A restaurant has earned widespread praise online after putting up a remarkably simple message for its customers: treat the people serving you with respect.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The sign was shared to Reddit’s r/MadeMeSmile community under the title “A nice sign in a restaurant”, where the post attracted huge attention.
At the time captured in the screenshots, it had received around 128,000 upvotes and more than 1,200 comments.
And the restaurant certainly didn’t leave much room for misunderstanding.
Placed prominently at the counter, the sign reads:
“PLEASE RESPECT OUR EMPLOYEES!
“For many of them,
this is their first job.
“They are teenagers.
“They are someone’s child.
“They could be your child.
“Please DO NOT BE RUDE!”
The straightforward message clearly struck a chord.
Rather than simply asking customers to behave themselves, the restaurant reminded them who could actually be standing on the other side of the counter.
Some of the employees are teenagers. Some are experiencing their first ever job. All of them are people deserving of basic respect.
Judging by the reaction online, plenty of people appreciated seeing an employer make that point publicly.
One Reddit user summed up the bittersweet nature of the sign in just two sentences: “I love this sign. I hate that we need this sign.”
Another person was equally frustrated that businesses apparently need to explicitly remind customers how their employees should be treated.
“I think it’s insane that we need a sign to remind others to be decent human beings,” one Redditor wrote.
Others argued that an employee’s age or level of experience shouldn’t really matter in the first place.
Whether somebody is a teenager starting their first job or a veteran of the industry, the basic expectation of respect should remain the same.
One commenter wrote: “It doesn’t matter if it’s their first job, it doesn’t matter if they’re teenagers, doesn’t matter if they’re your child or not, people are people and deserve respect don’t be an asshole.”
The discussion also resonated particularly strongly with people who have worked in customer-facing jobs themselves.
One fast-food worker said they regularly encounter customers who make them wish they could simply refuse to serve them.
“Good. I work in fast food and every day I want to tell several customers to go home and make their own goddamn sandwich,” they typed. “This service is a privilege not a right.”
It’s a comment that gets to the heart of why the restaurant’s sign attracted such a substantial reaction.
For customers, an interaction at a counter might occupy only a few minutes of their day. For the person working behind it, that interaction is one of potentially hundreds they will experience during a shift.
And for a teenager in their first job, dealing with an unnecessarily hostile customer can be an introduction to working life they are unlikely to forget.
Another Reddit user suggested that the way somebody interacts with service workers can reveal plenty about their character.
“I think you can learn a lot about a person based on how they treat wait staff/customer service people. You can clearly tell who has never worked in that industry before,” one person highlighted.
While the restaurant’s message specifically draws attention to younger employees, the reaction to it broadened into a much simpler conversation about basic decency.
One commenter asked: “Honestly, why is it so hard to just be a decent human being”
That question appeared to capture much of the sentiment surrounding the post.
Just be a decent person.
Featured image credit: Reddit
