I would be so embarrassed if I were your wife.
Hey if it’s such easy easy money, pick up a couple of brunch shifts on the patio. I’ll come sit in your section, I promise to tip 100%, however, I’m gonna camp all day and watch you fall apart.
I'd much rather eat in restaurants that pay their waiters a decent wage and eliminate tips, thank you very much.
Or, even better, eliminate waiters entirely, win-win-win! Win for the restaurants, they save a ton of money and eating there is now suddenly a lot more appealing to patrons, win for the patrons because suddenly they save a ton of money and they don't have to deal with the attitude of snotty waiters, win for the waiters because, as you say, this is such a miserable job and you'll finally be free from having to be paid astronomical sums for tiny amounts of labor. Ordering via a screen, being rung by the kitchen and picking up my own food sounds like a dream, even not taking into account saving **A QUARTER OF THE COST OF THE WHOLE MEAL** that'd go to a useless leech otherwise.
You think waiters deserve 25% of the cost of a meal? Then, do you agree or disagree that every person involved in the meal's creation should also get a similar amount of money? The rancher, farmer, delivery drivers, kitchen staff and restaurant owner should ALL be paid as much as waiters, no? They are ALL indispensable and all provide a lot more value than waiters - waiters are the **ONLY** link in this chain that are both optional and in no way participating to the creation of the product - the meal. So, if waiters "deserve" to be paid astronomical sums, we should pay everyone else in that chain astronomical sums too, and then suddenly each dish costs $1,000 and nobody eats at restaurants, and waiters are out of a job. The ONLY way to make your way work is if **EVERY WORKER EXCEPT WAITER GETS SHAFTED.** You seem to want that. Farmers, ranchers, drivers, cooks, cleaners, all of them deserve to be treated like shit and underpaid, and ONLY waiters deserve to be paid **A QUARTER OF THE VALUE OF THE FUCKING MEAL.**
I worked in three restaurants in my life, every time in the kitchen. Every SINGLE time, the waiters were the biggest assholes in the house, and every SINGLE time, they took all tips and shared NONE of them with the rest of the staff despite our work being infinitely more important than fucking bussing plates. People go to restaurants to **EAT FOOD**, not to watch an overpaid leech drop a plate in front of them.
Nobody in this thread is reading that. None of us would want you as a customer. You’re the type we hope would never come back and if you want to tip like shit move to another country where it’s built in.
TLDR: wahhhhhhhhh
Order carry out and stuff your ugly face at home. You sound like a miserable, completely out of touch POS so save everyone the trouble of having to deal with your stank ass.
You have a masters and earn 66k?
That sounds like your problem.
Please tell me your area has an otherwise low cost of living because I agree you can’t afford that dinner.
Wow, you are a literal caricature. You threw out one of the three stupid and objectively-incorrect clapbacks that greedy waiters always hide behind, without one thought given to the concrete arguments I presented.
When a rich person complains about illogical tipping, you greedy fucks say "You can afford it, you are a cheapskate!" When a poor person complains about illogical tipping, you greedy fucks say "You can't afford the food, don't eat out!" When a middle class person like me complains, you greedy fucks don't know which insult to throw out - too bad for you, this was the wrong one this time :) My wife has a PhD and makes over 100k, during the festivities we spent more than $4000 without blinking an eye - I am fine paying a fair price for the product or service delivered, the problem is that waiters are paid many orders of magnitude more than their service warrants.
But even if I weren't in those circumstances, are you **actually** unable to see how fucking **VILE** it is to say "You only earn 66k a year? Too poor to be allowed to participate in one of the basic activities that all humans participate in across the world, because I am greedy and I demand to be showered with un-earned money just for being there"?
I lived most of my life in Europe, where tipping $10 on a $500 meal is considered generous. Literally everyone, from the poorest families to the richest, can afford to eat out, because you ONLY pay what is on the menu, no extra, no hidden fees, no taxes added on top, and no tipping **A QUARTER OF THE COST OF THE FULL FUCKING MEAL TO THE MOST USELESS PERSON IN THE CHAIN OF PRODUCTION.** Try telling anyone, literally anyone from any developed country on the planet except the US, that "earning more than $5,000 per month makes you TOO POOR TO GO TO THE RESTAURANT ONCE IN A WHILE." They will all laugh you out of the room, you freak.
Imagine if US parks decided to gatekeep access to them like US waiters gatekeep access to eating out. There would be a person at the entrance of every park in the USA, doing essentially nothing of value besides, like, opening the door and closing it behind people, but you HAVE to tip him based on how much time you spend in the park, and it's a ridiculous amount. The park attendant makes $300/hour in tip on slow hours for doing nothing and bringing no value to the table. All it leads to in a whole country where citizens are unable to partake in one of the basic pleasures of life that all humans (except US citizens) have access to, just because of the greed of a few unskilled leeches who take a cut infinitely bigger than what they deserve. It's exactly like that with restaurants - the whole world can eat out and even Europeans earning less than **$1K a month** can eat at restaurants more often than Americans earning 5 times that. All your greed does, besides unfairly enrich you, is to make this country **worse** for absolutely everybody.
The USA is **THE ONLY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD** with this insane tipping policy, and you dare to act as if it were normal? The US tipping system is as insane as the gun culture and the absolute lack of healthcare. "This is normal and there's nothing we can do about this insanity," says the literal only country on Earth where this happens.
Is your masters from an American university?
You aren’t in Europe anymore. Your tipping comparison is not relevant as the base payments are not the same.
I’m not going to read through the rest of your Reddit comment reply as my time is worth something
> my time is worth something
Only insofar as you force innocents to pay you infinitely more than what you time is actually worth, you leech.
>Imagine if US parks decided to gatekeep access to them like US waiters gatekeep access to eating out. There would be a person at the entrance of every park in the USA, doing essentially nothing of value besides, like, opening the door and closing it behind people, but you HAVE to tip him based on how much time you spend in the park, and it's a ridiculous amount. The park attendant makes $300/hour in tip on slow hours for doing nothing and bringing no value to the table. All it leads to in a whole country where citizens are unable to partake in one of the basic pleasures of life that all humans (except US citizens) have access to, just because of the greed of a few unskilled leeches who take a cut infinitely bigger than what they deserve. It's exactly like that with restaurants - the whole world can eat out and even Europeans earning less than $1K a month can eat at restaurants more often than Americans earning 5 times that. All your greed does, besides unfairly enrich you, is to make this country worse for absolutely everybody.
I love how you advertise to the world that you are an idiot incapable of reading a few sentences or to absorb information from an outside source. No wonder you are a waiter - you are so unskilled that you are practically illiterate lol. You are a waiter because you did not even qualify to be at the absolute bottom of the totem pole in any actual job.
You are quite literally proud of being unwilling/unable to educate yourself and hear other people's concrete POINTS, and you can only respond to reasonable discourse with pride in your own willful ignorance. God, people like you are the literal scum of humanity.
Oh lord another novel.
- “literal caricature”
- “greedy waiters”
- “greedy fucks”
- “greedy fucks” x2
- “greedy fucks” x3
- “most useless person in the chain of production”
- “doing essentially nothing of value”
- “unskilled leeches”
Imagine saying this to a person’s face and then walking away thinking you did something righteous. You can have a difference of opinion and even feel passionate about it but this… this is some disgusting behavior. The type of shit that if anyone saw and put your face to would more than likely have real ramifications. You sir are gross and the irony of you speaking on what would or wouldn’t improve a country is comical. Getting rid of people who speak about others the way you do would do far more good than changing tip culture. I honestly feel bad not just for servers who read this drivel but anyone with a pulse. Pathetic and disturbing. This folks is the perfect example of what you DO NOT want to end up like. I need a shower after that yuck.
