*dramatic eyeroll*

[conuly]

I'm not entirely sure that the service was as bad as he says (though the comment at the end was out of line), but that's not the point. I could be wrong here, I often am. The point is that this guy has a crazy idea that if you don't like your job, you can just leave and get a better one. If your boss isn't paying you adaquately, you can just call in the authorities and everything will be all right, because there's this law.

I'm not sure if I'm laughing or crying here, but whatever I'm doing, at least I'm doing it in the real world.

Comments

[thren0dy.livejournal.com]

I read that, and I think the customer was in the wrong. Doesn't believe in tipping - who are they, Mr. Pink?

That attitude pisses me off. And if they really did work as a waiter/waitress, they should damn well know better. I had a couple friends who worked in a restaurant, one was a prep cook and one was a regular cook. The waitresses were supposed to give the kitchen staff part of their tips, but no one enforced them doing it or how much they gave. One night, there was a call-in order for a convention. The bill came to about $900. The waitress who took the order took $90 of the $100 tip, and doled the leftover ten dollars to the 10 people working in the kitchen. All she did was write down the order and and hand the person their boxes when they showed up to get the food. The people who actually did all the work got a buck. Now I know this is not the only restaurant in the United States where this kind of shady BS goes on, so people who don't tip, or don't tip very well, really chap my hide. Yes, the waitresses were greedy, but the management did not give a shit about making sure the wait staff got tipped.

[mortaine.livejournal.com]

Bwahahah.... I am *so* sending that to waiterrant!!!

[conuly]

Go ahead. To be fair, I hate the idea of "you must tip". I know why that idea exists (because people aren't being paid minimum wage) but I hate it anyway. I'd be thrilled if restaurants were required to pay minimum wage, prices went up slightly (to about the amount they are already with tip factored in) and tips were optional again.

[conuly]

See my comment below about mandatory tipping. I *do* tip, not tipping is stealing, but I don't *like* it.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

I'd be thrilled if restaurants were required to pay minimum wage, prices went up slightly (to about the amount they are already with tip factored in) and tips were optional again.

So would I! Tipping should be for _exceptional_ service, and not required.

And I was a waitress for a few years, even.

[thren0dy.livejournal.com]

I see what you're saying, and I think that people who work in food service should get paid more because it's a crap job, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon. Minimum wage here is still 5.25 and you're lucky if you can get a job. :/

[stagemanager.livejournal.com]

and tips were optional again.

Did I miss the memo? Tipping, to me, is very optional, and very dependent on the level of service I've received.

Having said that, I do generally tip unless the service was abominable. I just tip better when the service is better. However, when the service is really good, I tip really good.

[mortaine.livejournal.com]

In CA, waiters get slightly less than minimum wage. Our menu prices reflect that, for sure!

[conuly]

To me, tips stopped being optional when waiters stopped being paid minimum wage. They're taxed as though they were tipped anyway, whether or not they were, so not to tip is stealing.

[conuly]

Yeah, I know it's not likely to happen, but I *want* it to happen.

[stagemanager.livejournal.com]

I am reasonably sure that waitstaff have always been paid under minimum wage. I recall that when I was growing up and my mom was a waitress that she earned less than MW. But she got a lot of tips. Basically, her paycheck paid the rent and the tips paid for everything else. She worked in a coffee shop, day shift.

It makes me sad that I am so self-absorbed that I seem not to care about other peoples problems, such as waitstaff being paid less than the legal wage. Every now and again, I try to feel empathy for a group, but it's difficult (for me, personally) to feel anything for a faceless group. Give me an individual, with a face, a name, someone I can care about, it's much simpler to care.

I probably should shut up now.

[conuly]

I am reasonably sure that waitstaff have always been paid under minimum wage.

Depends on where you are, which is a crying shame.

Then there's the fact that in many areas the minimum wage isn't a living wage, but that's a different issue.

It makes me sad that I am so self-absorbed that I seem not to care about other peoples problems, such as waitstaff being paid less than the legal wage.

Do you deliberately grind the faces of the poor into the dust? When given the chance to help people with no harm to yourself (whether or not you care), do you? Okay then.

