Not liking the tipping system is one thing, acting as though it is “optional” (for good service) is another. I was just wondering if it was tied into a generally conservative mindset. Ivylass’s post shows it isn’t.
I have to disagree. A few years ago someone mentioned something to me that made a lot of sense. Think of a waiter/waitress as your own personal employee, who just happens to work at this restaurant. And this person’s responsibility is to serve you and they depend on you to pay their salary, because getting 1/2 minimum wage isn’t going to cut it. If service is decent and you tip as is customary, then all is good. If service is lousy and you tip accordingly, then hopefully some other table will tip higher and it will all balance out. And this is usually how it goes, because there are always other tables.
However, when a waitress gets one large group, they may not have any other tables, so they will depend on the one table to get paid. And large parties generally take their time dining and conversing, so serving one table for an hour and a half would not be unusual. If at the end of the hour and a half the waitress was left with nothing, then its an hour and a half of her life wasted. Its kind of like your boss telling you at the end of the day “yeah, I know you had an off day, but we don’t think we’re gonna pay you, m’kay? thanks…” You still got work done for your boss, just not as much as usual. You should still get something.
I think in this day and age, you really are obligated to pay.
Also, don’t take it out on the waitress if the kitchen is the screwup. If she did her work, she should be paid. If you have a problem with the kitchen, tell the manager.
A waitress would have to look me in the eye and then spit in my food for me to leave nothing.
Lurker coming in.
If this is true maybe it’s a recurring issue at this one restaurant.
I know that at some establishments if a high maintenance customer repeatedly does not tip the manager is asked by the wait staff to intercede.
Then why is Applebees still in business?
Seriously, though, all I mean to say is that the customer and the staff are both important to the success of your business. The staff does all the work, the customers provide the money. Sometimes you have to stick up for your customer, sometimes for the staff, sometimes you have to just let things be. If you always stick up for the staff, then you’re running the DMV. If you always stick up for the customer, let’s just say there are more than enough horror stories about that scenario.
I think making a scene in your restaurant because a tip was too low is going too far. Tips, by definition, are at the discretion of the customer. If you, as the manager, don’t want it to be at that way, then make it a mandatory service charge. It’s not right to leave it at the customer’s discretion, then browbeat them when they make choices you don’t like.
Because Carl’s Jr won’t come to your table and refill your drinks.
However pissy staff can ruin the experiences of hundreds of customers over days and or weeks of business. Happy employees will result in more happy customers. Like it or not, in any business there will be unhappy customers, mitigating the damage they do by making people that can be made happy happy and letting the few idiots and assholes know that their behavior is not appreciated is fine by just about anyones standards. You don’t want this customer back anyway.
If the customer tipped poorly because they thought the service was poor, the manager is not browbeating by confronting the customer they are looking to intercept problems which quite often the only management clue of is the lack of or small size of a tip.
Tipping is not mandatory, but it is traditional in many businesses. Those businesses are not required to pay their employees as much because they recieve tips. The nice part for the employee is that they, like many salespeople can influence their own income. Good service should be rewarded, poor service should be penalized. By refusing to tip you are basically saying “I think this place sucks!”
Do you have a problem with commissioned sales people as well? Its pretty much the same thing with the opportunity to vary your cost based on the percieved value of the delivery and presentation of the sale.
I’m all for managers asking people who are shitty to their staff not to come back. Not providing a reasonable tip is shitty.
I have been a waitress. I have been stiffed on a $200 bill by a table of college students (the restaurant didn’t automatically add the tip in for large parties). I have been yelled at by a customer because of the way the bartender made the drink. When I tried to apologize, he sneered at me and accused me of just trying to save a tip.
I have been groped by men ordering raw oysters. I have dealt with angry customers who, after waiting 45 minutes for a table on Mother’s Day, found out we were out of practically everything, including those foil-wrapped butter pats, because management didn’t order enough food.
I know what hell it is to be a waitress, and I know when it’s management’s fault, the kitchen’s fault, or the server’s fault. I tip according to service. It has nothing to do with my political leanings.
My mom was alwaays the rianman.: “about $100” was the absolute limit of her sese ov economics. She sold a piano worh probaly $10,000 for $50 as a result. To her this ammonted to half a fortune.
Thus, once I grasped this issue, I NEVER allowed her to pay without adding my own contributiont to the tip. a $0.50 tip on a $20 taab was generous in her mind.
That said, if the sevice sucks, and I mean sucks, thne you can expect a $0.03 tip from me…not zero, if it was zero, you might think I forgot.
I’ve always made it fairly clear in such circumstance, but if if the server or mangement were ever to ask for a clarification as to why I felt this was adiqqquate, I would have welcomed the invitation to elaborate…loudly, and at length. I dine out more than average, stiffing on the tip is a rare, rare, thing, and only warranted for adbonable serivice, IMO.
