To tip or not to tip?

"it’s simple. I’m being told that the employer is holding an economic gun to the head of his/her employees, and it has somehow become my responsibility to pay the ransom. I’d rather not participate **
[/QUOTE]

While I saw that you said you do tip, I am taking this opportunity to rant, rave, and attempt to educate the uncaring public. This is not directed at you.

Ahhh. So. You take it out on the server? Don’t tip the server because it’s wrong to have to tip?
That won’t accomplish a thing, and I hope you’re not recognized at any restaurants.
The server has NO control.
Or think about this: All over the world where tipping is the major form of pay, all the servers suddenly go on strike (not likely since we’re all on a shoestring and can’t afford to miss a single solitary shift thanks to cheap dirtwads like you, hiding behind highflown, spurious philosophy in order to excuse themselves from spending a lousy few dollars that could make all the difference in the world to someone, when taken on a cumulative basis)…
We’re all on strike… who’s going to race around getting your fifth water with lemon, who’s going to smile and bow and scrape to you, who’s going to be the soothing non-being on whom you can safely take out all the frustrations of your life, who’s going to break their backs by slow and painful increments carrying out your food…who’s going to serve you?

Take your indignation and spew it out on those who have made it legal to make us into slaves, who have made it law that we live on your nonexistent generosity, puke it forth onto someone who can do something about it, and pray you never come into my place and stiff me. I have, and will again, chased someone to the parking lot to confront them about what was wrong with my labor on their behalf. Did I not work for them? Did I not wait on them? I can’t do a thing about the law that makes you responsible for my income in return for my responsibility for your welfare, and I am, believe me, trying. I would love to see it revoked. I am bombing senators and congressmen with suggestions. I am only one single person but I am one of many. And we many are beyond poor. We are getting more and more desperate as prices rise and rise, and we still get the same shaft. (for whoever complained about tipping now being 20%; guess what. The reason that it’s now 20% is that min. wage has not kept up with inflation, and hey, guess what, servers don’t even make min. wage, so if you want decent service, it IS 20%, or else, sooner or later, everywhere will be fast food non-service and “who cares, won’t make any money no matter what”)

To top it off, within a freakishly short period of time one comes to regard the tip as a personal statement; uplifting to receive a good one, and infuriating to recieve a bad one, and this has nothing to do with money, it has to do with our concept of how well we are doing our jobs. Screwing me over means I suck, whether I did or not. Perhaps monsieur would prefer if I got under the table and did? Ah, but then: “felt teeth; no tip for you”

Finally, how would YOU like it, sir, if you came in to work one day, and you just could not get it together. If you stumbled through it telling yourself, “Okay, focus now”. We ALL have days like that. You do too, Mr. Perfect. Now, how would you like it if payday came, and your boss said to you, “hey, you’re normally an exceptional employee, and I know you’ve done fantastically all month and you went far out of your way to investigate this particular matter and you spent time on something you didn’t have to; however, I did notice that on the 18th, you didn’t smile enough, so we’re cutting your salary for the entire month by 26%”.

THAT’S what it’s like.
I go far out of my way to find out what’s the problem with A: their drink (make it myself if necessary) B: their food (will get it comped) C: anything else; I’ll turn down the music in the entire restaurant or get up on a ladder and disconnect the speaker, which I’ll have to reconnect later, I’ll tell jokes, I give out riddles to tables that seem to have nothing to say to each other and thus give them something to discuss, I even sing to them. I will argue with the suddenly deaf and dumb hostile foreign cooks in their own language, which they suddenly do not understand, since I refused to lock myself into the storage room with any of them since I started there, about how a meal is to be prepared: lactose intolerant, kosher, Lent, whatever. And still…a crappy tip.

Nowhere else in the working world can your wages be cut with such impunity, by so many, for so little reason. (“I wanna speak to the manager: our water had too much ice in it”)
Do it to me and I remember your face. Forever.
Come back, and I will see if you were just short of cash the first time. But I am unusual in this respect. You’re marked, one way or another.
Come back after stiffing or shorting me twice… and I will make your meal a living hell. As much as I can soothe, console, coddle and take care of you, I can aggravate, infuriate, and drive you to the same despair that I feel when I see nothing on a table I worked my butt off for, and immediately start running my tattered finances in my head. You will, in short, finally have a reason to garnish my wages; you will finally be able to justify yourself by saying, “I can’t believe how bad the service was!”
Whatever you want, you will get the most extreme opposite I can dream up, and I have a brilliant imagination. I will also speak to you entirely in the most sesquipedalian terms I can summon, and I can summon them from many other languages. I will make you look like an uneducated idiot. That’s just for starters, pal. Imagine what I can do to you in an argument. I bet you’re still wondering what a sesquipedalian is, aren’t you?

We remember you, all of you.
Trust me, we do. And we resent you in a way that you will never resent your boss, because at least your paycheck stable. A thing I remember fondly, dream about, spend all my disposable income on hunting down, and bitterly envy you for…particularly when you decide that you’re not going to tip because it’s “wrong”, and the only one you’re hurting is me. Like I can do anything. Write your government representatives, and stop hiding behind a cheap facade of convenient sanctimony!

