I’ll preface this by saying I have a broken arm right now and my typing isn’t great but I’ll try to explain this clearly.

I was working the late shift at a 24 hour restaurant and was due to get cut within the next 20 minutes when we got swamped. Apparently there was a concert in town that night and our manager hadn’t known about. When the concert got out, many of them came to our restaurant as we were relatively close and one of the few places still open. At this point it was just me and the graveyard shift waitress and one (new) cook. We called the head cook and two managers to come in and help us but in the meantime we were completely swamped.

I had probably 9 to 12 tables, and the lobby was packed with a line out the door. We were running around like crazy and it was utter chaos. Our new cook was doing the best he could but this was the first night he was on his own and it was supposed to be a quiet night. Customers are starting to get impatient at the wait times and I’m doing my best to keep their drinks full and bring their food as soon as it’s ready. There are more delays because the new cook has made some mistakes and has had to remake some of the food, meaning the redos are prioritized right away, adding to ticket times.

Finally the head cook shows up and starts whipping food out of the kitchen. Really fast. At last, food is coming out. Unfortunately for me and one of my tables (let’s call this table, “first table”), a certain table next to them (“second table”) received their food before first table, even though they were sat and ordered after them. Understandably frustrating, I get that. The reason this happened is that first table’s food order was sent to the new cook while second table’s food order was sent to the head cook. Head cook was simply much faster and pushed second table’s food out faster than new cook could push out first table’s food.

One woman at first table, had a huge problem with this. She was pissed and accused me of not putting their order in. I apologized and explained that we had a new cook and we were trying our best to get food out as soon as possible. I told her I would check on her order and in the meantime offered to bring them soup or salad on the house. She refused this offer and proceeded to yell at me for not having their food out. I apologized again and said I was doing my best when she again yelled, “Well obviously your best isn’t good enough!“. So everyone staring at us now. Usually when customers say rude things I brush them off but for some reason this comment really got to me. I was running on fumes feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, and 13 hours into a shift that should’ve ended two hours ago. I felt my eyes watering up and had to excuse myself to the kitchen to collect myself.

Surprisingly, they tipped me alright. I got the impression that the people she was with were embarrassed by her behavior and left some extra cash.