Island time? Why do we accept this excuse?

[chillyinCanada]

A very insightful viewpoint from someone on the coalface.

Coming from an Island (although not tropical by any stretch of the imagination) with a so-so attitude to service, I've always been amazed by the level of service in the States.

First time in a packed American bar, me and a friend were resigned to the prospect of waiting for eternity for a drink, when a barman immediately snapped me out of my reverie with a friendly "what're you having?". I've since seen that level of service repeated in every bar and restaurant in every State I've been to.

The downside for Americans (without wishing to generalise) is that expectations could therefore be artificially high when traveling to another country.

Personally I'm more interested in friendly rather than speedy service. In most cases, good manners and a friendly, sympathetic attitude will be reciprocated. Conversely, my absolute pet hate is rudeness to a server through a sense of superiority or entitlement. It's outright bullying and should not be tolerated.

You can tell who a person really is

 

[doctormike]

Would have agreed without the sarcasm

Hey, agree to disagree! Here is a (ordered before we could put down our coats) Cheers

Hah! Fair enough. I would be happy to get a drink with any of you guys, and the conversation here is usually so good that we probably wouldn't even notice the wait...

Dive safe.

 

[doctormike]

Conversely, my absolute pet hate is rudeness to a server through a sense of superiority or entitlement. It's outright bullying and should not be tolerated.

Exactly. If a person is nice to you but rude to the server, they are not a good person.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I look at as the inverse. . . .

Most people do. Hence the term “island time.”

 

[drbill]

I live on "island time" (although not in the Caribbean). We live life at a slower pace (unless it's time to catch the boat). "Slow down, you move too fast..."

 

[Hank49]

I remember arriving in the Philippines in 1986 for my first international job. I was amazed having porters carry bags from the cab, and up to my room etc.
My boss said, "yep, you have to go to a third world country to get first class service".

 

[gbf]

Exactly. If a person is nice to you but rude to the server, they are not a good person.

I made both my children get jobs waiting tables during high school and college.

After the expected amounts of "aw Dad", one asked why I was so insistent.

I told them I wanted them to know how to act (and not act) when they were on the other side of the table.

 

[kelemvor]

At least you haven't yet experienced "Total Gridlock".

 

[DennisS]

I used to work in the Bahamas occasionally. We would get to the restaurant at 7:30 and still be waiting for breakfast at 8. Did I mention we were the only ones in the restaurant. I mentioned it after a few days to our waitress, the owner. She got in a huff and asked, "If you're in a hurry, why did you come to the Bahamas". Her island, her restaurant, her rules

 

[Steelyeyes]

You can hold your breath, or you can stomp away while waiting for people with another world view to change to yours, or you can accept what is.

I have friends that are engineers who have worked the world over. One example was Jamaica. To get 100 laborers on the job site on any given day they'd have to hire 150+. Once the laborers had earned what they thought was enough money for a while they just wouldn't show up. When they ran out of money they'd come back. The job needed to be done and the culture wasn't going to change so they adapted. Same problem occurred in many places including India and Africa. At least in those places he wasn't woken in the middle of the night at gunpoint to get a power plant running after it tripped offline as happened in a certain Latin American country.

When I first met my current wife she had a distinct lack of patience with servers. If she ordered a drink in the bar and the server wasn't up to her expectations she'd pick up her purse and walk out. After a while she realized that changing locations, ordering another drink and waiting what she thought was a reasonable time cost her more time than patience in the first place would have. I'm starting to wear off on her I suppose. She'll slow down more when we move to the island. She's gonna have to.