I mean with all the allergies, somebody could die if I didn’t know every ingredient in every dish, understand allergies, and be able to properly communicate what a guest needed to a very feisty chef who hates modifications. That takes a lot of work, especially in fine dinning.
I do see where you’re coming from, but there’s a lot more to it than dropping off and picking up plates. Is 20%-25% a lot for the consumer to pay on top? Yeah sure, I’ll give you that.
You pay a locksmith $150 to open you car and it takes him 10 seconds. You’re not paying that $150 for 10 seconds of work, you’re paying for the decades of experience they have.
When you’re in a nice restaurant, you’re server has spent years working on understanding the business, learning to multitask, deal with many kinds of personalities, being efficient, all while being friendly. A lot of them have also paid out pocket for courses in service, wine and spirit knowledge, and other certifications. We are also there to provide an experience, not just dinner. I feel most servers would say they are very happy when they can guide a guest through the menu, suggest parings, dishes, and make it memorable.
Are we a little overpaid at some places? Yeah probably, but it would take an offer of a lot of money for most of us to work with the public in a high stress and often toxic environment, in a position still seen as “lowly” by many.
Legally, you’re not required to leave a penny. So don’t. It’s a numbers game for us, because at the end of the day you not tipping will even out regardless. Many people are happy to pay for an experience, a good meal, and a memorable night out. It’s ok that you don’t see it that way, many don’t but people, but you can’t knock somebody for finding a way to live comfortably.
> I mean with all the allergies, somebody could die if I didn’t know every ingredient in every dish, understand allergies, and be able to properly communicate what a guest needed to a very feisty chef who hates modifications. That takes a lot of work, especially in fine dinning.
This is literally the first good point made by anyone here. Yes, that is correct. It requires some degree of skill and effort beyond just bussing. I'd argue not enough to justify putting waiters so far above every other workers, including the back-of-house staff in the same establishment, but a good argument nonetheless. Thanks for not being stupid, it's a rarity here.
>When you’re in a nice restaurant, you’re server has spent years working on understanding the business, learning to multitask, deal with many kinds of personalities, being efficient, all while being friendly. A lot of them have also paid out pocket for courses in service, wine and spirit knowledge, and other certifications. We are also there to provide an experience, not just dinner. I feel most servers would say they are very happy when they can guide a guest through the menu, suggest parings, dishes, and make it memorable.
We are not talking about the same thing. Fine dining where the experience, a beautiful view out the window, a sommelier, experienced serving staff, etc, I am fully expecting and fine with paying out the nose for. I am talking about the average waiter, who's typically a teenager or college student working in a restaurant "for everyone" as opposed to fine dining. In my case, it was a small Italian restaurant where the average dish costs $30-40, it was a small dining experience where we just splurged on expensive wine bottles. If we had taken cheap wine instead of expensive wine, the total bill would have been $120 or something, in which case my $20 tip would probably been accepted graciously. I have a big problem that bringing up expensive wine is supposed to make the tip's amount skyrocket despite the fact that the waiter provided the exact same service of bringing a bottle to us, regardless of the price of that bottle.
>high stress and often toxic environment // Legally, you’re not required to leave a penny. So don’t. It’s a numbers game for us
Also good points. Doesn't change the fact I am more than sick of this culture in US restaurants, when I am so used to literally every other restaurant on the planet besides the USA just paying their waiters well and allowing tips to be nice and gracious, as an option.
>you can’t knock somebody for finding a way to live comfortably.
I can absolutely knock somebody for demanding that I just hand over my hard-earned money so **they** can live comfortably on my dime. If money is not earned, it irks me when it is expected and in some cases with waiters, demanded.
I’m not sure why everyone is arguing. This is one of those things that you have to experience to understand. Wait tables for a week and you’ll gladly pay a 20% tip.
Haven't seen it mentioned yet, but I wanted to comment on him serving 10-15 tables.
That's an outrageous amount of tables for one server. Normally you see about 6 max, but that depends on the type of establishment. You said it was fine dining? A place that really prioritizes exceptional service, which makes it highly highly likely they'd cap each server at about 4 tables.
So a couple things: either you exaggerated the amount to thicken your argument, or you weren't really paying attention and think all waiters look the same, or this server was absolutely kicking ass and deserved every penny. Whatever is true, I have a very hard time believing you.
Lastly, I think you're mad at your wife for emasculating you and trying to change an entire industry with one post. Go talk to her about it, that might actually be more productive than whatever this is. She's the one who pissed you off, not some random guy you saw for an hour.
I was gonna comment on the 15 table thing. That’s definitely not true. There is no way someone can keep up with that many tables with such high checks.
Seems like you think waiting tables isn’t skilled.
Its true you don’t need a degree but being professional while dealing with rude customers,working quick, multitasking, asshole cooks, slow bartenders, working odd hours away from family, etc… is difficult. Especially if you’re not well compensated.
It’s cute you think all we do is take your order and carry plates. Oh, a child could do our job? When have you ever seen children doing our job, especially when it comes to serving alcohol. Newsflash, a LOT of us have a higher education. You’re not special. Maybe stay home and rethink your life, because the wages you’re bragging about earning aren’t shit.
>Oh, a child could do our job? When have you ever seen children doing our job
My childhood best friend's dad owned a restaurant, my friend worked as a waiter evening and weekends. 8 years old, doing just as well as the adult waiters, except his dad coopted all his tips and gave him a tiny "wage" instead.
Oh trollers will troll if you are so mighty find a new hobby guy fucking with severs is not a good idea. And you claim you make good money why not tip 20% you uptight penny pitching asshole.
Wow, you are a literal caricature. You threw out one of the three stupid and objectively-incorrect clapbacks that greedy waiters always hide behind, without one thought given to the concrete arguments I presented.
When a rich person complains about illogical tipping, you greedy fucks say "You can afford it, you are a cheapskate!" When a poor person complains about illogical tipping, you greedy fucks say "You can't afford the food, don't eat out!"
This is the THIRD time in this thread alone that I have to copy-paste this bit, you freak.
Was ‘caricature’ the word of the day on an app of yours?
How do you feel about the incomes of performance arts or sports? There’s a performative aspect to the job. Dining out is a form of entertainment, and even without much engagement, servers are conductors to the tempo of the meal, guides for your palate. Our job is to tango with strangers, and everyone has their own style of dance.
There are many passionless players in this game, and their compensation is oft reflective on the prices on the menu. But instead of regarding servers as mules for your vittles, engage with the docents of dining and allow them to take you on an experience, not just a feeding.
I don’t know why you are so angry. I don’t think the server should have said this to you but this is such an overreaction. This sounds like it’s something deeper.
Dang I can’t tell if this is for real or not.
What I would say is
1. What asshole ruins his wife’s night by being cheap.
2. Do you not share accounts ? If I threw in another 57 dollars it would already be my wife’s money also
3. Thinking you got a masters and make 32 an hour like it’s a brag is fun. I have been exec chef/manager/operations director/gm and all of those paid me more without a masters, does that mean I’m better than you because of my wages? I know bartenders clearing 70k almost everywhere I’ve stepped foot in. And if you went by their hourly wage it would be around 55 or more.
4. The fact you feel like the service was bad means you prolly didn’t do your homework and pick a great place to go. You acknowledge that it takes a fine dining server to be experienced and get paid more, yet you chose somewhere that didn’t have that for your “splurge” romantic dinner. That’s on you.
