A coffee shop worker in Australia’s coffee capital has opened up about the one question customers ask that shows a lack of respect.
Liam Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier has worked on and off in cafes and bars for nearly eight years, and in that time he has learned a lot about people and how they treat those who serve them.
But the Melbourne man said what bothers him most is not the lack of thanks or the occasional impatience of customers.
Instead, he said, the question that concerns him most is that clients “have a fanatical interest in the level of education attained by the people who serve them.”
In every job he’s had, including at a creative agency in London and as a content creator in San Francisco, no one has ever asked him where he went to college, except when he’s worked in hospitality, where he hears it all the time.
“In this country, waiters over a certain age are assumed to be where they are because they lack the skills or courage to ‘get a proper job,'” Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier wrote in Age.
He said bartenders “occupy the unskilled peripheral positions of the workforce, but there’s going to be a huge blow if we can’t make 12 espresso martinis on demand.”
‘The guy behind the bar and the girl who cleans your plates aren’t as dumb as you think.’
Coffee shop worker Liam Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier (pictured) has opened up about the one question customers ask that shows disrespect.
Customers don’t realize that the person taking their order and delivering their food and drinks is multitasking and serving many people at several different tables, even taking care of food allergies and intolerances, she said.
“I’ve worked in the hospitality industry for a long time and I’ve always encountered this pervasive stigma,” Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier told Daily Mail Australia.
He said the attitude manifests itself not only in the bars and restaurants he has worked in, but also in everyday life.
She has sometimes felt like ‘making up an alternative job title’ because when she told people she worked in a restaurant ‘they turned red in the face’.
“And that line of inquiry just stops making sense because the assumption was, ‘Oh, you just work in a restaurant,'” Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier said.
While at work, she said many people assume that people who clean tables are there because they are poorly educated.
“I could never say whether diners were surprised or disappointed when I told them I had a first-class honours degree,” she said, adding that she often wondered if they then asked themselves: “If he’s so smart, why is he working here?”
He noted that long-term service workers are often those who cannot afford to study full-time or take an unpaid internship at a large company.
The wealthiest people are often the most disrespectful to hospitality staff, he said.
What irritates service workers the most is not the lack of gratitude or the occasional impatience of customers. File image
Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier has received insults (pictured) about her last name since writing about the situation.
Mr Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier has received abuse over his surname since writing about the situation, with one person criticising him, saying: “I’m sorry but if you live with a name like that and you’re not an aristocrat or living off a trust fund then it’s your problem.”
He is not an aristocrat nor does he live off a trust fund and found the commentary amusing and publicity for his burgeoning journalism. briefcase.
Mr Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier said those calling for a return to military service, as UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak did in the recent UK election, should do so. Every young person should work in the hospitality industry for a while if they really want to punish him.
His views received much support online, with one commenter saying: “As a 63-year-old, I can say that respect died out a long time ago.”
“Nowadays people think they are entitled to everything and that they are better than everyone else. Luckily, I am retired and I don’t have to deal with these clowns.”
Another said her “daughter worked in a cafe in an affluent suburb while she was a student, and some of the older people were so horrible to her that she eventually left.”
“Luckily, she found a job at another cafe with lovely customers. It certainly opened my eyes to how horrible my generation can be.”
But others suggested that “it works both ways.”
“I’ve been in cafes where I stood waiting to be served behind the sign that said ‘please wait to be seated’ only to be passed by many times by waiters who weren’t busy, nor was the coffee, but chose to chat with the other waiters,” said one.