How to Keep Your Cool When a Restaurant Can’t Keep Up — According to Someone Who’s Been There

It takes a lot for me to get upset when eating in a restaurant. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent so many years on the other side of the menu that it’s easy to imagine myself in the non-slip shoes of the server and see things from their perspective. When I use the word “upset,” I use it lightly. The extent of my emotion may peak at mild frustration. 

Every customer has their trigger. For me, it's apathy from the staff and a sense that nobody wants to be there. For others, it's bad service because of understaffing. Staffing a restaurant and anticipating the business needs for the day is not an exact science. It's about as predictable as the weather; both have a lot of variables that can affect the final outcome. A weather forecast might predict 18 inches of snow and result in only a light dusting. A restaurant owner might expect a Tuesday night to be as slow as any other Tuesday night, but something changes and there's suddenly a crowd of hungry customers hovering at the host stand. 

So, what are you supposed to do as a customer when the restaurant is understaffed?

Patience goes a long way

First off, have patience and understand that the people who are working in the restaurant are doing their absolute best under less than ideal circumstances. Just because there are several empty tables in the restaurant doesn't mean there’s an adequate number of servers to take care of all of them. Your server has nothing to do with the staffing, so don’t take it out on them. They’re there, aren't they? Surely, they too would like some additional help, but people get sick and call out of work. Or someone had a vacation planned resulting in a skeleton crew, or a coworker’s babysitter fell through and they weren't able to make it to work. 

Your server is trying and no server wants to intentionally give bad service; their tip is based on it, so of course they want to do as good a job as possible. Just try to relax and know that everyone is doing as much as they possibly can.

Of course, there are other reasons for a short staff. When Covid reared its ugly head, staffing changed. Plenty of business owners, and not just restaurants, realized they could get the same amount of work out of fewer people, and staffing levels never really went back to where they had been. Some people who work in the service or retail industry also feel that customers are more willing to dish out abuse these days making these jobs less than desirable. These things add to the understaffing problem.

Accept a graceful solution

A good restaurant manager will recognize that customers are suffering the consequences of a poorly staffed restaurant and hopefully provide something to make amends. A complimentary round of drinks, some bread or olives to tide things over until the food arrives, or even a sincere apology can make a huge difference for a customer. Maybe a free dessert will make up for the less than perfect experience. The restaurant will want to do whatever they can to help you want to come back, but that's only going to happen for nice people. Yelling or making a scene isn't going to help your case. The squeaky wheel may get the oil, but the kind and understanding customers get the free desserts.

If you find yourself getting irritated at an understaffed restaurant, just be cool. Please don't take it out on the server or the host. You can share your frustration with the manager, who will hopefully listen to the complaint and make the necessary changes for the future. Maybe this is a one-off situation and is not the norm. If this is a restaurant you go to all the time and it's always like this, it would be perfectly fine for you to decide this restaurant isn't living up to your expectations anymore. 

Profit is the bottom line of every restaurant, and if understaffing is saving them money on payroll, but resulting in fewer customers coming in because the service is lacking, I guarantee the staffing levels will change.