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Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
Clearly the answer is to take the first opportunity in terms of a pause in the story to interrupt, and say, "you know that reminds me of when..." and then tell a totally unrelated story.
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I like "Let me just stop you there..." as though you have some critical point for which you must interject... and then say nothing and go about doing whatever you were doing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by iggy_oi
Yeah we’re determining whether or not the customer doing so is a dbag move, so it probably makes sense to have the perspective of all parties affected, no?
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No. Not when we are talking about something outside the realm of typical. The employer not paying staff properly is not relevant to this discussion unless you want to start considering countless other completely out-of-left-field variables that have yet to be factored in. Moving on...
Quote:
Originally Posted by iggy_oi
I’d be rather shocked if you’ve worked at that many places and never ran into a situation where customers try to hang around well past close to chat. I have a lot of friends in the industry and I see enough of it at times just waiting for them to finish closing to know that it’s not exactly a rare occurrence.
I stand by my position that customers should expect service until close but they also should leave at close and that there are other factors for employees not being thrilled about serving someone who walks in 5 mins before close beyond the employee simply being unreasonable.
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It happened all the time, so we dealt with it appropriately. What did you think I was implying with "they are all but invited to finish their meal, and leave"? We were nice, we chatted with them, and we made it very clear -- albeit politely -- that it's time to GTFO as soon as is feasible. Not saying "GTFO" but not giving them any reason to stay other than they haven't finished their meals. When the dining room is closed, you check with the table if the bill is together or separate, etc. because the bill is coming out pronto; there will be no additional charges, so you pay, you finish your meal, and out you go.
Also, to mitigate this kind of thing, a lot of places have a 'last seating' time where they won't seat tables or take reservations past a certain time to ensure tables don't go too far past closing. But then they'll tell you flat out that's the case instead of begrudgingly seating you.