So I am finally making some mad cash as a waitress. I need advise from my fellow food service Dopers: do you really declare ALL 12% tips?
And why is it that the biggest jerks tip the lowest? I had a three top that were increadibly rude, came in at the height of the lunch hour, ordered all kinds of special food, accused me of jacking the bill up (they didn’t know that room and meals tax in Vermont is 9%), and then gave me $2 on a $25 bill. AAAAAHHHHHH!!! Meanwhile, this sweet Mulim couple came in at 3:30 PM, ordered simple food, were totally polite, and gave me $5 on a $13 bill. So I guess it all comes out in the end.
I never was waitstaff Swiddles (although I did work in restaurants), so there’s a lot there that I won’t know about. But I did drive a taxicab for a few years, and that is a tip-driven occupation. There were jerks, and it didn’t take too very long to learn who was going to tip and who wasn’t.
I laid it on most of the time, anyway. And had more pleasant surprises than otherwise.
And I tracked my actual (including tips) income for several months and found that it did run in the 12% range (that surprise $100 tip here and there made up for a lot of missed $2 tips), so I did claim it. Good thing, too. I was audited by the IRS for three years of cabdriving.
So, some people really take to the waitperson thing. It sounds like your liking it so far. Good luck with it (aren’t you somewhere up New York way?)!
14 years in all avenues of resturant employment, and I loved it all.
I never did bother to figure out the percentage thing for tips, and if you ask most you are working with they will tell you 100%.
Some of the resturants I worked at had a Squirl system and at the end of the night they figured out a persent of your sales and that was the lowest you could claim.
I made pretty good tips so I would take that number and add a bit to it. Cause if you claim that exact number all the time it sent up a flag for the IRS as did claiming under that amount.
You’re only by required by law in California to declare 8.5% of your tips, but that probably doesn’t help you all too much in Vermont. I waitressed for 8 years and always declared roughly 10% and never managed to get audited (knock on wood). IRS has it in for waitpeople though so watch your back (always picking on the little people).
I noticed in my experience that the rude people tipped better. I think it’s like they’re testing you, if you can take their crap and not let it affect your attitude, at least one of them (typically the one who wasn’t acting like an ass) will make it worth your while monetarily. I also noticed that the nice people who will yack it up with you and monopolize your time are the ones who don’t tip well. That’s when the “niceness don’t pay the bills” lecture comes into play (not that I’ve actually GIVEN it to a customer)
Some general guidelines for the newbie server
Make nice with the kitchen. They can make or break you
No matter how rude a customer is, never be rude back. Even though the rule “the customer is always right” is total bullshit, most managers tend to live by it.
Treat every table like they’ll be good tippers, because honestly, you can’t “tell”. People will always suprise you. I used to look like I wouldn’t be a good tipper, and for those who gave me great service anyways, I’d leave between 25 and 30%. For those who judged me on my appearence and gave me crappy service because of it (you can tell why a waitperson is giving crap service, if they’re busy or if they just don’t care) I’d leave a whopping 10%.
For the love of god, always do your sidework.
NEVER rat out a coworker. No one wants to work with a snitch, and your co-workers can also make or break you.
Cover people’s shifts if they need it. If you never cover anyone’s shift, they’ll never cover yours.
And that is the end of my extremely long winded post. I am CLEANSED…
HA! I can beat that bad tip story easy. It was the night of the local eighth grade graduation and this table of six came in at about 5 minutes before closing (rat bastards). They ordered over one hundered dollars of food, they had a baby AND a toddler. They made a HUGE mess. It looked like a nuclear bomb had dropped on the table. There was gooey food everywhere and the toddler had decided it would be fun to shred the styrofaom container the crayons were in. The father of the family was a complete jerk and basically ignored the whole time, even when I was taking their order. Anyways, they finally finish and I give them the check and they leave. I head over to the table to start cleaning it and I notice that they hadn’t left a tip. I seriously started to cry. Then the lady came back in and put 3 DOLLARS on the table! 3 Freakin’ dollars! That was worse then if they’d left no tip at all becuase then I could have at least pretended that they forgot and they were good people deep inside. But no! They were just jerks. I was forty five minutes late to meet one of my friends too. Grrrrrrrrrrrr:mad: They aren’t allowed in our restaurant anymore.
Oh and about the tips. I didn’t know we were supposed to claim tips. That must be why we have to write down how much we get before we go. I guess my boss does it, I have no idea how much they claim though.
