I thought I had heard all the grouchy and rude waitress stories, but saw this one in the local newspaper letters from readers yesterday. The author did not mention where this happened, but was complaining about poor cell phone manners in general and said she had seen everything now. She was giving her order to a waitress when the waitresses cell phone rang. The waitress answered the phone and began a personal conversation in the middle of taking the order, ignoring the customer the entire time.

I’m not in the food business, but if I owned or managed that place and was aware of this, I would have a conversation with my wait staff about turning off cell phones during working hours. After one infraction, goodbye, your fired.
And before you accuse me of ignoring the need for a working mother or father to be contacted by or concerning her children in case of an emergency, that is what the business phone is for and I would willingly receive those calls.