If you are the owner of a business you should think about how you treat people. If you go out to a restaurant and receive impeccable service – then tip well. If you bring your staff meeting to a restaurant and tie up a table that otherwise could have been turned over twice – then tip well. Because when you leave a 6% tip after gushing about how wonderful everything was….your server is going to be unhappy. Unhappy enough to not support your business and unhappy enough to tell others not to support it. I work as a server and send a ton of business to local establishments…. as a business starting up people like me are important to your success. Treat people with respect.
—Not sending them your way
This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2009.
maybe the guy can’t do math.
might also be a good idea to allude to the business in a post on a very widely read site.
you’re not doing a good job keeping business away from him on this one…
the bare minimum tip should be at least 12 percent. but some people with lots of cash are the cheapest fuckers on this planet. the more they have, the more they want to keep. even if a meal is only 12 bucks or so, and the service is good, throw a fiver their way. believe me, they will remember you next time in. and it works the other way also.
Yet another server who feels entitled to a minimum tip and then treatens to make the person;s life miserable for not leaving one.
Maybe you should quit complaining and get a new job then.
Maybe you should go back up to them and point out where a tip to your liking is mandatory. OWAIT.
In my former capacity as a server it was understood that tipping is NOT mandatory. Everyone tips differently, It all averages out at the end of the shift. No sense getting one’s shorts in a knot over it.
Bitching about a small tip is like bitching about a small lottery win.
To anybody who thinks a tip is mandatory or their entitlement:
Go fuck yourself. Honestly. With a very large spiked club or something.
-NGF.
I’ve never met a rich man who was a flagrant spender. That said, you get what you give and you get what you pay for. Your server is not there for the wage, trust me on that one.
Thats all a server is entitled to, kay. Doesn’t matter what they’re there for.
If they think they’re entitled to tips, thats their fucking problem.
I wish we could just do away with tipping altogether! This is a really North American thing – it’s worse in the US, but not nearly this bad in Europe or other parts of the world. In places like Australia, you’re not expected to tip at all!
jennier may also have a point: ever since that bloody Stephen Harper lowered the GST from 7% to 5% and the HST was therefore lowered from 15% to 13%, I can’t work out how to leave the proper 15% tip anymore! It used to be so easy. Bloody Harper!
yorkke: Worse, you don’t have to buy a ticket to get a chance at a tip.
Does anybody really need compensation for:
-writing a list/taking orders?
-bringing a plate to/from tables?
-pouring vodka/rum/gin with cola/lime/tonic?
-twisting off a beer cap?
In a restaurant, the kitchen staff is doing the bulk of the work.
In Europe gratuity is usually included on the menu price. Book an all inclusive cruise and often gratuity is included in the price…
If you don’t want to tip there are a plethora of McFood chains to choose from, Fat. Have at’r. (You get what you pay for.)
I will never understand tips, never. Why should a waiter passing plates get a bonus, when the dishwasher works their knuckles to the bone and gets nothing? Depending where you are, the wage might even be the same. I REFUSE.
I was once a dishwasher at a busy downtown restaurant. It sucked. Dishwashers are the bottom of the barrel in kitchens: they have to work the hardest, have the shittiest work, get paid the least, and get shit on the most by everyone else. It sucks sucks sucks!
Apparently though, you’re supposed to tip for service, not the food. I think the logic is supposed to go something like this: “well I, like, smiled a lot, laughed at his lame jokes, and showed some cleavage so, like, he better give me a good tip!”
Tipping should be a flat rate. I’ll try to explain- If someone paid for delicacy plate for say 35 dollars and leaves a five for a tip, then the guy next to them orders a burger plate for 15 and leaves a two dollar tip, and eat in the same allotted time. The waiter didn’t do anything different, why the difference in tip? We say it’s based on service but really it’s based on the price of the meal.
“as a business starting up people like me are important to your success”-I’m not so sure about that. But introducing his co-workers to your place of business is important to your success.
I guess he made a mistake of sending them your way.
I know a certain breakfast establishment named after a lady from Quebec… the back end staff (cooks/cleaners) and seating hostess get $1.50 per hour extra for tips and the wait staff take the rest. Hows that for “just plain wrong”, 90 % doing all the work for 10% to make all the money.
