distribution of tips. Socialism as its finest.

Actually, we all do it. It's called work, and assholes are part of the deal.

Waiting tables just makes it more obvious that you are going to deal with dickheads that are paying your salary. Some of the dickheads I work with don't come close to dipping into their wallets to pay me.

Eh, serving at a big chain restaurant has to be the easiest thing ever.

Most of them (TGI Fridays, Chilis, etc) have hosts to seat the guest, food runners to bring out the food, and bussers to clean the tables. In that case, all the server has to do is take the food order and keep drinks refilled. I admit that could be challenging with groups over 10 or when having more than 4 or 5 tables, but shit...

Don't know what's worse. Not tipping or the douchebags screen capping reciepts and taking it to the internets.

I've only tipped one time when picking up take out food. The waitress was really nice (and hot). The food was taking forever because the kitchen was backed up. She offered me a free drink while I was waiting and after sitting there for 15 minutes...she jokingly offered me a free appetizer.

She got a tip.

I understand what you are saying here, most ppl think of it that way. This may be true if you expect to have the same waiter again and they remember you, BUT, if you are at a restaurant you rarely go or not in your own city this doesn't make any sense. You tip at the end, what you give them at the end of the meal had no reflection of the service you received and it will have no bearing with you on the future. Sure, your tip probably ensures that the waiter won't be a complete asshat to the next table but how does that help you?

however, if I'm sitting at a bar, I'll tip on the drink like a buck or two. but, if I have 3 beers, the bartender looks like at me like I"m cheap for not tipping on those.

If I'm having several drinks etc, I'll tip ever couple drinks. But I"m not paying $7.5 for a beer, then added a buck to it for each one.

That's why you open a tab, and pay on the total - you certainly don't owe much more than 10% for people slinging drinks five feet from you.

I'll be honest...I really never got mad when I didn't get tipped well. I received so many ridiculous tips I felt like at worst it evened out.

I wasn't a big chatter, I was friendly enough I was just super efficient, never let a glass get empty, never messed up orders, used common sense, and made sure my order of operations never get out of sync and when things would go awry to keep every guest informed of every situation they needed to know...

I'd get between 20-30% 9 times out of 10. The only people who annoyed me were people who would start asking personal questions like "what's your major" etc...

Hated that shit. I didn't like the customers who wasted my time with "chit chat" but it's part of the job. The only part I didn't like.

I will usually tip decently (a couple of bucks) on the first drink and then I'll tip every 2-3 drinks.

LMAO... I love how the waiters always out themselves in tipping threads.

The truth is that tipping is a seriously flawed business process where the restaurant is essentially passing off part of the responsibility of adequate wage for the waiter, on to the customer. And it's done so as "Optional, but **** YOU SUCK YOUR OWN SHIT IF YOU DON'T". It's very flawed because by design it never works the way it's supposed to, and when it doesn't, it always the waiter that gets ****ed in the ass. But restaurants have gamed it so that instead of the waiter getting mad at the restaurant for making part of their wage "Optional", that anger is passed off on to the customer. Who may or may not give 2 ****s about the whole thing, or could be completely ignorant about how the process is supposed to work.

Very flawed....

yep; that's about what I do.

Does anyone ever tip ON TOP of the gratuity?

Not on purpose, not unless a BJ was part of the service....

As a customer, we appreciate the chit chat. I'm not going to keep a server that just got triple-sat and is already in the weeds... But nothing wrong with a friendly conversation... I made some great connections while I was waiting tables -- some networking that definitely helped jumpstart my career.
You sound like a cocky, arrogant, **** that just chose the profession so you could pull some young hostess ass.

Getting paid above and beyond for service that is above and beyond is a STAPLE in the service industry. Incentive-based pay isn't unique to food service.

I would almost ALWAYS get tip on top of gratuity -- especially around holidays.

I should also mention that when I worked as a waiter, it was fine dining.

Im such a sucker. I tip these people 10-15%. bagging all the food doesn't seem any less hard than refilling my drink.

Definitely. I can chit chat when its slow, but once the herd pours in its really hard to be patient with each conversation when you're trying to make everyone happy. One table won't like all the gab you have with another table and then it starts. They want to gab with you then so on and so on. Pretty soon food is getting cold, drinks aren't refilled and a new table doesn't have their menus yet. Then you have to excuse yourself from all that and you can't help but notice by the small tip they left you they were butthurt by the lack of service you gave "socially" not by how the actual attentiveness to detail was when it gets busy. I do like how some acknowledge that you're busy and are polite to let you do your thing and not take a survey over the last 4 years of your life.

