The Tipping Point
The next time you're considering deliberately withholding a gratuity from your waiter -or intentionally leaving less than 15%- I ask you to think about a few things first before you embark on this drastic maneuver.
First of all, if you are considering leaving anywhere between 0-14%, there must have been something that went wrong or was not handled well or was not to your liking...Are you certain that whatever has upset you is, indeed, your waiter's fault? Because if not, it's truly unjust to reduce her/his income for something that was completely beyond her/his control. For example, if s/he was incredibly busy and running around, but you think that your food took a long time, it probably wasn't your server's fault. Think about it. Waiters don't make the food, waiters pay attention to what you ordered and communicate that to the kitchen. After that point, it's out of their hands and if the food takes awhile, that most likely = kitchen's fault, not waiter's fault, so don't dock the waiter's pay for that. If they're super busy, then they're very likely doing their best and isn't that good enough? What about when you're really busy at work doing whatever it is that you do and suddenly you find yourself with more work than usual, do you think it's fair when people get upset with you for not being as fast as you usually are? Of course not. Would it be fair to dock your pay if all of your work is not getting done as quickly as usual due to an increase in business (or someone calling in sick and you have to pick up their slack?)? No, of course not. So don't do that to your waiter. They don't deserve it any more than you do. And remember, waiters have to pay taxes on their tips whether they make them or not. That's right. The IRS presumes that waiters are making tips on every table and waiters are expected to pay taxes on a certain percentage of their net sales regardless of how much they actually made. Bear in mind, too, that waiters are required to distribute a portion of their tips to other workers (many of whom never pay taxes on their tips, but that's another rant altogether): bussers, hosts, bartenders, sommelier, expediter, kitchen, etc. These folks expect their due cut (and are entitled to it) no matter what percentage of tips the waiter has accrued.
And what if the service really is lousy and it really is the server's fault? (i.e. you saw your food sitting in the service window while your waiter chatted away with the hostess, all the while oblivious to your cooling food slowly becoming less appetizing while you sat...) Well, this is why restaurants have managers and owners and you should speak to them and let them know what went wrong. Merely leaving a crappy tip will not effectively communicate anything and will certainly not incite a behavioral change on the waiter's behalf.
And remember: if you can't afford to tip, then you can't afford to dine out.
5 comments:
What's a sommlier?
Remember when we ate at Morton's and that guy who was not our waiter opened our fabulous bottle of wine for us? Well, he's a sommelier. And that waiter probably gave that sommelier $10 out of the tip we left him just for opening that one bottle for us.
(reposted because, apparently, I can not spell)
"For example, if s/he was incredibly busy and running around, but you think that your food took a long time, it probably wasn't your server's fault. Think about it. Waiters don't make the food."
More than likely it isn't, but it COULD be. The reason: For instance, I have had servers take my order, but go get 2 other table's orders(which may be tables of 4 or more people sometimes) BEFORE going to the computer to put the order in. So if the server took up 5 minutes to take 2 tables orders, THAT IS DEFINATELY the SERVER'S FAULT 100% that their food got DELAYED 5 EXTRA MINUTES than necessary. Let's say if my husband and I are out at a table. You are the waiter. You take our food order, but go to 2 other tables to get their food orders as well, is that really FAIR? NO it's NOT. You SHOULD go to put the order into the computer RIGHT AFTER you've taken the order UNLESS someone else's order is ready that had ordered BEFORE us, then that is COMPLETELY understandable because they ordered BEFORE us. I've had to wait from 4:45(after we placed our order) until about 5:25(which I think it was even later than that), to get ribs and a sandwich at Bennigan's, because this bitch waitress kept doing EVERYTHING ELSE BUT putting our order in and the damn computer was LITERALLY RIGHT NEXT TO US. So the food taking long was HER FAULT COMPLETELY. There's NO REASON to delay a customer's food like that. I feel if we just ordered, unless there's another order that is done, the order should be put into the computer so the cook can KNOW to start cooking it. If they don't know to cook it, HOW WILL THEY COOK IT WITHOUT A TICKET?