To Insure Prompt Service…TIPS…works both ways. Until this is changed, we are all at the mercy of those who do not care. Please do not take it out on those who have the most to lose and nothing to say in the matter.

WOW! I think I was wrong…

Well,

Get over it. All you can do is provide the best service you can and hope for the best. No one owes you a living. If people choose not to tip, or tip poorly, that’s their option.

If you don’t like it, get a better job. Or at least move to a better restaurant. Most of the waiters and waitresses I know come home exhausted, sit down and start counting their money and a big, happy smile comes on their face. They realize they made $200 on a 6 hour shift. Just in tips! 30 hour weeks, $50,000 per year. Hard work, but worth it.

And these are not high cuisine restaurants.

Gazoo-did you even read what she wrote?

Deborah is TRYING to get a better job. It’s not always easy.

Don’t presume to tell people what to do unless you have walked a mile in their shoes. I’ve known her for quite a while now, and trust me, she is not whining.

As for you, if you can’t afford to tip, don’t go out to eat.

In fact, here’s an idea. Don’t like the tipping system? Don’t eat out. Hit the MANAGMENT where it hurts-in their pocketbooks. Boycott restaurants that don’t pay AT LEAST minimum wage. Because not tipping the servers will not show results. Boycotts will.

First of all, she is whining. I don’t see how you can call this not whining. Nobody tips me! They don’t tip me enough! Management doesn’t pay me enough!

Second, I have worked at many jobs where I didn’t get paid enough and at least 2 where you could not live off that money. What did I do? I got a second job in one case. In the other case I just had to tough it out because it was a lot bigger recession than the one we have now. However, I didn’t whine about the customers. It would be much worse for her if no customers came in at all - assuming, as you seem to, that she can’t get another job right away.

Don’t assume that someone doesn’t know what she is going through.

You don’t know me. I tip well when I go to restaurants, but I don’t feel obligated because a server isn’t making a living - that is ridiculous. I don’t owe you a living just because I eat there.

Most of the time, I don’t eat out at restaurants, partially because of the cost, and partially because I seem to get a lot of bad service, even if it’s the first time in a place. I would rather go to fast food or cook.

I am saying that good servers at good restaurants get good tips and make good money. If you don’t like the restaurant you work at, leave. If you can’t leave, don’t bitch at the customers or say things like “I’ll remember you the next time in.” What are you going to do? Spit in the soup? Give bad service? That’s self defeating! You lose customers and tips and your job.

Finally, if you are getting less than minimum wage - talk to your employer or the Department of Labor - they have to pay minimum wage. Even companies that hire illegals pay minimum wage, for Pete’s sake.

Oh, I love this-

Look here, gazoo-you will not make any friends or win any debate around here with black and white arguments. Saying, like it or lump it doesn’t cut it.
Okay?

Just a friendly, ah…tip, if you will.

:wink:

And again, I point out that I’ve known Deb for quite some time now from Customers Suck. If you read half the crap she’s been through, I’d say she has a right to whine.

It’s a sucky system-but it’s a myth that always being a good server will always get you great tips-there are plenty of jerks out there who want something for nothing, and stiff servers-even the best-and say it’s their right. It’s the SYSTEM she is crying about.

It is not the servers you should blame-blame the owners and managment and the government who control the situation.

So, now she is whining, but has a “right” to? You won’t convince many people that your arguments are correct when you contradict yourself.

I’m saying it evens out - sure there are bad tippers, but there are also extraordinary tippers. That’s why you have to be upbeat and positive all the time as a server. It’s tough, I know!!! But, if you want to get less tips, and get less customers in, the attitude this person has will do it. Guaranteed.

I don’t think I need any “friendly” tips - I’m old enough to take care of myself, thank you very much.

I don’t see how my arguments are more black and white than any of the other posts here? Are you posting this to make other people think that they are, or are you just trying to convince yourself?

What does “Oh, I love this” mean??? It sort of sounds like you are going to post something that will directly refute my contentions, and yet, when I read what you say, it’s just a friendly warning about something where no warning appears to be necessary - either make a cogent argument or don’t say anything.

In certain cases, you only have the two options - do it or leave it would have been my choice for what I was saying - nobody says you have to like work - almost nobody does like work - that’s why they have to pay you to come in.

As to making friends, you don’t seemed too concerned about it - why should I be concerned about it?

gotta go with gazoo, here. seems to me boycott=unemployment. now there is a shit was to live! (been there, done that) going back to my days as a waiter, it seems to me that the other servers were always bitching and complaining about something (while sitting in the stairway, smoking) and they consistantly earned less than little snot-nosed brat me, who was just happy to have a cool job with FREE FOOD! i havent checked out the “customers suck” site, so i wont comment on it, but one thing i have learned in business is without customers, you have no business. if you don’t like them and dont want them around, you might as well close up shop and go home. i don’t think i was a better waiter than anyone else, but i believed my job was to serve the customers and i think that attitude was evident = more tips.
HAVE A GOOD DAY! SEE YOU AT THE RACES!