[kayt-arminta.livejournal.com]

hi, i followed you over from Customers Suck. just wanted to let you know that i added you to my friends list. i often find what you write to be refreshing, adn from an oposite angle from where i see it... but oddly enough, we more then often seem to agree on the same points.

hope you don't mind the adding to my friends list.

[conuly]

I never mind. I must warn you, though, that I post a lot. If this is a problem, be warned.

[kayt-arminta.livejournal.com]

i customize my friends lists, so it's never a problem. i have C_S on a seperate list, certain people on their own lists, etc etc. just makes my reading easier. thanks again.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

They're taxed as though they were tipped anyway, whether or not they were, so not to tip is stealing.

I think you've got that wrong. You seem to be saying that not to give them money that they're going to be taxed on is stealing on the part of the non-tipper; I think that taxing them on money that they weren't given is stealing on the part of the government. "Not tipping" is not necessarily stealing; "taxing them on monies that they've never received" is very definitely stealing.

On that note, though, I always tip fairly well.

[conuly]

Well, it's stealing from somebody. We can't change the government's stupid attitudes (especially when people are intimidated into saying they were paid adaquately), so it's easier to just tip nicely.

[bridgetester.livejournal.com]

I really hope this later comment (http://www.livejournal.com/community/bad_service/228239.html?thread=2428047#t2428047) is sarcastic...

Intelligence is good and all, but you need dumb luck too.

[conuly]

I think that poster lacks the intelligence to see that people don't say "wow, I have a service job, I'm so proud" but instead "wow, I have a service job, I'm not yet graduated from college and all the better jobs are taken, I should hold on to it".

[stagemanager.livejournal.com]

I more often than not give to individuals that I see that are in a need state of some sort.

It's large, faceless-nameless-group caring and giving that I have a problem with. I think this is largely because I know that groups are composed of individuals of whom we cannot rightly make sweeping generalizations.

[targaff.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but I'm with the poster. You tip for service, you tip well for good service; but this person was being consistently rude and essentially not doing his job - and you get paid, whether by wage or by tip, to do your job. Just because he doesn't want to be there, which appears to be the prevailing justification here, doesn't mean he doesn't have to make an effort. If that was the way it worked, I'd just sit and browse the web all day.

I tip like a fiend, but I wouldn't have tipped that server either. I've followed forums/communities/etc. about bad service and I also used to read customers_suck, but I stopped doing both because both groups have entitlement issues and both really need to get over it.

He's serious... but also pathetic at the same time.

[takaal.livejournal.com]

I just had to go look at the guy's journal... I think he's still in HS. So, naturally, he hasn't *had* to go to college yet.

[missfahrenheit.livejournal.com]

I didn't tip today because I had bad service. Shock horror!

Of course though, I'm in a country where waitstaff get real wages, and tipping isn't customary. As a waitress I've been on about £4.50 - 5.75 an hour (approx $9 to $11.50), and in a year and a half I've only ever been tipped once.

[targaff.livejournal.com]

That's crap in London. Demand a raise! :>

I tip almost everywhere, if there's a degree of service involved (so nipping in to the take away to pick up my rung-in order ain't gonna get no financial love from me), and still at the percentage I'd give back in the US as well. I probably get strange looks as I'm leaving as they wonder what I want them to do...

Incidentally, I've never seen you anywhere before, but I like you purely on the basis that your shortened name naturally makes me look for a shrubber.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I hate the culture of tipping. I hate it so much that I will actively avoid services that expect tips. However, when I do use them, I tip, because you have to. I would be much happier, and much more likely to use various services if the wages were built into the prices, and tipping were not required.

Although, I do think it's crass and unamaerican. Tipping used to be seen as something done in Europe. It was inappropriate in an egalitarian society of equals. To tip someone was to insult them. They did their job for the pride of doing it.

That idea is so long gone that it's decomposed. But I wish we could go back to that. Pay people well, and then maybe they'll try to do a good job. And it makes the math easier when you go to buy something. Plus less social awkwardness.