Why Do Restaurants Hire Servers Who Bite Their Nails?

Just what is a restaurant manager thinking when he or she decides to hire a nail biter for a server position?

Do you find it really gross when your server had chewed-up fingertips?

It’s gross enough to get a view of chewed-up fingernails, but it’s a whole new level of repulsive when a nail biter is putting food and drink before you.

Of course, you don’t have to look at their nails, but it’s natural for your eyes to settle on the server’s hands long enough to notice the gnawed fingertips – that you wonder if they were in the server’s mouth right before he or she collected your food to bring out.

You can’t see the saliva (which is dried) on their fingertips, but you know it’s there, along with plaque and tartar from their teeth and bacteria from their gums and tongue – all there. Of course!

Do you think it just magically disappears if they don’t wash their hands with soap and water?

Making a point not to look at the server’s fingers for the remainder of the meal is not the solution.

Because when they come back to refill coffee or water, or bring more food or dessert, you already know that their fingertips look like a rat’s been chewing at them.

Furthermore, what if they’re the type of server who mindlessly holds glasses from the top, their fingertips very close to the rim? (This alone is a five percent reduction in the tip; so take notice!)

This means if you drink from that glass, your mouth will come in contact with the area they touched – which could have been only seconds after they munched on their nails. Can you say JUST DISGUSTING?

I was once at a restaurant where the server, a nail biter, was setting down my companion’s plate of salad. His thumb was in contact with one of the pieces of lettuce.

Not only was this server’s nails bitten, but the area where the tip of the nail met the skin was black.

• Don’t these servers know that patrons easily see their hands?
• How could anyone who bites their nails take a job as a server?
• Is this the only job they can get?
• Why do restaurants hire nail biters? Are these their only applicants?

To Restaurant Servers Who Bite Their Nails

Is it too much to WASH YOUR FINGERNAILS before your shift starts so that there’s no disgusting black dirt visible?

And what’s up with the managers who hire these people?

Are they so desperate for employees that they feel no choice but to hire a nail biter?

Frankly, nail biters should not work with food, especially where customers could see their hands. This is just plain disgusting.

The hiring person should think about what’s best for the customers, not the job applicant who needs work.

I stopped patronizing one particular café because one of the young women who took orders had mutilated fingertips.

I told the owner how I felt. Would you believe he told me that during the job interview, he had not noticed her bitten nails?!

He sounded sincere; I believed him. I also believe that many managers (or owners) simply do not look at the applicant’s nails during the interview, even though there are plenty of opportunities to do this.

But surely, some do notice simply by chance – yet hire that person anyways!

A Message to Managers of Restaurants, Cafes and Diners

You should consider the possibility that you can lose patrons by hiring a nail biter. There’s no reason to believe that some blogger here would be the only person who’d find this nauseating.

I gave up that café’s killer chicken salad sandwiches all because that young lady had maimed, raw-looking fingertips.

So if you have several signature dishes, don’t assume this will override the disgust a patron experiences with the sight of chewed-up fingernails. I haven’t lost any sleep over giving up those dynamite chicken salad sandwiches.

Einstein’s Bagels

I was once in an Einstein’s and wanted some pastries. There were three people working behind the counter. One was a nail biter.

I told people who were coming in after me to go ahead of me, because the nail biter was free while the other two employees were still handling customers.

But then he’d finish with them and look at me. I motioned the person behind me to go ahead.

Finally one of the other employees was free. I gave her my request. She said the man (the nail biter) would get the pastries for me!

I blurted, “No, I do NOT want HIM to handle my food. He bites his nails and it grosses me out. I want YOU to do it.”

Yes, I am THAT brazen. She obliged.

Another Experience

One day the manager of a restaurant came over to me and my companion to ask how we were enjoying our dinner.

When someone is standing over you, hands dangling over the table, you can’t help but drift your eyes towards their hands.

This woman’s nails were chewed to the quick. She was totally oblivious to how well within our range of vision her fingertips were.

They had a dinginess and rawness about them too, as though they had been recently gnawed at and not washed afterwards.

If you’re a server who bites your nails, don’t think for a moment that nobody notices. I’m a good tipper, but there will be a reduction if you’re a nail biter – and possibly a complaint to the manager.

Patrons deserve a clean setting and employees who have good hygiene. Nail biting in a restaurant server should be just as unacceptable as, for instance, armpit odor, bad breath or hair hanging over the food.