Friday, January 14, 2011

A Comment on Comments

A recent post about tipping out generated over 50 comments. It was a real shit show. Of all the comments, one stood out to me and it needed to be addressed. I had mentioned that through the course of one night, I had made about $500 in tips. The whole point of the post was that I only kept about 35% of that due to the exorbitant amount of tipping out that happened. I walked with $173 which is a good night for certain, but a big pill to swallow knowing that so much of it went to other people who required tips too. Anonymous had this to say:

$500 that night just for filling my water glass and carrying a plate to my table? I’ve lost all sympathy for wait staff. From now on I will not tip at any restaurant. Add the gratuity to my bill and I’ll stand up on the table and make a scene until it’s removed. You don’t deserve that amount of money with your attitude.

Again, I did not get to keep all that money. It also went to bussers, bartenders, food runners, pimps, whores, lions, tigers and bears. So now this guy thinks it's alright to never tip again in any restaurant he goes to. That'll work out great for you, sir. I am sure that by the third time you pour your bucket of 1000 Island dressing ass into a booth at your local Applebee's, they will recall that you never tip and your service will be non-existent. And when you go into Hooter's with your office buddies to celebrate the big 5-0 and they add a 15% tip to your table please let me know. I really want to be there when you haul yourself onto the table to make a scene until they remove the tip.

Your argument makes no sense either. Let's evaluate it, shall we? You think that since I pulled in about $500 that night which ultimately paid many more people than just me, you should not tip anymore. I made $173 for my nine hour shift which is about $19 an hour. A far cry from $55 an hour if I had kept all the tips for myself. How would that work if you went in to Macy's to buy your year supply of Dockers® for work? They must be about $30 each pair and you need five pairs, one for each day of the week: khaki, brown, tobacco, caramel, and wood chip. With tax, that would be about $162.38. But you don't want to pay it because that guy who helped you find your size (42X28) didn't work hard enough to receive $162.38, right? So you say, "Hmmph, I want to pay twenty bucks for all these pants because that's enough for the amount of work you did. Hmmph! And can you tell me where the nearest Chili's is because I want some baby back ribs and an Awesome Blossom." It's stupid, sir.

So good luck with your plan to never tip again. And make sure you tell your friends about your plan too so that when they are going out as a group they will know not to invite your cheap sorry ass to join them.





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44 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very nice, agreed on all points!

JimL said...

What seems exorbitant is that you walked with less than 50% of what you earned in tips. That seems really excessive. How many people do you tip out and how much?

artfoodboozeDC said...

There's another important side to this. Customers just don't get how much work it is sometimes to keep your water filled, when they're weeded for instance. There are so many times when perceived "little" service is actually above and beyond what a really shitty server might be able to manage in a really busy time. Busy or not, you're sitting your butt down and getting waited on. Pay for the convenience, and be thankful that another human being has agreed to serve you (with there always being a possibility of little to no tip!) How's that for making a living?

Kalei's Best Friend said...

OMFG, I guess u gotta consider the source of the person who commented anonymously... Too chicken shit to post their real name? Little does this person know how being a waiter/waitress is damn hard work.. I've never been one but I certainly know the b.s. u all have to put up with!.

dohhead said...

Bitchy, if you posts weren't so damned funny....I suppose I could really feel sorry for you. But you have a writing gift. I empathize with your tipping plight...I can just picture the fat f--k, all red-faced from his 5 minute walk from his padded office chair. Arrogant sack of s--t. I hope he has a coronary the next time a paid hooker is straddling his girth...Cheers mate!

kiminiminy said...

In the State I live in, it's actually illegal to tip out or split tips because the restaurants will use it as wages to the other employees who weren't doing the tipping jobs.

thormoo said...

The moron has obviously never worked in any kind of service industry before. Hey if you made that original amount it tips, so be it, I'd be happy for you. Can't people just be happy for someone else's good fortune for a change? Like $500! How f**king cool is that?! Whoopee! Must we always tear people down, it makes me sick! People like him just don't get it...I suggest he watch someone wait tables at any nice restaurant on a busy Friday Night,it's complete and utter chaos! I sure as hell don't want to work that hard AND always have to be professional & nice to a bunch of whiny, ungrateful customers. You deserve and earn everything you get and probably more!

Stephanie said...

People really irritate me with their attitudes on tipping. I've never been a waitress, but I still can sympathize. I worked in a flower shop as a designer and it's amazing the hoops poeple will make you jump through and want it all for $9.99.

J.J. said...

What a genuinely wonderful D-Bag! I could feel my blood boil just starting out reading.

