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Or, as stated in Waiting, "Don't ******** with the people who handle your food."

Much as I hate the restaurant business and prefer pretty much anything to working in it, I think it has a few lessons everyone could learn. One of these would be, in fact, "Don't ******** with the people who handle your food." In a broader sense, if you need someone for something, treat them with respect or at least decency. If your job depends on the cooks getting your orders out, be nice to them. If your dinner depends on the waiter bringing you food-- on time and as ordered-- be nice to him. You might think something is easy to do, or the people doing it are peons, or you're entitled by virtue of your position to be superior and demanding, but you're really not. Restaurants don't make money if the waiters are all rude and lazy, waiters don't have jobs if they don't pitch in, and customers don't get spit-free food if they work at being insensitive and overbearing.

Next time you want to ask something of someone, think about whether or not you need it, and whether or not they should realistically be expected to do it. If you need it, then your immediate future depends on their good graces and willingness. Be nice. If they can't be reasonably expected to do it, then either don't ask or be accommodating. And be nice. A person can only get it coming and going for so long before they quit and move onto a job where they're treated with dignity and respect.

And when they're gone? Well, it's going to be you who has to dirty your hands with things that used to be so far beneath you.