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Necroshea wrote:Question to you guys regarding tipping. Let's say your in town and you've got 5 bucks in your pocket. Local restaurant has a special going on, unlimited soup and salad for 5 bucks even. If you go there you very well know you will not have any money left over for a tip.

Would you go?

No. Not only would I be costing the server my tip, but I'm also occupying space that would be taken most likely by a tipping customer. So double uncool.

This is why camping in a restaurant is so incredibly asinine unless the server is compensated.

Gotta keep in mind it is a business, and money is earned as per sales/ tip amount per table per time frame. If you have low check value/ tips, high turnover? You'll do OK. You have high check value/tips, low turn over, also OK. What sucks is when the turnover rate of table change gets jacked up by a party that is sitting there drinking coffee for hours. That is lost opportunity for the server.

We saw this a lot where I worked. I'd call it a mid level for check value, mid level turnover type place. People come in for a full meal, so takes about an hour all said, and checks were pretty good, about $40 - $60 for party of two, give or take. Each server had on average 4 tables. In a 4 hour shift, you'd expect approximately 4 turns of 4 tables (16 parties). One d-bag camper, sitting all shift, can turn that into 13 parties - 3 parties worth of tips, gone. Direct out of pocket. So yeah, camping is not cool. It was a known thing, happened often enough, so most servers just took it in stride. The rough thing, you never can tell a camper by looking, though you get to be good at guessing. I always tried to spread potential campers out, and known campers were placed where they would do the least damage. I remember one girl who had 3 campers, all day, completely by accident. Made it so she was totally screwed at the end of her shift. Shoulda had 16 or so parties, only had 7. All those tips? Gone.

Back to my original point, camping out should be incorporated into the tip. Another awareness you'll likely gain working in a restaurant. I never camp, anymore, and if I do, tip increases.

Necroshea wrote:Question to you guys regarding tipping. Let's say your in town and you've got 5 bucks in your pocket. Local restaurant has a special going on, unlimited soup and salad for 5 bucks even. If you go there you very well know you will not have any money left over for a tip.

Would you go?

Yup. Tips are discretionary, not mandatory.

Then again, I never go anywhere without my credit card (it's literally the first thing I check when leaving the house) and I vary rarely tip less than 20%.

The few times I've tipped nothing was because the waiter/waitress was a total d-bag and service was horribly slow.

If you're looking to restore your faith in human nature, don't become a waiter.

Agree with earlier posters that the service in the USA is far superior to the UK. I'll give the yanks their due, this once time

You know, I have often thought of becoming a golf club.

Service in America is better because we tip. When I was in Europe there were many places that didn't tip, people looked at me funny when I would tip. On the other had servers there were paid by the establishment, they didn't rely on tips, so there was really no incentive for them to serve well.

nice caddy shack references by the way.

One point and its a biggy. I'm drunk as a skunk so spelling mistakes aren't my fault, blame HTC, but that's not the poibtm

Remember the chefs are on your side too, and they have a fething hard job too. I had one of my team turn round to me and say "Si, don't you think we have a harder job than the chefs
as we need fo put up with customers crap?"

Remember that the answer to that is always no (both ways) as you're part of a team, without one the other can't function, respect your colleagues and their trials, and help your team to overcome theirs whilst understanding the others

Necroshea wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:Yeah, I mean, that's one way to look at it I guess. I don't tip extravagantly as a rule, but I do have a minimum amount.

I must say that you yourself, in that last post, could use a good 6 months waiting tables.

I hope I didn't come off as a snob, twas not the intent. I'll try this another way.

The only time I have an issue at a restaurant is when it takes 20 minutes for a refill. I'll happily gobble up undercooked or overcooked steak, I'll wait 45 minutes for said steak, I'll even take whatever meal they make me by mistake as long as it doesn't cost more and it's something that I absolutely won't touch like raw oysters, but depriving me of drank is just unacceptable. If the restaurant is crazy busy then I'll make exceptions, but just about every time refills have been an issue, it was in a restaurant that was lightly to moderately filled.

