The Rudest Behaviors Ever! Anderson Investigates...
Monday, April 30, 2012 5:18PM
Rule number one: If you are experiencing bad restaurant service, never mess with a waiter until you’ve gotten your food, says former waiter and best-selling author Steve Dublanica who wrote “Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter (P.S.)”
Even though you’re angry, Steve says to never deal with the waiter -- deal with the manager.
“If you have encountered rude service, says Steve, “vote with your feet... don’t go back there.”
“Anderson” and Yahoo! Shine teamed up to ask our online audiences the rudest behavior they continually encounter. Yahoo! Shine Facebook friends were quick to respond with passionate rude rants.
Shannon P. said on Facebook, “Being MOWED down at clothing rack by a rude/entitled shopper who has abs NO concept of personal space!” Amanda S. posted, “When you’re in line at the store and the person is so close to you that you can feel him breathin on your neck!!”
While responses varied, one of the top rants was rude cell phone behavior.
In a poll asking, “What rude behavior bothers you most?” 56% of respondents said parents who do not supervise their children are most annoying. Ten percent said rude waiters, 8% said pet owners who do not clean up after their dogs and 7% said tardiness.
One of the top rude behaviors came in at 19% -- people who talk too loudly on their cell phones.
Anderson Cooper says his number on pet peeve is rudeness. Arrogant people being rude to other people, cutting in line, talking loudly on their cell phones and being rude to waiters, makes him very angry.
As part of Tuesday’s episode, “Anderson Investigates Rudeness,” we decided to do a series of hidden camera investigations to see how people react when someone is being rude to then. We hired an actor to be rude all day and the results were amazing.
Would you approach someone being rude in public? Surprisingly, not many people did...
Amy Alkon, syndicated advice columnist and author of “I See Rude People,” says that “when someone is on a cell phone in a public place, they are hijacking your thoughts, they’re stealing your time and your peace of mind.”
Anderson agreed, saying, “That’s the thing that annoys me is that they are stealing my time, and my brainpower is focused on them -- when it should be focused on the inane things that I think about through the day or whatever I want to think about.”
Do you silently sit there and fume while someone is rude? Amy says it amplifies things. “You’re eating you that way and it can have very negative effects on your health. So it’s really important to not do that, to not brew. But to say something before you brew so much that you explode.”
Amy suggests that if you absolutely have to get on your cell phone in a public place, a person must take their conversation outside, or whisper, with hand over mouth.
Where do you encounter the rudest people? On Yahoo Shine, 32% said they encounter the most rudeness at retail store. Tying for the second rudest places were grocery stores and airport/airplanes. Rounding out the list was 14% at restaurants/coffee shops and 4% at the gym.
Have you experienced a rude waiter? Take a look at what happened when we set up our actor, Mac, to pose as an extremely obnoxious and rude waiter.
Even though you’re angry, Steve says to never deal with the waiter -- deal with the manager.
“If you have encountered rude service, says Steve, “vote with your feet... don’t go back there.”
“Anderson” and Yahoo! Shine teamed up to ask our online audiences the rudest behavior they continually encounter. Yahoo! Shine Facebook friends were quick to respond with passionate rude rants.
Shannon P. said on Facebook, “Being MOWED down at clothing rack by a rude/entitled shopper who has abs NO concept of personal space!” Amanda S. posted, “When you’re in line at the store and the person is so close to you that you can feel him breathin on your neck!!”
While responses varied, one of the top rants was rude cell phone behavior.
In a poll asking, “What rude behavior bothers you most?” 56% of respondents said parents who do not supervise their children are most annoying. Ten percent said rude waiters, 8% said pet owners who do not clean up after their dogs and 7% said tardiness.
One of the top rude behaviors came in at 19% -- people who talk too loudly on their cell phones.
Anderson Cooper says his number on pet peeve is rudeness. Arrogant people being rude to other people, cutting in line, talking loudly on their cell phones and being rude to waiters, makes him very angry.
As part of Tuesday’s episode, “Anderson Investigates Rudeness,” we decided to do a series of hidden camera investigations to see how people react when someone is being rude to then. We hired an actor to be rude all day and the results were amazing.
Would you approach someone being rude in public? Surprisingly, not many people did...
Amy Alkon, syndicated advice columnist and author of “I See Rude People,” says that “when someone is on a cell phone in a public place, they are hijacking your thoughts, they’re stealing your time and your peace of mind.”
Anderson agreed, saying, “That’s the thing that annoys me is that they are stealing my time, and my brainpower is focused on them -- when it should be focused on the inane things that I think about through the day or whatever I want to think about.”
Do you silently sit there and fume while someone is rude? Amy says it amplifies things. “You’re eating you that way and it can have very negative effects on your health. So it’s really important to not do that, to not brew. But to say something before you brew so much that you explode.”
Amy suggests that if you absolutely have to get on your cell phone in a public place, a person must take their conversation outside, or whisper, with hand over mouth.
Where do you encounter the rudest people? On Yahoo Shine, 32% said they encounter the most rudeness at retail store. Tying for the second rudest places were grocery stores and airport/airplanes. Rounding out the list was 14% at restaurants/coffee shops and 4% at the gym.
