I saw a post awhile ago about what’s considered rude in other countries/ other parts of the US when striking up conversations, I was gonna reblog it with this as a comment, but it got really specific to restaurant work so i’m making it’s own post.
I’m from Georgia, I’m a server, and for god’s sake please say hello to the hosts/servers when you walk into a restaurant. Even if you’re from the north, and it feels unnecessary, and like you’re wasting time, it doesn’t feel that way to us. If you sit down, and I come up to your table and greet you with “Hello, welcome, my name’s rachel, how are you?” etc. and you respond with “iced tea” (which isn’t a thing in the south btw, it’s all iced, do you want sweet or unsweet?) what you’ve just told your server is “that’s nice, but I don’t want to regard you as a person, more of a pen and paper with legs that’ll bring food to my face.” And for a job where you are literally serving and waiting on people for money, which is a little demeaning in and of itself, that’s a huge slap in the face. You don’t even have to partake in the small talk, “hi, fine, unsweet tea, please” is plenty, and it’ll let me know to leave you alone during your meal.
As for hosts, they can be a little ruder. I have seen people straight up ignored for not acknowledging a host’s greeting before. “Hi, how are we doing this evening?” “There’s four of us” Etc. Again, it’s not even considered rude if you don’t answer the question, I’m perfectly fine with just “hi, four.” I understand that not everyone is super comfortable in all social situations, myself included, i actually hate going to restaurants because i don’t know what to do with my face when i talk to servers, but i do know that as a server, if you greet us, and don’t yell at us, we’ll be a-okay.
