

[Morning Dreamgirl]

So what happened to being taught simple manners?

What are these "man-ners" that you speak of?

Ashley

[Morning Dreamgirl]

Just thought that you would enjoy Waiter Rant. Its a website where a person who works in a NY Bistro posts anonymously in a blog about different experiences.

It's interesting and really well written!

Enjoy!

Ashley