How you treat the waiter
“Really big people are, above everything else, courteous, considerate and generous - not just to some people in some circumstances - but to everyone all the time.” Thomas J. Watson 1874-1956, Founder of IBM
I remember someone telling me something like… “You can tell alot about a person by the way they treat people that they believe can’t do anything for them in return.”
 
I remember reading this really cool article in USA Today about how some CEO’s take potential hires out to lunch for the purpose of observing how they treat the waiter. Here is the title and link. CEOs say how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character
http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2006-04-14-ceos-waiter-rule_x.htm
March 18th, 2009 at 11:07 am
I’ve personally experienced this type of interview only with a twist. I interviewed with 5 executives and had lunch with three of my future peers. I was told it was simply a “get to know you lunch and not an interview” but afterwards I asked the three - so how did the interview go? They all laughed and told me “you’ll fit in with us just fine”.
This also works in reverse. We went to dinner last night with our 14 month old daughter. Now eating with a 14 month old can be interesting and our experience has been at some restuarants the waiters/waitresses wish we weren’t in their section. The waitress we had last night was quite the opposite. She didn’t like the color crayons the hostess had given her, so she brought her more vibrant colors. She then proceeded to get down on my daughter’s level and ‘chat’ with her. She colored with her and throughout our meal made sure she was well taken care of. In return, when my daughter had a messy burp, we cleaned it up before the waitress even knew about it and left the table in a manner that would be easy for her to clear. We also left her a nice tip because in taking care of my daghter, she allowed us to have a very enjoyable meal. There’s a restuarant we’ll visit again.