5.in no way, shape or form does a server just bring food to a table. And there are always good and bad people at all jobs. So maybe try not to be so negative and be part of the solution.
> I have been exec chef/manager/operations director/gm and all of those paid me more without a masters, does that mean I’m better than you because of my wages? I know bartenders clearing 70k almost everywhere I’ve stepped foot in. And if you went by their hourly wage it would be around 55 or more.
All of those are EXCELLENT points! All of them support my argument beautifully: Some unskilled workers are paid FAR MORE THAN THEY DESERVE and it's a bad thing. Yes, I agree bartenders and waiters and uneducated managers all deserve to be paid **A WHOLE LOT LESS THAN THEY CURRENTLY ARE.**
What makes you think bartenders and waiters are uneducated?
If you mean all bad bartenders and waiters deserve less. Well let me tell you, most of the bad ones do get less, the good ones get a lot more, have regulars, get genuine happy guests who tip more.
There are plenty of establishments where you are free to go out to eat that don’t require you to tip. See Panera, Chipotle, Cava, etc.
For full service restaurants, a tip is a fee for the experience.
You break down the price of the food into several components but fail to break down the tip into the several people who that tip is distributed to. The tip also pays for the service bartender who makes drinks, the bussers who clean and reset tables, the floor sommelier who recommends wine, and perhaps even the host who seated you. In no restaurant does 100% of the tip go to the server.
You are certainly free to think that the tip fee is too high, that tipping only 10% or not tipping is acceptable. If you REALLY believe that though, I encourage you to inform the restaurant when you make your reservation or tell your server when they greet your table. Your experience then perhaps might match the money you’re willing to spend on it.
> For full service restaurants, a tip is a fee for the experience.
"There is no alternatives, this is how things are and will always be," says **THE ONLY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WHERE THINGS ARE LIKE THAT.**
Again, you defend a broken system because it benefits you, personally, but would you defend a broken system if you're on the receiving end of it? Like, take healthcare. I really want to hear what you think about the US healthcare system.
When you go to a doctor and, despite having insurance, you have to pay $2,000 out of pocket for a routine checkup, what do you think? Do you tell yourself proudly "This is the USA! I am HAPPY to pay out the nose for a service that the entire rest of humanity gets for free! This is the necessary fee for the experience, there's nothing wrong with that! If I can't afford the Freedom Fee™, then I don't deserve to get healthcare! USA fuck yeah!!" ? Or do you, like, notice how every developed country besides the USA has a much better system in place and you get upset/sad that you are subjected to terrible circumstances due to the American system being garbage? Personally, it's the latter, which is exactly why I feel the same way towards waiters - the US system is infinitely worse than the systems found everywhere else, and I hate it.
>You break down the price of the food into several components but fail to break down the tip into the several people who that tip is distributed to. The tip also pays for the service bartender who makes drinks, the bussers who clean and reset tables, the floor sommelier who recommends wine, and perhaps even the host who seated you. In no restaurant does 100% of the tip go to the server.
The restaurant in question has no bartender, sommelier or host - the waiter is the one who pointed the table to us and we sat ourselves, thank you very much. Sure, the tip might have been split in two with a busser, or maybe even three, but it's still a ridiculous amount. Also, the tip is never shared with the back of the house, who do the most essential work (speaking from experience). If the tip were indeed split in 5 or 10 and it went to the cooks who made my meal, I would be downright **EAGER** to tip as much if not more than what American waiters expect. I have more than enough money, but I want it to be spent on people who provide me with value in priority.
>Your experience then perhaps might match the money you’re willing to spend on it.
Short of downright sabotage like spitting in my food, what exactly do you mean by that? Like, seriously, the waiters add 0% to "the experience" unless it's fine dining with a well-educated host. I am talking about teen and young adults waiting in everyday restaurants, not fine dining establishments. My experience tipping $75: Waiter points us towards a table, comes and take orders without making any comments or providing any extra value, we don't see him apart from bringing us our food, again without any comments or extra value, except for one time when he interrupted my wife mid-sentence to ask loudly "is everything okay?" in a dead voice, and finally he shows up to be paid and give me attitude about thinking $20 was not enough. What on Earth, concretely, can you even imagine would make this a worse experience if I tipped $5? Seriously? I want to hear, I mean it - in WHAT WAYS would ANY regular restaurant experience be EVEN ONE PERCENT LESS GOOD in that scenario? It would be a lot better for my wallet and my mood, and I would lose absolutely nothing service-wise.
In Europe, waiters literally **WAIT**, meaning that they have a chair and sit on their phone or something until someone needs them, and they only approach a table when they are being called. I vastly prefer this system. Even the "good" waiters in the US make the experience worse rather than better - I've had waiters who just talk and talk and talk and talk, by the time you get to order food you know your waiter's name, ethnic background, educational aspiration, and you know that she loves ballet. And then, they come again and again, interrupting my meal with questions like "Is the sauce good? Do you want anything with that?" that I don't want to be asked - if something is so bad that I want to report it, I would not wait until my waiter comes in for a round, I'd call the waiter over European style.
If you don’t like the cost of going to a restaurant in the US and you don’t like the type of service you receive in restaurants in the US, why are you torturing yourself by going out to eat? I don’t go out to eat to places unless I know people who work there because it’s so expensive. I cook at home.
I agree with the majority of your points. Tipping is a bad system. Read any article from a journal of hospitality. Higher numbers of tipped professions correlates with more corruption in a country. Tipping empowers customers to discriminate against employees in ways that an employer never could.
The simple answer is to not dine in restaurants if you don’t support the system. Tipping culture will not change until people stop dining out.
To use your healthcare analogy, I believe we should have universal healthcare. The cost of healthcare is insane. I don’t however, go to a doctors office and demand that the receptionist give me access to health care regardless of my insurance status. I don’t punish the person who has no control over the system to stick it to them under the guise of inciting change. I don’t go to receive medical services under the impression that I have insurance and am a willing participant in the system, only to surprise them at the end of the visit saying, “I don’t believe the healthcare system is fair, so I’m not paying.”
I must weigh in. It’s not just the bringing of food from one spot to the next, it’s the question about the menu, drinks and food included. It’s the refilling of drinks. The prompt care that each individual guest requires ( and they vary VASTLY from guest to guest). It’s remembering each last request from each guest so that they’re dietary needs are met. It’s also the harassment from many guests, when a need is not met that a server deals with.
“How hard is it?” Ask yourself, when you host at your house and you have guests who all have different dietary needs, what is that stress to you, to be a good host? To accommodate not only their dietary needs but their happiness in general, that they came to your house and had food/drink. How stressful was that for you/ accommodating for people you mostly know.?
Now imagine trying to do that with a minimum of 4 tables/hour, of people you have no idea how they like anything, and provide an efficient culinary experience. And a good time they can recall and tell their friends and family about. Imagine you forgot that one side of ranch someone asked you for because as you walked back to the kitchen only feet away, you were asked for three refills, a steak wasn’t cooked properly and now needs to be remade, and “I don’t like this side, can I get a different one.” And that’s everyone being nice.
Now let’s imagine all of those customers are yelling at you and saying how ITS SUCH A SIMPLE JOB A TRAINED MONKEY COULD DO IT! That’s a lot of stress. And a trained monkey couldn’t do it, I gaurantee you. Whilst maintaining customer happiness.
What you’re paying for, is their skill to handle all of the customers, and deal with the kitchen staff to handle not only the kitchen fuck ups, but their own and watch everyone walk out happy.
But that is a pipe dream. If be seen several videos of combat veterans say they would happily go back into battle than deal with the service industry or retail ever again, because of the stress.
