I hope you realize that “you have the power to never eat out again” isn’t really a position of having power. In fact here is the order of power, from least to most:
The diner has to grossly overpay on the bullshit lying prices or the servers shit in their food.
The server has wildly unstable wages, but the ability to commit actual crimes if they feel that customers aren’t overpaying hard enough.
The restaurants lie about their prices and grossly underpay the servers and laugh all the way to the bank.
I tip when I’m out with somebody and they lead us to someplace that requires a tip or abuse will happen. Otherwise I choose places to get food at that don’t require customers to grossly overpay in order to avoid abuse.
You think retail and other customer-based businesses don’t send people home when business is slow? They absolutely do unless there’s a law preventing it - and most of those laws that I’ve seen only guarantee a maximum of four hours or less , not the full scheduled shift.
Honestly I busted the folks that did this when I was a manger, but it happened at each restaurant I worked at. I also reported to the state on their food handler’s license.
Here is how restaurant managers watch for this so you guys know:
Watching servers so that they don’t spit in FOOD
The expo manager (the guy on the outside of the line from the kitchen) and the chef feeding the expo manager (on the inside side of the kitchen, facing where the waitstaff walk in and out of the kitchen) watch the food as it is served. They generally know who is going to do it, and watches the waiter as they take the food out of the kitchen onto the dining floor.
Watching servers so they don’t spit in a drink
Most restaurants, at least the drinks are filled and prepared outside the kitchen directly by the waiter. Think of the soda fountains you see in “stations” around a dining room. The nicer places tend to have less table tops, so they will have maybe one station. A good GM will be working the floor, and paying attention to the waitstaff especially when they are seated initially. If you are a GM, you really watch what gets ordered initially as the beverage selection on a table that you are managing. If they order a bunch of weird shit like “strawberry lemonade” and “peach tea” so something that generally going to be a problem table and you watched that closer.
Watching the kitchen to make sure no “floor spice”
This is mainly done by the expo manager and the expo chef. When its busy, its not generally a problem unless you have a dickhead in the kitchen, which isn’t that uncommon in the industry. When its slow right before closing time, or when something has been sent back for whatever reason, those are the ones you watch. The kitchen generally has people that have been there since 10:00 AM, and when the place “closes” at midnight, the kitchen has already undergone its nightly cleaning while its still open. The expo manager is generally gone at this time and the waitstaff will pull the order directly from the expo chef, or whoever is running that position at that point. That is a dangerous time for an order and that is what you really watch out for. The waiter at that time, unless you put your order in right before the close of the night cares less since he or she has to be there anyway. If you piss off the waiter, the GM is probably in the back checking out the other waitstaff, and there isn’t anyone watching them.
Stuff I busted as a head waiter
Someone doing lines of blow by the top area of an ice machine, and then loosing an ear ring in the ice bin when they jumped back after I walked in on them.
A dude going down on another dude behind the barrier at a server’s station on the dining room floor on a slow afternoon.
Hostess getting a handie from an assistant manager. Pretty sure that was illegal since she was 16. I reported that right away.
Spitting in food.
Spitting in a drink.
Having a used tampon dunked into an alcoholic drink that was made in the service bar, not the customer bar on the dining room floor.
Waiter digging in his ass, and then palming a side salad plate.
Various pube sprinkling. Gender of the offender: about half and half, slanted slightly more to the male.
Busboy wiping puke off of a table, where it looked clean but still smelled like a child’s barf.
Just picking out the roaches out of a bin of tea made yesterday, but not cleaning it and making another bin. Lots of random roach stuff actually now that I think of it.
Sneezing right in the salad dressing counter, and not giving a damn.
Bartender selling blow. A bag fell out when he was trying to slide a bill out.
Selling illegal guns.
Human trafficking.
Stuff I busted as an assistant or general manager
Drug sales. Not weed but pills and powdery stuff I was afraid to touch.
Smoking weed behind the dumpster before a shift (if they didn’t share).
Lots and lots and lots of sexual harassment issues. One notable one is where a dishwasher would chase the waitresses around with a hotdog with mayo on the tip screaming “get on it.”
The tea bagging of dinner plates. That, for those who don’t know, involves rubbing your sweaty testicles on a plate before you put food on it. I caught that one on camera while I was in the office checking out another waiter.
The random pubing of random stuff.
Spitting in coffee.
Dropping food and then putting it back on the plate. Five second rule type of stuff.
Credit card fraud by the waiter, where they would use the same pen to alter numbers to round the ticket further.
Credit card fraud by an assistant manager, where they adjusted the tips they waiter got because they held the tips until a paycheck. This only happened to credit card tips. Where the figures were right to the book keeper, but the assistant pocketed tips and held them.
No, not generally in big box retail. The store manager is the only one that can cut those folks, and generally won’t schedule them in the first place if they think its slow. The department manager or assistant has no power to do any of this as the schedules are set in the back office or by corporate somewhere else (as in Wal-Mart).
Small shops could do this easily. Big box retail like that sweet Target job, not so much.
9 Restaurants I worked at, some private, some corporate
11 Restuarants my wife worked at, some crossing over to the ones I worked at
Best friend still in the business, but a much nicer place. Same problems tho’.
Or, if it makes you feel better, I’m lying. I can tell you guys though you are being laughed at by people that have worked the industry at this very moment.
Well, you’ve worked with some grade-A assholes, then. I’ve worked at a couple service jobs as have many of my friends, and this never happened at any of them. We knew who were the bad tippers. We didn’t do anything to their food. What kind of fucknut sociopath would do that? (Not that I don’t believe it doesn’t happen at some places, but, man, that’s not usual in my experience.)
