Tipping should come from the HEART! Do the RIGHT thing!

I think for many people, the idea or very thought of tipping is an afterthought or even nonexisent!!

I would say almost 100 Percent of Waiters do not get to keep all of that 'what you thought was a VERY generous' tip!! Waiters have other employees they are forced to tip out including bartenders that make them drinks to serve to you,busboys who clear the tables, runners who bring the food out from the kitchen to the table and some places have tipouts to hosts,maitre d's,sommeliers(wine service),even cooks,managers and cashiers have to be tipped out by the waiters in some establishments!!

Every time a waiter serves you -- he starts out with less money than 0! The waiter usually has to tip out based on his or her sales. Occasionally in some places the waiter tips out a percent of their actual tips. Most places won't do this because there is no way to check what the waiter ACTUALLY made in tips since some are in cash! I do wait tables and have to tip out 5 percent of my sales. The math is simple - If I get a 20 percent tip, I personally keep 15 percent of it. So when you only leave 15 percent, I make a 10 percent tip.5 percent is actually low compared with some places who make their waiters tip out between 6-8 percent. I cannot imagine getting 20 percent tips all night and leaving with 11 percent!!

Now I know what some of you are thinking and it's..."well that's not MY problem..I tipped him a FAIR amount!" Most places have a mix of hard workers and lazy workers, in every occupation!

The next time you are out and the bill arrives...remember that doubling the tax is not OUTSTANDING. I'm not asking for everyone to make up for the money the waiter loses(unless you deeply want the waiter to get to keep all of the tip...so if you leave 20 on 100...you need to leave 25 for the waiter to make the 20!...some places you might have to leave 26-28...and feel free to ask the waiter, they will be more than happy to let you know they tip out a certain percentage to other people!). If more people left 20 percent or closer to it, that would make most waiters happy. As soon as you leave 10 percent or less the waiter is making very little,nothing and sometimes is actually losing money because of your ridiculous tip!

I kid you not...I have had people..."grown men" who pull out $5 or even $3 on a tab of $70,$90,$100+ -- They will say "Here, that's for you!" and act like they just did the greatest thing ever. They will even say they had good or great or even excellent service...because they have no clue and have somehow been taught that that's a lot of money or a good tip.

Tipping is all over the place now for almost any occupation. The people who DEPEND on tips and work for tips because they get paid under min. wage since the employer assumes that the tips will bring their hourly rate above min wage are WAITERS and BARTENDERS as well as busboys!

I've had tables that wanted their food to go and sometimes I'll ask if they want me to wrap it or bring a box b/c some people don't like their food being handled or wrapped by anyone but themself (even though someone else prepared it and it was touched anyway!). One time a lady said very aggressively " No, YOU can do it!" but then when it came time for my tip - she only wanted to leave me $1 and change on a $75 bill....she told me : "That's all the money I can give for that!"

Obviously there are many excellent and above average tippers out there...waiters do appreciate you!

No waiter cares about verbal praise....it all comes down to money. The more you praise...the more money you need to leave!! If you ever dare say "I'll take care of you"...the tip needs to be at least 20 percent if not 30!! 15 percent takes care of nobody!!

It's too bad the waiter can't be told beforehand what tip percentage they were getting, so they could SERVE accordingly!!

ONLY ORDER WHAT YOU CAN PAY FOR!!

Story Prologue:
A table of 4 came in and we were supposed to be closed but as usual we let in these random tables when the kitchen is closing as well as side-stations and we have to rush people in a ridiculous way. Unfortunately I work in a place where by the time they get to being sat...they are FAR away from the front door to usually want to turn around. A young (meaning she's like 17) host started to seat this 4-top but kept getting shaken off by every server that saw the table. This was due to people wanting to be finished working(not wanting the last table) and also because they were black kids.
One waiter was embarrassed by this and decided to just take the table. Well this waiter says he is a 'restaurant person' and I admire him for that as much as that can be admired(I mean it's not like he brought peace to the world). It
turned out that the table did not have enough money to pay the whole bill.
So this server's nice deed went bad...not only did he wait on them for free...it cost him money to do so. You feel bad for the guy but it brings up a great point.
How can people feel they can order whatever they want and not think about its price(s) beforehand?!? I don't know if this is a fair comparison but let me try:

I call up a dealer and tell him I'm coming over to buy 5 of his finest paintings.
I get there and naturally I want to view them. I take out my $100 for the 5 and he tells me that it's $500 per painting. Now I would probably say give me one $100 or 5 smaller $20 paintings...but I doubt the dealer would be amused that I called asking for his 5 best ($2500 worth of) paintings and showed up with $100.

I don't know if it's a case of these people not looking at prices before ordering OR thinking they could just get discounted whatever they couldn't afford?!?