How is the practice of tipping so different from exorbitant commissions paid to front-line sales people? Nobody would have a job if the sale didn’t get made. Yes, that requires a team effort but you don’t go starving your best sales person, no, you throw more money at them to ensure they keep closing ensuring everybody still has a job at the end of the day. It has nothing to do with “who does 90% of the work” and everything to do with “who did the work first”.
You are all jerks. Tip your freaking servers. If you don’t, don’t expect service. I never served the jerks that cheaped out, they can stay home and make their own food and served their own drinks. And guess what? I got voted one of the best waitresses in Montreal by my clients. Says a lot about you that you can’t afford to leave a reasonable tip.
I personally believe it should be illegal for servers to be required to tip out, unless the restaurant
has a policy where the tip is automatically included in the bill. That way no minimum wage earner has to be out of pocket for those people out there who in many cases don’t know about the ‘tip out’ policy of an establishment.
I didn’t realize an award wining waiter was present. So, is that a weekly vote? Ah, regardless you probably have a nice cleavage line.
I must say the strip clubs in Montréal are some of the best in Canada.
qpmzwonxeibcruv,
is it really that difficult to slide the decimal one place (so 10%) … divide that in half (5%) and add the two?
it’s not fast math, it’s good math done quickly.
That said, I still tend to only tip the tax unless they go the extra mile for me.
Probably not, I just tend to get flustered under all the pressure. Call it “tip anxiety.” I often leave thinking “did I leave enough? Not enough? Too much? Did I even leave a tip?”
You guys are missing the point of the bitch. The bitcher was pointing out that if you are a business owner taking your staff out on a company function or something, you should remember that you should be making an effort to present a good public face for your company. And that means leaving a decent tip. Like it or not, it’s customary in Canada, and it’s noticed when you don’t.
I miss alot of things, but I thought it was entitlement. 6% on a large bill still could have been a nice sum. We’re in a recession right?
these days, most cellphones come with a handy dandy tip calculator. its pretty easy to use.
Yeah because one bitter server is such a threat to their customers’ businesses, you give yourself way too much credit. If a friend came up to me all pissed and told me never to buy shit from a business because the owner didn’t tip them enough I’d laugh in their face.
Its true, when you hear people bitching about a business its a good idea to take into consideration who they are and why they are pissed.
Oh, so some local business owner is a tightass. There’s a shocker.
The calibre of people who would choose to wait on people for minimum wage would be quite low without the tipping policy in effect. IF tipping was eliminated, the restaurants would have to increase the wage to attract high calibre people. Based then on their budgeting and financial forecasting, they would have to increase their prices to accomodate the increase in expenses.
People don’t open restaurants for the joy of making food and serving it to people. Anyone who opens a business is looking for a return on investment. Restaurants are lucky if they can realize a 5% profit margin from their sales and you might be suprised to discover how many restaurants fail to make any profit at all.
In some european countries, the gratuity is inlcuded in the bill. Their laws do not dictate that they have to show that, so it is hidden.
By having hte tipping policy instead of mandatory gratuities or higher prices to fator in wage increases, consumers have the ability to decide on their tip amount based on the level of service received.
The problem is, and the reason for resentment, is the belief that you have to tip regardless of the level of service. It is this approach to tipping that has also contributed to the decline in customer service, because now the servers don’t need to perform well and demonstrate professionalism in their service, they almost have an unjustified sense of entitlement where they think you should tip regardless of how well or poorly they did.
In order for consumers to receive a sense of value for the service, do not consider a minimum amount of tip based on a percentage of the bill, but rather determine during the course of the service experience, what would be appropriate based on the servers attitude, efficiency and attention to your needs and desires during hte experience.
IF they fail to deliver, let them know that you were unhappy by the tip you leave.
We tend to tip taxi-drivers a higher percentage of the bill for sitting and navigating the streets while talking on their cell phones and smelling like day old cheese, than to serving staff who, if well trained and professional, are providing an experience during a few hours of social time with friends and family and who greatly contribute to the overall experience by the manner in which they serve us.
My approach to tipping is I enter with the idea of a percentage of tip, say 15%, and that percentage can grow or diminish based on the level of performance and character of the server and support staff.
I will leave nothing, if I am upset with the level of service, or I may leave as much as 50% if I am blown away.
I have worked in the Hospitality Industry for over 25 years and when I was serving or bartending, I did not regard gratuities as standard or mandatory, but something I had to earn with each and every guest I had the priviledge of taking care of while they were with me.
Marco Kelly
wow. bitter much Macro?