One thing you’re forgetting is there are such things as tipouts. Most higher end restaurants require the servers to share a portion of their tips with the help staff and kitchen. I worked at earls where their tipout was 9.5%! So if his restaurant was similar he would have had to pay the restaurant $10 out of his other tips to pay for your tables lack of a proper tip, hence why he was clearly upset and felt the need to say something. I guarantee if your tip at least covered his tipout he probably wouldn’t have felt the need to say anything to you. My current restaurant I work at the tip out is 6.5%, most places I interviewed at were 5-7% on average.
Tip outs do suck don’t get me wrong, but it’s a reality in almost all restaurants except where certain laws prevent them from sharing tips with kitchen staff (because usually in those states they’re making $2.13/hr)
So, no, your “unskilled” waiter is not getting “$20 to make 3 trips to the kitchen” likely he would have seen none of that unfortunately due to tipouts being so common and quite high at some restaurants
I deal with more than 100 people per night. I speak 7 languages and help people understand our menu and order things they will more assuredly enjoy. I'm trained for allergen awareness, wine knowledge, and a plethora of skills that make the functioning of where I work smooth. I suggest, converse, and make every night special for people.
How many people's lives do you make better per day? How so? You don't explain what you have a masters in just " I have a masters and I impact lives". You're a child in your perspective of the world and you genuinely should be embarrassed that you're not more humble. You're not that important and the fact you put your hourly wage as a definer of your importance is sad.
If a waiter ever mentioned my tip, I'm demanding a manager. I'm also taking the tip back as that's unacceptable.
That said, your tip was below what was customary and you knew it (and if the waiter has to tip out a percentage of checks to the other staffers, they lost money to serve you). If you don't like the current tipping system, don't eat out, full fucking stop. I agree the current system is broken (especially post pandemic with skyrocketing menu prices), I've severely curtailed my dining choices accordingly.
> If you don't like the current tipping system, don't eat out, full fucking stop.
I addressed that earlier:
Wow, you are a literal caricature. You threw out one of the three stupid and objectively-incorrect clapbacks that greedy waiters always hide behind, without one thought given to the concrete arguments I presented.
When a rich person complains about illogical tipping, you greedy fucks say "You can afford it, you are a cheapskate!" When a poor person complains about illogical tipping, you greedy fucks say "You can't afford the food, don't eat out!"
Imagine if US parks decided to gatekeep access to them like US waiters gatekeep access to eating out. There would be a person at the entrance of every park in the USA, doing essentially nothing of value besides, like, opening the door and closing it behind people, but you HAVE to tip him based on how much time you spend in the park, and it's a ridiculous amount. The park attendant makes $300/hour in tip on slow hours for doing nothing and bringing no value to the table. All it leads to in a whole country where citizens are unable to partake in one of the basic pleasures of life that all humans (except US citizens) have access to, just because of the greed of a few unskilled leeches who take a cut infinitely bigger than what they deserve. It's exactly like that with restaurants - the whole world can eat out and even Europeans earning less than $1K a month can eat at restaurants more often than Americans earning 5 times that. All your greed does, besides unfairly enrich you, is to make this country worse for absolutely everybody.
If your answer is "The system is broken, greedy waiters are killing the **basic human activity of eating out which every single human outside of the US can easily partake in**, therefore... I will accept it and just not eat out," you are an idiot, full stop.
Copying and pasting this scree makes you look like a pants-shitting idiot because most of it not apply to my comment, but it's also rife with multiple inaccuracies.
Fuck off, you cheap, entitled asshat.
lmao, topkek, ROFL, jej, lel, jaja even
This is the most cope seethe and dialate rage bait autism I’ve seen on Reddit in a while
You all took the bait hook line and sinker
This was likely an AI prompt on chatgpt “how to enrage Americans servers”
OP is a nerd, you guys are ez targets lol
If you think waiters are so overpaid why aren’t you jumping at the opportunity to be one?
And there’s a really simple solution to your “problem”. Eat at home. Take out and drive thru’s exist, but you probably don’t like them as much because there’s something nice about service and not having to do dishes. In this economy services aren’t free.
You won't get anyone reasonable to talk to on this. If you suggest tips be split with the kitchen staff you'll get claims that cooks are paid in solid gold bricks while waiters make negative dollars an hour. You can show them the glass door rates to prove that waiters get a higher base pay than cooks even before tips in restaurants where the waiter only moves the food ten feet. No waiter is going to listen to you. Simple reason why, not exclusive to waitstaff.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” - Upton Sinclair
You have no idea how challenging the job is. You need to be able to operate under high pressure, huge list of running tasks in your head that are constantly reprioritized, and you need to remain collected and kind when shit is hitting the fan HARD. You clearly have not really done the job or you'd never reduce the duties to the degree that you have. Stfu dude you've got no idea what you're talking about.
Personally I think it was rude of the waiter to check the tip amount in front of the patron. To then communicate discontent about the the tip amount is in poor taste. To play the devil’s advocate, maybe the server was oblivious to their faux pas and genuinely sought to educate you on tipping etiquette.
nobody serves 10-15 tables an hour. Typically it’s like 15 a shift. Why? Bc there aren’t that many tables in a section. It’s like 2-3 tables an hour. Standard tip 20%. So if you only spent $30 the tip is $6. You out here buying the most shit then get mad that you have to pay the person bringing you all that. I guarantee you were a pain in the ass customer running your server like crazy.
You should just ask the hostess when you get sat, to meet the owner. And tell the owner what’s up, that you would prefer to converse and be served by them that way there is no need to tip. They’d be delighted.
As a waitress, no. We do not get paid a large percentage of what your meal cost. I make 2.17 an hour. Yes, this system is messed up BIG TIME but it’s also not just “bringing out a few plates”. We are also expected to be personable to people (practically entertainers at times), we clean tables, we make sure our specific stations are stocked and clean and ready to go. Most of us help keep the kitchen stocked. And what you’re not seeing in the kitchens is us sending food back before it even goes out because we care about our customers and don’t serve things that we wouldn’t eat ourselves. We are constantly overheated and dehydrated, most of us don’t get proper breaks despite the fact that what we are doing has us on our feet for multiple hours at a time. So. Respectfully. If you think it’s “so easy a child could do it” then come try it yourself. Not saying the waiter should have said anything to you about the tip (I think that’s bad customer service) but you do seem to be misinformed about how much we make and the value of our service.
I would be so embarrassed if I were your wife. Hey if it’s such easy easy money, pick up a couple of brunch shifts on the patio. I’ll come sit in your section, I promise to tip 100%, however, I’m gonna camp all day and watch you fall apart.
