Observations from a Tipless Restaurant
jayporter.com
jayporter.com
While the customer may be financially powerful in the relationship, I feel that tipping culture gives power to the server to withhold good service as a punishment or as an optimization strategy at their own discretion. It causes a server to judge you as soon as you walk through the door... will this person give a good tip? Should I ignore them and focus on this other table?
The worst part is that the tip happens at the end of the meal after all of the 'costs' of providing good service are already done. If the patron stiffs the server, then the effort was 'wasted.' It's far better to make an educated guess based on… what? the way they dress? their grammar? the car they pulled in with?
It's a terrible system.
I always make sure to overtip!
That being said, I sympathize with waiters and tend to tip relatively well since I know firsthand the pressure of only making $2.15/hr + tips on an unpredictable schedule that ended anywhere from 11:30pm to 2:00am (depending on how long my last table stayed).
Because from my understanding that's much more common.
I believe in pay for performance in all professions so I certainly would prefer such a system for a hospitality industry. The minimum I've ever given anyone for a tip is 15% and honestly the service has to be terrible for me to give that. If the service is good I give 20% and if the service is remarkable I'll give more.
The way I think of it is that the cost of the meal is at least 15% to 20% higher than what is on the menu. If I don't want to pay that, I eat at home.
I don't get wanting to pay 15% to 20% more on the menu and then having no ability to give an incentive for people to perform better.
So, it's a fine goal. Does that mean we scrap the goal because of one problem?
People cheat welfare, social security, medicare, take-a-penny/leave-a-penny bins, lost and found departments, disability insurance and every other part of life. Some people will cheat the tip system. Inevitable.
Unless you advocate getting rid of welfare, social security, medicare and - frankly - everything... Why are you holding tipping up to such scrutiny?
I agree with your first statement. Pay for performance is a fine goal to strive for and we shouldn't throw the baby away with the bathwater because of a minority of cheaters.
Of course not. But it doesn't mean being complacent and living with a bad solution. There are so many better ways to provide pay for performance. For example: one could change the protocol so that instead of a baseline of zero service charge, the baseline is, say, 15%. This is part of the bill. But then you are free to add more for exceptionally good service or subtract for exceptionally bad service. Fewer people will stiff waiters if they have to be proactive in order to do so.
BTW (and this is a rhetorical question): why should pay-for-performance be limited to waiters? Why not extend it to the cooks as well? Why not let people just pay what they thought the meal was worth? Why not extend it to other professions? Pay your doctor, your lawyer, any service provider, what you thought the service was worth after it has been provided?
No, but we could, instead of the tipping culture, just handle it like every other area of economic endeavor: customer willingness to pay the business is driven by the business's performance in meeting the customer's needs, and the business's willingness to pay the employee is driven by the employee's performance in meeting the customer's needs.
There's no need of a special case solution for restaurant waitstaff when there is already a general solution to acheiving the goal that does not have the problems at issue.
Even if you could declare your tip up front, you're not incentivizing them to perform better, you're competing with other patrons. You're paying them to neglect others.
It's not that I don't want the ability to incentivize… It's that I want only the owner/manager to have the ability to incentivize, not other patrons.
So you're pretty much stuck with going repeatedly or relying on anecdotal suggestions by friends or locals. And maybe you still can't trust those, for the same reasons.
If you honestly tip to reward good performance, why are you rewarding horrible performance at nearly the rate that you reward excellent performance?
Which is fine, I'd never not tip in Canada or the US either, but let's be honest with ourselves - everyone tips because you're culturally expected to tip.
I have a friend here in Seattle, who likes to consider himself a generous tipper. As such a 20% tip is for truly horrible service. 25-30 is standard and 50% is common enough for good service. I do think this good for the servers - but they have no clue that they sucked (I imagine) when they get a 20% tip. Unless I stiff them on my ½ of the bill :)
And while he may be extreme, diversity in the minimum/maximum range for tips means the messaging about performance is muddled.
A few places pool tips so even bad servers can skate
I think that part of this stems from different cultural opinions on service (i.e. it's rude to bring the check preemptively), but some of it is just lack of incentive, I think. What incentive does a waitress have to give you good service if she's making a standard wage and no tips? Especially if the waitress has increased job protection in certain countries (it's harder for an employer to fire people in France than in the US).
If you want the waiter, so etiquette says, you'll summon him/her.
If I have a problem with the food, I'll get a waiters attention - perhaps with a snap of my fingers - which is expected and not at all rude and let the waiter know.
Snapping my fingers at the waiter isn't something I'd ever do in the US though.
I expect writing to have minor flaws.
I expect a sandwich to be a sandwich.
Mistakes that aren't noticed by the time all the food is handed out should be rare, and there's no problem in flagging someone down in that case.
A reply below you says its to make sure you got what you ordered, etc. I could count on a few fingers the times ive ever got the wrong thing/meal, and then you just ask.
