Stressed server at understaffed diner apologizes to customers for wrong order—their reply leaves him in tears

Working in the service industry is way more challenging than it looks from the outside. Many restaurants struggle and descend into chaos when attempting to remain open during national crises, particularly when understaffed. With the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement increasing its enforcement efforts on immigration laws during the Trump administration, per NBC News, Reddit user u/himynameisbubba shared the nightmare of working as a server at a Mexican restaurant. 

The server was working from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM at the restaurant. With the I.C.E. scenario causing social unrest in the country, many of the restaurant employees failed to show up. "We usually have 7 cooks, 6 servers, a cashier (who had to also serve), a busboy, a hostess and a dishwasher. We only had 2 servers, not including the cashier who had to serve and 3 cooks," the post read. The busboy had to join the cooks and help them serve orders too. 

The server wrote, "I had to bring out my own chips and salsa. I had to bus most of my tables, seat people, bring out my food, and make margaritas, do side work and reset my tables." Too much work with little to no help left the server in stress. "I was so stressed out. I took a table’s order with my mind and right after that, I took another table’s drink order. I had tables back to back and at one point, had about 12 tables at the same time," the post continued. The server thought they seemingly had everything under control until they forgot to bring the drinks to a table that had ordered them. 

"When I brought out the drinks, I informed the table that we were very understaffed. They were the sweetest and very understanding. For some reason, I just broke down. Kinda embarrassed still," the post concluded. Strangers on Reddit rushed to the comments to assure the server that they did their best in an obviously hectic situation and lauded the patrons for not losing their cool on the servers, who were already struggling.

u/Rose8918 comforted the server and wrote, "You don’t need to be embarrassed. You are having a normal emotional response to undue, intense stress, and staggering societal cruelty. Restaurant work is stressful on a good day. Every single billionaire CEO you could name wouldn’t be able to handle even your normal workday. It sounds like you had a very hard day, and it’s okay that you had a human emotion as a result. Have some chocolate, love. Get some rest." u/i_am_me101386 commented, "I work in a Mexican restaurant and I am terrified for my coworkers. I'm sure you're feeling that same way on top of everything else. Thank goodness it was a compassionate table."

u/CaptainK234 suggested, "You were put into an insanely stressful situation and you made it through. You’re allowed to react to that! Don’t beat yourself up for that. We’re all just humans. You’re also allowed to be embarrassed if you want, that’s also human. You did well." u/missyx added, "Don't be embarrassed. This is scary and hard and I'm sure you are also worried and scared for the people you work with. On top of the general stress around this entire current situation, you did what you could and had a very human reaction. Nothing is okay right now but in 4 years we can start to rebuild again."