{"id":4077,"date":"2018-11-25T04:11:53","date_gmt":"2018-11-25T04:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2018\/11\/25\/more-on-tipping-a-server-weighs-in-with-insights-and-advice\/"},"modified":"2018-11-25T04:11:53","modified_gmt":"2018-11-25T04:11:53","slug":"more-on-tipping-a-server-weighs-in-with-insights-and-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2018\/11\/25\/more-on-tipping-a-server-weighs-in-with-insights-and-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"More on Tipping: A Server Weighs in with Insights and Advice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long-time reader R. B. sends us his thoughts:<\/span><\/p>\n

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I appreciated your post<\/a>. I am on the other side of the coin: I am a server and I depend on tips to help get me through nursing school. So hopefully I can help bring some insight. I agree with your overall point that one ought to tip based on service. Bad service? Bad tip. Excellent service? Excellent tip. The restaurant I work at bases my tip out (my pay out to the bar, bussers, food runners for their help) on my overall sales (4%); suppose I sell $1000 worth of food and beverages on a particular night; this means I dish out $40 of my tips out to those who directly helped me. So when I don\u2019t get tipped (whether justified or not), I am still paying the tip out. I had a table of Europeans last week and the bill was around $400. If I did my job well\u2014and I think I did\u2014then I ought to have earned an $80 tip. Well, they left me zero. It happens. But here I am paying out $16; so I essentially had to pay to wait on this table! It usually evens out because some people are generous and see me busting my ass and tip over 20%. And if mistakes happen\u2014which they do\u201499% of the time a nice attitude and an apology fix everything and I still get the 20%.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Another important point is this: if you are nice to me (which is a low bar: just acknowledge I exist and have feelings), I will do everything within my power to get you free stuff. You asked me how my day was? I won\u2019t charge you for that soda. You say please and thank you (embarrassingly enough you\u2019d be surprised how many people don\u2019t use these words at all)? I\u2019ll get you that free dessert all on company moolah baby. I don\u2019t expect a bigger tip when I do this, but you get my point. <\/span><\/div>\n
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I also notice this a lot: how you treat waitstaff directly correlates to a deep part of your character. It\u2019s a good litmus test for first dates. I went on a date with a girl and she was rude\/snippy to the server because our food was late. Guess what? 99% chance it was not the server\u2019s fault. The kitchen is busy and things come out late during a dinner rush. Needless to say we didn\u2019t go out again. How can you be rude to someone who is bringing you food and beverages? It blows my mind. <\/span><\/div>\n
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My personal rule is that I tip whenever and wherever I can. I rationalize it by thinking: how much will me giving this extra $1-2 actually affect me financially (*wink* famine and affluence)? The coffee shop? I tip like I would at a bar. The car wash? You bet. The dishwashers at my work? Certainly; they have the worst job in the entire restaurant and are not part of the tip out. And it\u2019s nice because I know the money is going directly into their pocket and the government doesn\u2019t see it (when it\u2019s cash). Always tip in cash if you can.<\/span><\/div>\n
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While there might not be a moral obligation to tip, to me it does show something about your character if the service was excellent and you stiffed them. If you are opposed to tipping at sit down restaurants, then don\u2019t go to them\u2014simple as that. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Some points:<\/span><\/div>\n
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It\u2019s dehumanizing when someone doesn\u2019t acknowledge you or even looks at you in the eye. Be a decent person and say please and thank you.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Don\u2019t be rude because of mistakes (again: the vast majority of the time, the person you will tip had no control over it).<\/span><\/div>\n
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Control your kids (most kids nowadays are sadly glued to phones or tablets so it\u2019s not usually a problem).<\/span><\/div>\n
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Don\u2019t be a cheap bastard.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Have a Merry Christmas!<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long-time reader R. B. sends us his thoughts: I appreciated your post. I am on the other side of the coin: I am a server and I depend on tips to help get me through nursing school. So hopefully I can help bring some insight. I agree with your overall point that one ought to … Continue reading “More on Tipping: A Server Weighs in with Insights and Advice”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[407,216,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-manners-and-mores","category-money-matters","category-sage-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}