Working in a restaurant or hospitality comes with its own share of ups and downs and the least customers can do is not increase the servers' work.
Restaurant workers don't have it easy. Right from messy babies to mean customers - they have to deal with all of it with a smile on their faces and a gentle "How can I help you today?" greeting on their lips. This is why, sometimes customers try to be empathetic towards their servers and clean up after dining in. However, there's a way to everything, as explained by Matthew Rangel (@therealmattyr) in a video he posted on TikTok.
Matthew seems like he's in the kitchen of a restaurant while shooting the video. The video has an overlay text saying, "PSA restaurant and bar patrons." He starts off the video by saying, "Hey, hey! This? Yes. This? No." His first "this" refers to a few plates stacked on top of one another with used napkins on top of them. He approves of this method of helping your server. The second "This" though, the one to which he says "No," is for putting used napkins in a glass. He is against customers doing that. And it's for good reason.
He urges people to stop putting used napkins inside a glass by saying, "Stop doing this." He says so because when the used napkins are deeply wedged inside the glass, he needs to fish them out which isn't very comfortable. He says, "I gotta dig it out," while hitting the back of the glass. His actions give us a better and deeper understanding of how servers and restaurant workers work. It is a perfect example of the fact that good intentions don't always result in good outcomes. Potentially another server or restaurant worker @hoodueburglar1377 echoes Matthew's sentiments and says, "Literally because you see it as 'Oh it won't spill everywhere' while I see it as 'Great I have to stick my hand in your backwash cup and dig out used napkins'."
Another user, @virginiahall65, pointed out, "Also makes it hard to stack cups to carry multiple," which is an extremely valid point to make. @witch_hazel97, who works at a retail shop, said, "A similar experience is working retail and they put the clothes inside out of the hangers. Like no you're making it worse. I'd rather it be on the floor." There were also a lot of people who commented with apologies and empathy, stating that they did do this. However, they did it solely to help the server. @jack_is_awesome_232 said, "I always did it to be polite. I thought it'd make clean-up easier. My bad I'll stop." This acknowledgment and promise to change shows that Jack is probably awesome. @ericajean420 spilled some truth beans and said, "If you don't do it at home, don't do it in a restaurant."
In a similar story, a customer chose to stack his plates and used napkins to help the server and you can understand just how much of a difference one kind gesture can make. The server was quite happy and thankful to the customer. That said, it doesn't imply that you have to compulsorily clean up after eating at a restaurant. However, keeping in mind what not to do can ease the process for you as well as your server. After all, a deed not done is always better than a deed wrongly done.