Miss Narziss

1.Telling me their order as soon as I make eye contact This in itself isn’t that bad. If I’m looking for the next person to serve I will usually look them in the eye and ask them what they want. But it starts to get annoying, when a customer thinks ANY eye contact means they can yell their order at me. Some people who do that even watch me preparing another person’s drink and yet they think I totally have time to start making theirs. Okay that also wouldn’t be a problem if they were the only person waiting at the counter. Then I would simply make their stuff next. But usually I already am preparing several orders at once or a larger order and I only can remember a limited amount of drinks to make. Also the eye contact person often isn’t waiting as long as other people at the counter and I pretty much know that. If people do that I usually apologize and say that I’m still busy. If they do it more often, I start telling them, that eye contact doesn’t mean that I can take their order and explain that I’m actually working right now. And if someone does it on a regular basis I take a mental note to ignore this asshole in the future if possible. (and as sad as it is, this happens so many times, that I started walking around behind the counter with my eyes down. But sometimes you actually have to look up and they they’ll be waiting for you like vultures. Waiting to meet your gaze) 2.Thinking that just because I walk up to the place where they are standing that I totally want to take their order This is very similar to the first one but it can be annoying in its own way. You see, at the place I’m working at the space behind the counter is rather narrow and it’s a pretty long counter. That means, you often have to walk some metres in distance to get specific stuff and it also means there are many many people waiting for someone to take their order. So when I’m making some drinks for one customer and I have to walk to the other end of the counter to get something it often happens that someone thinks I just went there to ask them what they want to drink. Doesn’t matter to them if you look super busy. But actually this behavior isn’t THAT annoying because you know what? I simply say sorry and walk away because I often have other stuff to do.

Last evening I had a very special case of this one in the form of a super annoying woman, who said she wanted to order something as soon as I came close to the counter and who even followed me and kept asking me if she could order even though I told her several times that I’m busy right now and I will ask her as soon as I’m done. 3.Yelling my name Regulars, friends and coworkers call me by my name. And often I serve regulars and some of my friends faster because a) they bring in a lot of money for this place and b) I often know what they want and it’s often something I can make while preparing another order. But since some people call me by my name, some people at the counter pick it up and think if they yell it they can get my attention and as you know attention means I take your order (which is totally not true, but well that’s asshole customer logic). This is highly annoying because I don’t like it when strangers yell my name and well for the whole yelling part (they never just say it or use it in a polite sentence). And this is something where I too start taking mental notes on who to not serve anymore if not necessary. 4.Just telling me their orderswithout a warning whenever they see me These are the most extreme. They don’t care what you are doing. They don’t care if you’re looking at them. Often they don’t even care if they stand 2 metres away from you. They just start telling you what they want to drink. Did I also mention, that very often you didn’t even notice these customers until they started telling you their order because they also do this while you stand with your back to them? The mere fact that you are standing behind the counter and that they can see you is reason enough for them to think that they can order their stuff. Last night I was putting away some empty bottles under the counter and this woman comes up and orders 4 shots while I didn’t even see her because my head was under the counter. And the saddest thing about this behavior is that this is something regulars often do, especially when they are drunk (I guess this is what you get for spoiling regulars). 5.People holding me their glasses in my face Now this is just the peak of desperate attempts to get my attention. Sometimes people start holding their glasses over the counter right over the workspace and basically in my face. This is also the moment where I stop giving a damn about being polite and start telling people to cut that shit out. First if you hold like 5 empty beer glasses I won’t even be able to take them. There is a practical thing called a counter where you can put them down. Second I get really mad when people reach behind the counter. There is so much wrong with that.... hygiene, stuff can get broken and it’s just annoying when you’re trying to do your work. And third it’s just unnecessarily aggressive. Remember my mental list of people I ignore whenever I can? Do this twice and you’re at the top of it. 6.People doing bulk orders I totally understand why people do this and it can be actually helpful in some cases. Like if you order 10 beers for you and your mates and some other people next to you at the bar? Awesome. Doing 10 beers is no problem and there are less people standing at the counter. The actual problem is when people do bulk orders with all kinds of different stuff. It’s really challenging to remember everything and to coordinate what to make first and so on. Also calculating the price can be a pain in the ass. Especially when they mass order and don’t pay in total but want to split up everything. And shit gets really serious when everyone starts doing mass orders. If everyone ordered seperately I could coordinate much better what to make first and maybe I can do several drinks at once. I usually take several orders at once anyways so please don’t mass order if it isn’t 10 things of the same or similar kind.