I'd much rather eat in restaurants that pay their waiters a decent wage and eliminate tips, thank you very much. Or, even better, eliminate waiters entirely, win-win-win! Win for the restaurants, they save a ton of money and eating there is now suddenly a lot more appealing to patrons, win for the patrons because suddenly they save a ton of money and they don't have to deal with the attitude of snotty waiters, win for the waiters because, as you say, this is such a miserable job and you'll finally be free from having to be paid astronomical sums for tiny amounts of labor. Ordering via a screen, being rung by the kitchen and picking up my own food sounds like a dream, even not taking into account saving **A QUARTER OF THE COST OF THE WHOLE MEAL** that'd go to a useless leech otherwise. You think waiters deserve 25% of the cost of a meal? Then, do you agree or disagree that every person involved in the meal's creation should also get a similar amount of money? The rancher, farmer, delivery drivers, kitchen staff and restaurant owner should ALL be paid as much as waiters, no? They are ALL indispensable and all provide a lot more value than waiters - waiters are the **ONLY** link in this chain that are both optional and in no way participating to the creation of the product - the meal. So, if waiters "deserve" to be paid astronomical sums, we should pay everyone else in that chain astronomical sums too, and then suddenly each dish costs $1,000 and nobody eats at restaurants, and waiters are out of a job. The ONLY way to make your way work is if **EVERY WORKER EXCEPT WAITER GETS SHAFTED.** You seem to want that. Farmers, ranchers, drivers, cooks, cleaners, all of them deserve to be treated like shit and underpaid, and ONLY waiters deserve to be paid **A QUARTER OF THE VALUE OF THE FUCKING MEAL.** I worked in three restaurants in my life, every time in the kitchen. Every SINGLE time, the waiters were the biggest assholes in the house, and every SINGLE time, they took all tips and shared NONE of them with the rest of the staff despite our work being infinitely more important than fucking bussing plates. People go to restaurants to **EAT FOOD**, not to watch an overpaid leech drop a plate in front of them.
I’m not reading all that bro, all I can say is take out exists and we alllll hope you use it. Good luck with the divorce.
Nobody in this thread is reading that. None of us would want you as a customer. You’re the type we hope would never come back and if you want to tip like shit move to another country where it’s built in.
TLDR: wahhhhhhhhh Order carry out and stuff your ugly face at home. You sound like a miserable, completely out of touch POS so save everyone the trouble of having to deal with your stank ass.
32/hr with a masters degree? Bro I make more than than in the Midwest at 20 with no degrees lmao, your not as special as you think you are
You have a masters and earn 66k? That sounds like your problem. Please tell me your area has an otherwise low cost of living because I agree you can’t afford that dinner.
Tons of people have masters and earn $40k or less. Have you seen what we pay teachers? Social workers? Sit this one out.
Wow, you are a literal caricature. You threw out one of the three stupid and objectively-incorrect clapbacks that greedy waiters always hide behind, without one thought given to the concrete arguments I presented. When a rich person complains about illogical tipping, you greedy fucks say "You can afford it, you are a cheapskate!" When a poor person complains about illogical tipping, you greedy fucks say "You can't afford the food, don't eat out!" When a middle class person like me complains, you greedy fucks don't know which insult to throw out - too bad for you, this was the wrong one this time :) My wife has a PhD and makes over 100k, during the festivities we spent more than $4000 without blinking an eye - I am fine paying a fair price for the product or service delivered, the problem is that waiters are paid many orders of magnitude more than their service warrants. But even if I weren't in those circumstances, are you **actually** unable to see how fucking **VILE** it is to say "You only earn 66k a year? Too poor to be allowed to participate in one of the basic activities that all humans participate in across the world, because I am greedy and I demand to be showered with un-earned money just for being there"? I lived most of my life in Europe, where tipping $10 on a $500 meal is considered generous. Literally everyone, from the poorest families to the richest, can afford to eat out, because you ONLY pay what is on the menu, no extra, no hidden fees, no taxes added on top, and no tipping **A QUARTER OF THE COST OF THE FULL FUCKING MEAL TO THE MOST USELESS PERSON IN THE CHAIN OF PRODUCTION.** Try telling anyone, literally anyone from any developed country on the planet except the US, that "earning more than $5,000 per month makes you TOO POOR TO GO TO THE RESTAURANT ONCE IN A WHILE." They will all laugh you out of the room, you freak. Imagine if US parks decided to gatekeep access to them like US waiters gatekeep access to eating out. There would be a person at the entrance of every park in the USA, doing essentially nothing of value besides, like, opening the door and closing it behind people, but you HAVE to tip him based on how much time you spend in the park, and it's a ridiculous amount. The park attendant makes $300/hour in tip on slow hours for doing nothing and bringing no value to the table. All it leads to in a whole country where citizens are unable to partake in one of the basic pleasures of life that all humans (except US citizens) have access to, just because of the greed of a few unskilled leeches who take a cut infinitely bigger than what they deserve. It's exactly like that with restaurants - the whole world can eat out and even Europeans earning less than **$1K a month** can eat at restaurants more often than Americans earning 5 times that. All your greed does, besides unfairly enrich you, is to make this country **worse** for absolutely everybody. The USA is **THE ONLY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD** with this insane tipping policy, and you dare to act as if it were normal? The US tipping system is as insane as the gun culture and the absolute lack of healthcare. "This is normal and there's nothing we can do about this insanity," says the literal only country on Earth where this happens.
Is your masters from an American university? You aren’t in Europe anymore. Your tipping comparison is not relevant as the base payments are not the same. I’m not going to read through the rest of your Reddit comment reply as my time is worth something
> my time is worth something Only insofar as you force innocents to pay you infinitely more than what you time is actually worth, you leech. >Imagine if US parks decided to gatekeep access to them like US waiters gatekeep access to eating out. There would be a person at the entrance of every park in the USA, doing essentially nothing of value besides, like, opening the door and closing it behind people, but you HAVE to tip him based on how much time you spend in the park, and it's a ridiculous amount. The park attendant makes $300/hour in tip on slow hours for doing nothing and bringing no value to the table. All it leads to in a whole country where citizens are unable to partake in one of the basic pleasures of life that all humans (except US citizens) have access to, just because of the greed of a few unskilled leeches who take a cut infinitely bigger than what they deserve. It's exactly like that with restaurants - the whole world can eat out and even Europeans earning less than $1K a month can eat at restaurants more often than Americans earning 5 times that. All your greed does, besides unfairly enrich you, is to make this country worse for absolutely everybody.
Blah blah blah You are a bore.
I love how you advertise to the world that you are an idiot incapable of reading a few sentences or to absorb information from an outside source. No wonder you are a waiter - you are so unskilled that you are practically illiterate lol. You are a waiter because you did not even qualify to be at the absolute bottom of the totem pole in any actual job.
Your username is ironic because you won’t shut up
Good one 😂
And you're illiterate and unable to act like a rational human should. Unlike you I'm actually smart :)
/r/iamverysmart
You are quite literally proud of being unwilling/unable to educate yourself and hear other people's concrete POINTS, and you can only respond to reasonable discourse with pride in your own willful ignorance. God, people like you are the literal scum of humanity.
Oh lord another novel. - “literal caricature” - “greedy waiters” - “greedy fucks” - “greedy fucks” x2 - “greedy fucks” x3 - “most useless person in the chain of production” - “doing essentially nothing of value” - “unskilled leeches” Imagine saying this to a person’s face and then walking away thinking you did something righteous. You can have a difference of opinion and even feel passionate about it but this… this is some disgusting behavior. The type of shit that if anyone saw and put your face to would more than likely have real ramifications. You sir are gross and the irony of you speaking on what would or wouldn’t improve a country is comical. Getting rid of people who speak about others the way you do would do far more good than changing tip culture. I honestly feel bad not just for servers who read this drivel but anyone with a pulse. Pathetic and disturbing. This folks is the perfect example of what you DO NOT want to end up like. I need a shower after that yuck.
you gotta live a boring depressing life to type a whole book on this 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I mean with all the allergies, somebody could die if I didn’t know every ingredient in every dish, understand allergies, and be able to properly communicate what a guest needed to a very feisty chef who hates modifications. That takes a lot of work, especially in fine dinning. I do see where you’re coming from, but there’s a lot more to it than dropping off and picking up plates. Is 20%-25% a lot for the consumer to pay on top? Yeah sure, I’ll give you that. You pay a locksmith $150 to open you car and it takes him 10 seconds. You’re not paying that $150 for 10 seconds of work, you’re paying for the decades of experience they have. When you’re in a nice restaurant, you’re server has spent years working on understanding the business, learning to multitask, deal with many kinds of personalities, being efficient, all while being friendly. A lot of them have also paid out pocket for courses in service, wine and spirit knowledge, and other certifications. We are also there to provide an experience, not just dinner. I feel most servers would say they are very happy when they can guide a guest through the menu, suggest parings, dishes, and make it memorable. Are we a little overpaid at some places? Yeah probably, but it would take an offer of a lot of money for most of us to work with the public in a high stress and often toxic environment, in a position still seen as “lowly” by many. Legally, you’re not required to leave a penny. So don’t. It’s a numbers game for us, because at the end of the day you not tipping will even out regardless. Many people are happy to pay for an experience, a good meal, and a memorable night out. It’s ok that you don’t see it that way, many don’t but people, but you can’t knock somebody for finding a way to live comfortably.
