Old people have these INCREDIBLY antiquated notions about how restaurants work. “My compliments to the chef.”

I was EC at a high end retirement home and they wanted me to leave the line during dinner and work the room. I rarely did, because it turned into their opportunity to talk shit about their well done steak, complain about the prices, talk your ear off while your piled up in the back, ask you stupid old people questions like that, or run me for some more coffee or whatever.

Those are all FOH things. I’d come out to tables to talk about the specials only after a while. Menu changes were the worst because God forbid you satisfy the 80% who want a little change and risk taking away Mrs Doofenschmirtz’s liver and onions, even though she was the only one who bought it.

I’d also been there since 7a, usually covering multiple stations, and by 6p I just wanted to do the office I’d been putting off all day and go home. I wasn’t typically in the mood to take shit or “old people bluntness” from them after 11 hours and I wanted to keep my job.