Sounds like a fun job, and I would definitely enjoy the good food part. I have often wondered about the different ways some restaurants distribute tips and hourly pay. It seems that there is no real standard practice among restaurantuers.
I worked all positions in the Restaurant business from dishwasher to beverage/service manager (bar) and was due for my own store (General Manager) before I left the business in 87. I always tip well but what pisses me off more than anything else is when something is wrong with the service or the meal and all they want to do is comp the ticket. I ate the food dealt with the service , let me pay for the services but please take some action to correct the problem. Buying someones meal is the cheap and the wrong way to deal with a lot of the food service problems customers face. I f it takes 45 minutes for your meal to get to you you have a problem in the kitchen. either no one is ensuring prompt service or who is can not do the job properly. We as I'm sure most Restaurants had standard for delivery of menu item Apps 4-6 minutes, lunch 8-12 minutes and dinner 12-16 minutes and a punch clock to time them, if there was more than 6 tickets on the wheel the KM was expediting to ensure the food got out and it was correct.
I feel ya there and I agree. That's one of the things I like about the Restaraunt I work at. The have standards for times and are good at working hard to resolving problems. We have 1 min to greet and deliver chips/salsa to the tables, and 2 min to deliver drinks to the tables. 10 min cook times unless it's mesquite, which runs 15 min. There's a lot of little details and requirements that I really like about this restaraunt compared to others, but like most any waiting position, the women make better money, especially when we have drink specials.
To tip or not: There is this great rib place in town. One half is a restaurant the other half is a sports bar. I call in an order to go, total is about 40 bucks and take-out pick up is at the bar. Do you leave a tip?
what about something like "Outback curbside pickup orders, do you tip?
While we are on the topic---what about "Chinese Buffets"? Every time I have seen a tip left it gets stuck either in the cash register or in a can below the cash register. Which to e means the owners are pocketing it and the servers (imagrent girls?) get nothing.
I always tip by doubling the tax (here in Tennessee). It's 9.25%, which comes out to 18.5% tip. It's easy to figure, and I round up so most of the time I'm in the 19-20% range.
That being said, I think it's absolutely an ASININE practice. If someone hires someone to do a job, THEY should pay them. I'm not their employer. I'm not sending them a W2. I should not pay them directly (unless they are self employed).
Then there are those places where you don't know if you should tip or not. Like Sonic. They bring you your food, but it's a fast food joint? Tip or not? What about a buffet? You get your own food....should you subtract money from the bill based on how well you served yourself? What about the person who refills your drink? Should they get 20% for pouring liquid?
I've even been in a McDonalds where they told me "take a seat and we'll bring your food out to you". Do you tip them?
Then there is the bagger at the grocery store. I never let that person carry my bags because I'll be damned if I'm paying someone to walk to my car. PUHLEASE!!
What about the car wash? There is always a tip jar, but I just paid $25 to get my damn car washed...how much more should I pay?
The way I see it, if you choose to work for $2.00 and some change an hour, shame on you. And yes, I've worked at a restaurant. I worked washing dishes at O'Charley's when I was in college. We were supposed to share in the tip pool along with the bussers and hostesses. The only money in the tip pool was what got put on credit cards. If someone left cash, it when right in the servers pocket and never got reported.
What happens if you get really lousy food? That's not the servers fault. It's also not their fault if the kitchen takes forever to get your food out. So there are times when you have to pay more for bad food or service simply because the server wasn't at fault.
Don't get me started on other service professions such as trash removal, hair stylists, massage therapists, and others. Do you tip them? The place where I get my hair cut has a tip line on the receipt. I know people who leave their trash men extra money if they have a lot of trash.
You do bring up a good point with the kitchen staff.
Unfortunately, besides seeking to have your meal comped, the only recourse the customer has to voice displeasure with a poorly run kitchen is to leave bad tips for the wait staff.
It's an indirect process. If the manager can't get the kitchen to pull it together, he or she'll continue to hemorrhage wait staff until they fix the problem. The wait staff will move on to a better run restaurant.
Truth is.... It all goes back to greedy companies. They pay employees less because they can and most of America has come to understand a tip as a normal thing.
It's good and bad depending on where they work.
Personally I tip $5 when me and the wife eat out. Tickets vary from $18 to $25 in most cases and I normally just leave a five. We rarely eat any place that's high class, so I can't tell you what I tip then :-)
unless it's crappy service! Then the bucks fall off! But Im talking service not quality. If the food sucks, I know not to return. If the waitress is a #%+=! then she don't get much from me!
Posted on Wednesday, December 30, 2009 - 04:05 pm:
I work with a couple of guys that think it's OK not to tip at lunch, I never go to a place where we are served with them anymore. And they have a hard time wondering why, Cheap bastards!
Posted on Wednesday, December 30, 2009 - 05:06 pm:
I could keep this thread going on forever because there's so many things to discuss. I don't necessarilly want that but there are some things that I want to touch base on, taking into consideration some if the recent posts.
Let me offer a different point of view. A lot of people mention that the restaraunt should pay a fair wage to the servers. While I can understand your lamentations, have you considered what would happen if servers were paid minimum wage? Several things would happen: 1. It would be a constant battle for management to keep the waitstaff focused on Guest satisfaction. After all, what motivation do they have to refill your drink before you run out? Sure, Mgt could offer raises for good servers, but where would the money come from? Which leads me to 2. Food cost would skyrocket if other things stayed the same. No server would prove themselves capable of handling a 5 or 6 table section if they make about the same money only handling 2 or 3. Thus, Mgt would have to keep more servers on the floor to ensure service to the guests, which would raise labor, and ultimately food costs.
So let's look at servers in a different light. Instead of thinking of them as someone else's employee, think of them as your employee. After all, they are essentially a salesperson of service, food, and drink, to you, the guest/customer. They are hired to work for basically commission. The commission rate is based on the good faith in the guests to pay them a fair rate based on their service. They are working for you to ensure that you are completely satisfied. Really, this is the ideal way to get the server focused on your needs. This also gives the server motivation to strengthen their skills to run, efficiently, more than a few tables at a time, which helps the guests, server, and Mgt.
I've got more to say, but I'm distracted now, so I'll finish later.