I agree with you man. Depenind on where I worked I made between $16-$30 an hour waiting tables.

That's just WAY too high for the work I did, and I always laughed and laughed when I was done because I couldn't believe I could wait on a table for 30-40 minutes and make $15-$30 off at that table just by being competent.

It's why I fell for the "waiter trap" and waited tables for so many years. I was good at it, it paid the bills, and I got to score with a lot of hot, young co-workers.

It was the life. Until I woke up and was 26 and still waiting tables and still hitting on 19 year olds. I thought...is this going to be cool when I'm 35? Then I ran away.

It only helps in that it reinforces the idea that a good job will be rewarded better, and hopefully that idea is passed on to the next customer and eventually it will come back to me.

If some of y'all would eat at real restaurants instead of places like Applebees then you'd be able to recognize what legitimate service is. A server does so much more for your dining experience (again, at a real restaurant) than bringing out a plate of food.

I tip what the service warrants. Nothing more, nothing less. My grandpa used to put a $50 out on the table when we'd dine out. He'd tell the server that it was his/her tip. If they ****ed up, he'd reduce it. It was usually pretty funny but it got good service.

Had he followed the proscribed doctrine of giving God additional percentage he could have avoided this incident yes.
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I've always enjoyed the "ninja waiter" that can refill my drink without interrupting my conversation or me even being aware that the drink was refilled.

Sounds like you were born with a silver spoon. Grad student spending hundreds of dollars on beer per month and eating at real restaurant tipping 30%

I am a pretty good tipper when being served, however if I hate that there are tip jars at every counter. I am not usually throwing money into those kittys.

While in Europe last summer we were unsure of the custom so we asked about tipping. We were told if you got really good service you could leave around 10% but only if you want to. Coming from the good ol USA, I couldn't in good consious not tip, and it was usually more than 10%.

Another odd thing about Europe was they pretty much leave you alone after taking your order and delivering your food. You pretty much have to wave them down to get their attention for drink refills and to get your check. The first couple of times I sat there quite a while waiting for a bill. Here it's all about turnover, there they don't seem to concerned about it.

The other thing I don't like/get about tipping is that I can go into the following three restaurants and get the same level of service and tip different amounts (assuming 20%):

1. I go into a diner and pay $12 for dinner and leave a $2.40 tip.

2. I go into a midscale restaurant and pay $25 for dinner and leave a $5 tip.

3. I go into an upper-end restaurant and pay $75 for dinner and leave a $15 tip.

Now, in the upper-end restaurant I'll usually have the fellow who fills my water glass frequently, but otherwise I don't usually see much difference in service. Why does the waitress at the midscale restaurant get twice as much tip money when there's no difference in the amount of work they do? It seems unfair that the tip is based on the cost of the food.

And I should point out that I've never received a tip in 20+ year of work as an engineer, economic research, and market/demographic researcher. I really think there should be more tipping in these industries for work well done.

There are two types of good servers...one of them are the good chit-chatters as long as they can multi-task well enough to be competent at the REAL purpose of their jobs. I've ran across a few of these in my days.

Shit, if I ran a restaurant...I wouldn't even mind having a few on staff that weren't good at running their own food because there are certain customers that are simply their for the chit chat...

but I'm definitely employing guys like me over a bunch of chatty kathies...which makes guys like me work twice as hard since I have to run all of their ****ing food and get all of their ****ing refills after I run their god damn food.

VERY true.

you can yell at the manager and say the service sucked and the food sucked and then they will remove the auto grat. Legally they can't make you tip.

But **** that pastor and mark down another reason why I hate religion and their stupid followers.

But it's not truly incentive-based pay. It's not consistent enough to qualify. It's still dependent on the consumer which, as evidenced by this thread, can have wildly differing opinions on where that incentive should start and stop. Or even if the incentive itself is warranted. A waiter can give above and beyond service, and the consumer could be 110% satisfied, and still not give a tip for whatever illogical reason. And there's absolutely nothing that could be done in a situation like that. Waiter is SOL, despite doing nothing wrong.

I understand it's a staple in the industry, but other cultures have clearly shown that it's not actually necessary. Sometimes the rewards can outweigh the risk for the waiter, which is obviously why they tolerate it. But it's still a very flawed practice.

I despise being in the middle of a sentence and the server comes over and talks over the top of me. I kind of understand why it happens, but man, that's annoying. Just come over and fill my water and smile. If we want something we'll tell you.

Nah. Auto-grat is a tool to be racist. I hated it. I'd have people ask me all the time..."should I grat them?" "Should I grat them?" They'd grat every black table and they'd leave it off of every white table. It's a ****ing sham. If I owned a restaurant I'd have the staff vote to either have it be mandatory or never have it. It's bullshit.

