Pet Peeves on the side of the waiters/waitresses

Pet Peeves on the side of the waiters/waitresses Sept 27, 2018 19:57:53 GMT

Quote

Post by dirtypillows on Sept 27, 2018 19:57:53 GMT

Sept 27, 2018 9:47:58 GMT Toasted Cheese said:

Sept 26, 2018 4:20:05 GMT dirtypillows said:

Of course, people aren't obligated to tip, but it's kind of an understood thing that tipping is part of the deal. Unless the service is exceptionally bad, I would never even consider not leaving a tip. I think not tipping really is an asshole move.

I remember once a customer left a waitress (this was when I was a busboy at the the Olive Garden) a nickel for the tip. She was not a bad waitress and she had a decent personality. But obviously she was also hot tempered. When she saw what the customer left her, she grabbed the nickel, ran out the door and threw the nickel at the customer and said something like "you can keep your fucking nickel!" and then was promptly fired. I know she wasn't professional, but I felt bad for her.

Sounds like her temper got the better of her. Although she only got a nickel, that was the prerogative of the customer. How did she know that customer had anymore to give her? They might have been stony broke themselves. That nickel might have been given with as much of a generous gesture that the customer was able to afford. Or by the flip side of that coin, if she did have a hot temper, she might have displayed some rudeness to the customer and they may have felt she wasn't worthy of their tip. She certainly wasn't entitled to receive any tip at all and while it is an expectation, is this an unrealistic expectation? Prices and taxes are listed on the menu and bill and that is all a customer need pay. They are being placed under undue and unnecessary pressure because of the US custom, or so called etiquette of tipping. Is this really ethical?

I think this is the likely scenario, Toasted Cheese, because she did have a hot temper.

And I guess that tipping is just more of a cultural thing. I know people who carry around a paper tipping calculator, so they can decide how much they want to leave and do the numbers and then tip whatever. Almost everybody I know tips between 15-20% for adequate to good service, so it's just mostly kind of this understood thing over here. I never really even thought to question it. But I could understand when my friend said that (over in Europe), you just didn't really tip because it was sort of insulting to the server, but at the same time I was curious who would ever choose to be waiter in this case (as waiting tables can be very hard, demanding, draining work) at such a low pay rate. Who would choose that job? (You might as well get yourself a paper route.) At 2 or 3 dollars per hour, you wouldn't have enough money to fill your car up with gas to get to work, let alone survive.