Nah what annoys me more is people that have obviously finished and are loitering and the plates haven't been cleared.
I was at one restaurant where I was waiting for the table of locals to actually stop gossiping and pay up.
I pretended to be one of the group and asked the staff for the bill for there table.
Still interested in this. I now think we should blame - not the waiters or flight attendants - but the instructors, and the people who wrote the training courses.
Before there were training courses, empty plates and glasses were removed with the use of common sense and social tact. I can think of three ways it could be done:
1. silently and unobtrusively, while the diner or passenger is conversing, reading, dozing, and so on.
2. with tiny movements of the eyes and lips, which convey the question OK? and the answer Sure.
3. when necessary, with a spoken question.
The important thing is 'when necessary'. The training courses, disregarding common sense and social tact, instruct the staff to ask the question always. That's why it's annoying. It's like the formulaic sentences spoken by the staff of call centres.
How about when 3 staff ask if you want another drink all within 90 seconds of each other?
Talking about trends..... I saw something totally funny a few days ago.
I was in an eatery and the table next to me was with 2 (what seems to be locals). Not sure what they ordered, but then, funny - the order arrived and they started to eat. You read correctly - they started to eat right away - without taking a single picture of the dishes. People are strange.