One thing I've noticed, though: this happens in chain restaurants regularly, but in smaller, independent restaurants only rarely.
It's not really cultural: I think it's a product of the disconnect that naturally occurs when people without any feet-on-ground presence are making policies to be followed by the staff, and the other end of the feedback loop isn't isn't in place.
I was eating at an Italian restaurant in Miami. Two beachgoers came in a bit after me, stared at the menu for 15 minutes, and left in a huff. Even if they had looked around the restaurant in a grumpy "where the fuck is our waiter" manner, he would've been at their table in 10 seconds.
The normal hover/frequent checkup behavior of American waiters and waitresses seems to be counter to this in almost all ways. It seems as though the rounds they make to check on everyone makes it much harder to get their attention when needed, in comparison to a waiter who stands back and watches.
It shouldn't take more than a min or two for the waiter to come over, give you some water, and introduce themselves.
I'm not here to be taken on a 'journey' by the server, I'm here to eat good food and enjoy the company that came with me.
A good server is one you barely notice.
It's something you typically ignore until it's not there.
No need to be condescending here, he even prefixed it with "in America," and what he said is absolute fact. If you aren't waited on in the first 15 minutes, in America, you aren't in a good restaurant.
It's a Y-combinator funded company by the way. I really hope it catches on big really quickly, I think it's just wonderful.
If you have younger kids, you have to be careful to sit them away from the button.
As a Brit when in America I find it awful how the waitress will pretend to be friendly. If we're just a group of guys or whatever I don't want you to be pretended to be interested in who we are, what we do. Putting a hand on my back isn't going to make me prefer the food I'm here for. If I wanted someone to pretend to be my friend, I'd be in a titty bar.
I think there is a good middle ground, in the UK tips are expected to be about 12.5% max. All staff share them, and front of house aren't so transparent in trying to get a bigger tip from you. People appear to take pride in what they do, rather than just being mercenary.
Yes, sometimes it is fake, but very often it's a case of being unable to imagine a culture where genuine friendliness toward strangers is a lot more common than what they themselves tend to feel toward strangers.
Perhaps you're immune to the effect, since you know about it. But in aggregate, it can change the disposition of customers (measured using the metric of increased tips).
They wouldn't do it if it didn't work.
Depending on where you've visited, this may have little to do with the restaurant setting, and everything to do with the local culture. There are some regions in America in which engaging with others at that level of familiarity is expected in any context, and being impersonal and excessively "professional" is considered rude.
I say, the cheek of it...
To me, tips encourage wait staff to get in the way and try to make themselves part of the evening, which is not something I want in a meal out with friends.
I have noticed that this happens at Nandos over here in the UK too, it seems to be part of their formula. That is typically the last interaction you have with the staff though, as their model is that you pay when you order.
Yes, but saying that the purpose is to be "casual" as an explanation sounds a lot better to the employees who are listening to it than saying that the purpose is to be "submissive", which is what kneeling before the person you are taking orders from really is.
> The waiters and waitresses in Croatia keep it real. And by keeping it real I mean they maintain authenticity, and by that I mean they do things like finish their cigarette or magazine article before taking your order, approach your table with almost total indifference and sometimes do everything in their power NOT TO NOTICE YOU! For my American readers it may sound strange, but I prefer this kind of “service” to what we have in the US. As it is with lots of things in Croatia, once you go through the looking glass, there’s no going back.
Croatian service: Keeping it real, really real http://zablogreb.likecroatia.hr/?p=10
Does your boss pay you a few extra dollars if you were extra productive and cheerful today? No? Would that be kind of demeaning, actually? Do you do a good job because it it's what you want to do?
It may be demeaning to you, as you probably make far more money than a waiter. But waiters in the US typically get paid an atrociously low salary, and make most of their income from tips.
"Do you do a good job because it it's what you want to do?"
Few people consider waiting tables their dream job. They usually do it because they consider it a temporary job, not a career. Some may take pride in doing an exceptional job, but they're probably the exception rather than the rule.
Waiters get paid an atrociously low salary because it is anticipated that their real pay will come from tips. This is part of the "tipping culture", not an external factor which justifies tipping culture.
I think it's rather that employers aren't willing to pay more, and waiters usually can't afford to turn down work that pays them these salaries, and there usually isn't another alternative that pays any better.
Regardless of the reasons for this state of affairs, the fact is that watiers in the US do get paid atrocious salaries and can't afford to look down their noses at "an extra few dollars" in tips.
I'm sure plenty of waiters would trade in the tip system for a guaranteed higher salary, but it's usually not up to them to decide.
I think its rather that employers are specifically legally permitted to pay less than the minimum they would have to pay others for the specific reason that waiters are expected to get a significant share of their income in tips.
While, obviously, restaurants may pay more than the minimum, the lower minimum for this particular class of employees depresses wages across the entire class.