So I DON'T agree about that it's the kitchen staff all the time that's at fault from food taking a long time if the server doesn't go put in the order as soon as they can. Some servers just decide to go get 1 or 2 tables orders and go put them altogether into the computer, but think of the minutes it takes to take a party of 4's order for instance even. The waiter may be asked questions from the customers and some customers don't know 100% what they want. So all this takes TIME away from the food to get STARTED either cooking or being the NEXT dish to cook on the lists.
"Would it be fair to dock your pay if all of your work is not getting done as quickly as usual due to an increase in business (or someone calling in sick and you have to pick up their slack?)?"
The difference is, customer's AREN'T employers, so there is NO LAW that people have to tip. I DO TIP, usually 20%-25% range if I have great service. I have though given zero tips before for horrible service. The server deserves nothing for ruining my meal. Bringing the completely wrong entree to my table is a pretty bad mistake. Overcharges too are pretty bad. The server should profusley apologize for a huge mistake as well as tell the manager so they seem caring enough to make an effort to solve the problem for a next time and ask the manager if they could take something off the bill for the customer's inconvenience. MOST servers don't even say their sorry when there is a huge mistake. I will leave zero tip in those instances. Servers can have the decency to say their sorry or if they don't, FUCK THEM as far as their tip goes. Be nice and I'll be nice back in the tip. Be mean and uncaring, I'll be just as uncaring in the tip.
"Merely leaving a crappy tip will not effectively communicate anything and will certainly not incite a behavioral change on the waiter's behalf."
It may not make a person change their behavior, but maybe they will change professions when they see people aren't tipping them for their horrible service. You tip well for poor service, then when you have that SAME server again, they will treat you just as poorly, because the server KNOWS GUARANTEED he or she will get a tip NO MATTER if they ignore the customer or they try to overcharge the customer or not be attentive at all. I say "TREAT OTHERS THE EXACT WAY YOU'D LIKE TO BE TREATED." There is NO WAY I'd give a tip to someone that is mean to me. I'm NOT an employer, so it's NOT MY JOB to pay them. I REWARD good service with tips. A tip is to "TIP-TO INSURE PROPER SERVICE". TIPS are for good service, NOT so the server can be LAZY or not CARE if my food is right or if they've overcharged me. My husband and I both have gotten overcharged seriously. I got overcharged almost $11 on my credit card when the waiter rung up the wrong table. He NEVER apologized and when I went to get him by interrupting another table that he was taking an order from(because it was a serious overcharge) he IGNORED me, so I IGNORED his tip. I had to get a manager and the waiter came over when the manager was returning my money on my credit card. The waiter repeated the order EXACT, meaning he was trying to STEAL from me. He didn't even apologize. See, if he had friends there at another table, he could have given our CHEAPER check to them and let them pay the cheaper bill. So it very well COULD have been theft. I feel, for him not to even say at least 1 sorry is HORRIBLE. We were going to give him $6(he did ok, but not spectacular) on a bill that was around $36. He RUINED it by not even apologizing or trying to go fix it RIGHT AWAY. See if I would have been the server, I would have told the current table "I'll be back in a moment, sorry about this, but I've made a mistake on someone's bill." Then I would have went get the manager and told the customer that I was really sorry about that. I would have also asked the manager could we give something to the customer for their inconvenience of not being able to leave right away. He acted like he didn't give a shit, so I didn't give a shit about him. This was at Applebee's in 2003.
"And remember: if you can't afford to tip, then you can't afford to dine out."
I CAN afford to tip, but if people can't be nice, FUCK THEM! They DON'T deserve pay from a NICE and DECENT customer. Be nice to me and I'll be nice back. What's really wrong with feeling that way? A little RESPECT goes a LONG way.
Um, yeah. Like I said at the beginning of the second paragraph of this post: are you certain that whatever has gone wrong is, indeed, your waiter's fault? So if you have a waiter taking orders at five tables before putting any of them into their computer, then that is a stupid/inexperienced waiter who is setting themselves up for disaster and the time delay is, of course, her/his fault.
I didn't say it's NEVER the waiter's fault, I said that it MIGHT NOT be. Sheesh.
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