Discussions

The harsh reality that many people in this city choose not to accept is that the majority of people in Brandon do not tip well and usually customers that are difficult or unappreciative of quality service are remembered (for all the wrong reasons). Of course conversely, there are always people that do tip well and are able to distinguish the difference between bad service and extenuating circumstances beyond the servers control: quality of food, undercooked meals, lack of staff resulting in too many tables to deal with at once etc.  
 
In my experiences at a certain steakhouse in Brandon, there were plenty of times when people would under-tip and it really does screw the server over.  
 
I try to explain it like this, server A is designated a particular section capable of dealing with larger groups or parties on a given night. Server A is told that there is a group of 16 people coming into his/her section for a staff party of some sort, effectively occupying the entire section that they are running that night. They will not be arriving until 6:15 and although the restaurant is open at 5, server A will not be given any tables prior to this party because management does not want to risk any tables staying for too long and ruining the reservation time for the aforementioned party. Server A waits around until 6:15 for the reservation, however, he/she finds that people are sporadically coming in and nobody wants to order drinks or anything until everyone has arrived. By 6:45 all 16 guests have arrived, of course, at this time every single person wants to order their drinks, significantly increasing the wait time for said drinks to arrive and probably causing a few people to look at this as a reflection of poor service. Now after everyone mixes and mingles for a while, most of the first-round drinks are empty and nearly everyone requires a refill, again, making things challenging due to a) the high volume of drinks (especially difficult if wine service is put into the equation) and b) the fact that now everyone is hungry and wanting to order appetizers and meals. Food orders have now been punched in and the 2nd round of drinks are on the way, but due to the extended wait time for the party to arrive, the guest’s meals will probably take longer due to heavy amounts of orders being placed before their own. Of course, this hindrance of meal-times is again regarded as being the servers fault and a reflection of bad service and in no way is a reflection of the tardiness on the customer’s behalf. By the time the customers are done, its now 9:30, but they decide to stay and occupy the tables till around 11:00, with only a minimal amount of people still ordering drinks, but everyone still expecting waters to be filled immediately when they are low. Finally the boss or manager of this staff function asks for the bill which comes to a total of $1000, pretty realistic for a group of 16 people at about $62.50 per person These people have been essentially served by the waiter for close 5 hours, and the boss of this group has decided to be generous and take care of the bill and decides to leave $50, or 5% of the bill, which to him seems great: the server only had to deal with one table and they walk with $50!  
 
Now we look at the simple math involved. At this particular restaurant, servers tip out a percentage of SALES not a percentage of tips made on a given night. Server A only had the one group all night, effectively causing a make –or–break type of situation. Tip pool is set at 3% of sales. So let’s do the math,  
 
$1000 in sales x 0.03 tip out = $30.00 (tip out covers cooks, hostesses, bartenders, dishwashers, salad-workers)  
Tips acquired from table = $50.00  
Tips kept after tip-out = $50.00 - $30.00 = $20.00  
 
After serving a group of 16 for close to 5 hours and doing $1000 worth of sales, Server A is left with a whole $20 in their pocket, hardly worth the effort. Conversely, Server B, who had a section of 3 tables with a maximum occupancy of 2 people per-table was able to make $60 in only 3 hours. My point in this rant is that people in this city usually fail to look at the whole picture when making their decision on tips and simply lump everything in together, i.e. `My food was not as good as I wanted, therefore I leave my server who worked extremely hard, $0.00 on a $100 bill`, which in this case costs the server $3.00 at the end of the night.  
 
Look I am all for people having to earn their tips in the food-service industry, NOTHING is given without effort, but when you put in an above average effort which goes seemingly unnoticed it’s hard to see a point in doing your job well. Of course, when above average tips come in from a table, servers are extremely happy about it and it’s nice to know that someone appreciates the hard work you put into their evening. But far too often in this city, people will often look for any way they can to get out of tipping, which in reality does nothing but create more cynical asshole servers who don’t see the value in working that extra bit in a job which they are routinely undervalued by their customers. I know that I’m going to take a lot of flak for my comments, but I’m not concerned, the majority of people in Brandon are cheap and do not tip accordingly, and I can say that with confidence because I’ve worked in the industry for many years. I’ve heard plenty of arguments that if I want more money, get a real job blah blah blah, but its hard to get a real job without education, and one of the few jobs you can hold while going to university is a late night serving job. Thankfully I’m finished school and have a great job, I know that I owe a lot to the people that did tip well on those busy nights. I now look forward to being able to tip other young servers accordingly to their effort, because I’ve worked the job, and I know exactly how hard it is and I know exactly how important those tips are.