This week's "Ask Tom" column, powered by the Washington Post restaurant critic Tom Sietsema, discussed the results of a comment sent in the week before regarding the service at a popular DC restaurant. Apparently the server was on the ditsy side, and at one point actually picked up the customer's drink and took a swig. Unbelievable, right? Well, the chef/owner of the restaurant in question responded this week to let readers know that he had isolated the four female servers who may or may not have been the culprit, and when none of them 'fessed up, he fired all four. Eventually one of the fired staffers said maybe it was she; the restaurant offered jobs back to the other three and one took them up on it.
I find this to be remarkable. A chat comment results in the wholesale firing of anyone who could have possibly committed the crime. Wow. They must have a much larger applicant pool over there in Washington then we have here... And the fact that the boss took the word of an anonymous commenter on Tom's chat as proof that the incident actually occurred is even more revealing, to me. The power of discussion groups knows no bounds. No one edits them, no one fact checks, no one questions. It is accepted as reality by readers, and woe to the target in question - there is no real place for defense. You can make up your own story, or post your own made-up comment I suppose, but it doesn't delete the damage done.
I often use TripAdvisor to research restaurants and hotels in towns we are planning to travel to. A slew of seriously negative comments would definitely affect my choice, but a mixed bag - lots of way positive, several punitively negative - would make me question the veracity of the details that earned the blows. For instance, if a hotel is deemed clean and well-appointed, but the desk clerk was "inept", I would probably not worry too much about a stay there. The same holds true for a restaurant - it's usually a matter of weighing the pros and cons and deciding which cons were important to me as opposed to the pros. One or two snarky negatives could just as easily be coming from a competitor or jilted employee as a legitimate diner. To imagine that a restaurant owner would oust his employees on the basis of a complaint within this type forum is beyond my capabilities of understanding.
That being said, a phone call from an unhappy guest, such as I got this week, or a problem presented to me by the customer in the dining room, that is real and will be addressed immediately. A letter, complaining or complimenting, is equally powerful. Just don't be an "anonymous" if you want to get your point across. That seems more like cowardice than communicative.
I find this to be remarkable. A chat comment results in the wholesale firing of anyone who could have possibly committed the crime. Wow. They must have a much larger applicant pool over there in Washington then we have here... And the fact that the boss took the word of an anonymous commenter on Tom's chat as proof that the incident actually occurred is even more revealing, to me. The power of discussion groups knows no bounds. No one edits them, no one fact checks, no one questions. It is accepted as reality by readers, and woe to the target in question - there is no real place for defense. You can make up your own story, or post your own made-up comment I suppose, but it doesn't delete the damage done.
I often use TripAdvisor to research restaurants and hotels in towns we are planning to travel to. A slew of seriously negative comments would definitely affect my choice, but a mixed bag - lots of way positive, several punitively negative - would make me question the veracity of the details that earned the blows. For instance, if a hotel is deemed clean and well-appointed, but the desk clerk was "inept", I would probably not worry too much about a stay there. The same holds true for a restaurant - it's usually a matter of weighing the pros and cons and deciding which cons were important to me as opposed to the pros. One or two snarky negatives could just as easily be coming from a competitor or jilted employee as a legitimate diner. To imagine that a restaurant owner would oust his employees on the basis of a complaint within this type forum is beyond my capabilities of understanding.
That being said, a phone call from an unhappy guest, such as I got this week, or a problem presented to me by the customer in the dining room, that is real and will be addressed immediately. A letter, complaining or complimenting, is equally powerful. Just don't be an "anonymous" if you want to get your point across. That seems more like cowardice than communicative.
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