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Two women at a Texas Denny's realized it was short-staffed so they jumped in and started cooking

'We just looked at each other and it wasn't even a question. We both knew what we had to do.'

Courtesy of Sylvia Arrendondo

Strangers help restaurant serve customers.

We've all been there. Standing in line to be seated at a fairly busy restaurant while your stomach growls in protest. But when two women left a concert one summer evening in 2022 in search of food, they had no idea they'd find themselves taking orders and cooking the food. Sylvia Arrendondo and her mother Idalia Merkel went to a local Denny's in Texas and were seated by another customer before realizing the restaurant was extremely short-staffed. Instead of taking their business elsewhere, they decided to roll up their sleeves and get to work.


Arrendondo wrote about the unique experience on her Facebook page where she explained that only two people were working. One was serving tables and the other was the cook. As for the man that was acting as host and seating new guests, he had no idea what he was doing because he didn't work there. He told Arrendondo and Merkel that his wife used to work at Denny's so she started helping to serve tables and he decided to help get people seated.

woman working in a restaurant kitchen

Idalia Merkel helping cook.

Courtesy of Sylvia Arrendondo

The service industry has been hit hard by the pandemic and the subsequent "great resignation."

Complaints about low wages, poor management, and rude customers that abuse staff members are just a few of the reasons cited by people who have left the industry. It may be surprising for some to learn that the federal minimum wage for tipped employees like servers and bussers is just $2.13 an hour. The rest of the wage is supposed to be made up of tips, which, depending on where you work, may be split at the end of the night between other workers. This act of splitting tips is called "tip pooling" and is calculated by number of hours worked.

Splitting tips after a long day of work dealing with customers who may not have been so kind would understandably make some upset. But it didn't take a deep dive on the treatment of restaurant employees for Arrendondo and the other customers who helped out. They saw two seemingly college-aged kids doing their best to keep the place running and they didn't hesitate to jump in to help, completely unpaid.

When asked why she didn't just leave, Arrendondo said, "We just looked at each other and it wasn't even a question. We both knew what we had to do."

"This was probably the most beautiful act of American unity that I have personally encountered," Arrendondo told Upworthy. She added that the sole paid server would occasionally start to cry before being comforted by the cook, only to return the favor when he would get overwhelmed.

Talk about community.

These two kids had exhausted all of their resources, including calling their manager multiple times. And instead of customers getting angry, demanding better service or walking away, Arredondo and Merkel stepped up. The kindness of this group of strangers will surely stick with these employees and the people who were involved.

"The strength, courage and integrity by these two workers was beyond admirable. My mom and I have never been so proud and happy to help," Arrendondo told Upworthy. "After all, we have all been there."

Eventually after some convincing, the two employees shut the restaurant down and Arrendondo and Merkel went home much more tired than anticipated. They were still hungry, but full of gratitude and pride.


This article originally appeared two years ago.

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Pop Culture

American tells Europeans why we're done saying 'you're welcome’ to customer service workers

"I promise you Americans are actually very polite!!!"

via Superdesidrinks/TikTok and via Kampus Production/Pexels

Arjuna explains why Americans don't say "you're welcome" anymore.

There's an emerging trend among American Gen Zers and Millennials where they are moving away from responding with "You're welcome" after receiving thanks. While older generations might interpret this shift as a sign of a decay in manners, many young people view responses like "OK" or "Mm-hmm" as more courteous than the traditional "You're welcome."

The change may signal that the younger generations are actually kinder than the older ones. Simply put, the difference suggests that older people think help is a gift you give, while younger people think help is an expectation required of them.

This change in manners has caused a debate in the States, and the cultural shift has also led to some discussions abroad. Recently, there has been a considerable debate on TikTok, where non-Americans, especially those in Europe, see the change as rude.

​Earlier this year, Australian YouTuber and content creator Georgia McCudden shared a clip (which has since been removed) depicting an experience with a server during her visit to the U.S.

In the video, McCudden recounts that she thanked a restaurant employee who handed her ketchup, to which the server replied, "Mmhmm." She was baffled by the response, saying, “I was like, ‘I beg your f**king pardon,’” she said in the clip. “I'm sorry, I didn't know that was a big ask.”

An American responded to McCudden’s original post, reassuring her that the server wasn't being rude at all. The exchange was just a cultural misunderstanding.

@clockforaheart

#stitch with @Georgia also this is a good verison of nonamericans teasing americans besides the usual stuff they say

A TikTokker named Arjuna hopped into the discussion with a post that described the “You’re welcome” phenomenon in America, and he must have done an excellent job because it’s received nearly a million views.

He captioned the clip: "I promise you Americans are actually very polite!!!"

"Someone went viral earlier this week for saying that Americans don't say 'you're welcome' in customer service situations,” Arjuna said. "I'm not here to sh*t on them, but I do want to explain for non-Americans why we don't really say 'you're welcome' and why 'you're welcome' feels a little outdated to a lot of Americans."

@superdesidrinks

i promise you americans are actually very polite !!! #usa #american #thankyou #yourewelcome #english

Then, he laid out the “American” logic for the change.

"Let's say I'm a cashier at a fast-food restaurant, and they hand someone their food, and they say 'thank you,' to a lot of Americans, for us to say 'you're welcome' has the mindset of like 'Oh, yeah, we just did something big for you.' Like, it has this implication of 'I know, you should be thanking me,’” Arjuna said.

