Besides trying to eat while people are cleaning around me, I wouldn’t want to go to a place that was about to close because I wouldn’t be sure of the quality of the food.
Although I understand your points about the workers wanting to go home, being tired, having places to go, etc., if they want to get their work done and get out of there, shouldn’t they just close earlier? To be honest, I believe they’re the ones being rude, not the customer. If their hours say open until 10pm, then they should be ready, able, and willing to serve people until 10pm.
I worked at Pizza Hut years ago and we weren’t allowed to break down the salad bar or vacuum or anything obvious until the customers were gone. There were other jobs we could perform, though, like filling salt, pepper, cheese, and hot pepper shakers and wiping them off, getting the pizza prep area cleaned, getting the containers for the salad bar out of the cooler…plenty can be done before the customers leave without being rude and making them feel like they’re being kicked out.
Huh! Didn’t really know I felt this way until I started writing.