Tip-sharing at restaurants: how common?

[Mr.Slant]

@The_Man_In_Black

I have heard that Steve is down to earth, and that after 9/11, he went back to the NYC Fire station he used to work at and worked 12 hour shifts with them clearing the rubble. Hearing this about him seems strange to me.

He could be like I used to be, and view his relationship with servers as a kind of relationship where being a paying customer gives you the right to treat low-ranking members of the staff as if they were your bitch for the duration of the meal.
Not my current attitude, but when I worked in food service I adopted that attitude as both employee and diner.
It’s not being evil per se, and in my case the attitude would end the moment they left the grounds of the establishment.
As such, it wouldn’t mean Steve was an asshole…

On edit: Oh. Wait. I didn’t notice the poor tipping part. Mean is one thing, but shitty tipping is another. Unless you’re being a real douche, you’ll get 15% from me.

[devilsknew]

@raindog

My experience as well. I worked in restaurants for years—first as a waiter, and then later as the General Manager. Theses were nice restaurants in Chicago.

In every one I worked in the wait staff “tipped out” 20%; 10% to the bus staff (which was pooled and split evenly) and 10% to the specific service bartender who made your drinks.

This is my experience at a fine dining restaurant some 15-20 years ago.

@Freudian_Slit

I always wondered about this–when you give someone a tip, then, (assuming it’s not a pooled system), do they just make the change and pocket the tip right then and there or do they have to somehow report it to the manager so that it’s clear they’re not skimming off the top? And how does that work with credit cards? Deliveryboys?

IME, we tipped out the bussers and bartenders at the end of the night after we collected our charged tips. It was entirely an honor system for us, in fact it was pretty much exactly like a customer tipping a server- 10% standard but we weren’t beyond “incentivizing” and tipping more depending on the quality of service we received from our backstaff. Sometimes, I would tip a bit extra to the busser in my section if he really went above and beyond and kept me out of the weeds, or similarily with the bartender if I had an exceptional amount of liquor sales. It was always good to give them their ten percent then a fiver, or whatever extra with a thanks, otherwise they wouldn’t know you were giving more than the standard ten percent of your tips… of course this was sort of my own philosophy and standard and it worked well for me. Also, on slow nights, if say, you made 10 dollars. It was sometimes more convenient and less “cheap” to promise them a drink or some other more suitable value added barter at a later date, instead of tipping each a dollar.

[MarcusF]

Based on limited first hand knowledge I’d say this was fairly common in the UK. Technically it’s known as a “tronc” and - surprise, surprise - Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs want their cut in income tax

I only really know this because I love the fact that the person who administers the scheme is called the Troncmaster!