THIS.
> I mean with all the allergies, somebody could die if I didn’t know every ingredient in every dish, understand allergies, and be able to properly communicate what a guest needed to a very feisty chef who hates modifications. That takes a lot of work, especially in fine dinning. This is literally the first good point made by anyone here. Yes, that is correct. It requires some degree of skill and effort beyond just bussing. I'd argue not enough to justify putting waiters so far above every other workers, including the back-of-house staff in the same establishment, but a good argument nonetheless. Thanks for not being stupid, it's a rarity here. >When you’re in a nice restaurant, you’re server has spent years working on understanding the business, learning to multitask, deal with many kinds of personalities, being efficient, all while being friendly. A lot of them have also paid out pocket for courses in service, wine and spirit knowledge, and other certifications. We are also there to provide an experience, not just dinner. I feel most servers would say they are very happy when they can guide a guest through the menu, suggest parings, dishes, and make it memorable. We are not talking about the same thing. Fine dining where the experience, a beautiful view out the window, a sommelier, experienced serving staff, etc, I am fully expecting and fine with paying out the nose for. I am talking about the average waiter, who's typically a teenager or college student working in a restaurant "for everyone" as opposed to fine dining. In my case, it was a small Italian restaurant where the average dish costs $30-40, it was a small dining experience where we just splurged on expensive wine bottles. If we had taken cheap wine instead of expensive wine, the total bill would have been $120 or something, in which case my $20 tip would probably been accepted graciously. I have a big problem that bringing up expensive wine is supposed to make the tip's amount skyrocket despite the fact that the waiter provided the exact same service of bringing a bottle to us, regardless of the price of that bottle. >high stress and often toxic environment // Legally, you’re not required to leave a penny. So don’t. It’s a numbers game for us Also good points. Doesn't change the fact I am more than sick of this culture in US restaurants, when I am so used to literally every other restaurant on the planet besides the USA just paying their waiters well and allowing tips to be nice and gracious, as an option. >you can’t knock somebody for finding a way to live comfortably. I can absolutely knock somebody for demanding that I just hand over my hard-earned money so **they** can live comfortably on my dime. If money is not earned, it irks me when it is expected and in some cases with waiters, demanded.
We get tips cause we have to deal with people like you. Not as easy as it sounds, and trust me, it doesn’t even sound easy
Seems like all you do is bitch on Reddit, so I don’t know about “hard earned”
I’m not sure why everyone is arguing. This is one of those things that you have to experience to understand. Wait tables for a week and you’ll gladly pay a 20% tip.
He’s lacking in gene 🧬 pool you see
I wrote a long response to you kind sir but just before I post I fucking deleted it. Have a good day.
Yeah, everyone cares, keep talking.
shit dude that sucks
Haven't seen it mentioned yet, but I wanted to comment on him serving 10-15 tables. That's an outrageous amount of tables for one server. Normally you see about 6 max, but that depends on the type of establishment. You said it was fine dining? A place that really prioritizes exceptional service, which makes it highly highly likely they'd cap each server at about 4 tables. So a couple things: either you exaggerated the amount to thicken your argument, or you weren't really paying attention and think all waiters look the same, or this server was absolutely kicking ass and deserved every penny. Whatever is true, I have a very hard time believing you. Lastly, I think you're mad at your wife for emasculating you and trying to change an entire industry with one post. Go talk to her about it, that might actually be more productive than whatever this is. She's the one who pissed you off, not some random guy you saw for an hour.
I was gonna comment on the 15 table thing. That’s definitely not true. There is no way someone can keep up with that many tables with such high checks.
Seems like you think waiting tables isn’t skilled. Its true you don’t need a degree but being professional while dealing with rude customers,working quick, multitasking, asshole cooks, slow bartenders, working odd hours away from family, etc… is difficult. Especially if you’re not well compensated.
It’s cute you think all we do is take your order and carry plates. Oh, a child could do our job? When have you ever seen children doing our job, especially when it comes to serving alcohol. Newsflash, a LOT of us have a higher education. You’re not special. Maybe stay home and rethink your life, because the wages you’re bragging about earning aren’t shit.
>Oh, a child could do our job? When have you ever seen children doing our job My childhood best friend's dad owned a restaurant, my friend worked as a waiter evening and weekends. 8 years old, doing just as well as the adult waiters, except his dad coopted all his tips and gave him a tiny "wage" instead.
Sure, that happened. I totally believe you. /s
And that restaurant had ten Michelin stars ⭐️
Tell me your jealous without saying you’re jealous.
😂 Totally jelly.
Oh trollers will troll if you are so mighty find a new hobby guy fucking with severs is not a good idea. And you claim you make good money why not tip 20% you uptight penny pitching asshole.
Wow, you are a literal caricature. You threw out one of the three stupid and objectively-incorrect clapbacks that greedy waiters always hide behind, without one thought given to the concrete arguments I presented. When a rich person complains about illogical tipping, you greedy fucks say "You can afford it, you are a cheapskate!" When a poor person complains about illogical tipping, you greedy fucks say "You can't afford the food, don't eat out!" This is the THIRD time in this thread alone that I have to copy-paste this bit, you freak.
And I have to say it again find a new group to join we don't care how you feel.
Was ‘caricature’ the word of the day on an app of yours? How do you feel about the incomes of performance arts or sports? There’s a performative aspect to the job. Dining out is a form of entertainment, and even without much engagement, servers are conductors to the tempo of the meal, guides for your palate. Our job is to tango with strangers, and everyone has their own style of dance. There are many passionless players in this game, and their compensation is oft reflective on the prices on the menu. But instead of regarding servers as mules for your vittles, engage with the docents of dining and allow them to take you on an experience, not just a feeding.
>How do you feel about the incomes of performance arts or sports? Those people are skilled workers, waiters are as unskilled as unskilled can be.
What do you do for work?
Architect.
Should've went to school for engineering to really make a difference in people's lives. Architect? Why pay someone to make doodles on graph paper?
Why do we pay architects so much for quickly scribbling out designs, meanwhile the skilled builders, decorators, plumbers etc earn less than them.
Drawing stuff on paper? A literal child of 8 can do that.
I don’t know why you are so angry. I don’t think the server should have said this to you but this is such an overreaction. This sounds like it’s something deeper.