Have you experienced a rude waiter? Take a look at what happened when we set up our actor, Mac, to pose as an extremely obnoxious and rude waiter.
Filed Under: As Seen On The Show
Comments
I always say even if your service sucks, leave 10 percent. (Most of the time it's like what, 2 bucks, maybe 3?) But bring it up with management after you pay. Management otherwise is going to protect its employees. They will probably think you are being cheap and wanting your meal for free, as they see it done a hundred times. If you prove to them that you are not (just being cheap), by paying and small tipping, they will most likely take the comment to heart and discipline the server when the time is right. If you start cussing out the server, the other servers will talk and your service will get worse and worse at the restaurant every time you come back. (Servers do talk you know.) If you don't tip, even if they are rude they still just paid for you to sit in their section. (After tipping out based on sales) and I think that is not right regardless. If you leave a small enough tip, they wont even notice it, and the busboys/diswashers/hosts/bartenders will still get their cut, because they did their job. Also, you need to think about the day the server might have had. At the end of the day servers are just as human as everyone else, they have poor/bad days and most of the time dealing with customers in a restaurant only make their day worse, and yes, unfortunately, they do take it out on the customers. If they seem rude, ask how their day went, if they don't sound like their telling the truth, then they probably just got cussed out for the kitchen being late on an order. (Not the servers fault) and the alcoholic beverages being late (also, not their fault). You never know till you walk a mile in their under paid shoes.
-Jordan, restaurant shift manager.
My personal pet peeve are the people who go to restaurants with out of control kids running all over the place, sticking their hands into other people's plates and glasses to help themselves. Then they have the audacity to get mad when you gently but firmly stop their child from sticking their nasty, dirty fingers into your food. This isn't even at a fast food place or somewhere that caters to little kids, but at a moderately nice sit-down restaurant. I understand that people love their children, but if they want other people to love their children too, they need to teach their children to behave in a lovable manner.
People complain about rudeness in this supposedly Freedom Lover-Rights Champion,well Educated country,yet they haven't experienced being a Minority.
Seriously?? Are they completely stealing ABC's "What Would You Do?" concept? Anderson, you are good on CNN, but you are becoming another daytime TV hack. Sorry
Have you ever thought that putting -2.00 on the tip might force the waiter to pay 2 dollars for your food?
I've gotten feed up over lazy crappy service. Maybe if you had paid attention in high school you wouldn't be earning less than 3 bucks an hour. I no longer put up with it. I'll get the manager and rip them a new ******* right there on the floor. Thrust me no one likes to be called down in public. Never cuss and don't raise your voice. Just be firm and scolding. Then get their bosses number or the owner and call them. Make a point of making there life a misery. Get the waiters name as well. I'm tired of excuses, "i got 5 children and my babies daddy left me." SO WHAT I DON"T CARE. I'm paying you for a service if you don't deliver to bad, get some cardboard and head for the stop light outside of walmart I can ignore you there as well.
it is not enough that you leave a restaurant never to return. It needs to be brought to the attention of the management why you are not coming back.
screw that the waiter wins order you're food f--k with the lowlife waiter and when the food gets there get up and walk out DO NOT PAY
I used to be a fast food junkie until I watched the food preparers. Most employees, especially taco bell never change their protective gloves while handling the food. They handle everything and then prepare the food over and over. I have complained and it seemed to help for about two days and goes back to the same old routine. It does no good to complain, you just have to quit going there. It's safer to not use gloves and wash your hands often.
As long as they're not shouting it's not rude to talk on your cell phone in a public place anymore than it is to talk to someone sitting next to you. What the hell is the difference?
Who gives a fart? It's a public place, whether they are talking to someone next to them or on the phone, what business is it of yours? Oh, they are stealing your time, get a life, poof!
My husband and I eat out quite often,we've never had rude service but I never send my steak back if it's under cooked so afraid what will be done to it. If we don't like the food or the people we just don't go back!
After waiting 20 minutes in a group to get an initial drink, I tell my waiter I am in a hurry, ask if I can be served and done within another hour's time. Ended up that the salad came late and immediately afterward the entree, leaving me with 15 minutes to gulp the whole meal. After 70 minutes, I went to the cash register to pay (no check was brought to the table), I asked whether it would be more than $20 so I could give the money and leave to my appointment, but the waiter said I must wait while he continued to punch button after button on a touch screen...appeared he didn't know how to reckon numbers without one.
The most consistently rude, and the most agressively rude behavior I've experienced ALWAYS comes from airline staff, especially their flying waitresses/waiters (they call thwm flight attendants). I've even overheard them talking batween themselves bragging about how rude they've just been to one passenger or another and laughing about it saying, what are they going to do? They can't leafve."
I've seen them manhandle passangers, curse people, berate people, encourage a bullying drunk passanger to attack another. You name it.
They don't depend on tips, they're grossly overpaid. And their jobs are so secure there's nothing that can be done to them.
Delta is the worst, but Northwestern comes close behind.
I'm an usher too. To me some of the rudest are some of the season ticket holders. I've been berated and cursed at when I asked to see the tickets. They act like they're above showing a ticket and act like I should know their season ticket holders. It helps us keep people in their correct areas and you ought to thank us for that. I'm a season ticket holder myself and I don't act like that.