So here is the situation. I had one of the worst shifts at work I can think of in recent memory. It was just bad table after bad table. I couldn't get a break. It wasn't the usual bad tippers that servers usually complain about. No no these were just douche bags. These are the incredibly cheap freeloaders that come in, all get water, keep asking for more rolls(FREE) get the cheapest thing they can, and will often share it, then ask for more rolls(again FREE) to take home. Then leave you 2 bucks for your time. Awesome thank you so much for my 1/2 gallon of gas. Do me a huge favor and go the hell to Wendy's or McDonald's and order your ass a cheeseburger off the Dollar menu.
Why are these cheap ass people always the ones who are the most demanding and annoying? Now some might think well hey that is still 15% of the bill. I would say to you, what is 15% of $10? Yeah $1.50 and .30 of that goes to the bus boy's and hostess'. So while you sit there and run me back and forth getting you refills and rolls I make $1.20? Thanks ass hole. I wish I could run out after people like this as ask them to switch me positions and I can then ask them if they feel like they deserved $1.20?
So for the climax of the night. I had to share a large party with another server, so we had to split tips on the table. There were 4 adults, grown human beings, and they got 2 chicken tender(chicken fingers) meals to share between all of them and a young kid. Oh and all waters. I think the total bill was like 18 bucks maybe. Needless to say after a whole night of this I was just about to lose it. I put their order in went back a few more times and got them all at least 3 refills of drinks and water before their meal got there so when it did I left them alone cause well I was pissed. Well when they leave one of the ladies left a little note on the check saying it was the worst service they had ever had blahh blahh blahh. Luckily there was gratuity on the check(all of 3 bucks I think) and I couldn't help but get a little evil satisfaction over the fact they weren't happy. Maybe they weren't cause I sure as hell didn't get them rolls to go, so they thought they didn't get their money's worth. Or the fact that they got two FREE appetizers because they had to wait an hour to get in. No offense but the restaurant I work is the busiest in the county and when you come in with a huge party at 7 your probly gonna have to wait.
Ahhh stupid people scare and infuriate me. They need to stop wasting good air. Anyway if you are in anyway offended by what I've said you probly are a FREELOADER and need to take a hard look in the mirror. Would you want to run back and forth and be forced to come back with a smile on your face when you know your about to get the shaft? I doubt it. Vent over.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
The Camper...
We all love to camp. Hell who doesn't. Goin out with friends or family knockin back a few drinks and relaxing around a campfire tellin jokes and old stories. One problem though, when you decide to camp out in a restaurant you have taken a time honored tradition of the great outdoors and made into a WMD against your server.
Now its been called a few different things in other places but I know of only two: Squatting and Camping. What this means is when a table has paid for their food but is still sitting at the table for a considerable amount of time after. A considerable amount of time being over 15 or so minutes.
A lot of you might as what is wrong with this? Well let me explain. A big part of serving is how many tables you can get in front of you. The more tables you serve the more money you will make its that simple.
So imagine you are a server with serving two tables on a busy weekend night. You are running back and forth getting everything for your customers as fast as you can and making sure everything is going smoothly. Things start off well for the first couple hours and it looks as if it will be a good night for you. But then a table decides the hour they spent waiting plus the 45 min at the table weren't enough time to talk. They have decided to build a fire, pitch a tent, and camp at your table. 15 minutes turns into a half an hour, half hour turns into 45 minutes and just like that those people have cost you an entire new table which who knows how much money you could have made off of them because you will not get that table back. You have now been dealt a death blow that is very hard to recover from because you know only have ONE table to make money off of. And even if you average good tips on that one table the night isn't long enough to make a significant amount off of only one table.
Say that table left an $8 tip. Well now that they have decided to say and CAMP so long that $8 tip has now basically become a $4 tip. You as the customer are paying the server for the time you are with them and eating being SERVED. Once your done with your meal and the SERVICE ends then you are now on the servers time and your servers time (in the State of Utah) is worth $2.13 an hour. So while those customers are sitting there wasting a table your server is making next to nothing. At the end of the night, say the server would have made $100, with just one table that camps they could lose at minimum of $10 and could even go up to $50. Trust me I've seen it happen when servers will leave at the end of a busy weekend night with only $50 or even less because customers sat at their table so long. Now I don't know about you, but on a weekend night when you should make over $100 but you don't even come close because someone else was enjoying their weekend at your table just makes me furious. I'd much rather be out with my wife on a Friday or Saturday night but those are the big money days so as servers you usually have to work, you can't afford not to.
So consider this, next time your out with old friends you haven't seen in a long time or family whatever the case may be. If you feel the need to sit at your table much longer that the time you need to eat remember you are on that servers time. The best way to handle this is communicating with your server and letting them know you will be there a while. And most importantly taking care of your server with the tip. If you are going to be taking more of your servers time add a bigger tip. Simple right? My wife and I have left up to an $80 tip at a sports bar because we wanted to watch a game on their big projector screen. The game went over a good 3 hours and so if we had only left a 15-20% tip that server may have only made $8 over that 3 hour span, I'm not so great at math but I'm confident that is $2.7 an hour. Add in hourly wages and that is $4.83 an hour! Not the best pay rate am I right?
Serving is a tough job that gets stressful very quickly and there are a million other jobs we could make average money at, but we serve because the money can be good not just average. A restaurant is not a lounge where you can just sit and talk all night if you want that then head to your nearest Starbucks or Bar. But don't come waist our time please take the conversation outside, away from my table.
Tip well because Karma is a bitch.
Now its been called a few different things in other places but I know of only two: Squatting and Camping. What this means is when a table has paid for their food but is still sitting at the table for a considerable amount of time after. A considerable amount of time being over 15 or so minutes.
A lot of you might as what is wrong with this? Well let me explain. A big part of serving is how many tables you can get in front of you. The more tables you serve the more money you will make its that simple.
So imagine you are a server with serving two tables on a busy weekend night. You are running back and forth getting everything for your customers as fast as you can and making sure everything is going smoothly. Things start off well for the first couple hours and it looks as if it will be a good night for you. But then a table decides the hour they spent waiting plus the 45 min at the table weren't enough time to talk. They have decided to build a fire, pitch a tent, and camp at your table. 15 minutes turns into a half an hour, half hour turns into 45 minutes and just like that those people have cost you an entire new table which who knows how much money you could have made off of them because you will not get that table back. You have now been dealt a death blow that is very hard to recover from because you know only have ONE table to make money off of. And even if you average good tips on that one table the night isn't long enough to make a significant amount off of only one table.
Say that table left an $8 tip. Well now that they have decided to say and CAMP so long that $8 tip has now basically become a $4 tip. You as the customer are paying the server for the time you are with them and eating being SERVED. Once your done with your meal and the SERVICE ends then you are now on the servers time and your servers time (in the State of Utah) is worth $2.13 an hour. So while those customers are sitting there wasting a table your server is making next to nothing. At the end of the night, say the server would have made $100, with just one table that camps they could lose at minimum of $10 and could even go up to $50. Trust me I've seen it happen when servers will leave at the end of a busy weekend night with only $50 or even less because customers sat at their table so long. Now I don't know about you, but on a weekend night when you should make over $100 but you don't even come close because someone else was enjoying their weekend at your table just makes me furious. I'd much rather be out with my wife on a Friday or Saturday night but those are the big money days so as servers you usually have to work, you can't afford not to.
So consider this, next time your out with old friends you haven't seen in a long time or family whatever the case may be. If you feel the need to sit at your table much longer that the time you need to eat remember you are on that servers time. The best way to handle this is communicating with your server and letting them know you will be there a while. And most importantly taking care of your server with the tip. If you are going to be taking more of your servers time add a bigger tip. Simple right? My wife and I have left up to an $80 tip at a sports bar because we wanted to watch a game on their big projector screen. The game went over a good 3 hours and so if we had only left a 15-20% tip that server may have only made $8 over that 3 hour span, I'm not so great at math but I'm confident that is $2.7 an hour. Add in hourly wages and that is $4.83 an hour! Not the best pay rate am I right?
Serving is a tough job that gets stressful very quickly and there are a million other jobs we could make average money at, but we serve because the money can be good not just average. A restaurant is not a lounge where you can just sit and talk all night if you want that then head to your nearest Starbucks or Bar. But don't come waist our time please take the conversation outside, away from my table.
Tip well because Karma is a bitch.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
The Verbal tip....
This act is becoming a very big problem on top of bad tips. The verbal tip is a table that is incredibly nice to the server the entire time. All seems well for the server and they think a good tip is on the way. So when the table is getting ready to leave they will always make it a point to tell their server how great they were. This is always great to hear as a server because we like to know that you had a good time and enjoyed yourself, that is after all our job. Then we go and grab your check and see you left us a crap tip!? Whats up with that? You know what that is? Its a sucker punch to the privates is what it is. You are coming across all nice then do the worst thing you can do to your server and that is just wrong. I don't care if your the nicest people on the planet to your server during your meal and you become best friends in the process. If you leave a bad tip after its all said and done that server now hates you plain and simple. And some people even have the nerver after you have seen thier crap tip to ask for something else, this is hilarious in some situations because trust me the last thing your server wants to do now is help you. So it might take a long time to get whatever you asked for, if you even get it.
The term actions speak louder than words plays in this situation. If you tell a server they did a good job show them by tipping well because they are there to make money not make friends for the most part. I'd much rather you not say anything to me and leave a good tip than be all friendly then leave a bad tip thats just a horrible feeling. Words don't show up in my bank account and they certainly don't pay my bills.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Tipping is not tithing!
For those of you who don't know where Orem, Utah is let me explain to you my situation. Orem is in the heart of Utah County, roughly 45 minutes south of Salt Lake City. I basically have lived here my entire life. For some reason beyond my understanding people here are some of the worst tippers, at least in this country. Which is a double wammy since the state of Utah only makes employers pay servers $2.13 an hour, yes that is right. So when you leave a crap tip in Utah think again that server made next to nothing.
Now I have only served in Utah County but I have met pleanty of servers who have come here from other states and agree completely with me.
I don't really understand what the issue is because I was raised here but I was always taught to tip well, even before I worked in restaurants. 18%-20% was standard for good service if not more. My mom is a teacher at a Jr. High and a single mom with two kids so its not like we had money in the family. But my mother understands the right way to treat people and raised me the same way.
Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself and I should explain tipping first. I don't know how it originated but when you go out to eat the standard tip for your server/waiter has always been 15% of the total bill minimum! So say your total bill is $100, then your tip would be $15 and once again this, for me anyway, is at a minimum. I'm not at all saying you should reward bad service but if it is at least decent then for goodness sake leave 15%.
Okay back on track. The reason my heading for this post is this, I think the reason people just suck at tipping here very well could be the dominant religion. You see in Utah County I'd say a good 90% of the population are members of the LDS church(Mormons), very quickly I must say I am mormon, and in the LDS chruch every month the members are supposed to give the church 10% of their earnings, this is called tithing. It is a incredible coincidence that I get on an average night about 3 or 4 10% tips.
People your server deserves much better than that. They run back and fourth getting you drinks and whatever else your stomach desires. The only reason they are doing this is so you will tip them, so if they take good care of you, why not return the favor and take care of them? You know when you have been will taken care of it isn't hard to tell really. Isn't that the way it should be?
Now I have only served in Utah County but I have met pleanty of servers who have come here from other states and agree completely with me.
Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself and I should explain tipping first. I don't know how it originated but when you go out to eat the standard tip for your server/waiter has always been 15% of the total bill minimum! So say your total bill is $100, then your tip would be $15 and once again this, for me anyway, is at a minimum. I'm not at all saying you should reward bad service but if it is at least decent then for goodness sake leave 15%.
Okay back on track. The reason my heading for this post is this, I think the reason people just suck at tipping here very well could be the dominant religion. You see in Utah County I'd say a good 90% of the population are members of the LDS church(Mormons), very quickly I must say I am mormon, and in the LDS chruch every month the members are supposed to give the church 10% of their earnings, this is called tithing. It is a incredible coincidence that I get on an average night about 3 or 4 10% tips.
People your server deserves much better than that. They run back and fourth getting you drinks and whatever else your stomach desires. The only reason they are doing this is so you will tip them, so if they take good care of you, why not return the favor and take care of them? You know when you have been will taken care of it isn't hard to tell really. Isn't that the way it should be?
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