He adds that saying “you’re welcome” after completing a small task that’s part of their job “seems way too intense for that.” That’s why he says younger Americans prefer to respond with an “uh-huh,” 'no problem,” or “don't worry about it.”

Arjuna did add one caveat where “you’re welcome” would be an appropriate response to a “thank you.”

"But if I donated a kidney to someone, and then they came up to me and were like 'thank you' then I'd be like 'yeah, you're welcome,'" he said.

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Joy

Southwest Airlines babysits a passenger's betta fish for months after she couldn't fly with it

Now that's customer service.

via Pixabay

A beautiful betta fish.

It was a wild summer at U.S. airports where there were more cancellations and delays than usual due to spiking demand after the pandemic, understaffed airlines and severe storms. But a story from Tampa International Airport in Florida shows that amid the chaos, there was a brief glimmer of humanity.

News Channel 8 in Florida reports that after finishing her freshman year at college, Kira Rumfola was ready to return home to New York for the summer when she ran into a problem at Tampa International Airport. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to bring her pet betta fish, Theo, with her on a Southwest flight home.

“As a recent addition to Kira’s life, Theo is very special to her, having provided comfort and companionship as she adjusted to college life,” Southwest wrote in a Facebook post.

It’s against Southwest policy to allow fish on its flights.

“Ismael, our Customer Service Agent, talked Kira and her father through multiple options,” Southwest wrote on Facebook. “When nothing worked out, Ismael offered to take care of Theo himself while Kira was home for the summer.”

Kira swore she'd be back in the fall for the next school session and would pick up her fish when she returned to Florida.

According to a Southwest Twitter post, Kira stayed in touch with Ismael and Jamee, his fiance and fellow Southwest employee, all summer. The couple regularly shared photos of Theo with Kira and they even bought him a larger fish bowl.

On September 15, Southwest shared a photo of Kira, Ismael and Jamee when they met up to reunite the student and her fish. Kira gave the couple a gift card as a thank-you. “Thank you again for the gift card, it was completely unnecessary,” Jamee wrote in a text shared by Southwest. “We hope you guys got back to your dorm ok. Let us know if you need anything.”

Theo lived with Ismael and Jamee for the entire summer—they had to be a bit teary-eyed to see him go.

The story struck a chord with people on Facebook, who thought it was an amazing show of customer service and humanity.

“That definitely shows going over and above. There is still kindness in our world!" Shelly Tibbs Eber Caulfield wrote.

"Ismael deserves a promotion! He's clearly shown he's willing to do any-fin possible to help a customer," Kristen Calvert wrote.

Matt Pope wins best joke. "That’s the greatest fish story featuring a guy named Ismael since that book by Melville," he wrote, making a reference to “Moby Dick."

Everyone appreciates a great story about someone going above and beyond in their job to help a customer. But what Ismael and Jamee did went far beyond customer service. They showed up as human beings to help a stranger take care of a beloved family member when they had run out of options. Now, that’s a great example of humanity at its best.

The only remaining question is, what will Kira do with Theo next summer?









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Man gets his cable bill reduced by serenading customer service with a catchy song

Do you know that guy who has never had an issue with his TV/internet provider? Neither do I. If you claim you have never had issues with your bill going up without warning, then you are either lying or you own the cable company. Jake Lawson apparently does not own a cable company, and was prepared to communicate his frustrations regarding his bill in a most creative way.

First off, Jake understands what everyone should realize. The customer service representative doesn't own the cable company either, so yelling at someone who is just trying to make a living like all of us is not the answer. Their job is hard enough as it is so give them a break. Jake gave them more than a break. He gave them a song.




This video shows Jake calling AT&T and calmly questioning his rate increase. Anticipating that he was not going to get the answer he was looking for right off the bat, he came prepared. He asked if he could share a song he wrote about his thoughts on the matter. I must commend Jake on not phoning it in on the chord progression (excellent use of major to minor on the third and fourth chords in what I would have to deem as the verse). He starts off singing "This morning I woke up to an email, from AT&T that was bothering me." He continues, "This happens every 12 months without fail, so I called up customer loyalty." He goes on to sing that he is going to switch companies if he doesn't get his old rate back. And Rebecca from AT&T made it happen.

The moral of the story is not that you need to write a song to get what you want, but as Jake will tell you, yelling and screaming isn't the answer either. Just recently I was talked into bundling cable with my internet. They promised me I would get my same rate back if I didn't want to keep the cable TV service. I called up to cancel two weeks later, and lo and behold my internet bill was $7 higher than it was just two weeks ago. I played the "I know you personally didn't raise my rate, but I am sure you can understand how could feel a little wonky if you were in my shoes" card. I got my old rate back, although with not nearly the style that Jake flashed.

Customer service representatives can go above and beyond, too. Once I called up my TV provider to find out if the bouncing logo in the screen saver ever hits the bottom right corner. I kid you not, she put me on hold while she spent five minutes trying to find an answer for me. She came back on the line to inform me that while the logo has been known to hit the top right and left corners, she had no knowledge of it hitting either bottom corner, though it was unclear as to whether it was possible.

Jake, I tip my hat to you for spreading cheer even in times of frustration, and for popping out a pretty snappy tune. As for the logo in the screen saver, don't ask me how I know it hits every corner (even bottom left) except for bottom right. And if you say you saw it happen, you are probably the same guy who says they called the Keyser Soze moment in the movie The Usual Suspects.

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