I was a server for less than 6 months in BFE, Michigan - NOT NYC - and still had a nervous breakdown. If that fatass could keep up 'shadowing' you, or just trying to run behind you, dealing with prick arrogant cooks (my husband was one of those - how we met, actually - not the prick but the arrogant cook part), yelling at you if you write an order wrong, or a bartender screaming at you to fill the ice and wash her glasses and you still have to tip her even if you didn't serve any booze all night, and little high schooler bussers who don't pre-bus when they are supposed to and you have to tip them too, even if you bussed all your own damn tables, having some other b-word server stealing tables from you while you're filling all her stupid condiment cups and rolling silverware and she pretends like she doesn't know anything about rotation, plus the super huge effing joy of scrubbing loogies out of urinals at the end of the night while simultaneously being sexually harassed by the bosses buddy who is allowed to stay after close and doesn't want to wait til you're done scrubbing the piss-pots - yeah. I did all that shit making $2.50 an hour plus tips, and MOST nights only made enough take-home to drive to work and back the next day.

I effing hate people.

HENCE why I am not a server now, and why I leave the fattest 100% tips for servers if I have anything under a $15.00 bill, and tell off restaurant managers who scream at servers anywhere in my viscinity. Yeah, I'm a prick PLENTY, but not tipping is not an option.

RAWR!

Poisonne said...

I love that attitude -- "I don't like one person, so I'm NEVER going to tip anyone EVER again".

This is why the world is in the sorry state it's in; people are so all or nothing, especially about everything that isn't about them.

I suppose the guy who tips is an angel, never has a complaint about anything -- oh, wait. He's complaining about tipping and this blog. This blog that, to the best of our knowledge, no one's forcing him to read.

What a dicknugget.

BB said...

Well that Anonym-ass is just that!

Noelle said...

Clearly this ass needs to put on an apron and get under a tray. Wrap 4000 roles of silverware, marry 50 bottles of ketchup, remember, order, tray up and serve up some good chow. Make change bus a table put away endless racks of glassware. All with a nice pleasant smile and short chit chat. Pretty sure if this anonymous idiot is identified in any restaurant he will starve or be poisoned. Don't go out dumbfucker.

Much of the whole point of going out to eat is to be waited on. I like it and I will pay for it.

Jeremy R said...

While I always make sure to tip my servers well, I always found myself being a bit spiteful toward whenever I was working.

Being a cook, I've always had a bit of animosity toward FOH employees... mainly due to the amount of money one can make. I think though, that it's mainly due to the fact that most cooks in my town are never paid what they're worth (ESPECIALLY with the bad economy right now).

I've since learned to deal with it, and even treat servers well (when I work that is. I always treat them well when being the customer).

I think most folks don't realize that there are a few things that can screw with a server's money, most of it NOT the server's fault: food took too long, wasn't how they wanted it, customer is just a dick, or the ever popular: "They make too much money as it is!"

You're right though, there are things that cut into your profit at the end of the night, tip outs being the majority of it (the bar tab at the end of the night being the next).

So, do I think you should've kept the $500 you made? Damn right. Should folks get angry about it: sure, but it's almost always out of envious anger. We wish we could work one night and make $500.

So all in all, do what you do, keep making your money (however big or little it may be), and the folks who don't "get it" can fuck off.

Lolamouse said...

Haters will hate, whiners will whine, and non tippers will get lousy service eventually. What goes around comes around. Don't let the jerks get you down. If he didn't complain about you, he'd be on someone else for something else. Wait staff have a really tough job. We ALWAYS tip 20 percent, especially since learning that you guys don't even make minimum wage!

Doug and Mary Ann said...

This kind of person probably doesn't tip their hair dresser, pizza delivery person, maid, bell hop, sky cap, etc. This kind of person probably doesn't ever give a buck or ten to the homeless guy on the street. This kind of person probably never shows kindness. I'm practicing my gratitude and I'm glad I'm not this guy.

CarrieMarie said...

yeesh! i really don't understand how ppl can be such jerks about tipping!
argh!

hed said...

Fuck him, Bitchy!

People also forget that in some states servers make as little as $2.13 an hour. They LIVE on those tips.

I don't know what the wage is in NY but I know that with the cost of living there $173 is probably pennies.

hed www.hedabovewater.com

Corey Wilkey said...

oh palese. he probably only tips a dollar anyway. not that big of a lose, in my opinion, but you are right. he is going to have non existent service before too long.

Silvia said...

I've always tipped at least 15% and nowadays that I can afford it, it's at least 20%. Basically because I believe what goes around, comes around.
That said, I hate & don't understand the tipping system. If I get a bagel & coffee at a diner, I'll tip at least 50%. The server is working at least as hard as if I had ordered a stack of pancakes. Why does a filet mignon get the server more than a burger? It's still one plate.
Like I said, I think the system is unfair to both the server & the customer but I'm not about to start my own private revolution.

