Anyone else here work in a restaurant and have a table go really far south where you can tell they are upset; then just say fuck it because you don't feel like putting in the extra effort and figure you will get a bad tip anyway, so you just ignore them?
So when you're doing a terrible job you just dig in and do an even worse job? Are you trying to make sure they don't come back? Also, if the server just apologizes, stops giving shitty service, or just in general doesn't act like a raging dick head I'm usually still willing to give a decent tip.
I was a server for years. If shit wasn't going right, I confronted it head on and nearly ALWAYS salvaged the situation. Sure, it meant I worked harder, but I would still get tipped well....
I tip more towards the attitude of the server than whether or not they hurried and/or tried to refill my coffee five times. I'm not talking about those poor assholes in your umpteen family restaurants down there wearing the stupid buttons and who smile at you without using their eyes, but servers who are down-to-earth and at least give the impression that they don't hate waiting on you. They make small talk, they kid around with you, they apologize if things take long. A little charisma goes a long way in my opinion. It just shocks me at how big of assholes customers can be. It is my dream to own a bar, but I imagine that owning/running a restaurant is nothing short of a red nightmare. If I owned a restaurant I would probably become famous as the first restaurant owner in history to massacre his own customers. I'll be honest here: I have never sent food back in my life. I'm not picky with food, but when I see food getting sent back...then sent back again by the same person, I want to slit their cheeks open ("Glasgow Smile") and shove the entire ceramic plate in their mouth like a jammed coin. If you don't like the way other people cook, DO IT YOURSELF RETARD and stop making the people at the restaurant with you share the title you earned of "That Table".
I don't scale or prorate my tips. If you're good and I like you, you get 20%. If you're shitty and don't do your job, you get nothing. You don't like some customers and can't fake it when their being jerks? Don't be in a customer service position.
No, no, no. The instance I was thinking of was from when I was 21, working in a college town Ruby Tuesday's. The restaurant would get busy and the kitchen and the bar would both crash. If you have worked in these types of places, you know what that is like. The drinks are slow, the food is slow......the customers who have never worked in a restaurant have no idea what is causing it. It started happening so often I would get tired of it. I was graduating and didn't care, so I would just let the manager deal with it. If the dumb bastard couldn't staff a restaurant properly then he should face the reprecussions. I was leaving, I wasn't making any money and it was his business to save.
Funny, I wrote a rant about the whole tipping/shitty service thing a couple of days ago, after Li'l Bandit and I got shitty service at a restaurant. Here it is: "You know who really grind my gears? People working in the food service industry who complain about tips, or lack thereof (I'm going somewhere with this, just hold on). I know A LOT of people who work in that field, and I can't say that any of them are enthused about their job (Granted, I've never seen any of them working; I've only heard their complaints)... And in the (EXTREMELY RARE) occasions that I eat out, it doesn't seem like the servers enjoy what they are doing either. Unenthused worker = shitty service. I almost always tip (it's probably been 10 years since the last time I didn't), and I never complain about the service or food WHILE I'M EATING because I'm afraid of the server or cook spitting in my food (DON'T EVEN TRY TO TELL ME THAT NEVER HAPPENS). Question: If I get shitty service, why should I tip a red cent? The answer I usually hear: "BUT BANDIT, WE ONLY GET PAID $2.15 AN HOUR! OUR LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON OUR TIPS!" I can understand that, and I have a plan for you: Instead of bitching and moaning, which accomplishes nothing, how about you and your friends/coworkers get a movement together, and get a lobbyist for the state legislature to get the wage for food-service workers brought up to minimum wage? Did you know that the wage is decided by the states? Did you know that California* and other Western states pay thier food-service workers a real minimum wage? *That adds a whole new level of realism to Mr. Pink's rant in "Reservoir Dogs." He was right the whole time." End of story right there. I used to work in the food service industry, and at one point was the main floor waiter at a high-end private club. I will never do that again. I'm not an ass-kisser, and I can't fake being in a good mood. So instead of having the gall to complain about customers actually wanting good service, I got into a different line of work.
I waited tables all throughout college and I hated it. But you can't deny that the money is there if you are reasonably good at it. But I was tired of being a slave so I went to hosting instead. And with hosting, I soon realized that they alone, have the ability to crash a kitchen if they are not careful or if they seat the restaurant like a total retard. But with great power comes great responsibility. If the manager on duty was being a total twat bucket to me for no reason, I would seat the restaurant too quickly and overwhelm the kitchen to the point of crashing when the place was only half full. There really is nothing like watching the manager come running out of the back waving his hands and screaming "DON'T SEAT ANYMORE PEOPLE FOR AT LEAST 10 MINUTES!! JESUS CHRIST!" Cue all the hungry old people trying to start an uprising because they look around and see 25 open tables and no understanding why they have to wait. It's the little things.
