Man Flees Restaurant After His Date Berated Their Waitress & Nearly Reduced Her To Tears
The way you treat customer service workers says a lot about your personality.
SaiArLawkaz / Krakenimages.com / Shutterstock / CanvaPro They say that you can tell a lot about a person based on how they treat others, even those whom they meet and interact with briefly, such as customer service workers.
One man realized more than he anticipated about his date’s character when the two went out to dinner at a restaurant. After their waitress got caught up with other customers, the man’s date decided to make it loud and clear how she felt, and she horrifyingly did not hold back.
The man’s date berated the waitress, bringing her near the point of tears after she forgot to refill a drink.
The man shared his first-date horror story to the subreddit, r/AmITheA–hole, where he revealed that he had been set up with the woman through his sister. He decided to pick her up and take her to dinner for their first outing.
Toward the end of the meal, the woman asked their waitress to refill her glass of water. However, the service became too slow for the woman’s liking as the restaurant began to get busier and she got more tables. The man claims that the waitress passed their table “multiple times,” but likely just forgot that the woman needed her water refilled in the chaos.
One time, as the waitress passed the table again, the woman decided to give her a piece of her mind after she did not fill her water in a timely manner.
“Instead of a friendly reminder, she told her if she's mentally declining she should be in a retirement home instead of leaving people thirsty,” the man wrote. “The poor woman looked like she was about to cry, she started apologizing to my date and went to get the water.”
Photo: Rommel Canlas / Shutterstock
The incident left the man feeling “shocked, angry, and embarrassed,” and he questioned her why she felt that it was appropriate to say out loud.
The man decided to flee the date and leave the woman at the restaurant.
It left him feeling mortified enough that he excused himself from the table, found the waitress to apologize, paid for his food only (giving her an exceptional tip), and went home without letting his date know.
“This morning my sister called me angrily saying how much of an a–hole for what I did to her friend,” the man wrote. “Apparently after I left the manager threatened to call the cops if she didn't pay, she had to call her father to send her the money for the dinner and the ride back home.”
Even though the man explained to his sister what his date had done, she was not interested in taking his side.
“She told me since I picked her up from her place and since it was my turn to pay for the date I should have just done so and driven her back home or given her money for a taxi.” (The man and his date had agreed prior that he would pay for the first date and she would pay for the following one if it wound up happening).
The man ended up telling his sister that he would send his date money, and that “God have mercy on her future boyfriends.”
Still, now he is wondering if he was wrong for leaving her stranded and not paying for her meal.
Some people were disgusted by the date’s behavior toward the waitress and defended him for leaving the restaurant.
“I consider her being left there and humiliated like the waitress was a bit of karmic revenge. This was absolutely natural consequence,” one Redditor commented.
“Good for you for seeing her for what she is and showing her how wrong she is,” another user wrote.
Other people praised the man for defending the waitress and apologizing to her on his date’s behalf.
However, some believed that the man should not have left his date stranded despite her rudeness toward the waitress since they had a prior agreement that he would pay for her meal.
“What she said was very rude but you stranded her and that is a crap move,” one user wrote. “You had an agreement over finances and you knew you were her way home safe.”
“I don't think not paying was the best option. Even if he was angry, he should've just paid and then left,” another user argued.
Even if the man should have paid for the dinner given their prior arrangement, there is something to be said about his character, and how he stood up for the stressed waitress.
He is clearly someone who recognizes the difficulties of the job and views customer service workers as human rather than a servant.
According to psychologists, how people treat servers is an important factor to consider when choosing a potential partner.
“I had a patient who broke up with her fiancé because he was rude to a waiter. That made sense to me,” Dr. Frederic Neuman told Psychology Today. “Waiters cannot answer back. I think people who are rude to waiters are bullies. Someone rude to a waiter is likely, sooner or later, to be rude to a spouse.”
Being rude to a waiter also says a lot about one’s personality. It depicts their lack of understanding, compassion, and respect for other human beings who are simply trying their best to do their jobs.
Photo: Rommel / Shutterstock
We all have bad days where we can snap at other people and say things we don’t mean. It’s inevitable and a part of being human,
However, we must remember that the people we interact with, including our restaurant servers, could silently be dealing with their own troubles and bad days. Making rude and insulting comments if they happen to make a fixable mistake on the job will not make you or them feel any better.
Instead, you could remind them that they are doing a good job and that you appreciate their service. And that is an important characteristic people look for while dating.
Based off of this first date, it sounds like the man dodged a bullet!
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.