Waitress (18) shows how ‘boomers’ leave their table and sparks generational debate
Earlier, Generation Z (Gen Z) coined the term ‘OK boomer‘. A phrase intended to emphasize, in a negative sense, that someone belongs to the baby boomer generation or behaves as such. And that leads to an interesting debate about ‘boomer’ etiquette versus Gen Z etiquette.
It began with 18-year-old Kaitlyn Brande, who shared a video on TikTok showing how a group of older guests (‘boomers’) left their table—rather messily—compared with the table of a group of younger guests, who had neatly stacked their plates.
“OK here’s all I’m saying, this is a table of five boomers [where] I took some plates out of the way already, OK?,” Kaitlyn says in the video. She then points her camera at the other table. “And then this is a table of six Gen Zs. They did that. Just saying.”
‘Ironical that older people expect respect’
She captioned the video: “‘This is what they get paid for’ versus ‘We know working in hospitality is hard, here, let me help you'”. This makes the contrast even clearer. The video went viral and has already been viewed and liked millions of times.
“I shared it because I find it ironic that older people always expect respect,” Kaitlyn told BuzzFeed. “I’m not saying everyone should stack their plates that neatly, because hey, I’m only human too. I also want to go out to eat sometimes and not worry about the dishes. All I want to say is that I thought it was cool of the younger people and I appreciate it.”
Heated debate
The viral video has sparked quite a discussion. Some people wholeheartedly agree with Kaitlyn. But there are also (especially) many people who are more critical of the video. After all, isn’t it her job to clean it up?
What do you think?
Also read:
- 10 things hospitality guests do that they think are polite but are incredibly annoying
- 13 of the best restaurant responses to bad reviews
- This is what (star) chefs find very annoying about guests