I've waited a lot of tables - and still do. I can't remember a time where a table went really bad and I gave up completely. You suck it up, do your best, and sometimes there's no saving a situation. A lot of times, it's not your fault (bar is slow in getting drinks, kitchen is slow in getting food, etc.) but you're the one on the line. That part of the job sucks. But it IS part of the job. If I have assholes (which doesn't happen very often at all) I resort to 'By The Numbers Vanilla Server' - just what you have to do. You check back, you smile, you do your best, then bitch about it in your off time. Luckily, most places I've worked I haven't run in to many assholes. And as a server, I firmly believe that if the service is shitty, you don't deserve a tip.
I stopped tipping/going to places that you are "expected" to tip. Honestly, it's a fucking hassle I don't need to deal with. If you want me to pay your employees extra for their job, add a surcharge on the bill and let me know beforehand. I understand the fact that servers make almost nothing, but until they collectively refuse to be paid well below minimum wage, the vicious cycle of being underpaid and relying on people to tip you well is going to continue. My biggest gripe about tipping? People who scoff when I don't put down a tip in a restaurant, but won't even blink in similar customer service situations where tipping isn't expected, but follows the same general principle of why people tip in a restaurant. It's a ridiculous double standard.
How does this work? Does this occur when the restaurant is short on staffing? Because otherwise I don't understand how things could slow to a crawl when the place isn't busy.
I have a restaurant question. I'd like to hear an answer from people who worked in the food service industry. I was at what you might call a slightly awkward dinner the other day. Well, it was really only awkward for me, as the whole evening was taking place in Vietnamese with a few polite questions thrown at me in French. And it occurred to me that I might be able to ask the waiter - with a few folded 20 dollar bills in my hand - to very quietly replace my water with vodka to make everything a bit more palatable. I could have easily asked him in English without anyone knowing what was up. I didn't, but the thought of it was intriguing. Have you been asked to do things like this? Is it considered insulting? What kind of tip would get that shit done? What steps should I take to ensure that a healthy dose of saliva isn't delivered alongside?
Is there anything more stupid than seeing that tip jar at Starbucks? They literally work half as hard a McDonalds employee, except instead of Free Smiles, they tell you how much the movie you're about to take your date to sucks and they could have directed it better. Like you deserve a tip at your worthless job where you virtually help nobody and never walk more than six feet? I'll give you a "tip": you deserve one if you wait on me, but you're not waiting on me. I'M waiting on YOU. And they wonder why Tim Horton's kills them up here.
Random tip jars annoy me. It seems like a lot of places like to put them up and hope suckers are dumb enough to throw money into them. And then some tool will give me a look when I get my food and don't put any money in the jar and I want to punch the guy in the face - the only thing you did was grab my slice of pizza and put it on a paper plate, so don't act like you actually did something requiring skill or effort, motherfucker.
So, can we have a poll on Xbox One or PS4? I like how the internet just shit itself without learning anything remotely useful like price, release date and how long it will take to hack.
You just pointed out my exact complaint with people who don't tip in one place but do in another. What do waitresses do? Take your order, wait for it to finish cooking, pick it up and bring it to you.
You may receive backlash for that one. Serving is a pretty stressful job depending on context. And they make a lot less then minimum wage, usually. Tipping is their living.
Lets say its about 430pm and the place is mostly empty. A few stragglers here and there. A majority of the morning staff is gone and the evening crew is coming in. Old people like go eat early before the families with kids. We generally got an early rush around 5 but this is before most of the staffing arrived. Typically, you want to pace the seating so the kitchen and the servers can handle the incoming orders. If I felt like I was being mistreated by the boss, I would just go ahead and seat in rapid succession. And you can't make them wait for more than 2 minutes for a glass of water. They are all diabetic after all. Before you know it, the kitchen gets like 15 orders in 8 minutes and its all downhill from there.
The one time I remember throwing my hands in the air and saying, "Fuck it!" was when I waited on a group of 15 who enjoyed watching me work. It started out fine: greeted them, got drinks ordered, started them out on bread and olive oil...then they started asking for about a dozen things every time I came by. Every time I dropped off a ramekin, they asked for about 3 or 4 more things. After about my 4th trip in a row back from the kitchen, I very loudly and jokingly asked the entire table if anyone needed anything at all. Of course, half of them did. This went on through taking their dinner orders. I was a little annoyed about how high maintenance they were, but I gave them the benefit of doubt and figured that they couldn't really help it. The next time I went to the back another server told me that they overheard them laughing and taking bets about how much they could make the "little white girl run tonight". That was it. I stopped giving a shit. They had everything they needed- they were just being dicks. I spent the rest of the time they were there in the back and only came out to drop off their food and refill drinks. After all of the nonsense, why would I have done more? I was getting the 18% gratuity and they had plenty of food and drinks. I was a waitress, not a monkey to run around for their power-trip amusement. Fuck people who act like that.