'Part-timers are good young people': restaurant owner's notice to rude customers goes viral

A restaurant owner's notice asking customers to be considerate toward part-time workers who are spoken to informally or treated rudely has gone viral online.

On Tuesday, a post titled "A notice posted at a certain store" appeared on the online community Bobaedream. The poster shared a photo of a notice attached to the restaurant's front door, writing, "How much must the owner have suffered to have to put this up? What on earth did customers do?"

The notice, titled "A Request," read: "Some customers occasionally speak informally to our part-time workers or behave rudely toward them." The owner added, "Part-time workers are good young people just starting out in society who came to work to become independent. As a shop owner and as someone of the older generation, it pains me to see these young people get hurt."

The notice continued, "I would be grateful if we, as the older generation, could forgive our part-timers with generosity when they occasionally make mistakes, and encourage them to become diligent young members of society. It is not difficult -- just say 'thank you' to the part-time workers. It means a lot."

Online users reacted with comments such as, "I was surprised how many people don't understand saying thank you to part-timers or owners," and "There are even people who say, 'I'm the one paying, so why should I say thank you?'"

Others wrote, "Is saying a word of thanks really so hard? No one loses anything by it," "There are people everywhere who speak informally to strangers just because they look young," and "It's tiring having to teach people something so obvious."

"Gapjil," or abuse of power, faced by part-time workers from customers has also been confirmed in surveys. According to a 2023 survey of 763 part-time workers by job site Albachunguk, disregard for one's dignity was the most common type of gapjil, cited by 52 percent, followed by being spoken to informally, at 51.2 percent. Being spoken to informally was named the most hurtful type, at 20 percent. Among those who experienced gapjil, 72.2 percent said they had considered quitting or changing jobs.