They do generally schedule fewer people when they expect it to be slow- but my husband and my son both worked in big box retail ( at very different times and different stores) and people were frequently sent home early ( by the store manager or assistant working that shift) if business was slower than expected.
That never happened to me when I worked at Wal-Mart because the schedules were done in Arkansas. It doesn’t happen that way at Hobby Lobby or at Target either. Those are the stores I or my wife worked at. I’m not sure on the others. It makes sense from a business stand point definitely.
My CIA-trained SIL, formerly personal chef for a notorious billionaire after working well-known restaurants (and rejecting one exec-chef offer from a famous but failing hotel that he feared would blame said exec-chef for said failure) probably doesn’t spit in our food at family feasts - though I don’t entirely trust his moody young daughter. But he doesn’t tip extravagantly when dining out, and he pays VERY close attention to what’s being served and how. He felt best taking us to boutique eateries run by his friends who were unlikely to mistreat us.
There’s the trick to successful dining: hope your kid marries a celeb chef. When he teaches her to cook, rejoice!
:dubious: :dubious: :dubious: How many of your other commercial transactions do you have more transparency on? When you buy an item in a store or from Amazon, for instance, do you have any idea how much of the cost goes to the cashier or the store manager or the sweatshop worker who actually made the item? Are you equally indignant about the fact that a fixed price is going to vary from place to place, and that it’s not possible to keep track of its ultimate allocation, and that nobody’s going to be honest about it anyway?
Funny how all this righteous indignation against lack of transparency and fairness in commercial transactions only seems to crop up when buyers see an opportunity to get away with paying less than the expected price without legal repercussions. :rolleyes:
If you can’t afford to pay currently standard tip percentages, then you have the same legal and ethical option available as you do in the case of any other purchase you can’t afford: i.e., do without it. Likewise, if you want to take a stand on your principled objections to the tipping system, then stop patronizing restaurants where tipping is expected.
But continuing to reward the restaurant owners (who are the ones who actually have power to change the system) by paying their stated prices, while stiffing the lowly waitstaff who have no control over the tipping system, is selfish and hypocritical.
Do you not see the difference between the cost of an item and a gratuity? It’s not about “getting away with paying less.” I mentioned my personal tipping habits upthread. I don’t like the system, but I’m in it, so that’s what I do.
What I object to is being criticized for not tipping more, and being held responsible for cheap-ass restauranteurs and greedy people everywhere. Fuck those games. If you’d like more money out of me, ask me honestly. Don’t beg and flatter and hope that I’m going to reward good service, and don’t give me and my ilk the power to punish bad service by withholding money that you’ve earned. I don’t get my pay docked on a bad day, why should a server?
Most of all, don’t criticize me for not tipping 20% or more on a meal. I’m sorry that your boss is too exploitative and dishonest to charge fair prices, but that’s not my fault and it’s not my responsibility. I would be happy to limit my restaurant-going to places that paid a fair wage, but I have no way of finding out who that is.
The industry is fucked up. Sort yourselves out, but don’t blame me for it. I’ll keep tipping 15% post-tax, and that’s going to have to be good enough for you.
I think the point, that I very much agree with, is that on Amazon the full price is listed. It’s $100. Full Stop. They have to pay their workers in compliance with labor laws and if they don’t and get caught, then they can be prosecuted.
The tipping system would be like if Amazon listed the price at $80 and left it up to the customer to “tip” a voluntary amount, and if you only tipped an extra $10 being told that you are responsible for Amazon employees not making minimum wage.
That’s all bullshit. Tipping is condescending anyways and implies a social caste system. For all of the problems outlined in this thread alone, just get rid of it. Charge the price that covers your costs and be transparent. Pay your employees according to the law and on merit. That waiter who provides excellent service and has a good attitude. Pay him more. The waitress who just goes through the motions, pay her less. Anyone who is caught adulterating food should be fired and reported to the authorities for prosecution.
The whole system feels like a drug deal. I tip the bartender good and he gives me a heavier pour. That is simply a theft from the business. Make all this above board. Charge $5.00 for a drink, but $6.50 for a little bigger drink. No guessing or winking or slipping cash in a tip jar.
Be honest with people. If a tip allows you to jump line and get seated faster, post a price out front “Skip the line for an extra $15!” If that pisses off customers, then don’t do it. But don’t have this secret underground system where you do it but don’t tell the customers.
How is this any different than a commissioned sales job? It’s not my fault if you give me an hour presentation on your wonderful new vacuum cleaner, but I don’t buy it. Or, if I do buy it, I don’t slip you something extra for the last guy who didn’t buy it. And these people are not guaranteed minimum wage by law.
This idea that you “pay to work” some days or even on some tables is simply the wrong way to look at it. A commissioned real estate agent who makes $50k per year made $50k last year. She didn’t “pay to work” on those days that she didn’t sell any houses. She didn’t “lose” money by driving a guy to four different houses and him not buying any of them. That’s part of the process by which she earned $50k last year.
Likewise, the days where you make $300 account for those days where you make $0 or -$20. Those latter two amounts are part of the process of making the $300. If that doesn’t suit you then Wal-Mart and Target are hiring at above minimum wage.
In any event, it is not the fault of customers if restaurant owners are violating the wage laws.
I went back and saw this. So which is it? Are you getting screwed in tipped jobs? It seems not because you are making more money doing that than you would at Target.
But even though you are making less money, you no longer qualify for government assistance, because Target accurately reports your income and doesn’t allow you to cheat the tax man, and cheat the rest of society by using government services that you should not qualify for.
It sounds like a good gig, but you complain about unethical bosses cheating you out of money and customers “fucking” you out of tips. From what you said here, it sounds like you are treated better here than most other jobs, especially when you engage in illegal activity.
