I will say this now before I say anything else. I have never worked for tips. I stumbled upon a random waiter blog, only to discover a unique little microcosm of the universe, filled with disgruntled workers. While I always knew that these people existed. I dread the thought of eating in a restaurant where they could possibly be working. I have never worked in this industry, I do have a great respect for the people that do. I know that it is hard work, but I absolutely hate the feeling that I am am being held hostage for my money at the evening meal. I also have this same horrible sinking feeling about movers. Sometimes I worry that unless I start flashing them twenties, then all my favorite items are going to missing or broken when my truck arrives at my destination.
So back to the waiters...I can understand the complaints about people showing up five minutes before closing. Truly though, the restaurant industry knows that if you close at 10pm. People will show up at 9:58 and expect to be seated. So therefore the restaurant owner/manager will publish closing time accordingly. If he plans to have staff in the kitchen and servers until midnight, then published closing time would be safe at 10pm. If the restaurant owner/manager wants his staff out enjoying their evenings by 10pm sharp, then the last seating should probably be somewhere about 8:30. This is not rocket science.
It blows my mind that they are proud of the vengeful things that they do to customers. I know that people can be rude and inconsiderate, but everybody has to deal with things about their job that they hate. There is a little something called accountability. Every person has different opinions on how a tip should be given and how to calculate a tip. The husband is very generous with his tips. I am slightly more sensitive to the tip/ service relationship, but never leave anything less than standard. I just hope that I am never served by any of the bloggers below!
http://bitterwaitress.info/wp/
http://allprowaiter.blogspot.com/
http://waiterrant.net/
allprowaiter pulls some not OK stuff...I've never read bitter waitress but I"m going to have to check it out...waiterrant on the the other hand doesn't really pull anything bad himself tho his blog does talk abou the things others he worked with pulled. I bought the book it was really fun to read :)
ReplyDeleteMy general rule I learned when working as a server was be nice to the servers and they'll probably be nice to you :) At least they won't spit in the food...
As for the closing time thing, the managers want to make as much money as possible...the servers want to go home because they haven't made any mone all night and then a table walks in 5min before going home...yeah you would be mad if you boss walked in your office at 5 minutes before you leave for the day with a hour long project that they need by 8am...