Take This Job And Shove It

No job is more thankless than serving, more commonly known as waiting tables. I can understand the need to be thrifty in these hard economic times, but as someone who pays his bills with tips: do not have your server run all over so you can receive the meal and service of your dreams only to stiff that same server on their tip. Even if you receive mediocre service, you have to understand that with the massive job loss, servers are being stretched thin too; often taking on the roles of bussers, cashiers, hosts, food-runners, and whatever else you may ask us to do.

There are many customers we have learned to hate, for example, those who may have received a discount just for being loyal customers a few times (or because they always request the same server who gives them that discount) and then demand that same discount again and again. Getting it once does not denote entitlement, it means we were feeling generous and wanted to give you something in return this time.

Let me share a secret with everyone, though this is probably out in the open. A compliment, whether given to the server, the manager, or written on your credit card slip, means nothing if you are going to tip poorly. If I could pay for everything with compliments, I would not need your money; however, compliments mean zilch at the end of my shift.

Finally, if anyone ever dares go out and give their server a tip less than 15%, you are screwing your server and quite possibly any other employee that helped your server, as bussers and bartenders are each “tipped out” at the end of the night by servers. The common rule is to give each of these employees about 3% of their sales, not their tips, but how much food they sold in dollars.

For all these reasons and more, I always tip at least 15% but usually I tip a full 20%. If my bill happens to be a small one or just a drink at a bar, I may even go 50%. Not only do I feel their pain as I watch them deal with troublesome tables, but I am also aware of how much work they are doing beyond my table. Pass it on, people, tip your server accordingly and you may find yourself a table servers fight for the more you go in, meaning the service (and perhaps free stuff!) will only get better and better.