Abolish Tipping

[Voltwings]

I'm wondering how many people here have actually worked at restaurants... Heres my experience:

1. I had to tip out a percentage of my total sales to the bar (who also worked on tips) and the bussers (who also worked on tips), so a portion of my money for the night was gone before i ever even saw it. If you had a $100 tab and tipped me $0, i still have to tip out on that $100 ... i basically had to pay money to take care of your table.

2. The server has 0 control over when your food comes out, or when your drinks come from the bar in most cases. I worked at a pizza place, so basically when a pizza came out of the oven it was taken to a table, there was no lag time. If it was slow, it was because it was a busy night, or the cooks were dragging ass, but that somehow always gets reflected in the servers tip.

3. Working at a pizza place we highly supported adding gratuity. You have 10 teenagers come in and take up 2-3 of your tables for 1-2 hours, they'll split 1 large pizza, all order water, and then tip a few bucks ... useless, that basically ruins your night. Or, you get people like this one group of indian people we had (not being racist ... they were indian...) who would call and reserve a party of 20 or so, so that takes up my WHOLE section. Then, 10-15 more randoms would show up and start demanding more tables be added on.... well now thats taking from someon elses section and taking money from them, and they'll sit and chat for a few hours only having $60-$80 worth of pizza (mind you, i worked at a nicer place, not a dominoes type deal, we had a full wine list and everything). Even if you tipped the "suggested" 20%, thats only a couple of bucks, that i now have to split with the other server whose section you encroached on. I think really people need to be aware of the impact they are making ... like sitting at a table long after they've finished eating, go catch up at the bar or something, because now aside from whatever tip you may or may not have left, you're costing me money.


I dont think a lot of people really understand tipping, nor do they understand the point. I am (well was, but its still something i take personally) working hard to make sure you enjoy your meal and do everything i can to make it better. I honestly enjoyed my time as a waiter, i got to meet a lot of really cool people and have a lot of really interesting conversations, but i also had to deal with a LOT of jackasses. I think tipping is a good thing, and should be continued, because i know people who were lazy as shit when they were actually working for tips ... imagine if their pay was guarenteed.

I encourage you next time you're out to look around and see what tables your waiter is working at, and you may be surprised how much they are balancing. Sunday nights is when we would bring in our new recruits, and they'd have a 3 table section ... the veterans would have 5-7. I'd have 2 tables in the dining room, 2 on the patio, and 2 in the bar area ... running clean across the restaurant for anything and everything to get stuff where it needed to be, but some people have incredible tunnel vission and dont aknowledge that. I'm not saying your waiter needs excuses, or that its your job to observe them, but realize it is a lot of work most of the time.

anyways i think i got a little off topic and went on a little bit of a rant, but /threadjack. Tipping works and you should do more of it.

 

[Steve@TF]

i hate when going out with other people who dont tip. back in college, after our Speech final, a group of us went out to dennys. when the bill came this one short, fat black lady says she never tips. :bored: so the rest of us chipped in extra to cover her lack of contribution. or my good friend who makes $150k a year but refuses to leave a tip for the hotel housekeepers.

i wonder if people tip when they use their ebt cards....

its like in that seinfeld episode about the tip jar... if they don't notice, whats the point lol

just dont get caught grabbing your tip back so you can put back in the jar while theyre watching George!

[youtube_browser]svWjtDhGQFg[/youtube_browser]

 

[Outlaw99]

told a woman one time, "just the tip?"

 

[Outlaw99]

seriously tho, i do tip when i go out to eat. very well. i also tip the girl who cuts my hair by 20.00

however, i do not tip for take out.

 

[SLVRBLT]

Stop being a tight ass.

I concur with this post.

 

[Mach828]

Although I dislike tipping. I do feel for the workers, as they depend on tips. I tip well when I have good service and tip poorly if at all for bad service. I think you would have very angry waiters/bar tenders who make good money from tips, if their wage was changed to the same hourly rate that a poorer performing coworker gets.

Its hard to get good service now when the waiters income depends on their service, I couldn't imagine how poor the service would be if they didn't have any incentive.

 

[Outlaw99]

i dont tip to ensure good service. i expect good svc. i tip, because i believe its the right thing to do. the better the svc, the better i tip. if its really bad service, then I wont tip.

I do have places i will never go again because of repeated bad experience. the wife and i have this thiing, where we try new local places. this town, especially down town is rich with diversity, cultural and locally owned joints. you could eat somewhere different every day and still not hit them all.

i do review places, and rely on others reviews when making decisions where to go. i use tripadvisor mostly.

