It’s impossible to be a team when some people refuse to cooperate with others.

So, what would you do if a fellow server was clearly overwhelmed, but refused to share their section while guests were left waiting? Would you stay out of it to avoid a conflict? Or would you step in to keep things moving?

In the following story, one server finds himself in this situation and can’t help but help. Here’s what happened next.

Coworker wasn’t able to manage his tables, but got angry at me for taking the orders from them

Today was a really busy night, and on top of that, one of our coworkers got sick just before the evening shift started, so we were understaffed.

One of my coworkers had tables both inside and on the street terrace, while I had just a relatively small and easy-to-handle section inside the restaurant.

My coworker was so busy outside that he couldn’t properly handle his tables inside.

He took care of the first table and even let the coworker keep the tip.

For the first table in his section, I had to do everything. I took the orders, I brought the drinks, the food, I talked with the guests and brought the refills and then I even had to clear dishes.

All this time, my coworker was nowhere to be seen. But he wanted to keep that table under his name.

I even gave him the “receipt copy” once I went to cash in that table. At the end, I even had to clean the table, while my coworker did nothing but take the tip for himself. He even had to complain later that I went to cash in his table.

When the next people came, he put the table in his own name.

So I told him that if he wasn’t able to handle his whole section, he could just give me his tables inside and do the terrace himself. He denied my request in a bit of a rude manner and claimed he could manage this.

Other people came to sit in that section, and he again wasn’t present there. I had had enough of this. Why should I do everything, and then he takes the tips?

So I put the new tables in my name. He went nuts and started screaming at me to leave his tables alone. To which I reminded him that nobody was there, and the boss wouldn’t like the tables waiting 20 minutes just to take a drink order.

At this point, the guy gave him the entire terrace.

Later in the night, a couple arrives and wants to sit on the terrace. I clean the table, bring the menu, and take the order again. He comes to me and says, “Just do the whole terrace yourself now.”

I actually didn’t even want to take that table for myself. I just wished to help out a little. He goes inside and starts making another big drama, complaining loudly about me in front of the boss and our colleagues.

In the end, I had to do the whole terrace myself, because he just didn’t want it anymore. I personally find his behavior wrong. It was busy, we were short-staffed, and he just wants to insist on doing everything himself.

The manager didn’t stick up for him as expected.

That would greatly slow down service, and clients would start complaining. He even claimed I should at least inform him when I take the orders from his tables. I don’t find that right. He should have given me half of his section from the start, since he wasn’t clearly able to manage all of it.

Plus, our first and only priority is to make sure the guests are satisfied.

I was expecting my manager to defend me, but he got quite shy in this situation. He was just telling him things like “we are a team, we help each other out”. “Look, we were understaffed….” but he never told him in clear words that he was totally in the wrong.

So what do you guys think about all of this?

Eek! That sounds like it was a pretty stressful night.

Let’s check out how the readers over at Reddit think stuff like this should be handled.

This reader thinks it should’ve been handled differently.

According to this comment, the other guy needs to sink on his own.

This person thinks they were both wrong.

Here’s someone who thinks you should never steal other people’s tables.

Why he did it makes perfect sense, but this should always be up to management.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who, after being asked to work for 24 hours straight, finally went above the manager’s head and had them fired.