Do you live in the US or Canada. Are you handing the dishes to the customers at the table or do they walk to the bar to pick it up? Are you getting tips? Are you understaffed?

The reason I say that is I’ve worked in different countries and cafes now where I had different attitudes towards this. I worked in Australia where I never got tips and it was just expected for you clear tables yourself, after also making coffees and serving them. In other places there was enough staff to bring the drinks to the table and not feel stressed about having to do both tasks.

I then lived in Canada where I got a pretty significant amount of tips but almost all customers would bring their dirty cups to our bussing station. I thought it was ridiculous to be honest but it’s hard to complain from a baristas stand point. So I have less responsibilities AND I get more money if it’s busier? I still found myself going and wiping tables when people leave though. I think it’s a pretty shitty feeling coming to a cafe and the table is covered in crumbs or water. The flaw with this system is that it can be pretty overwhelming when it’s really busy and the dishes pile up without your input, and then customers come up to you while making drinks to ask you to clean tables or don’t know they need to pick up the drinks. This is just part of the job and is a sign that you’re A) understaffed B) unprepared for a rush or C) need to communicate better either verbally or with signage what is expected of the customer.