So, yes, what employers are willing to pay is a factor, but what employers are willing to pay is driven by expectations that are set by, among other things, what employers are required to pay. And one of those other things, as well as the express reason for the lower amount employers are required to pay, is the presumption of tipping.
> Regardless of the reasons for this state of affairs, the fact is that watiers in the US do get paid atrocious salaries and can't afford to look down their noses at "an extra few dollars" in tips.
Well, yes, dependence on tips in certain jobs is a product of tipping culture. That's actually one of the arguments for tipping culture being a bad thing.
How you correct it given the way it is deeply ingrained in both the formal (e.g., law) and informal aspects of culture is, of course, another question.
You're unfamiliar with the "bonus"?
The same incentive every other worker that gets paid a hourly wage or monthly salary without tips has to do a their job properly.
The depends on how well the employer monitors performance and holds employees accountable.
Of course, employers who do bad at this in terms of customer service staff will find their business develops a reputation for poor customer service, and loses out to businesses that do a good job at this, all other things being equal.
Tipping is indeed customary in every service trade that I'm aware of, because it conforms to the reality that the waiter/deliveryman/taxi driver/etc. actually is working, at least in part, directly for the customer.
What incentive does a cook have to give you a good meal if she's making a standard wage and no tips?
What incentive does a dishwasher have to do a proper job washing your dishes if she's making a standard wage and no tips?
What incentive does a fast food employee have to good service if she's making a standard wage and no tips?
What incentive does a barista have to good service if she's making a standard wage and no tips?
etc...
From what I've heard, in the US it's standard practice to split the tip among the staff in a restaurant. The cook, host/hostess, even the other waiters get their share of a single waiter's tip.
I'm not sure about the dishwasher. But it's pretty obvious what incentive the dishwasher has in keeping the dishes clean: if they're not, he/she will get fired.
It's pretty obvious what incentive the waitstaff has to provide good service, if they don't, they get fired. Tipping is arbitrary. I tip the person who pours my drink at the bar, but not the person who pour my drink at McDonald's.
Oh, by the way, when I was younger and in high school/college I worked three public facing customer service jobs where I didn't earn any tips. I worked my ass off at each job for standard wages. I always provided the best customer service I could. My incentive was I wanted to do my job effectively and not get fired or reprimanded. It is incredibly naive to think that if waitstaff earned a fair wage without tips they would all suddenly stop doing their job. Especially since they already know they are going to get a tip anyways, it is pretty much required to give a tip, no matter how bad the service was!
It is one area where I believe that the europeans have a lot to learn, perhaps with the exception of Italy and London which I find pretty effective.
I'd think pride in her work? That's pretty shitty if they can treat customers like crap.
This is just one data point, but the Linkery was infamous around San Diego for having much worse service than other places in a similar price range. I'm convinced their experiment with tipping was correlated with this.
It can be a simple mistake, a boneheaded mistake, a major mistake or a colossally stupid mistake. But unless free desserts are promised systematically to a percentage of customers which are then billed for it, it's not "outright fraud".
One could argue that this wasn't deliberate and therefore should not count as fraud. That's what was done in the comment I was replying to. But one cannot argue that this wasn't done to enough people and therefore should not count as fraud, because they have nothing to do with each other.
Send everything wrong back and leave. go eat somewhere else.
never do the CC thing.
When you challenge said bill, saying that you have no choice about paying for what you were told you wouldn't be paying is both illegal and unethical.
The manager asserting that they had no choice doesn't mean they did; if they disagree, they could have refused to pay unless the offending items are removed from the bill. Obviously, that would have been an escalation, and they chose to acquiesce instead, but that was a choice.
If the dessert is the issue, don't pay the bill until you ask the manager why it's on the bill when it was supposed to be free. Let them call the police if it gets to that point (it almost never does). But once you pay the bill you're accepting the charges. There is no such thing as "paying under protest" for stuff like this.
A few years ago, I signed up for wireless internet service that ended up turning into crap after a month. I was willing to pay for the month where I got service, but I felt that they used false advertising to get my business, and as such they did not merit the activation fee.
Luckily, I paid with a credit card. My charge was $75, which combined the $35 activation fee and the $40 charge for the month of service. I disputed only the $35 and got my money back.
But I left feeling the lack of tips enabled poor service. I personally am uncomfortable with the concept of tying someone's pay to an arbitrary decision, but a small or zero tip sends a very strong message to a server in a targeted way. I think it's hard for a manager to micromanage service; the way they can do it is pretty inelegant and probably often inefficient. The manager could have fired the waiter, but maybe he was just having a bad day. The manager could have cut the waiter's hours, but that doesn't fix the issue. Also the manager likely doesn't hear about a lot of issues that go on - many people prefer not to complain except in the most extreme circumstances.