Allan said...

I'm curious to know, what are your thoughts on comparing the services of wait staff from one restaurant to another.

For example, if you served a family at a chain restaurant and busted your butt refilling a dozen drinks while managing numerous tables all at an average total bill of $50 per table...do you feel that you worked harder for your tips than say someone who works at a high class steak house (call it average bill of $400 per table)?

I sometimes struggle to give 20% gratuity when spending $200 for a meal since a $40 tip is pretty big for the same "effort" of service as say eating at Chili's. I would typically tip a little less (say 15%) when the bill is over $200 since the absolute value of the tip ends up being significant. Am I flawed in my thinking?

i'm interested to hear both sides of the argument

Bitchy Bartender said...

I think the REAL message that was clear and needed to be addressed was how this tipout system is illegal and needs to be reported. Just because you no longer work there doesnt mean it's too late. Let the labor board know about it, and they'll have to investigate. You owe this to your former co-workers, not to mention servers everywhere. This restaurant needs to be made an example of.

Rima Kaur said...

you should be an economist

Sauce said...

I hope that *when* he comes to Hooters and has a tantrum on the table it's at my Hooters. Then I can not only double the amount of blogging about his general ability to suck, but I can also give a completely accurate written depiction of his cellulite rippling over his waistband as he attempts to haul all that lard onto a table. That's double the blogging for one douche. Go us.

But seriously, the people with that attitude suck so much. Here's the thing, not every day is a $500 day. Hell most servers probably NEVER have a $500 day. Because one (awesome) server makes $500 once does NOT mean you can stop tipping for the rest of your sorry existence.

Bottom line, if I make $10 or $1,000 you STILL need to pay for your service. Tipping may be an antiquated system, but this if fucking America and that's just how we do shit. Be a man and give me my money.

Server At Arms Wife said...

Restaurants should stay out of the tip-outs. Servers should decide themselves what the tip-out should be dependent on how well THEY were treated by the bartender, busser, etc. Servers work hard enough and when the rest of the staff or a portion of it isn't, then they don't deserve the 1 or 2% that they think they should get. If you have to pre-buss your own table, than why should an SA get a large tip-out?
As a chef who worked NYC fine dining, before getting smart enough to work privately and make more and annoyed less, tip-out should mean the same thing for the workers that it does for the customer: To Insure Prompt service.

Jamesrfitz said...

So my father who is 85 years old and remembers years of buying a cup of coffee for 10 cents and a full plate lunch for under a dollar (and does not quite understand the concept of inflation), insists that he can only tip ten percent for religious reasons. He insists that he only gives God 10 per cent of his income, so he cannot legitimately tip more than 10% of a restaurant bill without incurring God's wrath. I have tried explaining the economics of tipping to him. I have pointed out that his logic makes NO sense. My mother pats me on the arm and says, "Honey, the only reason he says and does such things is that he is one greedy and stingy cheap-ass." So if you get a 10 per cent tip from some three top after working your ass off to please the oldest of the trio and a half hour later the beleagured younger man comes back into the restaurant looking to give you, your other ten percent, plus a couple of bucks to make up for the time feeling angry, you know it's me.

chase said...

First, to require that might tip out is not legal, Sorry.

Second, you make it sound like the other people did not deserve tip out. Even though it might be a lot, you have no right to make it sound like the other restaurant workers don't deserve money as well.

Maybe you should speak to management or find another place to work.

Or do not tip out the other people so much and see how that works out for you.

Anonymous said...

Chase, you obviously don't get it. Tipping out isn't an option. It's mandatory. So the host, that all they did was walk people to a table? They get your money. The bar, when they didn't even make you personally any drinks, gets your money. The person that takes your food to the table if they beat you to it, gets your money. The last one is the only one I consider fair. Why? Bartenders earn a hell of a lot more than servers, most times. The host gets paid at least minimum wage, so I fail to see why they earn a tip from doing their normal, well-paid job to begin with.

Plus.....we all know the bartender that will make your drinks slow just to screw with how much you make anyway. Just for fun. So, the person bringing your food is lazy and slow, because they get their money whether they're efficient or lazy, and are also paid minimum wage. Same story with the bartender. They get their money regardless. Same thing with the host. So you are the only one in this situation busting your ass and trying to hurry like fuck, and are the workhorse of the establishment, get paid the least, and then have to pay the lazy fuckers for actually causing you to earn less money? Oh yeah, it's totally fair.

Becoming Mommy said...

$175 in tips is horrible! the amount in tipouts you have to pay is ridiculous.

Maybe people out here tip more, but I did better than $175 at Friendly's. You seriously need a better restaurant, dude.

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