National Waitstaff Day! A Third of Servers Have Eaten Food Off a Customer's Plate
If you hit up a restaurant today, you better leave a half-decent tip: Happy National Waitstaff Day!
It's supposed to honor servers, bartenders, and baristas and thank them for dealing with our annoying requests. ("Can you make the pasta gluten free?")
You might NOT want to tip after hearing some of these stats, though. BuzzFeed recently polled thousands of current and former servers and asked some fun questions . . . including, "Have you ever RETALIATED against a rude customer?"
1. Have you ever eaten food off a customer's plate? 32% said yes.
2. Have you ever dated or hooked up with a cook? 25% said yes.
3. Have you ever come into work sick or hungover? 81% have done it.
4. Have you ever finished a customer's alcoholic beverage? Only 6% said yes.
5. Have you ever given someone free food or a free drink because you thought they were cute? 30% said yes.
6. Have you ever snuck off to the bathroom just to get a break? 88% said yes.
7. Have you ever retaliated against a rude customer? HALF of servers said they've retaliated in some way. They didn't say how.
(BuzzFeed)
Originally posted on May 21st, 2025