The converse problem: Dealers who are under-involved

First, a word about how "absent" buttons work, for those who aren't degenerates practically living at poker tables, like I do. Most casinos rotate dealers among the tables every 30 minutes (some places every 20). When a new dealer sits down, he is supposed to put a button reading "absent" at every seat where there is a stack of chips but no player. That player may be off at the restroom, eating, placing a sports bet, whatever. When a dealer puts the third "absent" button down, he is supposed to inform the floor, because that means that the player has been gone for at least 60 minutes and maybe as much as 90. If there's a waiting list for that game, the floor person will pick up and store the chips, and give the seat to a new player. Obviously, for this system to work, the dealers have to be diligent about the absent buttons, because it's impossible for anybody to keep exact track of how long any particular player has been away.

At Planet Hollywood Saturday night, a player had been gone for an hour easily before, at a dealer change, we noticed that there was no absent button. The outgoing dealer admitted that she was pretty sure the seat had been empty for her entire down, but she had forgotten to put an absent button out, so the incoming dealer put out two of them.

After the first dealer walked away, the new dealer told the table, "You always have to remind the dealers to put up the absent buttons, because the dealers here are really laid-back."

Oh, so I have a duty to remind you to do your job, do I? Well, sir, I disagree. It's no more my responsibility to remind you to place absent buttons appropriately than it is to remind you to count the chips and cash in the tray to be sure you're not short, or to remind you to signal the desk when a seat opens up, or to remind you to stop players from string-betting, or to remind you how many cards you're supposed to deal to each player, or to remind you to enforce the one-player-to-a-hand rule. Read my lips (so to speak): THAT"S WHAT YOU'RE THERE FOR! THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE GETTING PAID TO DO!

Being "laid-back" is nothing more than a euphemism for (1) laziness, (2) incompetence, and/or (3) timidity--not wanting to risk getting the absent player angry at you for placing the absent button. I can't think of a single decent reason that I should excuse a dealer for any of those three reasons for not doing his or her job.