And I know EVERY server has the choice...so when I get auto-gratted they get the auto grat and with my friends they just robbed themselves of a lot of $$$ because we tip well and the auto grat adds GRATUITY TO THE SUBTOTAL, not to the total in which most everyone tips. (You're supposed to tip 15-20% on the subtotal, not the total with tax)...

so an 18% auto grat is like a 15% tip

what I'd run into is some people who would circle the auto grat to acknowledge they saw it and then tip it up to 20-25% OR some who just didn't see it and then you'd get double tipped which is pretty shady on the servers part

I like a server who can recognize that I have a mouthful of food and now is not the time to come by and ask me something. Thumbs up, head nod. It's amazing how often that happens.

This makes no sense to me. Tipping for a drink. It's literally, hey man can I have a beer, wait 2 seconds. Ok thanks. That's worth 1-2 dollars?

This makes no sense to me. Tipping for a drink. It's literally, hey man can I have a beer, wait 2 seconds. Ok thanks. That's worth 1-2 dollars? I get it if you are sitting at the bar with a tab. But if I walk my happy ass up to the bar that should not warrant a tip.

I get this. Totally. Good post.

I agree with everything you have said.

I often find tip %'s directly correlate with how much the consumer enjoyed their meals, as well.

When I worked at a well known deep dish pizza shop in college town, central Illinois...two pizzas would serve 12+ people and the bill would be outrageously cheap for families coming down from Chicago where everything is jacked up...they'd bring out their whole family, have some appetizers, pitchers of beer...two huge delicious pizzas...and I'd get $40 tips on $100 bills like it was going out of style. They'd look at their bills and laugh.

I'd look at the tip and laugh about how easy my life was.

that's a poorly ran restaurant. I've been a restaurant manager in the past. We had a policy for parties of 8 or more they get 18% added. No exceptions. It was the servers responsibility to come to the managers and get the gratuity added. If they didn't, they got written up. 3 write ups in 6 months for the same thing = fired.

ROFL

Come on man, that's beyond silly.

Seems about right for CP.

You should receive much better service at an expensive restaurant than a lower end restaurant.

I wait tables at a steak and seafood restaurants. I consider myself a very good waiter, and I know that if that wasn't true, I wouldn't have my job. I am the only waiter at my restaurant with less than 10 years of server experience. (I am only waiting tables through college) I worked at 2 restaurants back in high school, Chappell's in NKC was one of them. I can assure you that the servers where I work now are better than any of the servers at ether of the restaurants that I worked at in Kansas City. We also provide a lot more services. Tables automatically get water, every meal gets a salad (which the servers make) and fresh bread, fresh ground pepper is offered with each course, and we package the leftover food. You won't get most of those services at Applebee's. You will never have an empty glass or empty plate in front of you, and you will never have to flag down your server for your check. I am disappointed if I do not make more than 20% in tips at the end of the night. I also tip out 30% of what I make to the busser, bartender, and kitchen staff.

If you are getting equivalent service at IHOP as you do at Jack Stack, the person at IHOP should be looking for a better job, or the person at Jack Stack should be fired. I quit going to IHOP because the service was so poor.

Nah.

I'd take it off as manager if they had a good reason to complain. If the service was truly bad and the server was at fault, the auto grat is off.

However, our menus CLEARLY stated that parties of 8 or more would receive an 18% gratuity and we stuck to that and I'd stick up for my employees 10 times out of 10.

You don't go to work, have your section hoarded by a group for 3 hours, and not get tipped. That's not right when you make $2.13 an hour.

And you know what...and my managers used to use me as an example when servers would complain about their auto grat being removed...I was the go to guy for big groups (I loved working them, I was good at them) and I never once had any person (no matter what race, religion, social standing) ask for a manager to remove the auto-gratuity. They would ask ALL OF THE TIME about what it was and I'd say "oh that's the gratuity that is added for groups of 8 or more" and you could tell some of them were annoyed but no one ever complained because people aren't liars...

they weren't going to throw me under the bus after they just received IMPECCABLE service because I know who the bad tippers are and who the complainers are so that's when I give them the best service they could ever get because that's THE ONLY WAY to keep them quiet...

and they'd test me in any way you'd ever know how...they'd get their meals and "not like it", so I'd get them something else and they "wouldn't like it" and I'd never budge, just non-stop apologies and kindness until they finally gave up because they knew I wouldn't break.

It was the easiest job in the world. I just don't let those kinds of people get to me, ever. When people gave me a hard time I'd use the "at least I'm me and they are them" logic 10 times out of 10. I'd rather be their bitch for 1 hour then have to go home to whatever it is they went home to that made them so miserable.

