You cheap ass, no class motherfuckers!

The BBQ Pit
21

Thank your lucky stars you don’t work in the UK. One bank holiday I worked a fifteen hour shift (8:00am-11:00am in the cellar - 12:00pm-15:00pm on the bar - 16:00pm-19:00pm - bar again - 20:00pm-midnight on the bar plus an hour cleaning up) and I made absolutely nothing in tips. Nothing, not one red cent. Fuck knows how many drinks I served that day.

On new years eve, the busiest day of the year and the day when (presumably) the majority of our customers are in a good mood I made precisely £2.00 sterling in tips.

You yank barstaff have it easy :slight_smile:

22

I agree that a private party with an open bar = no tipping. It’s a private party and it would make the host look increadibly tacky to expect his guests to tip. However, that same host should be giving the bartender a generous tip at the end of the evening on behalf of his guests.

In the situation described in the OP, a party with 1,000 guests, the line blurs a bit. I’d be curious as to where this party was held and who it was hosted by. I think your employer should’ve given you a tip, personally, based on what the sales would’ve been had you been charging.

Of course, I always tip, it’s habit for me. And I always get kickin’ service.

23

The event that I worked was in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (similar to Lincoln Center) in downtown L.A. I’ve bartended for almost ten years in all different types of places - clubs, lounges, tourist traps, upscale restaurants.
There actually are plenty of times when I’ve worked open bar situations and expected no tips - due to the type of event. These will normally be events where there is an older clintele and they’re consuming mostly wine - and these are for less than 50.
Also, if someone is not drinking spirits, then I don’t feel slighted if there’s no tip. However, when I make nine kamikazee shots at once, someone should show some love.
Here’s the stickler - I’m technically not allowed to have a tip jar out. If someone does ask where my tip jar is, I’ll tell them that it’s the entire bar. Before I get flamed for this with “well, what do you expect”, let me say that I’ve worked many times before with no tip jar, and have done quite nicely. The guy next to me started to leave some money in front of him on the bar, and he didn’t fare any better. There were 11 other bartenders, and we all did about the same, to the best of my knowledge.
My point is that if I were in NY under the exact same set of circumstances (even with no tip jar), I would have made $300.

24

I always tip. Not because the service was good. But because I don’t want anyone thinking I’m a rude ingrate.

Which, to me, defeats the whole purpose of a tip.

25

I may have served you before Monstro. I used to work at NJPAC.

26

Pardon my ignorance of the Bartending business but you are complaining that you only made 13$ in tips per hour? For bartending? You expect to make 86$ an hour for a job that does not require a college education or extensive training?

27

Exscuse me, Treis, but if you claim to be ignorant of the bartending business, how can you make an assertion that the job requires no extensive training? Just because one doesn’t attend “training” does not mean that it doesn’t exist. It takes years to hone ones skills.
I have held jobs in my life that do require a college education, and they are not nearly as difficult as some of the bartending jobs I’ve had. It can be a very demanding job that very few people can be good at. Knowing the drinks (the formal knowledge of the job) is but a small portion - being able to keep a calm demeanor while being inundated by people who are tipsy is not a walk in the park. I am damn good at what I do and, yes, I do expect to make that kind of coin when working a holiday party like that one. I don’t expect it most of the time, working the events I do.

28

Count me in with those who wouldn’t have known to tip. Not to be rude, but I would have thought it was covered.

This is why I never eat out, it’s too frickin confusing.

29

Thank you…

very much! :smiley:

This seems like a pretty cool site…

oops…I did it again…
doh!

:smiley:

30

I’m sure that is the case with what happened last night. It would be correct to assume that a tip would find its way to an employee at a small event with but a few staff (again, with holiday parties, there is generally more tipping). However, when there are 70 employees working in a large venue, there is no chance of the employer passing on any grat, even if one has been made.

31

jehovah, you probably haven’t because I don’t really drink.

I go to a lot of professional meetings, which tend to have open bars during poster sessions and whatnot. I’ll ask the bartender to pour me a Sprite and then give him/her a buck in their little tip cup. I guess I do it to err on the side of caution because I never know how to act in public. And that’s why I stay home.

So let me know where you’re going to be the next time you’re in NJ, and I’ll give you a ridiculous tip. :slight_smile:

32

Yes treis, a bartender can expect that type of pay for a holiday party.

Bartenders don’t work 40 hour weeks. They are not salaried. There’s usually a “rush” block of time (between 2-4 hours maybe) where they make insane tips. Those, averaged in with the slow hours (set up, clean up, non-busy times, maybe another 2-4 hours) they average a pretty decent hourly wage.

