I know not everyone will agree with me, but just listen to what I have to say.
I have never worked a restaurant job until this summer, which was my first summer home from college. I like to think that I learned a lot of things by being away from home for almost a year, like helpful life skills and simple coping mechanisms.
Two things that I really came to appreciate was money and my time. You know the saying "Time is money?" Well, that's basically true. In shorter terms, it meant to me that if I started wasting my time, then I was wasting my money too. So, when I started this restaurant job, I knew that I wasn't going to waste my time standing around and doing nothing because that would just be a waste of my time and a waste of the restaurant's money.
Now, I wasn't a waitress, I was a busser and a hostess. You may now be thinking ," Well she ins't a waitress, so why is she even writing this, she has no personal experience. This is my answer to that. I have enough common sense to know that you should ALWAYS tip your servers, and I don't mean just a dollar either. I mean 20 percent or more.
Do you know how frustrating it is for me to be cleaning a table and to see that someone left the server for that table a $1 in quarters? QUARTERS. How could someone be so cruel? I work with some of the kindest servers I have ever met and everyday I see the same thing: low tips or no tips. There's even people who will give a low tip straight to their faces and leave them with a snooty remark as to why they don't deserve a higher tip than that, even thought they obviously do.
Your argument may be that the service wasn't the best or that your server wasn't the friendliest, which I get it, that's totally understandable. For me, tipping is a mix between how well my server did and how much my meal cost.
But also, think about this. Everybody has bad days and everyone slips up once in a while. So, next time, think about it this way. Instead of giving a $1 because the server was the friendliest, give $5 to cheer that person up. You never know what could have been happening before they stepped into work that day.
They work long hours on their feet at a salary of $2.50 per hour and some of them work almost everyday. You may say "then why did they choose to be a server then?" Well, lots of reasons actually. This could be their only job where they're trying to support themselves or maybe even a family, or this could be their second job for all the same reasons.
They truly live by "the customer is always right" motto, but I believe a lot of the customers are wrong for not tipping their servers properly. Another thing to remember is that your not only tipping your waitress, but your hostess and bussers as well. Some places require servers to tip out bussers and hostess', which could have them leaving work with only, well, $1.
Now THAT is something that would give someone a reason to be less cheerful. (Hint)
Just think about this the next time you go out. These people are trying to make a living too, and they can't do that by only getting tipped a $1 or less for each table that they have. In my opinion, it's almost inhumane to tip your server so low like that. So please, for your servers sake, always tip 20% or more.