I tip well, but have noticed more lately (maybe I'm just getting crotchety) some ridiculous establishments hinting at tips.
The worst;
The new self-serve yogurt places.
Let me get this straight. I get a cup, fill it myself with delicious yogurt, then I spoon the perfect mix of assorted ingredients over said yogurt, followed by me weighing my flawless concoction, so that you may push a button in a register, so I can pay. And you want a tip? Seriously?

well I guess you didn't work in a restaurant that would do $50,000 in sales on a Saturday night...

that paperwork would be impossible

and I doubt you worked as a restaurant manager as well; you don't know enough about the business. You're always so full of shit.

I'm different. I have no problem throwing a $1 in a tip jar at a Baskin Robins...those people have truly shit jobs that pay them maybe $0.25 more than minimum wage...if anyone deserves $5-$10 at the end of their shifts, it's those guys. I agree tip jars are lame but man, I wouldn't want to work at a Baskin Robins.

On a slower week night, I would prefer a large group. On a Friday or Saturday when I can keep a full section and turn tables over quickly, I would rather have the smaller tables. Large tables (>12 people) rarely tip more than 20%, whereas I average more than 20% on small tables. I have only placed automatic gratuity on one large party, and that was because I was advised to do so by a member of the party.

I had a realization last year that since I don't drink I don't tip as much. So if I'm in a sports bar or pub-type restaurant and I order the ribs, salad, and soda, I'm a lower-dollar tipper than the guy at the next table who ordered the ribs, salad, and two beers, even if we tip the same percentage. But I'm probably just as much work.

So I'll ask the people with restaurant experience. Do I get sneered at if I'm the 10 percent that doesn't order alcohol? Am I perceived to be a "cheap tipper" even though I tip the same amount?

I'd honestly never thought about this, but it really started bothering me. I've even started upgrading my tips if I'm in a place where most people are drinking alcohol.

LMAO Yeah, those are the worst.

the smaller the bill, the bigger the % of tip you receive

you know, even busy restaurants don't prefer large groups for the linger factor...(on busy nights)

The rule is you don't necessarily tip on booze, just the food section.

I understand what you are saying though. But if policy is to add gratuity for 8 ppl or more. You can't pick and choose which groups to add grat to. That makes you look bad too, because say a party came in one time and didn't get grat'd and then they came back and did with the same number of people, they are gonna be like wtf?

lol, yes you should tip on booze.

nah water drinkers don't bother me one bit...and I also don't think of water drinkers as cheap, either

but if you watch a football game for 3 hours and I refill your drink 5-10 times...you should probably tip on bill + an hourly rate in all honesty...

I'll sit at BW3 for a Chiefs game and drink water and if my bill is $15 I'll usually leave $10 if I'm there for the whole game since I took an entire table out of someone's section...and even then they probably still aren't making what they deserve.

We'd go to our bar, drink $15 $1 beers and eat once...have a $25 bill and our hot waitress would wait on us the whole time (5+ hours on football Sunday) and we'd all give her a $20 tip to make it worth her while. They LOVED us there. Of course, it's a townie bar and we were the only football regulars for their Sunday ticket...and lets just say by 6 PM things got a little out of control.

But yeah, you should tip on time seated as well...which some people don't get.

This is true but not a lot of people follow that.
I remember a time when one of my buddies sold a $500 bottle of wine and was showing off to all the other servers -- the table (two top) had a $100 meal (minus the wine) and tipped $20 :)
He learned a valuable lesson that night

Actually you can. I've only ever added gratuity once. Servers at my work pick and choose all of the time. Our menu says that gratuity is added for tables of 8 or more, but our manager only adds it at the request of the server.

It depends on the booze. If you each ordered a beer or a glass of wine, then tip 15-20% on the entire order. But, if you had $100 in food and a $300 bottle of wine (extreme case), you don't need to do 15-20% on the expensive bottle of wine. Just look at the effort involved in just bringing a bottle to the table (as opposed to taking order, bringing out food, refiling drinks, checking in periodically, etc), it doesn't make sense to tip 20% for that.

totally agree

I'm a bartender and don't really enjoy the % aspect of it either, if I make you 4 frozen margaritas, while taken up time from my other bar patrons, and the total is 12 because they're on special, a $2.40 tip would not be sufficient. I don't care if it's "20 percent."

Rarely do tips get on my nerves in any aspect. I only look at tips on large bills, because it's some what exciting to see what you earned.. I am more concerned with the restaurant manners many American's do not possess.