Such a system is completely broken-
-servers simply write off people who leave small or no tips as cheapskates, and... -cheapskates do take advantage of this to take offense at all opportunities and save themselves a tip, leading to an vicious circle.
It all just leads to an unfortunate cycle of assumptions and posturing. Getting rid of it would be fantastic.
And isn't the cook really the part of service that matters most about a restaurant? If you want to talk about inducement, shouldn't a tip pool yield a better result, even if the guy who carries the plate walks a little slower?
but being forced (yes, we asked) to pay the service charge added insult to injury
The alternative is that the restaurant simply increases the price of everything by 18%. It really doesn't make any difference. As to being forced, most feel culturally forced (if not sometimes legally forced) to tip for even horrendous service.
If the food is cold because the server took too long to bring it out it then it doesn't matter what it tastes like. If I don't get drink refills it, again, doesn't matter. If my order is screwed up when being entered it doesn't matter.
Servers are the face of the restaraunt. If servers made much less then the experience would be wildly different. Imagine the level of service provided by a cashier at your local McDonald's.
Are you talking without the context of the linked article? Because the idea behind the linked article is that a service fee is pooled and distributed among all staff (though still favouring servers, which is a nod to the past more than any rational evaluation of scope of importance). The linked article is that the servers still made a considerable amount more than their base pay.
And no, servers aren't by any measure the most important. I would dare say they are the least important in the whole venture.
* They get less tips as percentage than they previously did.
* They give more of the tips to the non-waitstaff.
Both combine to reduce the wages of the waitstaff, so I'm not shocked that the service would be worse.
The whole idea of mandatory "service charges," or "fees," in any business, is kind of bizarre. It seems strange that we've accepted that certain types of businesses (airlines, hotels, ticket brokers, in some cases restaurants) should list prices that differ significantly from the actual price charged. There does seem to be some backlash against this practice: Kayak, Hipmunk, and many other travel sites now list the full price of airline tickets (though, often, not hotel rooms, with their "facility charges," whatever those are). And today I noticed that StubHub now shows prices inclusive of all fees. I understand why a business would like to list prices that are 30% lower than what the customer actually pays, but it seems a little odd that we're all OK with it.
If a restaurant wants to charge more so they can pay their staff a wage that doesn't require them to live off tips, then great! I'm all for it. But then they need to list their higher charges, not just tack on an extra 18% (or whatever) on top of what they advertise.
But since we in Europe are used to being advertised pre-VAT prices I suppose it is not a big deal for us.
Also I have seen wine/birthday cake charges - the establishment allows you to bring your bottles of wine if you pay X EUR per bottle, same with the cake.
Wait, what? In most of europe, all prices listed must be VAT-included, unless they're specifically business-targeted. I'm pretty sure VAT-excluded advertisement would be fraudulent there.
Prices are often noted as both VAT-included and VAT-excluded at the point of sale, but the most prominent one is VAT-included.
The key is that they don't charge you $Y. They charge you $X and then give you a blank line to choose to pay more.
Of course, there is pressure to tip, but if you choose to not tip, the restaurant can't come after you for that money.
And this is the country where supposedly everything is done in the name of consumer.
And listing taxless prices and hiding the cost of service from me by expecting me to tip waiters.
This is also the reason why I find this article distasteful. So if you are really that sure about your position, why the hell don't you raise your prices 20% or even 30% for that matter. And when people ask you why are you so expensive, you can tell them that you pay your people fairly.
Or they can see the notes about "no tipping" and "service charge: included in prices"
Unless they have forged a particularly tight bond with the community, simply raising prices is a sure fire way to lose potential customers.
Tipping is so ingrained in American restaurant culture that everyone assumes it to be in place. Unless they have a gigantic sign that flashes "NO TIPPING" in neon colors, you can bet that anyone scanning their menu will just assume it's a really expensive restaurant.
It just tells me that people are content with additional mental pressure because of sentimentality.
I understand that Americans are used to it. But it is still absurd and in absolute discord in regards to America attitude towards business.
But I was asking about tips in GP.
I think we all know it is actually preying on the dumb and those weak willed people(look a 12$ lunch! Which turns out to be in fact a 15-20$ lunch in reality).
Here in Europe local community also gets their own share in taxes. They are merely levied in a manner that does not obscure the sale price.
And the kicker, the service is always good. Because if the server isn't nice, they'll probably get fired. Because guess what, serving food and being polite about it is their job. That is what they're getting payed for. So demanding extra money to do their job with a smile just seems too weird for me.
Obviously it's nothing like that crazy system (to me it is, at least) on the other side of the atlantic, where people have a fee to pay just for that. That and prices without tax included... Really strange, to me it is false advertising.
I worked in a normal restaurant some years ago, and the system is something like this:
* servers receive tips, everybody puts them in a central place.
* at the end of the day they are divided amongst all working people.
* in good days, everbody would receive between 15€ to 25€.
Obviously this can change from place to place, specially the part about sharing with everyone.
