Vacation = no rules + no responsibility ... WRONG!

Photo by Jonathan Nguyen on Unsplash

Wherever you go, you'll necessarily bring yourself with you. And, my dear Steemians (and all of you other cool species who are able to read this) I mean that wherever you travel, your hosts have to put up with your culture, behavior, manners and lifestyle...

Wherever you are, no matter how far from your everyday life, you don't just stop being yourself and rules of society don’t magically disappear as soon as you step outside of your home.

I read in one of the @silesius posts that traveling gives you freedom to be yourself. I found it indisputably true, but it certainly doesn't give you freedom to be reckless towards others.

When I thought more about it, I realized that people go to journey to find themselves, but people are going to vacation to run FROM themselves. At least from what they think they are or from the person their everyday routine made them become. [this one seems as an interesting subject for some next whiteboard Friday :D ] Anyway…

I decided to find out more about people's behavior on the vacation and the restaurants were perfect "litmus paper" for this research. That’s way I asked some of the waiters and waitresses about all the stuff that pisses them off regarding customer behavior and I sum it up in this "5 NOT TO DO'S" list.

Hopefully, it might be useful for all of you travelers as well for all the waiters jet awaiting to serve you. :D And believe me, these 5 things are far from the whole list of customers' annoying habits (since people I interviewed were to polite or not too drunk to tell me everything) but it's a start.

And without further ado...

1. DON'T BE RUDE

This category includes variety of things - from not saying hello when cafe stuff approach to you for the first time, through the bossy tone of speaking, to leaving the chairs all messed up, chewing gyms sticked directly to ashtrays, tables dirty of sauces, crumbs and left-overs like Orwellian (or any other) pigs were having that meal.

Personally, I think the rudest thing in this category is to leave all your unnecessary stuff (like bus or museum tickets, empty packs of cigarettes, prospects, brochures... ) on the table after you leave.

[DO] Threat people, who work their ass to make your vacation more comfortable, the way you would like to be treated. Tell good mornings, hellos, goodbyes and whatever you say to members of your family when you meet them. (all right, maybe not all)... Smile to them or just be polite. Forget that BIG BOSS attitude. These people are not your employees [don't do it to your employees as well] and they are certainly not slaves + they could spit in your coffee and you would never know it. :D

AND PLEASE... P L E E E A S E …..bring your garbage with you and throw it in garbage bean. Don't let others clean your mess!

2. DON'T BE VAGUE

What I mean by this is that you should know what kind of (for example) coffee you want. People who are serving you hate when you come and say - I want coffee. What kind of coffee? Proper one!

This may be SHOCKING FACT but people who see you for the first time can not know what kind a coffee you consider proper, since there is espresso, espresso lungo, espresso macchiato, cappuccino, latte, instatnt coffee, americano, ice coffee.... you get the point!

[DO] Know what you want and don't be shy to explain to your waiters/waitresses so that they can help you get what you need and make your vacation tasteful.

3. DON'T SWITCH TABLE

This one is not as strict as previous two, since there might be situations when you could or should change your table, but make sure to let your waiter/waitress know that you did it, so that they don't run around restaurants with your order trying to find you. It gets even complicated if it is a busy restaurant which has "runners" (runners are people in charged for bringing stuff that you order to your table. They usually don’t take orders so they don’t know how you look like. They get the order and the number of your table.).

[DO] Let restaurant stuff know that you changed the table if you need to do it.

4. DON'T FORGET YOUR ORDER

This subtitle sounds silly but it hides one SERIOUSLY ANNOYING habit of restaurant customers.

As I was saying, busier restaurants have waiters and runners. Waiters takes your orders (and the orders of at least 10 more tables) and runners deliver them from bar or kitchen to your table. Runners don’t know how you look like or what your exact order was (if you’re not alone at the table). Let me explain it this way...

Imagine you’re sitting with 5 or more friends at the table having fun while waiting for a food. Then imagine runner who can carry 3 or 4 plates at the time (and I said runner not juggler) and he/she should deliver food for your table, as well as drinks, as well as drinks and food for other tables, while kitchen chef is making him/her take the plates fast and come back for more because there is a lot of food getting cold and the bartender is simultaneously complaining that cocktails are melting on the bar waiting to be delivered to customers…

Now, imagine that poor runner, who doesn't know what to do first, who goes with 4 plates to the table (frustrated, confused but polite) and asks you “who's got the parmesan truffle chicken?” (because he/she didn't take the order form you) and you and other 5 people just stare at him/her not saying a word or ignore him/her, which is even worse!

[DO] Know your order and when previously described occasion happen, be polite enough to tell the service what you ordered so to help them at least a bit in doing their daily hard work.

[EXTRA TIP] Don’t try to help them by taking drinks from their tray, because they arranged that drinks to make balance and if you take your drink before they could get the chance to re-balance it, the whole tray with drinks could end up in your lap, and neither you nor your waiter doesn’t want it to happen.

5. DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE SOME TIPS

It's polite and nice to reward somebody for making your vacation better. Of course that it's part of their job and that they get their wage for that, but just DON'T PLAY A SMART ASS [alternate title of this chapter]. People are generally happy when being rewarded for a hard work, so you should definitely contribute to that wheel of happiness. Especially when people make your staying nice and cozy.

[DO] Leave a tip. Usually it should be 10% of a bill. Reward people for their hard work!

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So, Steemians, these rules apply to every situation, whether you are abroad or in a café in your own street. There are several universal things that you should remember [if you found more in this text, feel free to write it in the comments]:

• Don’t be a smart ass.
• Paying for service doesn’t entitle you to rule the life of those who provide you the service.
• Treat others like you want to be treated.
• Don’t run away from yourself but try to make yourself better all the time.

Until next article.... BE A BETTER PERSON!