 

[thomas91169]

Its hard to get good service now when the waiters income depends on their service, I couldn't imagine how poor the service would be if they didn't have any incentive.

It would turn to shit.

The only incentives an employee would have would be to just do good enough to not get fired, since they are back to working 100% for their employer. Right now in CA, a server makes minimum wage ($8/hr if I recall or thereabouts) and depending on where you work, you may not be full time, so 4-6hrs a day, but you can still bring in $50-100 in tips per day, depending on how busy it is. Even if they got a minimum $50/day in tips ($40 after you pay out your bussers/hosts/etc), for a 6hr shift the employer would have to offer them an increase of almost $7/hr to make the difference. Thats on a slow day. The incentive is no longer there, and the cost of dining will increase to consumers, so the consumer would get shafted TWICE, once by shit sub-par service, and again by twice the cost of menu items.

Im so ****ing sick of paying more and getting less these days and that being the new standard.

And for other countries that finds it acceptable for slower service, **** them. America wasnt founded on principles of laziness and low expectations. We were founded upon better, faster, cheaper. This is why I ****ing hate the rest of the world, because they will sit and point fingers at America for wanting to do better than the status quo. "Americans just want fast service!" yea? no shit sherlock, we got stuff to do. Seat me as quickly as possible, feed me as quickly as possible, and let me get on with other things. I used to work for a company that purchased materials from all over the world, and I ****ing hated it. Their expectations are utter shit, they have an utter disregard of priority and all in all, just ****ing lazy. I forget what country it was (neitherlands, switzerland, or some shit) but 4 months out of the year they just closed. WHA? 4 months?

 

[nxhappy]

First off, restaurants can't AFFORD to pay more money for their workers. The tipping system is a good system. America has been tipping forever. And that's because it works.

Secondly, tipping makes good incentive for good service. If we abolish tipping, I guarantee you great service will go straight down the shitter.

 

[Steve@TF]

i also tip the girl who cuts my hair by 20.00

yeah but that's "hush money" for all the sexist comments and ass grabbing that goes on during the haircut lol.

when i was 18 i delivered pizza for a few weeks. man, talk about getting stiffed! stupid restaurant would still take the tax out of your pay even if you got stiffed. so i was constantly just getting ripped off. and while making minimum wage and driving my own vehicle as well. F that!

i try to tip tow truck drivers and tattoo guys as well. if the service was good, which it pretty much always is.

 

[04SVT_COBRA]

Seriously. When I see threads like this on here it really irks me to know there are people out there like this. OMG, it's such a horrible ****ing thing to show gratitude towards someones service!! Just because my job does not tip does not mean I should have hate for those that do.

I don't have a problem with paying more money for a meal if tips were abolished. I just don't like the fact that as a customer I have to pay your employee. That should be the employers job. I work part time in a retail store and I ****ing GURANTEE I serve more obnoxious asshole every day than a waitress ever would in a single day and I never get tipped. Where is my gratitude? My friend is a waiter and he makes more than I do and he ADMITS his job is easier.

 

[nxhappy]

I don't have a problem with paying more money for a meal if tips were abolished. I just don't like the fact that as a customer I have to pay your employee. That should be the employers job. I work part time in a retail store and I ****ing GURANTEE I serve more obnoxious asshole every day than a waitress ever would in a single day and I never get tipped. Where is my gratitude? My friend is a waiter and he makes more than I do and he ADMITS his job is easier.

sounds like you need to leave retail, if working at a restaurant is "easy"

 

[AustinSN]

I'm cool with tipping, I worked for tips for a lot of years. It wasn't in food service but it was washing cars which has somewhat changed my thought on how much to tip. I still try to go by percentages 10% for bad service, 18% for normal and 20%+ for good service. The only thing that irks me about it is how much many servers think they deserve. My sister was a waitress for a lot of years and would often bring home $300-$400 on a Friday or Saturday night and still complain that I made more money than she did. At the time I was making like $30k a year as a manager working 45 hour weeks, she was making $24k a year working just over 30 hour weeks.

I had a buddy that gave up a $24 an hour job to go back to serving. He was bringing home the same amount of money, working 15 hours a week less, and had no where near the stress level.

 

[thomas91169]

I don't have a problem with paying more money for a meal if tips were abolished. I just don't like the fact that as a customer I have to pay your employee. That should be the employers job. I work part time in a retail store and I ****ing GURANTEE I serve more obnoxious asshole every day than a waitress ever would in a single day and I never get tipped. Where is my gratitude? My friend is a waiter and he makes more than I do and he ADMITS his job is easier.

