“A couple weeks ago I have a table, got a six-top,” server Bailey Schaffer said in a TikTok video on August 13. Her clip has been viewed 915,000 times.

“Food is taking a very long time,” she went on. “I’m saying like an hour ticket time. And they are just angry, kitchen’s just backed up, I don’t know what’s going on. So I run outside and I’m like, ‘Oh my god guys, I’m so sorry to tell you this, but the guy, our fry guy, his glasses just fell into the fryer and his initial reaction was to reach in and grab it.’”

Schaffer mimicked the shock of her customers before continuing to recount her tall tale.

“I’m like, ‘Yeah, he really burned himself. He’s gotta leave, he’s on the way to the hospital right now, so we’re down a fry guy but…it’s coming.’”

The server said her guests were all “gasping” and hoping for the worker’s recovery.

“Moral of the story, they weren’t mad at all and they tipped $60. Lie to your tables,” Schaffer concluded.

Thousands of viewers had a laugh over Schaffer’s video, but some of her most delighted comments came from other industry workers with stories of their own intricate lies.

“Forget about a table? Wrap a band-aid around your finger, ‘[Oh my god] I am so sorry! I was slicing lemons and got my finger,’” shared one shrewd employee. “Gets ’em every time.”

Another worker said, “I downloaded some pictures of my baby niece and pretended I was a new dad at the ripe age of 20 when I served. Tips were everything.”

“It was my ‘first day of training’ every day for two years,” commented a third user.

Though Schaffer’s video made light of dealing with difficult patrons, an increased proportion of angry guests has put a heightened strain on restaurant employees nationwide, according to multiple studies on the industry.

An October 2021 survey from Lightspeed found that 62 percent of restaurant workers said their customers were more demanding than ever before. In a survey from Black Box Intelligence, 62 percent of workers reported experiencing emotional abuse and disrespect from their customers, while 49 percent reported abuse from managers.

Numerous posts about belligerent and even violent customers have gone viral on social media this year. In July, a Michigan restaurant manager said she was forced to close early for the first time ever after customers treated her staff “like trash.”

That same month, a brawl took over a restaurant in San Antonio, Texas, after a patron started fighting with staff over his bill. Other customers wreaked havoc at a fry restaurant in New York City after they were charged $1.75 extra for sauce.

Newsweek reached out to Schaffer for comment.