Gratuity - is it Gratuitous?

[Timewalker]

At some point, I'd be finding a staff member and asking if there's anyone there interested in taking my order.

The Olive Garden is nice, though. I wish my city had one.

 

[Jedi_Master]

At some point, I'd be finding a staff member and asking if there's anyone there interested in taking my order.

The Olive Garden is nice, though. I wish my city had one.

We were so pissed that we couldn't imagine giving them their money, but it was our honeymoon so we got over our frustrations rather quickly.

I have slowly grown tired of The Olive Garden. When I was a kid it was the high class place to eat, but they don't make their own pasta anymore, the bread sticks don't have any butter, etc.
It just feels cheap.

Living in Florida, you are subjected to virtually every chain restaurant in the country, so unfortunately you can tire of them rather quickly.

 

[Taylirious]

I thought most places have a hostess or at least someone to greet people?

 

[Jedi_Master]

I thought most places have a hostess or at least someone to greet people?

Oh the hostess took us to our table, just once we were sat we might as well have been on the surface of the moon.

 

[doubleohfive]

My brother is a waiter, so I'm well versed in the daily frustrations, the hard work, and the kind of shitty "Mr. Pinks" out there, so I always make sure to tip at least twenty percent when I'm out, at the bare minimum. Barring one egregiously bad encounter at a bar in my hometown about two years ago, I've never strayed from this pattern. And even then, when I discovered that the waitress at that bar had actually gone and adjusted my tip on the receipt in her favor, I ultimately let it go. Yes, it was really awful service (she spent most of our time there conversing with her friends, and almost ignoring our table) but at the end of the day, it was just a couple of dollars, and I didn't really feel like it was worth the hassle or the trouble to correct.

 

[Jedi_Master]

My brother is a waiter, so I'm well versed in the daily frustrations, the hard work, and the kind of shitty "Mr. Pinks" out there, so I always make sure to tip at least twenty percent when I'm out, at the bare minimum. Barring one egregiously bad encounter at a bar in my hometown about two years ago, I've never strayed from this pattern. And even then, when I discovered that the waitress at that bar had actually gone and adjusted my tip on the receipt in her favor, I ultimately let it go. Yes, it was really awful service (she spent most of our time there conversing with her friends, and almost ignoring our table) but at the end of the day, it was just a couple of dollars, and I didn't really feel like it was worth the hassle or the trouble to correct.

Wow. That's generous of you.

That kind of behavior is a firing offense. In fact one of my ex-coworkers 'adjusted' tips for over two years. It was always strange to us how he could make $50 or more a night on average, but he finally got fired when one brunch shift he made $450 bucks - almost all of it fraudently. For example he turned a $10 tip into a $40 tip.

 

[Kemaiku]

No. I don't play your wage, either get a better job or open a Kickstarter, idiots throw millions of their money away there everyday, just scam a few out of enough for your rent every month or something.

 

[Jedi_Master]

I can't tell you how many times I heard someone say "Get a better job". The best part is that I worked less and made more money than most of the idiots who said stuff like that.

 

[doubleohfive]

My brother is a waiter, so I'm well versed in the daily frustrations, the hard work, and the kind of shitty "Mr. Pinks" out there, so I always make sure to tip at least twenty percent when I'm out, at the bare minimum. Barring one egregiously bad encounter at a bar in my hometown about two years ago, I've never strayed from this pattern. And even then, when I discovered that the waitress at that bar had actually gone and adjusted my tip on the receipt in her favor, I ultimately let it go. Yes, it was really awful service (she spent most of our time there conversing with her friends, and almost ignoring our table) but at the end of the day, it was just a couple of dollars, and I didn't really feel like it was worth the hassle or the trouble to correct.

Wow. That's generous of you.

That kind of behavior is a firing offense.

Well, don't get me wrong - I was furious (for about four seconds) about it when I figured it out. But I figured it out about two weeks later, when I was checking receipts against my bank statements online after I'd returned to California after the holidays. Facing the prospect of calling up the restaurant and tracking down the manager and dealing with this when I was already back in California and working at my (at the time) very well-paying job, I just didn't feel right going after some college kid trying to make ends meet. I don't excuse what she did, and I certainly agree it's a fireable offense. But there are enough people out there who she might do this to that will follow up and report her. I just didn't want to be that guy.

In fact one of my ex-coworkers 'adjusted' tips for over two years. It was always strange to us how he could make $50 or more a night on average, but he finally got fired when one brunch shift he made $450 bucks - almost all of it fraudently. For example he turned a $10 tip into a $40 tip.

Wow, that's really bad. Glad he finally got his due. I'd only spent about $25 or $30 and my waitress had marked up my tip to around $8. All told it wasn't that big a deal to me. $40 on a $10 tip though? The balls on that guy!

 

[Kemaiku]

I can't tell you how many times I heard someone say "Get a better job". The best part is that I worked less and made more money than most of the idiots who said stuff like that.

