Rednecks and Other Rages
Another rant, as per my usual.
Let me preface this that there is a writer for my local newspaper who ridicules the part of workforce that relies on tips [eg: waiters!] because he himself is notorious for being an ass in such establishments, and people who have waited on him have gotten fed up and called him out on his cheapskate bullshit [such as a $3 tip on a $65 check, etc]. He makes a point of writing sarcastic, moronic articles that can be taken as downright offensive if you’re in a position in which you rely on them as your source of income. [Here, typically, the hourly wage for people waiting tables is $2.13; your income, solely, is based on your tips; that $2.13/hr covers tax stuff--and that's all.] In fact, in yesterday’s paper, he had wrote a quite lengthy article about how, “appalling,” it is that everyone who makes low wages be tipped on the sales they bring in–like a salesman at an electronics store selling a $4,500 television. “How appalling,” he mused, “that that consumer wouldn’t fork over a $675 tip to the fellow who helped him to make the choice. Rather, this young man deserved a 20% tip for lugging it across the parking lot!” Of course, what Donnie Johnston seems to forget is that in such positions, the salespeople do get commission, especially of of big sales like that. He went on to chide people for going to banks, cashing their checks, and then failing to tip the teller, etc.
In short, this guy is an asshole. Any poor service he gets, he damn well deserves, because he likes to fuck with the people who he deals with, and when people call him out on it, he makes a little show of it. Of all the places he’s been, here, surely the people he’s dealt with have deserved better. I just pray that he would come into my store. I really, really do.
To give you a really idea of why I’m irate… how is it that I made more on a moderately slow lunch shift on a Thursday than I did on a full-ish Saturday night? On my four-and-a-half hour Thursday shift, of the like.. perhaps 12 tables I ended up having, I made $53. That’s about 25% of my sales for the day, which was rung in around $202 and change.
Even so, I had two tables of rednecks stiff me. It isn’t like it’s the first time I’ve ever waited tables, and I go wayyy out of my way to make sure that my normal sass is very much in check when I’m dealing with people on this front. Everything they needed was prompt, refills were had prior to need, they even went on to say how nice and pleasant I was. One of the two tables had the nerve to go on about how gasoline is cheaper here than where he was coming from with his wife. Oh, certainly, and in all that money you’re saving on petrol, you can’t kick me like $3-5 on your $25 check? Psh. The other table had a toddler who they forced into a high chair [it was too small, and I recommended a booster seat, but nooo... gotta have the high chair] and proceded to ignore for the duration of their stay. Seven minutes after I placed their orders to the kitchen, they interrupted me while I was dealing with another table, snapping, “How much longer is it gonna be? I’m ’bout ready to leave, this is ridiculous.” As you can imagine, that was one of the instances I was at odds with my mouth…but I told them, instead, “I can see how much longer our cook says, but I’m certain it shouldn’t be more than three or four minutes. I can box it to go if you’re in a hurry.” “No,” the man of the couple snapped, “just bring it out. I’m hungry.” I was struggling, honestly, not to tell him to watch his tone, and recommend McDonald’s instead if he needed fast food; that this is a restaurant and we don’t just have everything sitting in the back to be micro-nuked. Buuut I didn’t. Meantime, their kid is spilling drinks, hurling silverware around, shredding napkins, and still screaming…but the parents ignored him. They snap at me as I’m bringing them new cutlery that they need it–well, yeah. I was already pretty sure of what they were going to leave me before they left, but even so, I maintained a good attitude and good service. But I was right–nothing, plus a huge mess from their kid. Yay! Seriously, rednecks are so damn notorious for not tipping, or tipping exceedingly poorly. I’m pretty sure the UK and Europe doesn’t have such a category of people, but I’m sure chavs act that way in the UK, and…well, I’m unworldly and all, so forgive me. x]
But through those two tables on Thursday, I STILL made 25% of my sales.
Last night, I was expecting at least a $75 yield–and actually, I really needed it. However, there was some drama caused by another waitress who is friends with one of the managers, directed at my mom–and then inadvertently at me, just because I’m her kid. The stuff is actually baseless, as witnessed by the rest of the staff, but it still threw things off for the evening. So mom was all pissy, and that waitress skipped seating me like twice, and gave me a shitload of shitty people. I mean, this sounds bad, but generally you can see at the door what you’ll make. You can’t actually judge and treat anyone based on that, but you still get an idea. All those tables got sent to me. This is how my night went:
1. Party of 6; two moms, four kids. $62 check, plus a huge mess and running back and forth to boot. $4.65. Did I mention the kids? I really don’t like waiting on kids. I don’t *show* that, but I really don’t. Mommy wants to empower them and let them order on their own, but then, although they were supposed to have decided [that's what the extra ten minutes was for, and two wasted trips to your table..] they sit there and stare at the kids menu going, “I want, uhhhh, uhhh…” and mommy dearest just smiles, proud of them for wasting time. Or better yet, when they’re shouting and changing drink orders over each other. But mommy’s so proud of her little bastards that she forgets to leave a decent tip for the people that have to clean up after them.
2. Party of 6; all adults. Drinks maintained, carafes of coffee maintained, food was out like immediately because this was during a slow spell; EVERYTHING was as it should’ve been. They were all smily and, “Thank you, dear,” and, “This is been a nice experience!” Check: $102.12. Tip: $4.38. [I had a goddamn fit over that one.. I mean seriously.] Maybe it was because one of the party ordered this mushroom bacon swiss burger without reading the damn menu, and apparently didn’t like bacon. Great. The man who handed over the bill was all, “Ohoho, no change needed,” like he’s some fucking virtuouso of generosity or something.