They can also be highly skilled (depending on where they work). Just because someone doesn’t have a four year degree doesn’t mean they’re not entitled to make decent money if they’re damn good at what they do. It’s kind of jerkish for you to believe otherwise.

And yes, I have a four year degree and am working towards a J.D.

33

My youngest sister has been tending bar in a little pub for a lot of years. This past summer, I dropped in and stood behind the bar with her watching her work on a fairly slow Sunday afternoon. I don’t think she stood still for 10 seconds in a row.

I watched her take multiple orders from multiple customers and get them all right. She never paused to look for anything - her hands knew where every bottle in that bar sat. She cleaned up spills, rinsed glasses, ran tabs, schmoozed with the customers, and made about $140 in tips for an afternoon of work. I got tired just watching her.

Yet another anecdote - my mom has run her own catering business for many years. Sometimes she provides a bartender. She never had a tip jar out for anyone, but she does pay her workers well. And if the customer gives her an extra tip, she splits it among the workers. Granted she mostly does small parties, but she’s done several larger ones, and she always does them the same.

34

My man! Good lookin’ out lezlers.
I arrived at work at 4 and spent four hours helping to set up bars (tho’ when details aren’t sorted idle time is spawned). Guests arrived in the lobby at 7 and proceeded up to the second (where I was) and third floors at 8. The open bar ended at about 11:20 and I didn’t get out until 1:45, after break down. So, two thirds of my shift was spent off of ‘go time’.
Good luck with the Juris Doctorate.

35

First of all, Fairy ChatMom, can I just say, all respect to your
mother for being a fair and honest employer. That is rare to come by, and deserves much admiration.
Your description of what your sister does is the essence of the job. I can tell that she’s good. There is a great deal of information processing that goes on -the eyes and the ears are greatly relied upon for this.

36

Jehovah, I’m a bartender too, and I’ve only done one private party…much smaller thing, a Christmas party at someone’s house.

And I was paid $20 an hour to do it, just beer and wine, so I didn’t expect any tips, nor did I get any.

I think that’s the tricky part; most people assume that if you’re not bartending at a bar, you’re covered by the person hosting the event. The last open bar event I went to was a wedding, and I did tip, just in case. The liquor was top-shelf and free; why should it be a big deal to throw the guy a little cash?

But most other people didn’t.

Another thing to consider is that people are lazy and thoughtless. If they don’t already have their money out, chances aren’t good that they’re going to get it out just to tip you. I’ve seen this many times at the bar I work at; one part of it is also a restaurant, and some people think they can run just one tab for the whole evening…grab some drinks from me at the bar and then pay for them on their dinner tab. (A lot of places do this, of course.)

That’s not our policy; they have to close out their bar tab separately.

And what I find intriguing is the number of people who were totally cool with ordering all these high-maintenance drinks and then walking off the bar without even leaving a single dollar for me…until I make them pay for those drinks. And then they’ll tip me, but not until they have to pay me anyway. And most of the time, they’ll tip well!

It’s weird. People tip because they think they have to, not because they really want to. If you give them any reason to think they don’t have to, chances are good that they won’t.

Sounds like what happened here.

Did you at least get paid a decent hourly wage? I’d never do a private event unless I was guaranteed $20 an hour, one way or the other.

37

No worries, and it’s “my woman!” :wink:

Thanks!

38

As someone who plans large, expensive outings for my group at work, I can tell you that we are charged an additional almost 20% surcharge based on the final catering cost that (I was told by the site coordinator person(s) I deal with) is supposed to take care of tips/gratuities for waitstaff and bartenders. Is this not the case? Do y’all not get a part of that surcharge that we’re charged to have our event at your place of business? Because if you don’t get any of that money, then honest to God, I’ll start trying to renegotiate stuff in such a way that the bartenders/servers/etc. get what they’re supposed to in the way of tips. :frowning:

Oh, one last thing, Audrey, I have to call you on this:

Mr2U and I always tip, no matter what. Great service - the sky is the limit. If we have a problem with the service, we’ll leave a tip, but we’ll tell the manager only because we feel like it’s not up to us to play God to someone who is just trying to feed their family and may be having a bad day, but then again, Mr2U and I rock. So there. :wink:

39

What I wonder is if this was at a bar/restaurant, or in a private house. If it was in a bar/restaurant, I would have tipped because I would doubt that the reservation fee covered tip. In a private house, I probably wouldn’t have because I would assume that the host covered it.

40

I made $16 an hour.