When you’re ordering food, is it polite to share a bit of small talk with the workers behind the counter, or should you get straight down to business? Judging by the responses to this TikTok, that’s a surprisingly divisive question.
Posted by TikToker @bebe_quiche, this brief skit is filmed from the perspective of a customer walking up to a restaurant counter, captioned: “POV: you don’t see restaurant employees as people.”
As the customer approaches, the worker at the counter begins to say, “Hi there!” but is quickly interrupted by the customer placing an order without saying please or thank you. “Oooohkay, I’m doing well,” the worker sarcastically says. “Thank you for asking.”
@bebe_quiche Literally everyday #fyp #restaurant #foodserviceproblems #foodserviceworkers #customerservice #pov #serverlife ♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey
@bebe_quiche clearly finds it rude and inconsiderate when customers launch straight into an order without acknowledging the worker they’re speaking to. But this isn’t a universal opinion. Plenty of people see food-service small talk as a waste of time—or even disingenuous because you can’t tell if the workers are genuinely interested in chatting.
“I hate being asked how I’m doing. Just order,” reads the TikTok’s top comment. “Cuz most likely I’m not doin okay.” “That sounds like a you problem girlie,” @bebe_quiche quipped in response.
“No I love people who get to the point and I hate when people try to make conversation with me,” another commenter wrote.
However, others agreed with the TikTok’s original point, arguing that customers should be nicer to servers. “I used to just continue to repeat hi how are you until they said it back,” one person wrote, while another chimed in, “I literally cannot conceive of treating staff like this. At all. If I get snippy I immediately apologize for being rude.”
Meanwhile, a different commenter had a more balanced take on the situation: “More like pov: an introvert meets a lonely extrovert.”
The real problem here isn’t that there’s one universal “right way” to interact with food service workers. Different people hold different opinions on what qualifies as polite behavior – and it’s basically impossible to make the right judgment call every time when you’re having a 30-second conversation over restaurant orders.
Update 6:50am CT, Feb. 20: Commenting on the divisive reaction to the TikTok @bebe_quiche told the Daily Dot: “I think it’s interesting. As someone who’s worked in customer service for over a decade I know that good customer service is about positive Interaction between customer and employee. Greeting with a smile and a how are you is so simple and easy. Not sure why it’s so difficult to say hello Back. I’ve personally never done what I see customers do.”
