Sometimes it sucks to work in customer service. You get rude, entitled people who think they can treat you any which way and get away with it.
What sucks even more is when your manager, instead of backing you up in front of a customer, ends up taking the customer’s side instead. It feels like one of the people who was supposed to have your back is instead protecting the bottom line.
That’s why this worker did what she did.
Happy Hour Gone Wrong
In a viral TikTok with more than 34,000 views, a man (@notyorbuddy2) describes what unfolded during a recent happy hour visit to Café Blue at the Hill Country Galleria, a seafood restaurant and oyster bar near Austin.
@notyorbuddy2 explains that he and his fiancée had been going there regularly for half-price oysters, great bread, and a bartender they loved.
But this time was different. He says a man came in and sat at the bar near them. From the start, something was off.
“As soon as he sat down, I could see his face in the mirror behind the bar,” he says. “He had a very interesting, like, intense smug look on his face.”
The bartender, he says, clocked the guy immediately and was “visibly upset.”
He overheard her tell a coworker, essentially, that this was him, and it seems he’d shorted her before. She put her stuff down and went to get her manager.
What followed didn’t go the way she was likely hoping. The TikToker says he witnessed the manager pull the customer aside, but not before the guy leaned on the bar aggressively. After the conversation, the customer came back and told his companion everything was fine, the TikToker recounts. Then the manager had a word with the bartender, and, according to the TikToker, basically told her she was overreacting and to just ignore him.
“She quits her job,” he says.
“We’ve been going there for months. She’s always our bartender; she’s always great. She quits her job because there’s a guy sitting at her bar that is there to intentionally antagonize her,” he says.
@notyorbuddy2 says things didn’t have to go so far, adding that there were easy ways to defuse the situation without making her face the guy at all, like seating him at a different table and putting another staff member on him.
The worst part, he says, came after she walked out. The manager went behind the bar, approached the customer directly, and started smack-talking about her by name.
“He goes to the guy and talks s— about her. Uses her name, talks s— about her to him. Says she’s a really loyal hard worker, but her attitude doesn’t match,” he recounts.
“Disgusting behavior,” he says. “I wish I knew the man’s name.”
When Management Makes It Worse
The TikToker’s frustration points to something the restaurant industry has been grappling with for years. According to Modern Restaurant Management, 37% of restaurant workers cite poor management as a primary reason for leaving their jobs, and anti-violence initiatives and de-escalation training are increasingly considered critical as workplace aggression becomes more prevalent in the industry.
It’s not just about bad apples in the customer base. Per Escoffier, 96% of workers say they’d consider quitting if their manager didn’t prioritize team well-being.
Harvard Business Review has found that poor soft skills among managers rank as the second-biggest source of workplace stress. The hospitality industry already has the highest quit rate of any sector in the country. Throwing employees under the bus in front of the very customer who drove them out doesn’t exactly help the numbers.
Commenters React
“Good to know; we are now boycotting cafe blue at Hill country galleria,” a top comment read.
“My husband and I have been treated badly both times we have been there. So yeah we ain’t going back,” a person said.
“My daughter used to work there. Horrible behavior by management,” another wrote. ‘As an actual restaurant manager for 10 years, the customer goes. The amount of times I’ve heard “we’ll never come back!’ And then seen the customer a week later is ridiculous. My team and their safety and comfort far outweighs the opinion of a shit customer. That’s my two cents, and I have the highest employee retention in my state,” a commentary added.
BroBible reached out to @notyorbuddy2 via TikTok direct message and comment and to Café Blue at the Hill Country Galleria via email. We’ll be sure to update this if they respond.