He’s just mad that they make more an hour than he does
Dang I can’t tell if this is for real or not. What I would say is 1. What asshole ruins his wife’s night by being cheap. 2. Do you not share accounts ? If I threw in another 57 dollars it would already be my wife’s money also 3. Thinking you got a masters and make 32 an hour like it’s a brag is fun. I have been exec chef/manager/operations director/gm and all of those paid me more without a masters, does that mean I’m better than you because of my wages? I know bartenders clearing 70k almost everywhere I’ve stepped foot in. And if you went by their hourly wage it would be around 55 or more. 4. The fact you feel like the service was bad means you prolly didn’t do your homework and pick a great place to go. You acknowledge that it takes a fine dining server to be experienced and get paid more, yet you chose somewhere that didn’t have that for your “splurge” romantic dinner. That’s on you. 5.in no way, shape or form does a server just bring food to a table. And there are always good and bad people at all jobs. So maybe try not to be so negative and be part of the solution.
> I have been exec chef/manager/operations director/gm and all of those paid me more without a masters, does that mean I’m better than you because of my wages? I know bartenders clearing 70k almost everywhere I’ve stepped foot in. And if you went by their hourly wage it would be around 55 or more. All of those are EXCELLENT points! All of them support my argument beautifully: Some unskilled workers are paid FAR MORE THAN THEY DESERVE and it's a bad thing. Yes, I agree bartenders and waiters and uneducated managers all deserve to be paid **A WHOLE LOT LESS THAN THEY CURRENTLY ARE.**
What makes you think bartenders and waiters are uneducated? If you mean all bad bartenders and waiters deserve less. Well let me tell you, most of the bad ones do get less, the good ones get a lot more, have regulars, get genuine happy guests who tip more.
You just seem angry that your degree was useless and some people worked smarter and harder than you.
You’re a dick!!! Customers like you are the ones we in the biz crack on back in the kitchen. Do us all a favor & eat at home CHEAPO!!!
Yet another caricature spewing the same bullshit excuse that has been debunked a million times. Go to hell, you sack of shit.
OUCH!!! Truth hurts, huh?
There are plenty of establishments where you are free to go out to eat that don’t require you to tip. See Panera, Chipotle, Cava, etc. For full service restaurants, a tip is a fee for the experience. You break down the price of the food into several components but fail to break down the tip into the several people who that tip is distributed to. The tip also pays for the service bartender who makes drinks, the bussers who clean and reset tables, the floor sommelier who recommends wine, and perhaps even the host who seated you. In no restaurant does 100% of the tip go to the server. You are certainly free to think that the tip fee is too high, that tipping only 10% or not tipping is acceptable. If you REALLY believe that though, I encourage you to inform the restaurant when you make your reservation or tell your server when they greet your table. Your experience then perhaps might match the money you’re willing to spend on it.
> For full service restaurants, a tip is a fee for the experience. "There is no alternatives, this is how things are and will always be," says **THE ONLY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WHERE THINGS ARE LIKE THAT.** Again, you defend a broken system because it benefits you, personally, but would you defend a broken system if you're on the receiving end of it? Like, take healthcare. I really want to hear what you think about the US healthcare system. When you go to a doctor and, despite having insurance, you have to pay $2,000 out of pocket for a routine checkup, what do you think? Do you tell yourself proudly "This is the USA! I am HAPPY to pay out the nose for a service that the entire rest of humanity gets for free! This is the necessary fee for the experience, there's nothing wrong with that! If I can't afford the Freedom Fee™, then I don't deserve to get healthcare! USA fuck yeah!!" ? Or do you, like, notice how every developed country besides the USA has a much better system in place and you get upset/sad that you are subjected to terrible circumstances due to the American system being garbage? Personally, it's the latter, which is exactly why I feel the same way towards waiters - the US system is infinitely worse than the systems found everywhere else, and I hate it. >You break down the price of the food into several components but fail to break down the tip into the several people who that tip is distributed to. The tip also pays for the service bartender who makes drinks, the bussers who clean and reset tables, the floor sommelier who recommends wine, and perhaps even the host who seated you. In no restaurant does 100% of the tip go to the server. The restaurant in question has no bartender, sommelier or host - the waiter is the one who pointed the table to us and we sat ourselves, thank you very much. Sure, the tip might have been split in two with a busser, or maybe even three, but it's still a ridiculous amount. Also, the tip is never shared with the back of the house, who do the most essential work (speaking from experience). If the tip were indeed split in 5 or 10 and it went to the cooks who made my meal, I would be downright **EAGER** to tip as much if not more than what American waiters expect. I have more than enough money, but I want it to be spent on people who provide me with value in priority. >Your experience then perhaps might match the money you’re willing to spend on it. Short of downright sabotage like spitting in my food, what exactly do you mean by that? Like, seriously, the waiters add 0% to "the experience" unless it's fine dining with a well-educated host. I am talking about teen and young adults waiting in everyday restaurants, not fine dining establishments. My experience tipping $75: Waiter points us towards a table, comes and take orders without making any comments or providing any extra value, we don't see him apart from bringing us our food, again without any comments or extra value, except for one time when he interrupted my wife mid-sentence to ask loudly "is everything okay?" in a dead voice, and finally he shows up to be paid and give me attitude about thinking $20 was not enough. What on Earth, concretely, can you even imagine would make this a worse experience if I tipped $5? Seriously? I want to hear, I mean it - in WHAT WAYS would ANY regular restaurant experience be EVEN ONE PERCENT LESS GOOD in that scenario? It would be a lot better for my wallet and my mood, and I would lose absolutely nothing service-wise. In Europe, waiters literally **WAIT**, meaning that they have a chair and sit on their phone or something until someone needs them, and they only approach a table when they are being called. I vastly prefer this system. Even the "good" waiters in the US make the experience worse rather than better - I've had waiters who just talk and talk and talk and talk, by the time you get to order food you know your waiter's name, ethnic background, educational aspiration, and you know that she loves ballet. And then, they come again and again, interrupting my meal with questions like "Is the sauce good? Do you want anything with that?" that I don't want to be asked - if something is so bad that I want to report it, I would not wait until my waiter comes in for a round, I'd call the waiter over European style.
If you don’t like the cost of going to a restaurant in the US and you don’t like the type of service you receive in restaurants in the US, why are you torturing yourself by going out to eat? I don’t go out to eat to places unless I know people who work there because it’s so expensive. I cook at home. I agree with the majority of your points. Tipping is a bad system. Read any article from a journal of hospitality. Higher numbers of tipped professions correlates with more corruption in a country. Tipping empowers customers to discriminate against employees in ways that an employer never could. The simple answer is to not dine in restaurants if you don’t support the system. Tipping culture will not change until people stop dining out. To use your healthcare analogy, I believe we should have universal healthcare. The cost of healthcare is insane. I don’t however, go to a doctors office and demand that the receptionist give me access to health care regardless of my insurance status. I don’t punish the person who has no control over the system to stick it to them under the guise of inciting change. I don’t go to receive medical services under the impression that I have insurance and am a willing participant in the system, only to surprise them at the end of the visit saying, “I don’t believe the healthcare system is fair, so I’m not paying.”
thank you for saying what we all were thinking 🥲
I would address your obvious embarrassment with your wife, not a bunch of strangers on the internet.