Dont work retail. There is no such thing as a "Career cashier" in retail. Maybe in supermarkets that might be a thing, but there is such a thing as a "career server". Stop comparing your job to serving. Your buddy is probably really good at it, thats why he finds it easy. Im sure if he had 10 tables at once on a busy night he is sweating his ass off while you working at the verizon store are standing around talking about iphones.

Your cost of meal total will drastically be more without tips than with. If you paid $50 OTD with tip for a nice meal for two, youll end up paying $80 for the same meal without tips and get lesser service. And you wont have a say-so in the matter, since the establishment will always assume their employees are the best and raise their costs to match this. At least with tipping, you can give what you feel they deserve directly.

God damn its such a stupid idea I cant believe theres a thread on it.

I had a buddy that gave up a $24 an hour job to go back to serving. He was bringing home the same amount of money, working 15 hours a week less, and had no where near the stress level.

Aint that the truth.

I quit my serving job of 6yrs to go into a more career-based job (estimator) because the long term was what I was interested in. I took a pretty big pay cut from my serving pay (was making around $2200/mo, most of it not taxed) to maybe $1600/mo at the time salaried. Sure now I make way more, but back then it was a hard bullet to bite. Though sitting down for 8hrs a day with full internet access was sure in the hell better than standing for 6 and dealing with customers.

 

[Blackoyote]

Everyone should have to work a job that depends on tipping at some point. It blows my mind that there are people out there who will watch you clean their car for 45 minutes, including shampooing their carpets, while it's 35 degrees outside...and then not tip, or say thank you.

 

[Kevins89notch]

It is in a lot of places outside the US. I thought the porter at my hotel in Singapore was going to cry when I tried to tip him.

I've been to a few places in the past couple of years...I think the major problem is that Americans have an overinflated sense of entitlement when it comes to food service, usually accompanied by a failure somehow to understand that they are NOT IN AMERICA. I've spent time in Paris, London, Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Singapore, and Rio, and of all my trips I can't think of a time where I had "bad" service on par with the "bad" service I've had in America.

First off, Americans want everything FAST. They want to be in and out in an hour or less. Eating is an errand, a chore. The rest of the world sees meals as a social event, not to be rushed, but to be enjoyed in good company. It's a break from your day, time to relax, slow down, recover. It's actually quite nice. The servers don't push to get you in and out at American speed, because it's not culturally kosher. They're not looking to clear the table and get the next paying customer in, they're looking to let you enjoy your meal at what they see as a normal pace.

Refills. You want refills? Ask for tap water. There's nothing wrong with it, it tastes fine, and you will get refills. That, or buy a bottle of wine - I bet it'll be cheaper than a bottle of Coke.

Chatting...you want to go to a restaurant and chat with the waitstaff? Isn't that what you meet friends for? While I've never had an issue getting advice or directions from waiters, I also don't expect them to entertain me. They're there to interface between myself and the cook and nothing more. If you expect entertainment from a restaurant, go to a cabaret (which is a hell of a lot of fun BTW) or sit at the bar. Otherwise, there is no reason to expect anything above and beyond.

Who cares if the waiter doesn't smile when they bring your bread? Does that make it taste bad? Seriously, all you travelers whining about European waiters that SUCK, maybe it's your expectations that SUCK. You're the ones that give Americans a bad rap around the world. America isn't the world. Cultures differ. Flying all the way to London/Paris/Singapore/etc and expecting Houston service and Houston food is asinine. Hell, you can't even get Houston service in Los Angeles.

I clearly said that I meant completely different when I said it sucked. I'm open to cultural differences. I had no problem with the service I experienced across Europe. I recognize the "when it Rome..." idea. However, with the number of people I see complain here in the states with current decent service, if you adopted a more European style of restaurant service, the complaints would go through the roof.

 

[2KBlackGT]

Wait, so the "standard" tipping percentage has gone up? 18%? What was it before? I don't think peoples salaries have increased enough over the years to justify the "standard" tipping percentage to be 18%

 

[HYBRED]

I clearly said that I meant completely different when I said it sucked. I'm open to cultural differences. I had no problem with the service I experienced across Europe. I recognize the "when it Rome..." idea. However, with the number of people I see complain here in the states with current decent service, if you adopted a more European style of restaurant service, the complaints would go through the roof.

Oh, no doubt. I think more Americans need to travel more, it really gives you an appreciation for this country. I can't stand when people get genuinely upset their half empty glass wasn't topped off within seconds of their noticing it was "low." Some people get so bent out of shape over the stupidest things.

To be clear, I tip stupid well, because I can afford to. I tipped $4 on a $12 meal today at lunch. I don't have a problem with it, as a cultural norm here. However, as someone who rarely carries cash, I really hate hotels and valet only places! I'm so embarrassed when I don't even have a few ones on me.

