It’s a tale as old as time: Someone makes a snap judgment about a person based on where they work or what they look like, and it turns out to be so wrong.
A Florida Hooters customer learned that lesson the hard way when he decided to take a shot at his server.
Server Claps Back
In a trending video, Hooters server Leah Fennelly (@leah_fennelly) recounts a moment that still lives rent-free in her head.
“One time this guy came in, and I was serving him and he was like, ‘Hey, did you even graduate like high school?'”
There’s no skirting around the fact that he was going out of his way to be rude to her with that comment and try to belittle her.
“Mind you, I’m in law school. I’m almost done with law school, and I’m 24,” she says.
So Fennelly looked right back at him and says she asked the same: “Did you even graduate high school?”
She didn’t linger on the guy’s reaction in the video, but made a bigger point.
“Why are customers so rude sometimes? I swear, people feel like they can just talk down to you just because you’re serving them. Does that make sense?”
The ‘Just A Server’ Assumption Has A Real Cost
The idea that a server’s job signals something about their intelligence or worth isn’t just rude. It’s a documented problem in the industry.
A 2018 study cited by Newsweek found that 98% of employees report experiencing workplace incivility, with about half saying it happens at least once a week, and that’s in restaurants specifically. The assumption that waiting tables is a lesser profession has real consequences for the people on the receiving end of it.
Reader’s Digest rounded up some of the most common ways diners disrespect their servers without thinking twice:
- Talking down to or being condescending toward waitstaff
- Snapping, yelling, or waving to get a server’s attention
- Forgetting basic courtesies like “please” and “thank you”
- Hitting on servers, who are required to be polite and return to your table repeatedly
- Stacking your own dishes or grabbing things out of a server’s hands (It’s not helpful; it’s disruptive.)
What customers often don’t think about: servers are at work. They’re professionals doing a job, and the power dynamic of the transaction doesn’t change that.
The “just a server” assumption tends to say more about the customer than the server. Many people waiting tables are students, parents, artists, and yes, future lawyers paying their way through school.
@leah_fennelly He asked if I graduated high school 😭 #hooters #hooterstok #serverproblems #restaurantlife
Commenters React
“If the law school thing doesn’t work you can have a career as an Olivia Rodrigo impersonator,” a top comment read.
“As a former twin peaks gal, men associate pretty with ditsy. I don’t know why. Almost all of us were in college but for some reason people assume you can’t be pretty and academically driven,” a person said.
“That’s so rude good for you Sis you’re so right though I was a server and some people think that’s all we are when they have no clue the things we have going on in our lives Congratulations on Law school,” another wrote.
BroBible reached out to Fennelly for comment via Instagram and TikTok direct message. We’ll be sure to update this if she responds.