It's simple, if you follow these rules, I do not care what you tip.

1. Be polite
2. Don't downgrade me to make your self feel more proper and wealthy (I work at a higher end bar/restaurant)
3. Don't complain about how strong drinks are.

It's really that simple. If people were simply like this, I wouldn't care the difference between %15 to %20. It's the people that are unbelievably rude, who don't tip, that make me hate people.

for people that want 3 beers and only want to tip on the 1st...

just open a freaking tab and tip at the end...

I tab it all the time because I hate tipping only $1 and it saves me money to just tip 20-25% at the end of my tab.

bro...4 margaritas isn't worth more than 20%

and if you think it is, then how about all of the 20% tips you get (or more) for popping open a can of beer?

it all evens out...that's what most tipped employees don't understand and what irritates the **** out of me

Seated time was my other realization. The sports bar I went to this year was ludicrously cheap. I'd get an appetizer and a meal and water and it would come to like $12. So I'd give them a $10 tip because I felt guilty for sitting there for three hours.

I really want to give this restaurant some free consulting. They have no expensive menu items to bring the average bill up, and they don't serve any desserts, and they do unlimited chips and salsa if you buy it for $4. I go in there and as a non-drinker it's almost impossible for me to spend more than $15. My wife says they don't care about me because they're more interested in selling booze, but I still think they're leaving a lot of money on the table by having a poorly planned food menu.

who cares if someone is an asshole to you? Are you ever going to see that person again? That's what I never got...

If I'm ever a waiter again feel free to be a jerkoff to me...it makes me laugh more than anything. I used to crack co-workers up when they'd see someone try to be an asshole to me because I would literally let it roll of my shoulders SO MUCH that the person would get even more mad because they wouldn't understand why they didn't get some sort of reaction out of me...

Who ****ing cares?

that's why I said I'd hate to be a server at BWW on a Sunday because it's just awkward...everyone is there to watch football and after they are done eating if they aren't drinking it's just...awkward. You have no idea if they need service, if they need a check, if they want another drink...

but it seems like you have all the principles down pat...regardless of how much you hate them!

I agree with you though...I used to laugh myself all the way to the bank as a server. It is a very, very flawed system.

One of my good friends worked at a baskin robins throughout high school. That was good enough for her. She didn't want to do anything more than that. She still lives with her parents working at baskin robins 12 years later. Some people are just set in their ways regardless of their pay. Sucks because she could be a great server since she has to interact with kids all the time and when a sever gets the kids happy and quiet the tip really reflects the job well done and she doesn't know what she really can make in money at a real job.

I'm not making fun of those people...I just would never do a job for $9 an hour. Those that do, I don't mind throwing a $1 their way for serving me some badass ice cream. Whatever.

I doubt I spend hundreds per month on beer. Consistently anyway. I don't drink beer every day, and I rarely have more than one beer when I do drink. And I tend to tip 20% and no more. And I came up in a single-parent home with that parent being a teacher in a rural school district. No silver there.

not saying you were. just saying don't feel sorry for them and tip them $1. some just are comfortable where they're at. regardless of tips or getting paid minimum wage. Like her.

pay up bitches

It just doesn't add up. Plus the shoe collection. Tell us, Reaper! Drug dealer? FWIW I'm pretty much a silver spooner.

word up! I hear ya!

because people spend money on beer and like to buy shoes they are a silver spooner? Maybe he has a job?

Yeah but he also spends all that time in academia. Im just curious

Maybe if he didn't throw so much money at somebody who doesn't exist, he'd be able to afford tipping somebody who does.

What does giving a tip have to do with giving a tip?


Stupid ****s

Like you're dream man Thigpen? He doesn't exist the way you think he does. That must have been what you were REEFERING too.

It's interesting to me to think about career progressions. When I was 15, it was a big deal to work at Dairy Queen. While we may think of Baskin Robbins as a low-level job, it's quite the experience to the 16 year-old kid for whom it's their first job, so they take it very seriously. I think the system works well in that regard, and it's a good reason to be respectful of the kid behind the counter.

I'll admit that I feel bad, though, when I see a 40 or 50 year-old behind the counter. I figure they either had a bad career setback or they don't live a very prosperous life. It sure does mean that they have a work ethic, though.

Reaper bugs me because he thinks he's better than everyone at everything while also knowing more about everything than everyone.

It doesn't surprise me that he thinks waiters at 5 star restaurants do so much more than waiters at "Applebee's" because they tell you their special, wear a tuxedo, and pour your wine while saying "sir" and "madam"...

Reaper has so much class!!!!!!!!! He even knows how to watch movies better than us!