I know there's a race issue here as well and some of you might think that's the most important issue here. The fact that all the other waiters prejudged the table correctly doesn't make their shakeoffs right. The host should have sat & left them in whatever section was open and next.

If it was my table I would have stood there and said "I don't care whom you have to call to bring you money or a credit card....but you have to find someway to pay the check". We only add gratuity on parties of 6 or more but we have to tip out based on sales so I would have added it regardless...I would have added it due to the bill being over 100 bucks...not because of their color. I don't think I'm wrong, because NO waiter should have to work for free. I know there are lots of people with issues about having to tip and having to tip more than a certain amount...but waiters more than any other profession live solely on their tips. People at Mcdonald's get paid more hourly than waiters do!

Now I would not have guessed the table didn't have enough money to pay but I definitely would have assumed my tip was not going to be higher than 10 percent. My basis is more about the type of place I work in where I assume many people will not leave me more than 10 percent for a whole number of reasons/issues I'm not going to get into now.

I personally have had tales like this one where people didn't have enough money to pay the check. The table I had was also a black family but I know we've also had white people come in who couldn't pay as well. I'm sure all over the world..every single ethnicity, race, creed, religion, etc. had someone whom ate out and did not have enough money for their check. I have never read any articles or seen any coverage on the news about any such incident. I only see articles about unfair gratuities added to checks due to race or because they were foreigners or some other reason.

NOW TO MY STORY:
My story was that my place was handing out coupons on the street for free video games in our arcade which could only be used if they purchased an entree.
It wasn't a busy night and this group came down to my section. I was happy because it was my first gratuity table - 7 people. Well they ordered an appetizer and a few sodas. They ate and I dropped the bill. The gratuity was like 7 bucks.
They had just come from a sporting event and this father had bought them all new jerseys and hats. It looked like he had spent A LOT of money that day. He comes to find me alone in the back and smirks..

"Is this a joke?"

I respond : "Is what a joke?"

He says : "This bill...$70 for an appetizer and some sodas"

I said : "No"

He says : " I don't have enough money to pay this bill"

At this point....why is this MY problem?!? I then have to do a lot of extra work to help out a guy who can't even pay his bill which after tipping out only leaves me with a whole $4 tip from my $7 gratuity. It's at THIS point he lets me know that the only reason they had anything to eat was so they could use their game coupon.

I got the bill knocked down like 10 bucks and he had to get his mom's credit card number and I had to have documents typed up and signed by him so there would be no problems. (People like to call back and try to get out of paying for meals by saying they NEVER ate there...they either DON'T sign the slip or take BOTH copies...sneaky & evil people in the world) This wasn't a kid but a grown man who had to be pushing 40.

So getting back to the prologue...I felt for this waiter and personally feel every check in this country should come with 18 percent gratuity added to ALL checks with an additional line for more if the customer wants to leave extra on top. I know service charges can be added which go to the restaurant and sometimes the waiter...but
an article I read said only 15 percent for parties of 8 or more can be added if stated somewhere in the restaurant or on the menu. I don't know how true that is since many places add anywhere from 15-20 percent from all different party sizes?!? That is another post to be started.

The positive with paying the waiter is that the waiter can keep better track of his tips(actually entering in credit card tips him or herself) where as the positive thing with having to pay a cashier on the way out is walkouts can no longer be blamed on the waiter(one would think since the customers have to go by the cashier on the way out?!). I guess depending on the size of the check...the police would be called -- and would charge the customers with a felony or misdemeanor..although I have never seen anyone charged with such but saw the police called once.

Long post...thoughts on moronic patrons, waiters being prejudice, or other restaurant baloney..

TABLE HOLDERS or what we call CAMPERS

Double time

If you hold a table for two serving periods, make sure that you tip double. In other words, if you spend enough time at a table that a waiter could have typically gotten two parties seated and served, then compensate him for his time by tipping him twice. I like to ease his mind by telling him this about half-way through.

Hardly anyone..mostly NOBODY will do this!!! I'm lucky if I get 20 percent on 'campers' or whatever they are!!!

I can understand if people go to a diner that's 24/7 and is not busy...hang out and then just leave a really good tip and not DOUBLE...

It's a whole new ballgame when you fill up one of four tables...or a whole server section in a place that is only open til 9-10pm.
I've had big tables stay for 2-4+ hours and not leave me a cent more...usually 18 percent is included but what about all the other 18-25 percent tips I lost b/c they lounged away like they rented the place.

The next time someone lounges like that...I am not going to do anything nice...charge them for every thing I can...you better believe it!!!!

Nobody likes to WAIT, especially a LONG TIME!

