Waitress, 18, ignites generational debate after showing how 'boomers' left their table

A young waitress has sparked an interesting debate online regarding 'boomer' etiquette versus Gen Z etiquette.

Eighteen-year-old Kaitlyn Brande took to TikTok to share a video of how an older group of diners - whom she referred to as "boomers" - left their table in an apparent state of disarray, whereas the younger group neatly stacked their plates together.

“OK here’s all I’m saying, this is a table of five boomers [where] I took some plates out of the way already, OK?” Brande says before moving over to the much tidier table right next to it and commenting, "And then this is a table of six Gen Zs. They did that. Just saying."

She captioned the clip: "'They get paid to do that' VS 'we know restaurant life is hard, here, let us help you out'".

https://www.tiktok.com/@katebrande/video/6803097339742539013

Per Kasasa, Baby boomers are people born between 1944 and 1964, and Gen Z is the newest generation to be named, and were born between 1995 and 2015.

Recently, in response to younger people being called "snowflakes", the pejorative retort "Ok, Boomer" was coined in order to dismiss/mock the attitudes of older people.

Brande's short clip has since gone viral with nearly a million views, 998.1k likes and 6984 comments at the time of writing.

"I posted it because I thought it was ironic since older people always expect respect," Kaitlyn told BuzzFeed.

"I'm not saying I expect people to ever stack their plates like that, because hey, I'm a person too. I want to go out and eat and not worry about the dishes or anything. All I'm saying is it was cool and helpful of the younger people, and I appreciated it," she added.

A number of people have also taken to Twitter to give their two cents on the matter - and the responses were pretty divisive.

One person agreed with Kaitlyn, writing, "Old people think we owe them the world. They're the ones that are going to get us locked down. I live in SWFL and the Q-tips are everywhere. Congregating in the condo parking lot with lawn chairs and booze?? Come on now."

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However, the most vocal commenters were those who were more critical of Gen Zs.

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Indeed, one person suggested the reason the younger diners stacked their plates was that "Gen Z people needed to make room for their cell phones."

"At least the boomers left 15 to 20% and the gen z'ers, still haven't found out what a tip is. But if stacking dishes is all it takes," another remarked.

A different Twitter user had no sympathy for Kaitlyn, writing, "Really, that is your job to do that. You pretty much just shamed the older generation. I have waited tables, it's your job to do that."

Please let us know your thoughts on the discussion in the comments section...