 

[RSbeast]

I'm wondering how many people here have actually worked at restaurants... Heres my experience:

1. I had to tip out a percentage of my total sales to the bar (who also worked on tips) and the bussers (who also worked on tips), so a portion of my money for the night was gone before i ever even saw it. If you had a $100 tab and tipped me $0, i still have to tip out on that $100 ... i basically had to pay money to take care of your table.

2. The server has 0 control over when your food comes out, or when your drinks come from the bar in most cases. I worked at a pizza place, so basically when a pizza came out of the oven it was taken to a table, there was no lag time. If it was slow, it was because it was a busy night, or the cooks were dragging ass, but that somehow always gets reflected in the servers tip.

3. Working at a pizza place we highly supported adding gratuity. You have 10 teenagers come in and take up 2-3 of your tables for 1-2 hours, they'll split 1 large pizza, all order water, and then tip a few bucks ... useless, that basically ruins your night. Or, you get people like this one group of indian people we had (not being racist ... they were indian...) who would call and reserve a party of 20 or so, so that takes up my WHOLE section. Then, 10-15 more randoms would show up and start demanding more tables be added on.... well now thats taking from someon elses section and taking money from them, and they'll sit and chat for a few hours only having $60-$80 worth of pizza (mind you, i worked at a nicer place, not a dominoes type deal, we had a full wine list and everything). Even if you tipped the "suggested" 20%, thats only a couple of bucks, that i now have to split with the other server whose section you encroached on. I think really people need to be aware of the impact they are making ... like sitting at a table long after they've finished eating, go catch up at the bar or something, because now aside from whatever tip you may or may not have left, you're costing me money.


I dont think a lot of people really understand tipping, nor do they understand the point. I am (well was, but its still something i take personally) working hard to make sure you enjoy your meal and do everything i can to make it better. I honestly enjoyed my time as a waiter, i got to meet a lot of really cool people and have a lot of really interesting conversations, but i also had to deal with a LOT of jackasses. I think tipping is a good thing, and should be continued, because i know people who were lazy as shit when they were actually working for tips ... imagine if their pay was guarenteed.

I encourage you next time you're out to look around and see what tables your waiter is working at, and you may be surprised how much they are balancing. Sunday nights is when we would bring in our new recruits, and they'd have a 3 table section ... the veterans would have 5-7. I'd have 2 tables in the dining room, 2 on the patio, and 2 in the bar area ... running clean across the restaurant for anything and everything to get stuff where it needed to be, but some people have incredible tunnel vission and dont aknowledge that. I'm not saying your waiter needs excuses, or that its your job to observe them, but realize it is a lot of work most of the time.

anyways i think i got a little off topic and went on a little bit of a rant, but /threadjack. Tipping works and you should do more of it.

This is a well thought reply; but it is hypocritical to the norm. You can't base your argument on the policy of one single restaurant. If people were going to lose $ by being a shitty server you wouldn't have threads on shitty servers. I've worked at quite a few restaurants - cooking (stories for days if you want to know how people want to feel about servers wage vs their attitudes and actual service); but anyhow each place had different policy on how tips were split. Some were cumulative where everyone tosses in and the total tips are split; some like that but split on drinks only with bartender 50% and the other 50% divided up by the servers, some it's whatever you get you get.

If you didn't like that situation you should work somewhere else.

My only gripe with tipping is gratuity based on cost vs quantity. If I order 2 meals at $85 and the service still stinks should they still be getting $15 or so? Yes/no because the volume is lower...Or even a small group can rack up a decent bill but have crap service. Did you really do $20hr worth of work? It's just too subjective. That or tipping too much on small purchases like a $3tip on a $7 dollar meal.

In all I get it, I like how it is and Id rather pay to expect decent service; but I don't like how amounts are expected/deserved I guess.

Wash dishes while earning that degree; you won't bitch about tips ever again; might gain some humility too.

 

[starnsey]

Oh, no doubt. I think more Americans need to travel more, it really gives you an appreciation for this country. I can't stand when people get genuinely upset their half empty glass wasn't topped off within seconds of their noticing it was "low." Some people get so bent out of shape over the stupidest things.

To be clear, I tip stupid well, because I can afford to. I tipped $4 on a $12 meal today at lunch. I don't have a problem with it, as a cultural norm here. However, as someone who rarely carries cash, I really hate hotels and valet only places! I'm so embarrassed when I don't even have a few ones on me.

Ha! Damnit, I never have cash either and I hate when situations like this arise; knowing that I look like a cheap-ass when usually I tip well since my entire pre-career was in customer service jobs.