Selah to Hagah

I’ve been a faithful waiterrant.net reader for about 3 months and continue to be highly entertained and educated (in a subtle way) by his writings. His last post is kind of pointing that to me (the education):

CEOs say how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character
(USA Today, 14 Apr 2006)

Office Depot CEO Steve Odland remembers like it was yesterday working in an upscale French restaurant in Denver.

The purple sorbet in cut glass he was serving tumbled onto the expensive white gown of an obviously rich and important woman. “I watched in slow motion ruining her dress for the evening,” Odland says. “I thought I would be shot on sight.”

Thirty years have passed, but Odland can’t get the stain out of his mind, nor the woman’s kind reaction. She was startled, regained composure and, in a reassuring voice, told the teenage Odland, “It’s OK. It wasn’t your fault.” When she left the restaurant, she also left the future Fortune 500 CEO with a life lesson: You can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she treats the waiter.

(read more insights from the article…)

Now this is not to say how a great human I am but I’m humbly glad that my parents had raised me pretty well not to have a “situational value system”, as one of the CEOs put it.

As a Christian, we’re not to judge others. Heck, this is also for other beliefs holders. But predicting one’s character is a skill needed by most people if they still live in this earth - thus interact with each other. A lot of decision making require a good observation about the other party. And observing how someone treats a waiting staff will tell you truthfully about them.

By the way, my sis is also in F&B industry. Maybe this is why I tend to see waiting job at a slightly different angle from many of my friends. Not to say that they treat waiters badly, though, it’s just “different” I always see my sis in the person who attend to us whenever we eat. The thing that I still can’t figure out to do nicely is tipping well. In Singapore we have 10% compulsory service charge and in many restaurants you’ll be attended by more than 1 waiters. So, you don’t have a clear gauge of how much you should tip. Well, I know it’s a lame excuse and I should add that 5-10% more on top the compulsory 10% already

Thanks for the tip, Waiter.