In an expansion of our own personal analysis, two professors recently surveyed 438 food service employees about how they handle “counterproductive” (read: obnoxious) customers at their restaurants. Unsurprisingly, the most popular means of coping involved gossiping and lying, but those aren’t the only ways waiters react. If you berate the staff for serving you a pink steak when you “asked for medium”, your server might…

• Make fun of you to someone else (79%)
• Lie (78%)
• Make you wait longer (65%)
• Ignore you (61%)
• Act rude (52%)
• Argue (43%)
• Refuse a reasonable request (25%)
• Confront you about tips (19%)
• Insult you (14%)
• Increase tip without your permission (11%)
• Mess with your food (6%)
• Threaten you (5%)