"Really strange, to me it is false advertising." couldnt describe it any better
It's funny how famous Americans are for disrespecting other cultures while Europeans feel free to call anything American that differs from their own cultures "weird" or worse.
There's plenty of things about Denmark that I find "weird" but I was raised not to insult other people's culture so I won't call them out.
I'm not paying someone to bring me food, that's not the part of the experience I'm there for. I'm there for someone to cook me food. That the wait staff are there at all is a convenience, but they're sure as hell not the main attraction.
Which industries expect tips and which don't feels arbitrary and ridiculous. Cabs, food service (sort of? Lots of fast food places leave a line item for tips, but I don't think it's expected,) bell hops. People in the fashion industry like tattoo artists and hair dressers expect tips, but I've never heard of people in retail wanting tips. Food delivery wants to be tipped (especially given that they have to cover their own vehicle costs,) but not package delivery.
I know that I'm not the only American that considers tipping to be arbitrary and backward. The only American I've heard who defended it didn't understand that we wanted to replace his tipping wages with fair wages
[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Chang
[Edit - Whoops. As a San Diego resident, I feel bad for neglecting to mention that The Linkery was awesome and like lots of folks here I'm sorry to see it go.]
"A certain small number of very vocal men (and it was always men) resented that we were not letting [them] try to exercise additional control over our team members. This was true even though compelling research has shown that servers do not adjust quality of service as a result of tips; instead the idea that the restaurant was not offering our servers up as objects of control, was heresy. For these people, the primary service they wanted from the restaurant was the opportunity to pay for favors from the server..."
I think the vocal group probably felt if i have to explicitly pay a separate line item for service then I want explicit control of that... the whole 'primary service is control' angle feels to me like newspeak
You hit the nail on the head here. Some places "hide" this charge better than others. I once had another patron at a place let me know that my check already included tip so I wouldn't double tip, as my check just had a total on it. It wasn't itemized at all. That seemed pretty dishonest to me.
It was the standard practice of all the servers there to make sure the circle went through the item showing the included gratuity for parties of six or more.
Apparently, as a result, they'd get double tipped for large parties about 50% of the time.
Also, as I said, the "they" in this situation was another patron, not a worker at the restaurant.
edit: hmmm, it seems the latter isn't even close to true!
This is in Massachusetts that does have a tip credit and where servers rarely get paid the statutory minimum wage if it is a slow night (against the law but it happens). Just for reference, the server minimum wage is $2.63/hour. If you can't make enough in tips because its a slow night and one of your coworkers is bringing the tip average down, your incentive drops off dramatically as well.
For something like this to work nationwide, the tip credit has to go.
Maybe it's possible that it is a coincidence that restaurants with tip sharing have bad servers. Your feedback could be valuable.
However, that view is based on the UK system where minimum wage for the serving staff is enforced and where tip pools are allowed.
Pre-2008, credit card tips/service charges actually went to the employer, not the service staff, and the staff were generally told to lie about this[0].
Post-2008, credit card tips may be subject to employer deductions[1]. There has never been a fixed rule as to whether your cash tips are pooled or kept by waiting staff[2].
[0] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7535797.stm [1] http://www.strada.co.uk/service-charge [2] http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1639059/Whe...
http://jayporter.com/dispatches/observations-from-a-tipless-...
There are also Indian restaurants here and there that have pretty spicy food that is tasty; although I'm not all that knowledgeable about Indian cuisine in general.
2 places have no tipping in New York City: - Sushi Yasuda - considered by some the top sushi spot in the city. (Certainly one of the most expensive) - The tap room at Whole Foods - let's just call it a little more lowbrow.
My budget hasn't encouraged me to visit Yasuda in several years, but I will say that I like not having to pay tips at the tap room. It certainly makes an inexpensive place seem even cheaper, and their service hasn't suffered for it at all.
I don't know how closely this sake bar hews to any Japanese convention (my guess is that it's be the Japanese version of hipsterism), but it was an amusing episode that led me to never revisit that bar again, as much as I like the place.
As we were walking home, she said "That sushi was so excellent I left a $10 tip."
"We have to go back."
"WHAT?"
"You don't tip in Japan. We have to go back."
"Maybe YOU don't tip in Japan, Mr. Stingypants, but I tip in Ja..."
"Matttttttttttttttttttttttte"
"Who was that?"
"That's the sushi guy, who has commandeered his grandmother's bicycle to chase after us."
"Why would he do that?"
"Here, I'll translate for him."
"Huff. Puff. Your... girlfriend... dropped... her... money."
"She's not my girlfriend."
"Alright then, Ms. Totally Platonic dropped her money. Tell her to be a bit more careful with it? There's all sorts of forei... people in Ogaki who might steal money that's just left on a table like that."
But I know that I've not gone back to restaurants precisely because I didn't like interacting with the staff, or I didn't like how they interacted with my guests.