Holy shit. I spell like Dan Quail, but that last post deserves an award.
Hey! How did I get involved in this? I always tip at least 20%! And that guy Joe? He’s just a friend, man, I swear! I would never do the hibachi with anyone except SkipMagic. 
What does this little screed have to do with my post? I’m promoting the idea that the needs of the staff and the needs of the customer have to be balanced. Do you think this will result in unhappy employees that provide crappy service?
Let’s just start off with your first phrase “tipping is not mandatory.” However, you promote making a big issue when a person doesn’t tip, so it sure seems mandatory to me. Which is it? Am I allowed to say “this place sucks”, or will I have to get yelled at if I wish to have that opinion?
I don’t have any problem at all with commissioned sales people or people who are tipped employees. I have a problem with the sense of entitlement. If a person doesn’t leave a tip, or leaves a lousy tip, tough shit, that’s part of the business you have chosen. It’s a crappy part of the business, for sure, but what the fuck do you expect when a large part of your earnings are, by legal and popular definition, entirely at the discretion of the customer? You take a risk. Sometimes you get a 30% tip, sometimes a 7.5% tip, hopefully it evens out over the long run and you make enough to get by.
I think tipping is important, and I think it’s rude to leave a bad tip, but I’m not going to support requiring payments that are not required.
I never did any damn thing to you people.
OK, if I’m going to keep hijacking this thread, I guess I should respond to the OP . . . I think there is something about old ladies and service, in general. My mom (age 75) truly does not know where the line is between “good customer” and “bad customer”, and my calling her on her bad customer moments does nothing but confuse her. She knows the appropriate percentage for a tip, but really doesn’t seem to get the difference between (politely) sending back her burger because it’s medium rare when she asked for well done, and chewing the server three new poop chutes merely because Eggs Benedict are not on the menu, and who ever heard of a restaurant (that serves breakfast) not serving Eggs Benedict?
Hmm. Still hijacking, aren’t I?
My point is, maybe instead of waiting until your mom gives you guff for something to throw this incident back in her face, you could just talk to her about it right now. The truth is that no, she does not have to leave a tip (which she seems to already know), but does she know that $10 on $130 is not a “good” tip (assuming that she intended to at least give the cook a decent tip)?
Something can not be mandatory and still make you an asshole if you don’t do it. It’s not mandatory (unless it’s one of those reserved seats) to give up your seat in the metro to a pregnant lady or a disabled war veteran, but you’re an asshole if you don’t do it, assuming you don’t have an excellent excuse (like being a pregnant lady or a disabled war veteran yourself).
Tipping works on the same principle. No, it is not mandatory, in the sense that the people you screw by not tipping have no recourse against you; no, you cannot get out of it without being an asshole or having a good excuse.
I don’t get the mandatory part. If a party of five rings up a tab of $100, 15% is $15. But what if the same party of five goes to a nice place, and rings up a tab of $1000. Wouldn’t 15% be a bit excessive? Considering that the major difference in price is likely the price of food, and maybe more for the preperation of food, but no way should 15% always be expected. That’s robbery.
That would be Dan Quayle, sweetie.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist 
.
I disagree.
Maybe the server “got lucky” to get that job, but the level of service I expect from Chilis versus the $40 steak places is directly proportional to the bill.
Consider one waiter working 10 tables of 4 at Chilis. Now consider one waiter working 2 tables of four at Mortons Chicago. The restaurant GIVES you better service because the wait staff is less strained. The wait staff deservers more, because then you get really good attention. They bring out those fancy “crumb getters” to clean off your table after the bread. They’re there every few minutes to refill your drink. They have dedicated water refillers who do nothing but refill your damn water! And what goes around, comes around.
Really good staff really does deserve the extra tip, they earned it by getting to the upper eschelon of food service in the first place.
p.s. “eschelon” doesn’t even give me the correct word in its suggestions…
What’s the word I’m lookin for?
Echelon.
I normally tip between 15-20% based upon an adequate level of service. I am not a problem customer. I am always pleasant and I do understand that the wait staff has to deal with the occasional asshole and cheapskate. But, if you think for one second that because they have to deal with assholes and cheapskates that I should feel guilty and revise my tip upwards because if it, you are sorely deluded. I am not responsible for the assholery of others, nor do I feel a compunction to pay for same. So, if I get lousy service, I am quite willing to not leave a tip because of it. Luckily, it has only happened once or twice that I’ve felt the need to not do so.
That’s it, thank you.
Kinda queer that dictionary.com wouldn’t offer it with only one letter missing.