3. Party of 5 seniors. Icecream&coffee, made their sundaes myself and had to brew fresh coffee too. Now, I wouldn’t mention that, but.. literally as soon as each Decaf and Regular had finished brewing, I filled cups and carafes. The cups hadn’t had enough time to really heat up from the coffee, and they insisted the coffee was cold when I took it to them. I went back, filled a separate cup, dipped my pinky, and burned the hell out of it. That goddamn coffee was hot. The 7.5 seconds it took me to get from the brewing area to their table I know it hadn’t turned lukewarm. But whatever, I made their cups toasty for them. But so, on their $34 check, $2 and the change they didn’t want to carry in their pockets. They also sat there for a total of an hour and 15 minutes after they had paid, taking a table in my section, and prolonging me from going home because they stayed 20min after closing.
4. Party of 2…and a half. Some smarmy woman, her yowling toddler, and her obese friend came in. But so, everything was peachy, everyone had what they needed, as always refills were had prior to being required, etc. It was one of the rare tables that could tell I was new-ish, but only because she overheard a conversation with another waitress. She was like, “Ohh, you’re new? You’re doing a GREAT job! ^_^!” Annnd after she gives me more smarmy nonsense and rude tones, and lets her kid make a mess of everything … the cunt stiffs me on a $34 check. It was my last table of the night.
I made $45 fucking dollars last night and I rang in like $427 in sales for the evening.
The other staff had been watching me since I am technically new, and they said that they didn’t see me slip up at all. I didn’t have any complaints. I don’t get why people have to be so fucking obnoxious, rude and ultimately, cheap. If you can’t afford to come out to eat–and that includes tipping the appropriate people as and if appropriate…and I make damn well sure it IS approrpriate–then don’t bother to come out.
Writer Donnie Johnston and others like him don’t seem to understand that people do live day to day. Well, of course not, he’s got this big farm that he rakes in loads from, and some other tripe, and he’s a staff writer for the newspaper. He doesn’t have anything to worry about. He’s one of the folks that thinks it is more than perfectly acceptable to treat people in the service industry any way he pleases. While it isn’t acceptable, he pretty much can get away with it…I mean, what can you do short of pre-empting him and fucking with him?
More people ought to watch that movie, Waiting. While it is a comedy, it conveys such a serious message: don’t fuck with people who handle your food. Don’t fuck with people who handle your car or your children. Just act right, damnit, and there won’t be any issues. But that’s just too hard for some people. Some people gotta make things so much more difficult than they need to be.
I think a lot of people don’t know how much to tip. I assume it’s 10-20% of what you’ve had, since over here they often just add it onto the end of your menu without asking you (you can ask to get it removed, if the service wasn’t good enough like)
I’ve refused to give a tip before on a self-service buffet restaurant because, apart from 20% on a “we only get your drinks, the food is already out, cold, and congealed” seems insane to me, they were bloody rude as well.
Also, in the UK it used to be legal for them to give you less than minimum wage and if your tips didn’t cover it, tough - or, company would take all the tips, and use the tips to cover your wage, instead of getting them extra.
Of course, it’s when someone does something like pull a sickie, leaving only 1 or 2 people on the floor, that you’re working extra hard to cover it and people don’t tip because things took too long.
I hate people that think it only takes 5 minutes to cook a roast dinner, just because their local pub boils it in a bag. (Srsly. The majority of pub chain Sunday Dinners, meat veg and everything - is boiled in a bag. In the UK anyway.) And I don’t even do waiting.
10-20% is normal, 10 for acceptable, 15 for decent, and 20ish for great. I don’t expect 20ish or anything, I’m not fantastic yet… but I do fairly decent work. And yeah, tipping at buffet places is generally not necessary–most of the ‘waitstaff’ there were just to bring drinks and bus tables; they don’t really serve you, so no worries.
Most places add like 20% gratuity to checks with parties of 8 or more, just to make sure the wait[er][ress] doesn’t get screwed over, as I did. Places that add it just because they don’t like the looks of you = more rant inducing, I think I wrote about one of those around June-ish sometime? Perhaps May. It is understandable for big groups, but I don’t agree with it for small groups; having to go and get it taken off is a pain in the ass/waste of time.
And that’s a lame law.. the $2.13 is obviously below minimum, but they don’t take your tips. Good thing that got rid of that one.
Well, the thing is with this place… it’s always overstaffed. Really, two or three waits can handle the place. I haven’t had a situation where timing has been an issue yet, aside from the aforementioned snappy asshole.
And that’s exactly what it is. I mean, tons of restaurants do that…but a steak can’t be boiled, nor can a ginormous burger. Stuff takes time. ><
Customer view… Tipping should be outlawed, and all staff should receive a reasonable wage from the work alone. Increase the prices by 10% and the staff pay by 10%.. problem solved.. and then you don’t have to be polite to the obese scumbags with the unruly children….
I never tip.. ever.
My reasoning.. I don’t get tips when I work. I charge by the job or by the hour, just like everybody else who doesn’t work in the catering industry.
I agree; I don’t like having to rely on tips. I wouldn’t say it should be outlawed, but I don’t think it should be so thoroughly encouraged because I think that staff SHOULD make a decent wage to begin with. But that’s restaurants being cheap, and with the economy presently as is, there will be no legislation to change that.
The fields are entirely different, though. It would be one thing if waitstaff actually did make even at least minimum wage–which we obviously don’t… min. wage here is $6.25/hr, which still isn’t a living wage, but yeah.