Ah, so this is some personal superiority complex job, fine. I work for Vodafone, fucking people out of money is how I make all of my comfortable income, and yes I sleep at night just fine thanks.

Making 44 billion Euros being a "slow year" and paying about as much tax as Amazon makes for some goooooood profit margins passed down.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Wow, that's really bad. Glad he finally got his due. I'd only spent about $25 or $30 and my waitress had marked up my tip to around $8. All told it wasn't that big a deal to me. $40 on a $10 tip though? The balls on that guy!

Oh he was a con-artist. He had a sense he was going to get caught, so that last day he went for broke. My fellow employees got together after he was fired and we found out that combined we had given him or his wife at least 2 grand in the year and a half he had worked there, on top of the free rides, gifts for his son (who had legitimate health issues) and other gifts we had given him because he needed "help".

One of the women who worked with when he first started got a call after he was fired from his wife. She claimed he had left her and their son, and she needed a place to stay. The woman was a nice person and said "Sure you can come over and we can talk about the situation". Later that day the woman came home from work and discovered this guys wife and son and all their stuff sitting on her porch. They managed to stay in her house for three months, eating her food and using her utilities, until she finally figured out a way to kick them out.

 

[LordMudd]

A tip is recognition of a job well done. If a person just expects a tip and does not earn it, that bothers me. I remember my first job at a grocery store. We would get this group of people every 2 weeks who would buy all of their groceries, 3 baskets of bags, and you had to navigate all 3 of them out yourself. It was also not unusual to get a $20 tip. Now grocery stores don't allow tipping or sackers to take groceries out to the car for you.

CCC.

 

[Kemaiku]

You know what? the recognition of a job well done is the wage you're paid. If you can't do your job well enough to get that, you're fired.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

A tip is recognition of a job well done. If a person just expects a tip and does not earn it, that bothers me.

What if it was renamed as a "service charge"?

 

[Mudd]

A tip is recognition of a job well done. If a person just expects a tip and does not earn it, that bothers me.

It's basic income for workers in certain businesses.

In the case of most businesses which you might frequent, if you're unhappy with the staff you don't get to decide that they don't get paid. You would take your concerns to management, and management would - get this - manage their employees. You might choose not to patronize the business again, but you don't get to deny employees their wage.

Most of the world gets along fine without this stupid system. What's wrong with Americans, that they can't "get it?"

 

[Taylirious]

In retail with big box stores & large grocery chains customers offer tips for doing the job I was/am paid to do, alas I have to refuse the tip. The policy for every retail chain.

 

[MacLeod]

A tip is recognition of a job well done. If a person just expects a tip and does not earn it, that bothers me.

It's basic income for workers in certain businesses.

In the case of most businesses which you might frequent, if you're unhappy with the staff you don't get to decide that they don't get paid. You would take your concerns to management, and management would - get this - manage their employees. You might choose not to patronize the business again, but you don't get to deny employees their wage.

Most of the world gets along fine without this stupid system. What's wrong with Americans, that they can't "get it?"

Don't some make more with the tip based system than they would earn making minimum waage? Of course in other countries whilst they make at least the minimum wage, they can still recieve tips.

 

[Jedi_Master]

A tip is recognition of a job well done. If a person just expects a tip and does not earn it, that bothers me.

It's basic income for workers in certain businesses.

In the case of most businesses which you might frequent, if you're unhappy with the staff you don't get to decide that they don't get paid. You would take your concerns to management, and management would - get this - manage their employees. You might choose not to patronize the business again, but you don't get to deny employees their wage.

Most of the world gets along fine without this stupid system. What's wrong with Americans, that they can't "get it?"

Because Americans are taught that if they work hard, and excel, they have a good chance to "make it", to "get to the top". So that server or bartender instinctively knows that if he or she is given a standard wage, that's as far as they will go.
However, if they are responsible for what they make, then if they work as hard as can, and are good at what they do then there is a chance they can make their way to the top. Or something.

America has enshrined the concept of "opportunity" and "hard work will make you rich", and servers and bartenders buy into that concept. It's frustrating.

 

[Mudd]

Don't some make more with the tip based system than they would earn making minimum waage? Of course in other countries whilst they make at least the minimum wage, they can still recieve tips.

Yes. My admittedly limited experience has been that smaller gratuities or service charges are customary in a lot of places where service people are being paid under a more sensible system.

 

[Mudd]

Because Americans are taught that if they work hard, and excel, they have a good chance to "make it", to "get to the top". So that server or bartender instinctively knows that if he or she is given a standard wage, that's as far as they will go.
However, if they are responsible for what they make, then if they work as hard as can, and are good at what they do then there is a chance they can make their way to the top. Or something.

America has enshrined the concept of "opportunity" and "hard work will make you rich", and servers and bartenders buy into that concept. It's frustrating.

And yet despite that in most jobs people are paid a defined wage.