And looking back, the most specific I could be about it was "well, the waiters were kind of intense." You know what I mean. They were professional, they did their job, but ... they were intense. And they didn't need to be; we're going to give them 20%, but they don't know that. So they're ... slightly intense, forward with their presence, so you won't dare undertip, instead of melting into the background and letting the food and ambience dominate.
In a restaurant like this guy posits, waiters aren't compliance professionals.
On the other hand, in a tipless restaurant, they aren't paid based on merit, so maybe they won't be as motivated to do a great job in the parts of their work that require concentration and diligence.
But they're doing a job that a robot should be doing as soon as possible, and a whether my server is good, great or okay isn't going to affect how my food tastes.
I think it is quite peculiar that the service of the server is perceived to be such a profoundly important component to the overall restaurant experience. Think of it this way: have you ever had to report a floor clerk at JC Penny or Sears to the manager, because he ruined your buying experience? Or a McDonald's employee or a Taco Bell employee? Front floor people are important, but it's probably not fair to place them above people in the background (cooks, dishwashers).
This reminds me, my favorite restaurant (Pita Inn in Evanston Illinois) does not even have servers, you just pick your food up, go to the table and eat it. Honestly, I prefer the "experience" there over other fancy restaurants -- I just like to be given my food and eat it without interruptions, and without going through a sometimes-socially-burdensome task of having to decide on a right tip.
I hate it when people use terms without defining them.
> Compliance professionals often play on this trait by
> offering a small gift to potential customers.
> Compliance professionals can exploit the desire to be
> consistent by having someone make an initial, often
> small, commitment.
> This trait has led compliance professionals to provide
> fake information on what others are doing.
It's a classic.
It's not psycho-babble or, as another comment thought, a "business self-help guru" book.
It's someone at a bank or other financial institution that is responsible for insuring compliance with the relevant legal regulations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_manipulation#Compliance_p...
So should we conclude that as a general rule the chef isn't as motivated as the waiters to provide good service? This sounds to me like bullshit.
If?
With love, Frenchie
disclaimer: not French, but having spent time in both countries it's clear that tipping is nowhere near as prevalent as in the States where 20% is pretty common.
For more on Pub culture see the fascinating "Passport to the Pub: A guide to British pub etiquette" - http://www.sirc.org/publik/pub.html
I expect it varies as much in London, but culture tends to follow people who then follow the culture they are used to - so you may just frequent places where not tipping that way is the norm by virtue of your preferences and circle of friends.
It could be an artefact of different sorts of relationship people feel they have with bar staff (and serving staff in general).
I think it's fairer to say that traditionally you can tip the staff by buying one for them, but it's not something you observe happening all that often.
At Christmas, maybe?
LOL, I know, UK bad food etc etc...
Actually some of the best food in the UK is to be had in pubs IMHO. Also some of the worst, if you just pick one at random you might get either end of the spectrum.
In my experience it's more normal that you order your food at the bar, and a member of staff then brings your food to your table. A tip isn't normally expected in this case.
In a gastropub your order would normally be taken at your table and you'd tip just as if you were in a restaurant.
E.g. one woman/man food cart or bar owners who offer services for dumping prices don't know and/or value how much their time and energy is actually worth or simply feel the need to take the risks to get a competitive edge.
It's a true race to the bottom. In 2013 actually very, very few individuals and companies are still generating profits (thinking about Amazon, Salesforce.com, etc).
So profits are drying up for most of us, it's a shame really that a lot of capitalism critical thinkers seem to have been right all along.
How can we get to a more even distribution of authentic wealth without throwing out the benefits of capitalism?
Realizing how far I've digressed already, this interview is very relevant IMHO if we talk about our own industry and the fairy tales in connection with it: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3488-i-talk-to-jason-calacani...
There are also a _lot_ of addicts, psychopaths, morons and other assorted human detritus, of ever conceivable hue competing for these jobs, which also depresses wages.
Furthermore, restaurants don't have any damn money. Restaurants are on razor thin margins always. Usually a bad week or two from going under.
Qualifications for working in the kitchen consist of:
1. will you work for very little money? 2. can you work ok when you're high and/or drunk? For fancy places: 3. can you safely handle a knife? 4. will you toil endlessly for no apparent reason?
That's pretty much it.
It's possible there are other factors at play here, but I don't know enough about the situation to bring those up.
Any of the recent food star autobiographies will tell you that life in a kitchen is a 60-80 hour grind, every week, and that investing in a restaurant requires only slightly less foolish optimism than buying a boat.
