For $2,000 would you be willing to stand up in a crowded restaurant and, for at least a minute, loudly berate a waitress for some trivial imperfection in the service? If not, consider how grateful the waitress would be if you did so and later split the money with her.

No. I’m not going to humiliate someone like that for money. For one thing, she has to keep working there and has to come back day after day and face coworkers who stood by as a stranger publicly shamed her. And that’s if she gets to keep her job. I’m sure there are managers out there who would side with a belligerent customer and fire the waitress out of some ridiculous belief that the customer is always right. They’re not, by the way.

Even if it meant splitting the money with her, I wouldn’t do it. $1,000 doesn’t make up for that level of embarrassment and/or potential job termination. Well, it wouldn’t for me if I were in the waitress’ shoes.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll complain if something’s wrong with my food. Though, I’m usually apologetic about complaining. Mostly because I don’t want to send a plate back and unwittingly receive spit when my food is returned to me. But if the service is bad, i.e. I never receive a refill on a drink even after asking for one, I let me disappointment be known through the amount of tip I leave. Or don’t leave, as the case may be. I mean, it’s not like I have a stack of bills sitting on the table and take a dollar away for every mistake the server makes. But if service is bad, I’ll drop my tip percentage from the standard 20, depending on how bad the service really was.

But what about you? Could you berate another human being who was simply doing their job?

*The Question of the Week can be found in The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock, Ph.D.