I work in NYC & some people are crazy and literally will come in and try to eat in an hour or less. It's very possible to do that where I work but there are plenty of times that can't be done...plus when the kitchen does get backed up and people are waiting a long time...the best that I can do is get their check discounted.
The worst table wait I had to deal with was one waiting 45 mins to 1 hour for their food but it was in no way my fault. The bad thing was their appetizer came out in literally a minute and it was two parents with two kids. The kids were annoying their parents for their food....the father didn't even care that I took it upon myself to discount their check. He left me nada/nothing nonetheless. Sometimes when the waiter does discount the check on their own, it gives some people the impression that the waiter is taking the blame. In those cases I am blaming the kitchen and trying to do what I can to make the guests happy!! Ahhh the life! The check was discounted...so my tip wouldn't be! It was a weekend night!!!

Two interesting WAITER sites

If you want a place to just rant and rave about how people are awful to you (US!) :

The Waiter!!!!!

You can visit Bitter Waitress!!!!!!! It's really cool and a great group of people!!
It's a message board and it's free...try it out!

Another newer site ...is where waiters can look for jobs but also report what they average a week at their "establishment". They offer a bunch of cities and places...some of the stats seem way too high and some restaurants will tell you they seem way too low (like restaurants actually physically count our tips...especially ones in cash?!?)!

It's called Table Setter ! !

To my fellow waiters...Karma is REAL! We can't always see it ..but what goes around, comes around!!

The Children's Menus is for CHILDREN!! (Not even for you Grandma!!)

I am so used to it by now and am pretty lenient on this when I know it's wrong of me...but a tip is still a tip. I know if I deny this person a kid meal...they will tip me less. Chances are they will always tip me less but I'd rather them tip me less on a smaller bill!!

If any waiter breaks the rules for you...especially if they don't verbally tell you they are breaking the rules (like letting you order off a menu that clearly says 10 and under)...the tip should be 25 percent!!

Our adult portion of any kid meal is sposed to be 14.95 but sometimes I modify it so it's only 10.95 depending on what they ordered as an adult. People will complain if they see their adult grilled cheese was 14.95 and they will also never let me hear the end of it if I charged their kid their kid for an adult kid's meal when they were clearly 16 or 18...senior citizens, white trash (also some women..'who aren't hungry' or 'just had a gastric bypass-order salad/veggies!')ALWAYS will want to order off the kid menu...WHY OH WHY CAN'T YOU GO TO MCDONALD'S ACROSS THE STREET..I BEG OF YOU!! You don't tip at McDonald's...there's just a place to leave money for Ronald's HOUSE!

WAITERS are PEOPLE too!!

We all (or most..normal people?!?) go out to eat, we've had long days and are starving. We're tired and thirsty! We want to order, drink, eat and GO! We are a NOW,NOW,NOW society. We are also a very much ME ME ME society. When you combine the two, it can lead to a person forgetting about the world around him or her. This holds very true when people go out to eat (especially if they have YOUNG CHILDREN! They use their kids as a BIG EXCUSE!) and want to be served fast!
People will forget that the person who is their waiter is in fact not so different than them in that they too get hungry, thirsty and tired. They are AT WORK and are WORKING but are still HUMAN. If you cut them, they will bleed. I just want you next time you go out to eat, to stop what you're doing, observe your waiter and those around you. Take some real time and REALLY in a sincere way, ask "How are you?" , "How's it going?"! Then go right to giving me that very long and complicated order! I'm ready, Freddy!

Who does the waiter or waitress have to tip out? Weird?!?

It definitely is a foreign concept to those who have never worked in a restaurant before but there are many employees that rely MAINLY on tips besides waiters.
These usually include busboys, food runners, bartenders, and sommeliers. In some establishments, waiters have to tip out other people including hosts, matre d's, managers, chefs, back waiters, etc.
A waiter already starts each new table in the hole and in the red. I personally have to tip out 5 percent of my NET sales (before taxes). That means for every 20 percent tip I receive, I actually only get 15 percent in my pocket. If I want to make 20 percent, I need to average 25 percent from ALL my tables. Usually in any given shifts, tips are all over the map ranging from absolutely 0 to upwards of 100 percent. Those two are more rare and it's more like 8 percent to 30 percent.
The next time you're thinking of adding one, two or even three more dollars to the tip, it definitely helps!

Tipping Your Waiter

20 Percent is considered a great tip while anything less can be semi insulting for great service and anything more is much appreciated!
It's best to tip out on the total check which means the waiter is getting more like 23 or 24 percent. This is all assuming that you've had nothing but the BEST service.
Some people are picky and many are cheap but the waiter does many things for your table that most will ALWAYS be unaware of.
The waiter does not get to keep ALL of his or her tip that you have left because they themselves have people to tip out in the restaurant. Other employees who work around them!