> Anti-tipping advocates often championed an egalitarian vision of capitalist consumption in which both consumer and employee would benefit. Tipping, they maintained, undermined the dignity and independence of citizens in a democracy. “Let us not congratulate the servants on their gain,” one writer admonished, “for no servant takes a tip without losing something of manhood or womanhood.” Another argued that to accept a tip “is to enter into a relationship of dependence to the giver and by implication to acknowledge his superiority.” Frank Crane, a syndicated columnist, contended that the tip put waiters “into a class with the beggar, or the receiver of a bribe.” And Alvin Harlow, a historian popular at the time, wrote: “What, may I ask, is more un-American than tipping? It doesn’t belong in American society; it doesn’t belong in a democracy. It is a product of lands where for centuries there has been a servile class.” http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/summer2012/features/tip...
My first jobs were as a busser, dishwasher, prep cook and line cook.
As a customer, I hate tipping! Tipping is an absurdly unfair practice. I never tip over 15%, usually 10% and sometimes nothing at all. Waiter/waitresses are overpaid for what they do.
If the food is good, tip the kitchen, not the person who brought it to the table.
The cashiers at Safeway, McDonald's drive-thru, flight attendants, and anyone in the workforce for that matter, don't whine about tips. They do their job, and they get paid for what their services are worth from their employers.
I'm not opposing giving tips if you received amazing service and you truly feel like giving one. I just hate the fact that the 18% tip is almost taken for granted nowadays, and you become the cheap one if you tip less. The tip system, if at all it should exist, should work so that the extra money customers pay actually reflect the service they received - not be socially forced down their throats.
No need for waving and trying to make eye contact on that part, and no need for servers to constantly interrupt your conversation. Not to mention this is also more convenient for the servers as they can monitor a single screen rather than the entire room.
[0] I have some knowledge of this in the mid Atlantic states, but the author is speaking about the West. Maybe it is different over there, maybe it isn't.
While in Europe service is included in food prices, it's rare for a tip to be refused, specially when "rounding".
Still, it was strange. Just making sure it wasn't some larger pattern that I was unaware of and that the author's refusal to accept tips at all was truly unique, or at least atypical.
Can someone explain to me exactly why servers make 2x that of cooks? I certainly appreciate service, but I go to a restaurant to eat after all.
On a technical level, I also appreciate the skill (and occupational hazards) involved in cooking, perhaps more so than the interpersonal skills displayed by servers.
Yes, I realize I should have been more specific. I was in fact referring to restaurants that employ skilled & experienced cooks.
Anecdotally, I have acquaintances with solid (non AI) culinary degrees employed at boutique restaurants who make just north of minimum wage. The author of article seemed to imply that his restaurants also employed more skilled cooks, which prompted me to ask this question.
I'm not saying being a server is worth 2x as much as a cook but I can see how they could get paid more. In the same vein a bartender makes hella ducats more than either a server or a cook and most of the time they are just serving beer or vodka & cranberry drinks.
I literally don't understand why opening a beer warrants a (basically mandatory) $1 dollar tip. I've come to viewing it as essentially a bribe for future service, which has caused it to leave a bad taste in my mouth.
I see comments here from Americans who say that when they eat out in other countries they're amazed at the poor service and figure this must be because of no tipping. Back home in Australia if a restaurant doesn't deliver good service they'll go broke. So most places I ever ate at back home had (what I would call) good to great service. This isn't to say I didn't receive some very rare bad service.
Here in the US I've had about a similar experience. Mostly good to great service, and some rare bad service.
The one big difference I've noticed is that here in the US (and I believe this is because of the tipping culture) I've had to "suffer" through "overly attentive" service. When the server constantly asks if everything is satisfactory, constantly topping up / refilling drinks and (I gather) thinking that they're giving us excellent service....... But in reality they're just infringing on our enjoyment of a night out.
the whole reason for tipping is because management can pay the wait staff less than minimum wage, cooks dont get tips because cooks cant legally be paid lowball rates, so why is it good that this guy is STILL paying his wait staff under minimum wage and then not allowing them to be tipped so he can incentivize his other staff?
Why dont you just charge me for the food however much it takes to make your business stay profitable and not force the customer to worry about the details?
the waiters would have made 26 dollars an hour under a tipping scheme instead they make 22 dollars an hour under his scheme...
thats really all he is doing here, taking tip money from the waiters and dividing it among the employees as he decides too... and thats fine EXCEPT why doesnt he just put the menu prices up by whatever % he needs to and then run his business how he sees fit? RIGHT because then he cant advertise those low prices (on his menu). Why is that legal? ohh yeah because america has a tipping culture for dining, and why is that? because wait staff is explicitly exempt from wage laws to a large extent
i read the article, thought about it, looked at the numbers and applied critical thinking, and came to the conclusion that this scheme benefits management of the resturant more than anyone else
Conversly, leave a tip on a credit card bill if you want to ensure that the entire tip is subject to any tip pool.
It also makes it so that my receipts, credit charge email alerts, and monthly bill all reconcile. Otherwise you can have a transcription error when the server or restaurant owner misreads (or mistypes) the manually written tip line of your receipt.