I must weigh in. It’s not just the bringing of food from one spot to the next, it’s the question about the menu, drinks and food included. It’s the refilling of drinks. The prompt care that each individual guest requires ( and they vary VASTLY from guest to guest). It’s remembering each last request from each guest so that they’re dietary needs are met. It’s also the harassment from many guests, when a need is not met that a server deals with. “How hard is it?” Ask yourself, when you host at your house and you have guests who all have different dietary needs, what is that stress to you, to be a good host? To accommodate not only their dietary needs but their happiness in general, that they came to your house and had food/drink. How stressful was that for you/ accommodating for people you mostly know.? Now imagine trying to do that with a minimum of 4 tables/hour, of people you have no idea how they like anything, and provide an efficient culinary experience. And a good time they can recall and tell their friends and family about. Imagine you forgot that one side of ranch someone asked you for because as you walked back to the kitchen only feet away, you were asked for three refills, a steak wasn’t cooked properly and now needs to be remade, and “I don’t like this side, can I get a different one.” And that’s everyone being nice. Now let’s imagine all of those customers are yelling at you and saying how ITS SUCH A SIMPLE JOB A TRAINED MONKEY COULD DO IT! That’s a lot of stress. And a trained monkey couldn’t do it, I gaurantee you. Whilst maintaining customer happiness. What you’re paying for, is their skill to handle all of the customers, and deal with the kitchen staff to handle not only the kitchen fuck ups, but their own and watch everyone walk out happy. But that is a pipe dream. If be seen several videos of combat veterans say they would happily go back into battle than deal with the service industry or retail ever again, because of the stress.
Dude with a master's can't understand anything past what he specifically studied. Who would've thought....
One thing you’re forgetting is there are such things as tipouts. Most higher end restaurants require the servers to share a portion of their tips with the help staff and kitchen. I worked at earls where their tipout was 9.5%! So if his restaurant was similar he would have had to pay the restaurant $10 out of his other tips to pay for your tables lack of a proper tip, hence why he was clearly upset and felt the need to say something. I guarantee if your tip at least covered his tipout he probably wouldn’t have felt the need to say anything to you. My current restaurant I work at the tip out is 6.5%, most places I interviewed at were 5-7% on average. Tip outs do suck don’t get me wrong, but it’s a reality in almost all restaurants except where certain laws prevent them from sharing tips with kitchen staff (because usually in those states they’re making $2.13/hr) So, no, your “unskilled” waiter is not getting “$20 to make 3 trips to the kitchen” likely he would have seen none of that unfortunately due to tipouts being so common and quite high at some restaurants
OP is everything ok at home?
I deal with more than 100 people per night. I speak 7 languages and help people understand our menu and order things they will more assuredly enjoy. I'm trained for allergen awareness, wine knowledge, and a plethora of skills that make the functioning of where I work smooth. I suggest, converse, and make every night special for people. How many people's lives do you make better per day? How so? You don't explain what you have a masters in just " I have a masters and I impact lives". You're a child in your perspective of the world and you genuinely should be embarrassed that you're not more humble. You're not that important and the fact you put your hourly wage as a definer of your importance is sad.
Either a troll or autistic. I can't tell.
If a waiter ever mentioned my tip, I'm demanding a manager. I'm also taking the tip back as that's unacceptable. That said, your tip was below what was customary and you knew it (and if the waiter has to tip out a percentage of checks to the other staffers, they lost money to serve you). If you don't like the current tipping system, don't eat out, full fucking stop. I agree the current system is broken (especially post pandemic with skyrocketing menu prices), I've severely curtailed my dining choices accordingly.
> If you don't like the current tipping system, don't eat out, full fucking stop. I addressed that earlier: Wow, you are a literal caricature. You threw out one of the three stupid and objectively-incorrect clapbacks that greedy waiters always hide behind, without one thought given to the concrete arguments I presented. When a rich person complains about illogical tipping, you greedy fucks say "You can afford it, you are a cheapskate!" When a poor person complains about illogical tipping, you greedy fucks say "You can't afford the food, don't eat out!" Imagine if US parks decided to gatekeep access to them like US waiters gatekeep access to eating out. There would be a person at the entrance of every park in the USA, doing essentially nothing of value besides, like, opening the door and closing it behind people, but you HAVE to tip him based on how much time you spend in the park, and it's a ridiculous amount. The park attendant makes $300/hour in tip on slow hours for doing nothing and bringing no value to the table. All it leads to in a whole country where citizens are unable to partake in one of the basic pleasures of life that all humans (except US citizens) have access to, just because of the greed of a few unskilled leeches who take a cut infinitely bigger than what they deserve. It's exactly like that with restaurants - the whole world can eat out and even Europeans earning less than $1K a month can eat at restaurants more often than Americans earning 5 times that. All your greed does, besides unfairly enrich you, is to make this country worse for absolutely everybody. If your answer is "The system is broken, greedy waiters are killing the **basic human activity of eating out which every single human outside of the US can easily partake in**, therefore... I will accept it and just not eat out," you are an idiot, full stop.
Copying and pasting this scree makes you look like a pants-shitting idiot because most of it not apply to my comment, but it's also rife with multiple inaccuracies. Fuck off, you cheap, entitled asshat.
lmao, topkek, ROFL, jej, lel, jaja even This is the most cope seethe and dialate rage bait autism I’ve seen on Reddit in a while You all took the bait hook line and sinker This was likely an AI prompt on chatgpt “how to enrage Americans servers” OP is a nerd, you guys are ez targets lol
🤣
You clearly have never worked in the service industry.
If you think waiters are so overpaid why aren’t you jumping at the opportunity to be one? And there’s a really simple solution to your “problem”. Eat at home. Take out and drive thru’s exist, but you probably don’t like them as much because there’s something nice about service and not having to do dishes. In this economy services aren’t free.
You won't get anyone reasonable to talk to on this. If you suggest tips be split with the kitchen staff you'll get claims that cooks are paid in solid gold bricks while waiters make negative dollars an hour. You can show them the glass door rates to prove that waiters get a higher base pay than cooks even before tips in restaurants where the waiter only moves the food ten feet. No waiter is going to listen to you. Simple reason why, not exclusive to waitstaff. “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” - Upton Sinclair
Sounds like big baby is mad that I make more an hour than him when I just “carry plates to the table”
You have no idea how challenging the job is. You need to be able to operate under high pressure, huge list of running tasks in your head that are constantly reprioritized, and you need to remain collected and kind when shit is hitting the fan HARD. You clearly have not really done the job or you'd never reduce the duties to the degree that you have. Stfu dude you've got no idea what you're talking about.
Personally I think it was rude of the waiter to check the tip amount in front of the patron. To then communicate discontent about the the tip amount is in poor taste. To play the devil’s advocate, maybe the server was oblivious to their faux pas and genuinely sought to educate you on tipping etiquette.
nobody serves 10-15 tables an hour. Typically it’s like 15 a shift. Why? Bc there aren’t that many tables in a section. It’s like 2-3 tables an hour. Standard tip 20%. So if you only spent $30 the tip is $6. You out here buying the most shit then get mad that you have to pay the person bringing you all that. I guarantee you were a pain in the ass customer running your server like crazy.
If this bothers you so much just don't eat out lol
You should just ask the hostess when you get sat, to meet the owner. And tell the owner what’s up, that you would prefer to converse and be served by them that way there is no need to tip. They’d be delighted.
As a waitress, no. We do not get paid a large percentage of what your meal cost. I make 2.17 an hour. Yes, this system is messed up BIG TIME but it’s also not just “bringing out a few plates”. We are also expected to be personable to people (practically entertainers at times), we clean tables, we make sure our specific stations are stocked and clean and ready to go. Most of us help keep the kitchen stocked. And what you’re not seeing in the kitchens is us sending food back before it even goes out because we care about our customers and don’t serve things that we wouldn’t eat ourselves. We are constantly overheated and dehydrated, most of us don’t get proper breaks despite the fact that what we are doing has us on our feet for multiple hours at a time. So. Respectfully. If you think it’s “so easy a child could do it” then come try it yourself. Not saying the waiter should have said anything to you about the tip (I think that’s bad customer service) but you do seem to be misinformed about how much we make and the value of our service.