Have you ever finished your meal at a restaurant and decided to lend a hand to the staff by stacking up your dirty plates and cups?
Well according to one waitress, you’re not being as helpful as you might think – and you might just be making their job 10 times harder.
A woman on TikTok with the username @fyrefairie has revealed that stacking plates, cutlery, and glasses together can be frustrating to restaurant employees, as most of the time customers don’t stack things in a way that’s helpful.
In a video, the woman who works at a restaurant explained: “When customers try to stack their plates at the end of their meal thinking they’re being helpful.”
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She overlayed the video with audio which said: “It is so bad; I want to give you a zero. But that’s not possible, so I give you a one.”
At the end of the video, the woman showed a photo of a table with cups, mugs, saucers, plates, and cutlery stacked haphazardly.
The clip went viral with more than 159,000 views, and commenters were divided over the woman’s views – with some saying bad stacking is better than no stacking.
One person wrote: “When someone tries to be helpful and doesn't do your job perfectly for you.”
While another said: “Rather it stacked badly than not stacked at all.”
But other commenters were sympathetic and wanted to know if there were any ways to stack dirty crockery that would actually be helpful.
Someone asked: “I do this, so what’s the most helpful way to help?”
And the woman responded: “Put all the big plates together, the bowls together, small plates together, and don’t mix the mugs/saucers with the plates you ate on.”
While other people agreed that the stacking in the video was terrible – but insisted most people who stack their plates do it in the right way.
Someone pointed out: “Oh gosh, do it properly. I stack like I stack at home. Plates together, bowls together, cutlery lined up together on plate. Cups/glasses not stacked.”
As another person said: “OK that’s a terrible way to stack them. My parents were waiters, so I definitely don't stack like this.”
While someone else added: “I appreciate the effort but if you can’t do it properly then don’t do it all, because it actually makes it harder to pick up.”
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