A lot of resteraunts declare tips for you. If you want some bad tip stories I can give 'em to you…I had this 5 top once that decided they felt like being the ultimate pain in my ass. They changed their order like 3 times, CLAIMED I brought them the wrong dish when I repeated what they decided they wanted for the third time and they all nodded and said “yes, that’s right” so I said no problem and brought them what they wanted (which was what they ordered the SECOND time so you know they just changed their mind again and didn’t want to admit it) did that whole thing when they ask you for one thing, you go and get it then they ask you for something else and you run and get it and so on and so on, totally monopolizing my time (because they WERE the only table in the goddamn resteraunt, no one else to serve!) then procedes to tip me 2 bucks…their bill was 100…luckily I had a cool manager that voided a bunch of their food so I ended up getting a bigger tip…that was 3 years ago but MAN if I ever see that guy in an ally…
Then there was the resteraunt that closed at 10…
I was the Sat night closer. We closed at 10. These 8 guys would come in EVERY Sat at about 10:05 and my pussy manager would ALWAYS seat them. Not to make any racial remarks but they were Middle Eastern guys who would bark orders at me, never say please or thank you and would have me doing all of this extra stuff for them and running around like crazy (so of course I was not at all able to do ANY of my closing sidework until they left) then would tip me nothing above what was included (15%). You know if we didn’t add it on, they probably wouldn’t tip anything.
I would tell them “you know, we close at 10” they would say “oh, we did’t know that, I’m sure your manager will seat us” So one night I had it…
I say “you know we close at 10” they say “oh we didn’t know that” I say “yes you do because I tell you that every time you come in” they say “but you always seat us” I say “that’s because my manager is stuck here until 1 AM every night anyway, so he doesn’t care if I have to stay an extra 2 hours”
They didn’t come back after that I’m still amazed I didn’t get fired from that gig…
I was a waitperson for a year and a half. It was fun, for the most part. Great place where you could pretty much do anything. No one looking over your shoulder every two seconds. But the bar and I didn’t always get along, which really started to hinder things.
The best I’ve been tipped is $15 on a $5 tab. These are the times when you say “Thank you” ever so graciously while thinking to yourself “There’s no way, short of blowing this guy in the back room, that I’m ever worth this much.” But some people are over tippers by nature.
Anyway, it’s taught me to appreciate good service. Going out with my grandfather, who is either a very bad tipper or just terrible at math, I sometimes manage to sneak a few extra dollars into the final bill.
I used to be a waitress at a Bob’s Big Boy restaurant in the DC metro area when I was in college, many moons ago. I enjoyed the camaraderie with the other waitresses, liked most of the customers, and got on well with the managers. I even got some great tips from the drunks because I’d stop to talk to them. I averaged about $60.00 to $90.00 a 10-hour shift. By the way, I always declared my tips. But it was one of the few times in my life that I wanted to sleep more than I wanted to eat. I should probably get a second job as a waitress so that I can lose some weight.
I don’t know about that weight loss trick. I have gained about ten punds since I started working at Tahoe Chinese. It’s just not fair, the food is just so damn good, and I am never going to sick of it. I suppose that it doesn’t help that I have almost no will power at all…sigh.
Well, I’m a bartender, not a waitress, so I don’t bring in the big tips like them. Maybe a dollar or two for each drink I serve. Although I tend to treat everyone the same, I do find that I can usually predict who’s gonna be the big tippers. Anyone who orders more than 2 virgin drinks will usually not be a great source of money. We get alot of High School kids coming through our restaraunt for Homecoming and Prom and they are notorious for being poor tippers. C’mon guys, I know you are’nt taking Euclydian Geometry yet, but calculating 15% out of the check aint that hard to do. Take your time, no one is watching, use a scratch paper, maybe keep an abacus with you, but for the love of God, if you order $100 worth of frozen drinks, then at least take the time to give me more than two video game tokens and pocket lint. Christ, it’s enough to make Ghandi wanna smother himself in blood, climb a bell tower, and pick poeple off all the while yelling “Sayonara Mutherfuckers”!
So on my third day of waiting tables, I made $80 in a 6 hour LUNCH shift. I also have no insole left on my foot, and my hip feels like I’m 90. woo-hoo!
Were the heck do you work? I only make like 50 to 60 dollars anight, somtimes not even that much. Wednesday was really slow and I only ot twenty. DSure my shift is only four or five hours, but I would be willing to put in the time for that much.
I’m still amazed I didn’t get fired from that gig…