The art of asking for things……….

I am sure most of us have heard the old adage, “You catch more flies with honey, than you do with vinegar,” (and if you’ve spent your life living under a rock and have never heard this), then, as always, I’m prepared to give you a couple of examples……

I had a table of six women the other night. I greeted them, asked them how they were doing, we exchanged pleasantries for a moment, then one woman asked, (in a friendly tone) “Would it be possible for us to get separate checks?” “Absolutely!” See, that was the “honey” side of things, it was smooth and easy.

On the flip side of the coin, when the server approaches the table, is still a couple of steps away, hasn’t even had a chance to say hello, and some ill-mannered dolt blurts out in a demanding tone, “WE WANT SEPARATE CHECKS!”…….well, that's just rude. That would be the vinegar side of things, and I believe you must have substituted a cup of vinegar for your morning coffee, in which case you may want to rethink your choice of morning beverage.

My first inclination in these situations is to say, “I’m fine, thank you for asking, and how are you this evening?”

Oh! And don’t even think of pulling “The customer is always right” out of your ass…..(because they are not always right) and it does not excuse your decision to display your lack of manners in a public forum.

Another thing these ill-mannered dolts tend not to realize is, when you want 6 or 8 or 10 separate checks, don’t go getting all indignant when it’s time to cash out, and it takes 6 to 8 to 10 times longer to get back to the table with your change or charge slips. We can’t just snap our fingers and have all the checks done in the same amount time it takes to do one check. If we could make things happen by simply snapping our fingers, we would have done so after your first comment, and snapped you right out of there.