To make sure it reconciles correctly, make sure you fill out the Total line legibly/correctly, not the tip line. That's generally what systems have you input at cash out, and they calculate the tip amount from that difference. The vast majority of mistypes/misreads stem from the Total field being left blank and the manager does the math on the fly, or the customer didn't do the math right when they wrote in the Total (so they end up tipping $4.50 instead of $3.50, or $1.50 instead of $2.50)[1].
[1]Restaurant manager for two years.
Also, by leaving cash there's never any math involved either as the pre-tip total is the final total.
People actually working in restaurants have earned that money and can use it to better their lives. It's a moral crime to forcibly take the money from them.
I'm Canadian, so I could have more correctly written "CRA" instead of "IRS" - and on balance, I do believe my government spends the money on good things. Certainly there are parts I disagree with, but that's why I, you know, vote and stuff.
More importantly, I think a server who grosses $50,000 and a QA analyst who grosses $50,000 should end up paying the same amount in income taxes. The server shouldn't get a pass just because lots of his/her income comes in the form of tips.
That said, I think it's wrong to think that the government can invest money more wisely or efficiently than the people who have earned it can, and I think it's morally wrong to take money from people (like wait staff--note that doing this materially hurts their pursuit of their own goals and happiness) for government boondoggle.
>if one job gets a $2/hour raise, that most likely means that another job will have its wage reduced by $2/hour.
This statement right here sets up half of this posts argument here and isn't realistic at all.
How is it not realistic?
If you need to pay somebody $2 more an hour the money can come from more places. Increase a drink price, decrease tomato quality, steam clean every 3 weeks instead of 2, wash the bathroom yourself instead of hiring, call the newspaper and ask for a reduced rate, etc etc etc.
Of course, you are also assuming that decisions like these (aside from the newspaper one) don't affect the revenue of the restaurant in the long run.
As he states, "Theoretically, it seems like there would be ways to free up more money for labor, and there are some methods that help. In the end, though, restaurant-going is so prevelant that the expectations of the market — for price, quality, ambience, and so forth — are pretty well set in every dimension. And the cost of meeting those expectations is pretty well set, too."
Which means his entire experiment is how to increase revenue that can be directly allocated to wages without decreasing the quality of his tomatoes or the cleanliness of his carpets.
Juggling and heroics make the variables of a business much more dependent on one another, not less.
I think that's part of what the article was saying. Regardless of whether or not the server behavior was good or bad, the tipping culture created complex and unnecessary social dynamics that were difficult to control in a predictable, effective manner.
My take away is that tipping was an inelegant, overly complex solution, and that simplifying it made the social context much easier to deal with, so that the owner could produce consistent, high quality results.
After that point, I'd say that servers or employees that are good or bad become the same issue you have with any other customer facing job. You address it through culture, disciplinary action, ranking, scheduling, perks, reviews, wage increases, or any number of other methods (I'm not endorsing any of those specifically). The incentive structure becomes a job more or less just another retail job.
[1] http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2010/02/23/08...
[2] http://www.dol.gov/whd/FieldBulletins/fab2012_2.htm
[3] The author of the infamous torture memos, that argued that it isn't torture unless it's as painful as losing a major organ.
I wonder if this is a dying breed? I think this is an interesting juxtaposition to the kid graduating HS who goes on to:
1. Dual major in business and C-S when they do their undergrad
2. Intern at big corps while in school (make $15-20/hr and have no debt)
3. Work at a startup or two for 2-3 years after graduating
4. Start their own startup.
If we sampled just the restaurants who were viable, profitable concerns, or simply those that had been around longer than (say) a year, you'd find that the average profit margin would be much higher.
Their 'tip jar' next to the register has a big sign that says something like "Fabarnak staff are paid a good wage. Any money left will be donated to the 519 [community centre]", which Fabarnak is housed in and is generally affiliated with. I think their is a similar message on the bottom of the menus if you choose to pay by card at your table.
The food is excellent, and the service is always pleasant. The lack of tips doesn't seem to be upsetting their staff.
http://www.yelp.ca/biz/fabarnak-restaurant-and-catering-toro...
"However, to give the tip money to every worker would be illegal. The law is historically very clear — the $220 in tips belongs to the two servers only, and cannot be distributed to any other employees." ?
I'm not trying to be difficult or argumentative, I'm genuinely wondering. I'm pretty anti-tipping and pro-pay-what-you-will myself, and I'm just wondering if I'm fooling myself now.
It seems to me that if everyone in the restaurant (or perhaps just those in the kitchen) made a percentage of the profits of the restaurant, that productivity would increase all around and the sidebar between the kitchen and the servers wouldn't carry nearly as much weight.
Is profit sharing prevented by regulation?
[1]: http://www.freakonomics.com/2013/06/03/should-tipping-be-banned-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/http://tippingresearch.com/uploads/customer_racial_discrimin...