Have You Had “Bad” Service Lately While Dining Out? Here’s Why

Over the weekend, I saw someone complaining about their service that they experienced at a local bar/restaurant in the area on a restaurant review page. They said they waited over an hour before their food came out, that waitresses forgot about filling their drinks and they felt ignored.

I think a lot of people are forgetting that yes, we aren't in as bad of a place as we were at this time last year with the pandemic, but that doesn't mean everyone has recovered.

To those who think they've had "bad" service:

With so many people refusing to get back to work, as the amount they're making on unemployment may be higher for doing absolutely nothing, it's leaving many industries in a challenging place. Especially the restaurant industry, the demand for service is high, but they can't always accommodate the way they want to because they are so short staffed.

Have you been in such a high pressure situation like that before? Where you don't anticipate so many people arriving at one time, having to serve all of them with half the staff that is usually present? It's actually very overwhelming. Your responsible for so many different things at one time. You need to make sure you get everything right. And what if you make a mistake? You're subject to even more ridicule than normal.

Mistakes happen. And, I feel like with the current state of the world, we all need to practice more patience. Not everyone has been able to bounce back and fully recover.

If you can't understand that restaurants are still struggling to find staff and get back to the place they were pre-pandemic, maybe you shouldn't be dining out. There's a difference between "bad service" where people are standing around on their phones, chatting in the back with their co-workers and purposely ignoring you, and being so overwhelmingly busy, trying your best to take care of everyone and everything.

Remember that as you dine out. It's never wrong to ask how long the wait will be. But, if that doesn't sound good to you, maybe you should stay home and cook for yourself.

It's hard to run a restaurant or bar when you don't have a full staff. Put yourself in their shoes.

Sincerely, someone who has worked as a server during the pandemic and understands.