We're all familiar with the mantra, "the customer is always right", but just how much is too much?

Let me begin with a personal anecdote.

I've spent ten years in the hospitality industry, on and off. I've gone from serving gargantuan slabs of meat at a steakhouse to serving tea and cucumber sandwiches (crusts removed) to the upper echelons at a teahouse; from making egg-and-lettuce sandwiches at a bridge club (mind those dentures, soft fillings only) to serving alcohol and caviar at lavish end-of-financial-year parties taken care of by the corporate credit card.

In my last article I talked about rudeness on the customer’s side of the table, but what about surly waiters?

Researching this article, I stumbled across an opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald’s “Heckler” from a couple of years ago, entitled “The 10 rules of the rude waiter” . It’s a witty, tongue-in-cheek read by an SMH reader, listing the 10 basic rules for the “bad waiter”.My favourite rule is Rule No. 3: