Dr Phil and tipping

PennyLane, RN · Jul 30, 2003

At my restaurant the management declared our tips to the IRS for us. We had no choice. I think they claimed 15% for us.

Gwenith--I remember at a restaurant in Australia once I tried to send back my entree because it had pork in it, but the menu did not list any meat in the dish (I was veggie at the time). I was not able to send it back! The waitress said, 'it's already made, how could I send it back?' Here in the states if you don't like something, or if it's overcooked, undercooked, whatever, you can send it back and get a new one or something else for free.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Jul 30, 2003

I would have said "you take the plate, place it upon your tray and walk back to the kitchen and ask for another WITHOUT meat, please". Actually did this once after the server said "uh YOU ordered it, you EAT it" even though I'd ordered a dish that specifically has shrimp only in it and it came out with pork. That was the one instance the server received no tip. Granted the kitchen may have messed it up, but that one comment he'd made after I'd stated "sir this isn't the Queensland Shrimp Pasta I odered" ensured that he wasn't getting one, since his overall attitude was poor. Plus it was like pulling teeth to get him to come to the table when the place wasn't even half busy.

colleen10 · Jul 30, 2003

I was just thinking about how important good waitstaff is to make a restaurant successful.

There is a very small Italian restaurant right down the street from my house that has been in business about a year now. We have gone a few times before and the food was excellent so when our friends wanted to take us out to dinner to show their appreciation for us helping them relocate to Pittsburgh we suggested that we go there.

The food was incredible and the bill for 4 adults was about $125.00, not an easy bill to pay for our friend who was out of work 6 months and now that he had found a job in Pittsburgh was at half salary, but he paid it anyway and my husband took care of the tip of $30.00 to our waitress.

After our meal we were finishing our bottle of wine (which we had to bring ourselves because this restaurant does not yet have a liquor license). When a waiter came over to our table and very rudely and loudly told us that they needed the table and we had to go sit outside to finish our wine. I was absolutely mortified. Everyone in the restaurant turned around and looked at us, to boot one of my neighbors was there too.

I really wouldn't have minded vacating the table at their request if they hadn't been so rude about it. All they would have had to say was that they were sorry but that it was a busy night and that they could really use the table and would appreciate us sitting outside where there available tables. If it was possible I would have requested that I get my tip back.

Now, my husband and I have vowed not to go back to that restaurant again and when anyone asks what we think about it we tell them what happened to us and they usually aren't too interested in going themselves.

Aside from the quality of the food, waitstaff can really make or break a restaurant.

sjoe · Jul 30, 2003

For an excellent book on the subject of waiting, I would recommend: Ginsberg, Debra, "Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress," HarperCollins, NY, 2000.

Besides being largely a female profession, having a very high turnover rate (it is now 26% in nursing), operating in very dysfunctional work environments, and not being respected, there are many other interesting parallels with nursing, as any reader will notice.

renerian, BSN, RN · Jul 30, 2003

Where i used to work we claimed our tips up to minimum wage.

My paychecks were usally 30 to 50 per every two weeks as the pay is very low.

renerian

imenid37 · Jul 30, 2003

lpn tobe2004. you are quite generous. i bet that guy will remember you for a long time w/ a smile. i usually do 20-25%. being a nurse, i think i can relate to trying to please the unpleasable. i really do expect the wait-staff to be pleasant. to me that's their main job. they usually can't help a rotten meal. idid work w/ another rn back in the late 1980's who waitressed regularly in ocean city md during her time off. she was making more waiting tables than the whopping $10.00/hr we made back then as nurses.

kimtab · Jul 30, 2003

When I was a server, the pay was $2.13 an hour, which was half of minimum wage at that time so the required pay may be up as high as 2.63 an hour by now!

The rules on tipping haven't changed. It is always your option and your perogative whether to tip and how much to tip. The genaral guidelines are from 10% to 20% depending upon the service you received.

From their tips, most servers must pay bussers, bartenders, food runners, hosts, or other ancillary personnel. They are required to declare 8% of their sales as tip earnings for Federal Income tax purposes regardless of whther they left with that amount or not. They also frequently work part-time and do not have health insurance or other benefits. Why the heck would you be jealous?

I base the amount of my tip on the service received, not on whther I think they make more money than they ought to. There are some career servers in superior restaurants who make a very good living waiting tables--but most of them make less money than you do. Do you really think that servers are picking up $80 tips left and right in any of the restaurants you frequent and tip at?

Kim

renerian, BSN, RN · Jul 30, 2003

I made 99 cents for my first wait job then went to pizza hut for 1.99.

renerian

Brita01 · Jul 30, 2003

I remember the time I was a waitress at a bar/small club for one night. :chuckle I was having a hard time because I couldn't remember which people had ordered which drinks at what table. I started writing down what everyone wanted on a little napkin. When the bartender saw my napkin, he told me "you really need to keep all of that information in your head." Thank you for the advice, Mr. Serve One Drink at a Time To the Face Right in Front of You. :mad: At the end of the night, I had gotten the hang of it and had forgotten the idea of not coming back the next night; I had a nice pocketful of bills. Then this same bartender announces to me that I need to give him HALF of my tips. I and my sore feet thought he was kidding until I saw the other waitresses giving him money. He also got his own tips from serving drinks at the bar. So he got to keep ALL of his own tips plus half of ours. It could've been a bad 70s movie. 'Attack of the Bar Pimps'. Guess who left her apron on the bar and didn't come back the next night?

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Jul 30, 2003

I've heard of the bartender getting 10% of the tips for making the drinks, but HALF, uh no. The smart allelic i am would have said "Don't eat" one night, then "yellow snow".

There's a tip, half of my tip for each night.

Speechie · Jul 30, 2003

re: I think physicians, therapists should give us discounts for sending them clients, no co-pay or less of one, something!!!

HealingTouchRN- i wish we could!!! i'm a speech pathologist, and back in the 'ol days, i got "professional courtesy" discounts from my doc, sometimes the pharmacy... well, the federal gov't with its stringent ethical standards (that apply only to others) made that practice a crime... my doc really wanted to recognize that the healthcare professionals he treated were important (and underpaid). i guess that's criminal

andi2634 · Jul 31, 2003

I have waited tables for the past eleven years and all I can say is Thank God I passed boards and this is my lst week.

Watressing is the hardest job I have ever done- but I couldn't have gotten through nursing school without it. Tonight I got to work at 5pm, we don't get busy until later in the summer so I didn't get a table till almost 6. In that time I'm expected to run other people's food, make coffee, get ice, keep things stocked- not just stand around milking my 2.13/hr.

My first table was 3 women- they waited almost an hour to look at the menu, and after they finaly finished eating they sat and chatted for an hour. By the time they left it was almost 9. Their tab was $62- and they gave me $12- a very nice tip that I would have been happy with if they hadn't kept my table for the entire dinner rush. That table only got sat one other time- I lost at least 2 turns. That really makes a difference (we only have 3 table sections). Especially since someone at another table ordered "lemon water" and actually made her own lemonade with sugar packets. Just imagine the tip I got off that table.

I also had a few very nice tables but unfortunately it's the bad one's that stick in our minds- the ones that we feel like we lose a little more of our self respect every time we smile and thank someone for giving us a terrible tip or treating us like dirt. If I handed a tip back to someone or asked a table that was camping to leave I would lose my job so fast-

We have to tip out 3% to support staff. Often if we get a really bad tip -between what we have to tip out and what we have to claim- I may have to pay to wait on the table. If we get a 15% tip and after tip out we get 12% and the IRS expects us to claim 13% - I'm claiming more than I made off that table. It's almost impossible to budget- one night I can make over $100, but the next I may make $50. There's a lot of flexibility and it's nice to have cash- but I can't wait to stop waiting tables.