Service With A Smile

At some time or the other just about everyone has ranted about the abysmally poor service in Barbados. I shall now officially join the ranks of those who expounded on the topic.

Last night, the A list went to St. Lawrence Gap for some cocktails per my request. It had been a while since college (read: the bars in downtown Burlington) and I was craving a white russian most terribly. We arrived at the door and were greeted (and I do use that term loosely) by a rather unenthusiastic looking hostess. We stood there waiting, as persons went back and forth at leisure, wondering if we would be accommodated as requested at a ‘table for five’. Finally, we were seated outside and given our menus.

We proceeded to order our cocktails (peach daiquiris pour moi) and I must say that at this point the lady waiting on the table was reasonably amiable. I mean, she was not in the running for any awards, but she was adequate - no real complaints there. Soon after, another lady asked us if we were being served and we smilingly told her that we were - so far, not bad. We got our drinks eventually and conversation flowed, the usual chit chat associated with a lime.

The minutes were ticking by and then it occurred to us that no one had been by our table for a considerable while. We were simply sitting there in the company of empty cocktail glasses, with the water from them pooling all over the table and our cocktail orange slices decomposing into soggy messes on our now soaked napkins. We then began to wonder aloud if was normal policy for a place like this to simply seat and serve patrons and ignore them. Given the place were sitting, it was difficult for us to successfully signal for attention.

Anyway, as the night wound down and the mini swimming pool on the table widened, another waitress finally remembered that our table existed and condescended to appear. With her face set up like we were forcing her to eat our soggy napkins, she took my white russian order and handled the queries from my friends. I cannot recall being looked at in a more distasteful manner. We were made to feel like we were single handedly responsible for the ills in this woman’s life and had effectively sentenced her to death for daring to ask for a white russian and a slice of cheese cake. When she walked away, all we could do is shake our heads in shock.

Clearly she received no tip from our table that night.

I recognise that being in the service industry is not an easy task. I have friends who work and have worked in several hotels and restaurants around the island especially in the west coast and south coast tourists belts. Hence, I completely sympathise with the difficulties of the job. I know it is draining to be running back and forth between tables, mistakes may be made and it is difficult to keep a smile permanently plastered on one’s face. For this reason, I am always polite and courteous to waitresses and hostesses, just as the entire group was last night. ‘Do unto others’ I always say, assuming that if I’m friendly to the folks in the service industry, they will reciprocate.

Despite this however, time after time, we have been greeted with substandard service comprising leisurely execution of tasks, tables being ignored, faces dat sour as ass, and dis ‘I don’t give a shit’ attitude. I ain send and call nobody to work no where and serve me. I walk in and find dem at a job. Learn some basic manners and common courtesy or leff de rangate job. ‘Cause as hard as their day has been, dem ain supposed to be bitchy to me. It in dem job description to make people feel welcome and taken care of and if people feel snubbed and ignored, den they are piss poor at their jobs. End. of. story.

Another thing is that, quite often, when people walk into a restaurant they are assessed. People that work there look at them and decide if they look rich and touristy and if they likely to tip or order big. If they look young and non-touristy like us, they get the dregs at the bottom of the barrel. Then, because of that, waitresses end up not getting tips because dem cah yah in scruffy - self-fulfilling prophecy. It doan always be because young people cheap or poor that waitresses end up wid nuttin, it is because they look at you and assume yah poor or cheap, thus treat yah like shit and then they end up wid nuttin.

The funny thing is that de same foreigners that some of them are so quick to suck up to in hopes of getting dah lil US tip, does be some of de nastiest people and tell dem de most racist, demeaning things. But yet, de lil locals does end up getting de short end uh de stick. Funny how I was in de statistically second whitest state in de USA and had to be worried bout poor service in a restaurant for being at de only table in de room wid black people, and now come back home and gotta worry bout de same damn ting…