Considering that waiters can lose money for low tips, I now feel bad for expressing my rage by means of absurdly low tips. Thanks guys.

Lol, but yeah, if there's some worthwhile experience besides a paycheck to be gained doing it (as the beforementioned empathy), I think that alone makes it worth looking into.

But you are not coming off a snob at all in the regard of the DRANK. That is the number one thing any half decent human, Lictor or waiter needs to understand. ALWAYS make sure the person has their drinks. No excuses for that. I don't care how busy you are. Been there done that. Drank!

Monster Rain wrote:Yeah, I mean, that's one way to look at it I guess. I don't tip extravagantly as a rule, but I do have a minimum amount.

I must say that you yourself, in that last post, could use a good 6 months waiting tables.

My set minimum is 20%, or $5, whatever is higher. I'll generally hit that mark unless the waiter is an ass, as I don't generally blame slow service on the front house (there are exceptions of course).

I don't do this to necessarily reward their hard work, so much as to make up for all the donkey-caves that take full advantage of the fact that tipping is optional, or just exhibit general douchery. I also have a ton of industry friends due to attending many industry bars due to what was once a similar schedule, so there's that as well.

Additionally, it never ceases to amaze me how brazen some people can be with the folks that handle their food.

A wonderful thing about eating out, you never know when your potatoes will have spit and dandruff in them.

Yet another reason I would just rather cook at home.

dogma wrote:I don't do this to necessarily reward their hard work, so much as to make up for all the donkey-caves that take full advantage of the fact that tipping is optional, or just exhibit general douchery.

Yeah, any job that deals intimately with the public doesn't get paid enough.

Monster Rain wrote:
Yeah, any job that deals intimately with the public doesn't get paid enough.

I've frequently wanted to do this...




...while listening to fellow patrons is restaurants.

XCom wrote:

But you are not coming off a snob at all in the regard of the DRANK. That is the number one thing any half decent human, Lictor or waiter needs to understand. ALWAYS make sure the person has their drinks. No excuses for that. I don't care how busy you are. Been there done that. Drank!

Tips, like gardens, die unless kept well-watered.

sourclams wrote:

XCom wrote:

But you are not coming off a snob at all in the regard of the DRANK. That is the number one thing any half decent human, Lictor or waiter needs to understand. ALWAYS make sure the person has their drinks. No excuses for that. I don't care how busy you are. Been there done that. Drank!

Tips, like gardens, die unless kept well-watered.

Utter wisdom

I no longer consider tipping to be optional. I always try to tip at least 8%. If service is so terrible that I consider not tipping at all, I will speak to a manager about the employee's performance (and still tip 8%). The only exception to this is carry-out. I rarely tip for carry-out orders.

Others have mentioned it, but I want to mention it again, tipping is not a world-wide custom. People from other countries may not tip, or tip well. Keep this in mind depending on where you work. I waited tables at a vacation spot in Montana, and every year we'd have a week or so of only Canadians in the attached hotel. They were delightful people, but utterly terrible tippers.

And, of course, sometimes you'll swing a huge payday tip, for any number of reasons. I pulled a $100 tip on a $30 lunch bill once. It was a friends father who was out with, well, I'd guess you could call her his mistress. While I'd like to think that $100 was due to service, I'm pretty certain it was implied hush-money.

As someone who worked the other side of the table, as dish bitch and occasional waiter... I say tips are earned. They aren't mandatory they're a reward for good service.
If you give me basic service (ie. the bare minimum) you get a tip. Usually the change in my pocket or 5%ish. If you give me good service I tip much better depending on my finances at the time. Anywhere from 10-20%. You impress me with your service my tip probably won't go much higher, but I'll talk with your manager and give you a kudos, or 'forgive' less exemplary service in the future.
As for getting the job, I say go for it. If you can rake in the tips great, but don't rely on them. Too many people out there who don't tip But do your best to earn every tip, to make every customer happy(er) and you'll do better. Then after a good day you can hit the resturant bar with your co-workers and use that staff discount :p