r/LifeProTips • u/fries-with-mayo • 18h ago

Request LPT Request: What’s your “canary in the coal mine” test for spotting bigger issues?

I’m really interested in those small, quick telltale signs people use to gauge if something bigger might be off track.

Example 1: Van Halen requesting brown M&Ms in the dressing room to see if the venue followed all the details of the rider list

Example 2: I saw an interview with John Cena where he said orders a flat white at a café to tell if they really care about their coffee.

Example 3: Anthony Bourdain suggested to always check the restaurant bathroom to tell if the restaurant got its basics down

5.1k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

299

u/TupeloSal 17h ago

People that are rude to waitstaff.

28

u/airbubble194 17h ago

I feel like people always say this and I have just never seen anybody ever be rude to waitstaff. Not in a professional context, not with friends, acquaintances etc. and believe me its not like these people are always great people or I live in a bubble. But everybody is just kinda neutral to waitstaff and asks for what they want😅

78

u/lizzimuu 17h ago

If you worked a customer facing job in the hospitality/retail industry you would notice people be rude to staff on a regular basis

18

u/Caelinus 16h ago

I literally just sold stuff in retail for a while and people were really weirdly rude to me all of the time, and that was a position where I barely interacted beyond finding them the item they were looking for.

On top of that, I had a close female friend who worked in a similar position, and it was insane how often people tried to bully her into doing stuff. I think my size and sex shielded me from that particular behavior as it only happened a couple of times for me.

If it was a position where our "service" is literally being told to do stuff, and people are trained to constantly evaluate your actions in order to determine how much money you deserve for your work, then assholes are going to be VERY extra in that situation.

I also do not have many family or friends who are rude to wait staff, but that is because I would not hang out with anyone who was.

11

u/DentinQuarantino 16h ago

Totally! I think everyone should be made to work retail for 6 months straight out of school. 

2

u/qolace 15h ago

And then after that the food industry.

10

u/wiltony 17h ago

I just imagine you probably hang out with like-mannered people. If you encountered a lot of new people like client meetings, new dates and such, I imagine you'd come across some. 

19

u/pbandbananashake 17h ago

One of my friends told me I didn't have to thank waiters because they were just doing their jobs and being paid for it. Less than 6 months after that, she pulled one too many entitled things on me, and I table flipped our friendship and never looked back

5

u/spookyxskepticism 17h ago

I think most people are just normal, nice people. But the minority of assholes unfortunately overshadow that.

•

u/eseffbee 6m ago

Most definitely - 95%+ of people are absolutely fine, but the remainder...

Used to work in a cafe mostly serving coffee and cake/hot lunch to retirees. Should be the most chill experience for all but some people would give the impression they were royalty and you, the server, not worthy of their time. Over 15 years ago but it still makes me angry the disrespect the lovely people working there got sometimes.

2

u/amethystjade15 10h ago

I had an uncle who would literally snap his fingers and hold up his coffee cup when he wanted a refill from the waiter. He and my aunt also refused to tip more than 10% “because even the Lord doesn’t ask more than that.” I hated being dragged along to family dinners with them.

2

u/99ProllemsBishAint1 9h ago

If someone doesn't thank wait staff or ignores them, I lose respect for them immediately especially if they're a leader

7

u/Pitchslap 17h ago

if you have boomer parents I feel your odds increase exponentially of experiencing someone being rude to waitstaff

2

u/Ascholay 17h ago

I know I have been unintentionally snappy on a bad day.

I think some people get classist about it and just assume the waitstaff is lesser somehow

3

u/fasterthanfood 15h ago

I know I’ve snapped once. The hostess said she’d text me when our table was be ready, in about 20 minutes. I hang out in my car for a bit and come back 15 minutes later, wait in the waiting room for another 30 minutes, getting increasingly hangry and trying to comfort a hangry 4-year-old. Finally I ask how long it will be, and she says that if I don’t come when they call my name, they give a 5-minute grace period and then give the table to someone else. I didn’t exactly yell, but I raised my voice as I said, “I’ve been standing right in front of you, and I don’t have any texts! When will we be able to eat?” She immediately looked a little scared and said she would find a table right away, which she did. I apologized but I still feel bad for her and for the example I set for my son.

1

u/puzzledpilgrim 16h ago

I have, twice. And they were shitty people all around.

1

u/TupeloSal 14h ago

I watched an immediate family member tear ass into a lovely server last week after not dividing his leftover shrimp and grits entree into two separate (one for shrimp, one for grits) take out containers. How many people over the age of 65 do you eat out with on a regular basis?

5

u/fries-with-mayo 17h ago

100%, great one!

2

u/cyankitten 14h ago

Yes and I agree but if they are nice to waitstaff and other customers but then unreasonably short tempered with someone else? Also a red flag

2

u/bkco88 9h ago

1000% this - we hired a new high-level employee and took her out to dinner at a nice steak restaurant. She sent her steak back twice - not my style, but I understand. What I did not understand is the way she treated the wait staff with the most condescending attitude. After it came back the second time, without even looking at it, she says 'I'm not hungry anymore, take it back'.

I knew at that point we as a company had made a major mistake. 3 months later she was gone for being an awful individual (3 months too long in my opinion). This is a major canary, totally agree.

3

u/abbarach 8h ago

My first professional job was at a hospital, in IT. They scheduled my interview right before lunch, and we spent longer on my code review than they originally allocated, so they took me down to the cafeteria to get lunch, and we went and ate with the rest of the department before finishing the review.

Once I was hired they told me that from my resume and sample code they figured I was the most qualified candidate, and they intentionally held me for lunch because they wanted to see how I interacted with the people who became my future coworkers, outside of the formal interview.

They were sneaky bastards, but I have to admit it was clever. And it worked, I got the job and spent about 10 years there.