Ah, tipping, the old stand-by when one really wants to start a hot argument online!
It doesn't bother me to put down a tip at a restaurant. I tip average - not generous, but not cheapskate - and adjust based on service. Bad service = bad tip, good service = good tip, and that includes whether my party causes the server a lot of trouble with confusing orders, unusual requests, or leaving a mess.
However, I am in favor of getting rid of the tipping system entirely in the US and paying waitstaff a fair wage, with none of the splitting, pooling, tipping out practices, and no more lower-than-minimum wages.
Originally Posted by
KoKoBuddy
Literally any abled body human can be a waiter. It takes no special skills or education to bring a plate of food from the kitchen to the table. Nor is it a dangerous job that demands hazard pay or anything like that. Why these people need to make $20 or $30 or $50 in an hour is one of life's greatest mysteries.
Originally Posted by
KoKoBuddy
You get paid based on the value your provide. And someone bringing a plate of food from the kitchen to a table 50 feet away does not provide much value.
You've obviously never waited tables, or you'd know that your statements are a gross oversimplification based on a rather narrow viewpoint.
There are a lot of different kinds of restaurants, from buffets where the customer mostly serves themselves to five-star butt-kissing ego-fests. Each presents its own challenges and unique requirements to the waitstaff, from complex menus to high customer volume to insensitive jackholes who treat people in service professions like dirt.
You assert that it takes no special skill or education to be a restaurant server, but based on my observation, that's only true at certain low-end craptroughs; at a decent restaurant from Applebees to Tavern on the Green, it takes skill to not only answer customers' questions on menu and restaurant policy, and to get orders straight - particularly when dealing with a party, where the server's attention might be divided, rather than an individual - but to get the orders submitted to the kitchen correctly, to assemble the orders correctly and bring them in a timely manner so there is no bumping of courses, and of course to bus the table and keep drinks and other items filled. And that's before the jackholes arrive and start treating the waitstaff like dirt, making outrageous demands, or causing disruptions.
The amount of skill needed to be a restaurant server varies wildly depending on the restaurant and the neighborhood. Making blank statements disparaging all servers as completely unskilled and unworthy of a living wage is simplistic and foolish, as well as insulting.
And by the way, to me, someone bringing my plate to the table from a kitchen 50 feet away DOES provide me with a valuable service, one for which I am willing to pay through the cost of the meal and the tip.