tipping

like the reason the last minute sitting in a restaurant sucks is because A. you probably cleaned everything and now it's getting messy again, and B. unlike a call center, when once the call ends, you can dash, you have to wait for the customers to actually get up and leave, which they don't always do after they're done eating and paid (sometimes you have to give them the subtle hints like turning the lights on).

So usually after they leave, you still have a bit of work to do, whereas in a call center you can generally up and walk out the door.

yeah, not sure folks are understanding that the average American waiter is making $2.13 an hour in wages

yeah my paychecks were usually like $20-$40

bartender wages are all over the place - sometimes decent money before tips (by decent I mean actual minimum wage), sometimes completely off the books so that tips are their entire income, sometimes $2.13 an hour just like a waiter

At my first waiting job, I actually had health insurance, drawn from my paycheck. Only I didn't realize that I didn't really have insurance for six months because my paychecks were non-existent even before my insurance. (I was 18 and stupid, or that might have occurred to me.)

fwiw front of house staff in a nice place are probably making way more money than someone in a call center after tips so i dont think its really 'about' that. and sometimes you just really want to eat at a place or are tired yourself and dont want to search for anything else or this was the only place everyone could agree on blah blah blah its not the end of the world but you are being inconsiderate to the ppl that work there

I promised myself I'd never go back into the restaurant industry after I got laid off in 2003, and so far haven't. I now make about 5 times the salary I did back when I was a waiter. And I find the work stimulating and like it. I wasn't built for restaurants due to my short fuse and big mouth.

a call centre operator gets a call 5 minutes before the end of a shift that goes on for half an hour. that is brutal. and that person is not getting a tip or getting paid much, if at all, more than a waiter either.

― jed_, Friday, February 10, 2012 2:48 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well theyll get paid for that extra half hour of work

― BJ O (Lamp), Friday, February 10, 2012 2:49 PM (1 hour ago)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA youre joking right?

Nowhere I worked. "time in lieu" if youre LUCKY. Half an hour is "just suck it up and do yr job" most times tho.

But in fairness, a 40k a year callcentre job is a lot better than a 14k a year waiting job, so.

i guess my impression is that almost any call centre jobs employees here would get an hourly wage rather than a salary

Nowhere Ive worked, its alwayts been a yearly wage. But perhaps it's diff in Aus IT companies. Also I'm tlaking IT rather than more generic "answer the phone for an insurance co" tbf.

yeah - i mean people get inconvenienced by their jobs all the time in lots of little ways but if im calling an IT help desk or my credit card customer service # or w/e i dont really have any control over which rep i get whereas im actively choosing to sit down in an empty restaurant 5 minutes before they close, yknow?

like i think jeds right that a server just has to shrug it off, really, and there are plenty of shittier things people do regularly to waitstaff than make then work an extra hour but its a dick move, regardless of how you rationalize it

O I agree sitting down to eat 5 mins before closing is a dick move.

And I maintain that in terms of increasing or decreasing the amount of unhappiness in the universe, the person deciding to sit down five minutes before closing is an asshole, even if the posted closing time ALLOWS them to do that. They're making a whole lot of people's day a lot worse. The ONLY way to make up for this is to leave a huge tip out of proportion to the price of the meal, and even this won't necessarily mean much to the cook, dishwasher, cashier, or whoever the fuck else is stuck there drumming their fingers waiting for this person to just goddamn order something already.

― Doctor Casino, Thursday, February 9, 2012 7:11 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm not defending the practice, but i still just don't see this. the primary responsibility for increasing "the amount of unhappiness in the universe" lies with the person who sat the customer, or the policy that forced them to. if you really want someone to blame, that's where you should look.

agree that it's a dick move, but also imagine some naive couple unfamiliar w/ the area looking for some place to eat late at night. they find a place open and go in, knowing it's a toss-up whether they get seated or not. if the restaurant says that it's happy to serve them, i hardly see any great transgression in their ordering dinner.

otm

the manager/hostess is a dick, not the customer

I end up at restaurants quite often shortly before posted kitchen closing hours, here's what I do to try and not be a dick:

- if the place has already pretty much cleared out, don't go
- sit at the bar
- ask if the kitchen's still open
- pick what I'm going to order very quickly, or preferably know before walking in
- if other patrons are still ordering full meals, order anything. If not then get something that's quick to prepare
- close my check when the food comes out so the bartender/server can do their paperwork

On the flip side of things, the shittiest moves a a restaurant can pull when a table's still seated and not staying egregiously long are using cleaning solution on the tables around them, putting up chairs and stools, and turning up the dining room lights for cleaning.

wow

Crushed cucumber artisinal basil hand-milled gin whathaveyou bartenders should get paid more than regular bartenders because it really is skilled labor and bars that offer these kinds of drinks are really relying on the bartender's as a fundamental part of their business model. I bet those bartenders still make tipped employee minimum wage, though.

