Got chewed out at work.

A few months ago I got chewed out at the one (Thai) restaurant where I work now, at the end of an overall very slow weekday dinner shift...

It was hitting like 9:30pm or a hair after, and it had been a slow night and the restaurant was empty, and suddenly a group of like four (South Asian from South Asia) (grad student-types) barrel through the door and ask if we're still open, and we say yes, and they immediately start being like "ahhh!" in relief and they all start saying that they had been googling everywhere and looking for someplace that was still open for dinner, and they were lucky that they had found us.

And, I say that we are, but it's already too late to order this or order that for dine-in, like curry is impossible -- preparation times for some dishes are quite long! -- and plus, I know how this works, that type of group wants a long sit-down meal with chatting over food at this time of night like we're some kind of elevated late night vegetarian diner, not a "quick bite out" thing like other youthful groups that come through late at night, so you risk them keeping the restaurant open for 45 minutes past normal close, for just one table of four people.

So, I clarify on that, that if they're looking for a normal leisurely dinner, it's already too late, and, the (Thai) (wife) owner comes up behind me, and she says that the full menu is available, and so we go to seat them, and then we talk, and she says full menu is available, and I can't quite remember the full conversation we have at that point, but the gist is that we're open but they shouldn't stay too long, and so when I go to check on them, I reiterate in so many words that we're open and they can order whatever is on the menu, but it's not the type of meal where they can expect a long normal meal together like usual, where you sit around and chat around food forever.

(That's really the issue -- they think that if they come before the restaurant closes, that means the restaurant stays open for them, like it makes it a "normal time of day" meal at the restaurant.)

So, they end up leaving, and then the (Thai) (wife) owner disappears, and then the (Thai) (husband) owner comes out and scolds me for driving customers away when the restaurant is still open.

(Which makes no sense to me -- you're going to waste all that staff money for one table that stays forever?)

But, I ask him what we should tell them, because the group expects a long sit-down dinner, and he says tell them that the kitchen closes at 9:45pm and the restaurant at 10pm, and then they can get boxes, and I say that they wanted a full sit-down dinner and they wanted to stay longer than 10pm, and he says, just tell them that, and at 10pm he can handle it, and if you need to go you can go and he can wait around for them, which is something maybe he just said in the moment, but I had never heard or known before.

("The idea is to get their money, and then you don't care," my one [Chinese from China] coworker said, after the [Thai] [husband] owner left.)

And, that was that, and after we closed the waitstaff and two young cooks went out to a local bar like we had been planning.

 And, my one (chubby) (Thai) coworker said that I was right with everything, except the boss had cued what I should do and I should have followed her lead immediately.

And, my one (newer) (tall) (Thai) coworker agreed with that, but she also said I saved them, and we would have been there forever.

She commented, too, that she had never seen them before, it's not like these are regular customers, they just googled us last minute and showed up to do whatever they wanted to do and behave however they wanted to behave.

Overall, the takeaway was that we'll do things differently now on different nights, with our rules in place when the owners aren't there, and the owners' rules on the nights when the owners are there, though my two (Thai) coworkers really doubt that the (Thai) (husband) owner will stay and handle a late table like that himself, and clean up the table afterwards and everything.

 My one (chubby) (Thai) coworker also got to reminiscing about one lunch shift, where a (South Asian from South Asia) (grad student-type) group like that came in around that same approximate equivalent time like at 2:30pm and they swore they knew the restaurant closed for the afternoon at 3pm, but they just stayed even after reminders, all the way till like 3:30pm, they just sat there and chatted over uneaten food getting cold without even putting it into the to-go boxes that were brought out, and they basically ate up a huge part of her break on a day when she had to come back for evening shift on a day when she was working a double.

"I told them, and they say they understand, but they just don't care," she was like.