Main Character of the Week is a weekly column that tells you the most prominent “main character” online (good or bad). It runs on Fridays in the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter. If you want to get this column a day before we publish it, subscribe to web_crawlr, where you’ll get the daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.
Here’s the Trending team’s main character of the week.
The American worker enjoyed unprecedented sympathy amid the 2020 pandemic. How times have changed.
So many of our viral Karen stories from four years ago featured entitled customer behavior. A Taco Bell worker would film somebody losing their mind about missing fast food, and the internet would condemn this lack of self-awareness. Do you really need to berate an hourly worker over a Cheesy Gordita Crunch?
As president-elect Donald Trump returns to office this month, he inherits a country strained by culture wars. In other words, my fellow citizens are so over being nice to entitled workers whom they perceive to be skating by.
Proof positive: Daily Dot news stories are now about the customer-first, not the worker-first perspective. We talk about it in meetings.
Should customers demand faster service?
So this week a man went to a restaurant and went viral when service was slow and so he took out his phone and called the very restaurant that he was at—demanding service.
There was no debate here. Everyone from self-described servers to viewers who could relate to his viral TikTok supported this move. They thought it was hilarious and bold. Peyton’s (@missp14) video garnered 1.6 million views as we went to press.
“This is a GOAT move! As a former server and bartender, I approve. Gotta work for that tip, or don’t complain,” a viewer commented.
I think it was kind of a rookie move. Maybe I’m just hardwired to literally never narc, but I wouldn’t have so much as asked for a manager here. Even if it had been 20 minutes. If you have a problem with someone, I was taught to first address it with them directly and give them an opportunity to make it right before further escalation.
I also don’t love the instinct by this onlooker who filmed the incident to turn this into content, despite its undeniable virality. And I get it! When I do something cool I cannot wait to post about it on my Instagram Story. Just this week I got upward of 8 likes for posting my slice of rosca de Reyes which scored the plastic baby Jesus.
I think Christ would say do unto others, no? And last time I checked, that didn’t mean being a rat to their employer. Of course, I write this with a wink; but I mean this wholeheartedly: Asking for the manager should always be a last resort.
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