Anyway, if I were paying per drink for that kind of fancy cocktail I'd run a tab and tip 20%+ at the end.

v good pr0 tips from I DIED

bartender's skill, I meant to say. xp

I think the answer to a lot of these problems is 'more people should be tipped', if people in other shitty jobs get tips too once in a while they will be less bitter. I don't think the person who makes my burrito is doing less overall labor than the person bringing me a beer. tips for everyone.

I went to the podiatrist today and there was a tip line on the credit card receipt from my copay. I did not tip, although I was very satisfied with the service.

Next time you go in he's going to take one (1) toe.

I think the answer to a lot of these problems is 'more people should be tipped', if people in other shitty jobs get tips too once in a while they will be less bitter.

My solution would be to have actual living wages paid to people for their labour. Radical idea, I know.

lol ikr

Banker leaves 1% tip on http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/24/banker-1-percent-tip-receipt_n_1299280.html33 lunch in defiance of the 99%

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/511964/BANKER-1-PERCENT-TIP-RECEIPT.jpg

I mean, I can't imagine that this asshole thinks he's EVER going to eat there again without getting a spit-and-semen burger, right? Frankly, if I owned that place, I'd give the wait staff permission to shoot him on sight.

Yeah, saw this story the other day. Can't wait for the doucherocket to be ID'd.

Sorry, effed up the coding but the link works.

seems kind of too cliche to be true, or possible cliche enough to be true

He could have at least rounded off properly.

Note that Future Ex-Banker has removed his blog, where this originally appeared. Alas, since everyone the Newport Beach financial center (100+ banks, investment advisers, traders & private equity firms in the neighborhood of Newport Center Dr.) has probably already seen this, I fear he might be Prematurely Ex-Banker.

Pretty much 90% of the lunchtime crowd around there will be financial types or their office employees. Lunchtime shift waiting jobs are probably pretty good gigs for UC-Irvine students, assuming pricks like this guy are uncommon.

haha i just got a 0 on a larger order than that, but it happens all the time in catering/deliveries. i would much rather get an asshole like that (i never have) than the usual people who jump through all sorts of hoops to not own up to the fact that they're screwing you over.

businessmen otoh are typically pretty good with tipping (esp when there's someone around to impress or they're signing on an account that isn't theirs) but they are the worst human beings to ever have to deal with in a restaurant. children, all of them.

His $1.33 is a 1% tip, you see? Dick.

yes i see that?

He's the dick, not you! :0 I was xposting to the "could've rounded off" comment, sorry!

what i don't get is... if waiting tables isn't a "real job" and everyone actually got a "real job", who the fuck would be left to serve this guy his fucking food???

i know ppl usually meant well, but when i was a waitress i would often get ppl asking me "so what else do you do?", as if they thought that waitressing FT was not an option. and sometimes, even when i would reply "uh i waitress full time", ppl would still insist "yeah but WHAT ELSE do you do??" "NOTHING bc running around a non-airconditioned restaurant for 40 hrs a week without breaks is really fucking exhausting".

it was fake

Not surprised to see that news.

heard it was by the same guy who ran ghetto hikes

According to Harper's Index this month, 6 of 7 jobs in the U.S. are in the service industry.

I imagine they said service sector, not service industry

heard it was by the same guy who ran ghetto hikes

waiting for max's expose tbh

I don't honestly know the difference between those two things. xp

but I am totes willing to own up to probably misquoting a factoid; sorry Harper's Index

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertiary_sector_of_the_economy

it encompasses both investment bankers and waitresses. just about anyone who doesn't grow food or work in a factory yet still gets paid money for some reason.

is education a part of it?

yup

well now that I am BETTER INFORMED, that Harper's Index factoid seems less astonishing
http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/replicate/EXID15166/images/the_more_you_know2(1).jpg