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Old 03-23-11, 10:17 PM
Fail Boat crewman
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: PDX
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For me this is personal, sorta. I worked in the kitchen, back of the house, for nearly 10 years. I worked with crappy waitstaff and great waitstaff. Let me explain tipping.

The waitress/waiter is tipped and those tips are added up at the end of the night. The waitstaff then must tip the hostess/host, bar tender and busser out of their tips. Its just an unwritten rule. The bar gets tipped based on the amount of alcohol served and the busser based on how fast the busser can turn the table over adn the hostess by the seating, not seating a two people at a four person table. It takes money from the waiter/waitress.

Alternatively the tips are pooled from all waitstaff and divided among the ENTIRE front of the house, bussers, waiters/waitresses, bar tenders, host/hostess.

Most states cut the minimum wage to $2.00 for wait staff. I am lucky that here in Oregon the waitstaff actually make a living wage. That is minimum wage $8.

I tip based on attentive service and meeting my needs without me asking. Some of the best servers work at Dennys, or IHOP and they are usually old timers. Some of the greatest service I have had was at a 3 star Michelin. I was attended to with even being attended to. I ordered, my water was brought, my salad was brought with my wine and bread. My salad and bread plates were cleared timely and my entree was brought right after clearing. My water was refilled without needing to signal or ask. My wine was poured with the same respect. My plate was cleared and a dessert was suggested based on what I ate as well as a wine or aperitif to compliment it.
Ok so that is Michelin service. However, the same can and has happened at Dennys and IHOP. Just not in the clean professional manner that it did at the other place.

Waitstaff bust their butt for crap pay and crap tips. They deal with your left overs, your crappy attitudes and the kitchen screwups.

Are there bad servers yes. But there are plenty of good ones that deserve your respect.

Try doing the job that they do for 1 week 8 hours a day and then let me know how it feels to make that kind of money and live off tips.

Sorry just irritated.
I_like_cereal is offline