Rules that are most often broken by restaurant staff
Waiters or servers are probably aware that the primary goal when serving food and drinks is to do everything possible to ensure that the people who visit their restaurant receive it safe from contamination. They are probably also aware of the fear surrounding the dreaded word ‘contamination’. Hence, it’s essential that they do everything they can to prevent it.
Unfortunately, the observable evidence often points towards rules of service being regularly flouted by staff of all types of food establishments. So, what rules do restaurant servers most commonly break?
Here are a few examples from a list that can be long, bearing in mind that it is recommended for those in the mode of ignorance:-
- Serving diners with a thumbed plate or bowl is just not on, when you stopped to consider that the hand (to which that thumb is a part of), was holding a bar railing or shaking someone’s hand or opening a door, is now transferring all those hidden germs from everything it has touched to the top of the plate’s eating surface.
- End of shift work that diners seldom see. There are a few chores or service ‘Mise en place’ that wait staffs need to complete before clocking off. This includes rolling silverware as it is meant to keep the cutlery clean apart from adding a touch of elegance to the table setting. When this is done after the servers count their tips, refill ketchup bottles, replenish straws and creamers and, when assigned items they must clean, such as the coffee machine or soda machine, without washing their hands, that same cutlery eventually ends up in the diners’ mouths.
- Scooping up ice with a glass tumbler. Glasses should always be filled with ice from a scoop, never dragged through the ice bin. Glasses can and do chip. When busy, servers or even bartenders take shortcuts by using hot glass tumblers from the Hobart and because it doesn’t have time to cool down, the glass can crack when it chills too quickly. And it needs a sliver of glass in the ice bin to be the disaster in the making.
- Picking up a garnish without washing the hands. Happens when the bartender places a piece of fruit or an olive into a drink after handling cash or swiping a credit card, perhaps wiping the bar counter or clearing a plate after a customer at the bar finished eating – without washing the hand. That’s totally unhygienic.
- Making diners wait for refills of their drinks / water. How often do servers fill one persons drink (and that too after being called to do so), only to immediately vanish thereafter, without topping the glass of the person seated next when it is also half-full.?I get it that it is hard for staff to watch every move of every guest. But re-filling a drink or glass water is a basic tenet of good service, apart from the opportunity to generate incremental revenue and receive an enhanced tip – a win-win situation for all.
If restaurant staffs occasionally don’t follow the rules, it could be a relatively minor one brought about by a careless oversight. However, when rules are violated frequently, it could either mean that it is due to inaccurate or insufficient understanding of the rationale underlying them - which then becomes a problem of poor training. The worst is where rules are regularly broken by ‘serial offenders’ to cut corners – which then is intentional and can damage the brands reputation as well as lead to serious safety and health related consequences.
Ilzaf Keefahs is a freelance writer who enjoys focusing on hospitality related matters that he is passionate about, and likes to share his views with hoteliers and customers alike. He delves into the heart of hospitality to figure out both customer service and consumer trends that impact the industry
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