Making light of an isolated incident helps to diffuse the tension between waiters and guests, but the problem in reality is acute. Front line restaurant employee turnover rates of 150 percent combined with a heightened competition for recruits spells service dilemma for the restaurant industry. I believe the problem in this country lies in a distinction between service and servitude. My theory holds that Americans, collectively, need to cognitively separate work in service from the feeling of servitude. There is a remarkable difference.
Service is next to godliness.
Service requires respect, attention, devotion. Servers give aid or assistance, cooperatively, to someone in need, such as a guest. Those in service are subordinate only in the sense that servers watch over and preserve the interests of activities, which need to be directed by careful attention. Servitude is completely at the other end of the spectrum, when the ego is under the thralldom of another against the will. Servitude is more akin to slavery or bondage.