i'm bored come talk to me

[jyms]

I don't think I would enjoy eating in most places if the servers were paid higher and tipping was not a given even if it cost me pretty much the same. The servers job kinda sucks and the thing that makes people great servers is the tips they can earn to make the job a bearable employment. I've seen how some people act when they work for tips included, I can't imagine how bad it would be if they were payed more and didn't need tips to live. And any server that makes more than 15% most of the time because they are great, won't stick around for less money.

[Galapogos]

I don't think I would enjoy eating in most places if the servers were paid higher and tipping was not a given even if it cost me pretty much the same. The servers job kinda sucks and the thing that makes people great servers is the tips they can earn to make the job a bearable employment. I've seen how some people act when they work for tips included, I can't imagine how bad it would be if they were payed more and didn't need tips to live. And any server that makes more than 15% most of the time because they are great, won't stick around for less money.

Maybe it's just the area I'm in, but outside of higher end restaurants I can't see the servers getting any worse. I mean yeah, they can get worse, but there would be some level of accountability that management would hold them to that would stop them from getting to that point.

If I'm talking about a $15 meal type place (like say Boston Pizza), I get my order taken, food delivered, ask me how my food is like 2 minutes later, then don't see them again until I have to wave them over for the cheque. That is as basic a service as you can get without making me go up and get my food myself. I don't see how the prospect of a tip inspired any of that.

When I'm in a nice restaurant the waiter gives me more than uninspired small talk, actually refills my drink, has knowledge of the menu and recommends things, and is constantly doing other things around the table without being a disturbance. That, to me, is service worth tipping for.

[surviva316]

I don't think I would enjoy eating in most places if the servers were paid higher and tipping was not a given even if it cost me pretty much the same. . . .

I don't know how much I want to dip my toes into this conversation, but I will point out that people tend to way overestimate the correlation between tips and quality of service. The business is just much more complicated than that. Just as a couple of salient examples:

1) Scheduling servers is a very complicated thing to balance, and how many servers are on the schedule will much more highly correlate with your service than how much the servers give a shit. The reason scheduling servers is complicated is because staffing 4 servers for a night instead of 3 cuts into everyone's pay by 25%. Even hiring bussers, hostesses, bartenders, etc. has drastic effects on how much everyone in the restaurant makes. For any place that has managers that give a shit about their workers' morale and stuff, this generally leads to there being AS FEW help staffed as can possibly keep the restaurant standing upright.

I found this especially true in fine dining where there are far more corners to cut: not doing the french press at the table, pre-bussing silverware with by hand instead of using a tray with a black napkin for display, spending less time on the specials and wines and stuff, there's seriously like infinite corners that can be cut in fine dining, but people will still get their food and get charged the correct amount.

Anyway, this point isn't me taking a side because I'm not naive enough to think that changing it to a system where the restaurant pays for the servers' wages will lead to more staffing than necessary to keep the place standing upright, but I'm just saying that the guests don't hold the magic wand to decide how much the servers make. A lot of it is still about pleasing the managers so that they give prime sections and trust you with more tops and all that stuff.

2) And this one's important so I probably should have put it first: there is a MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH higher correlation between how much a server makes and how big their bills are than there is with how good their service is. This does not at all lend to great service. Again, this is ESPECIALLY true in fine dining where a glass of wine can range from $7 to $50. Much more of the game of going home with an assload of money is talking people into spending more (or even going so far as ringing up the second most expensive wine when a guest trusts the server to choose for them) than it is about bringing stuff out on time.

I think it's great that two people in here have said that they tip based on how good the actual service was rather than on how much their ass got kissed, but don't kid yourselves and think that you two people in the universe of billions change all that much about servers' attitudes on how to make money. Not all servers are cutthroat (I was not a cutthroat server at all, mostly because I wasn't living off of my wages), but there isn't a server in their right mind who thinks that they make their money by getting free refills out in a timely manner.

I don't know if this post takes a side or anything, I just thought I'd clarify some misunderstandings about how the business works from a server perspective.

[Penneywize]

I can't believe such a promising thread turned into one exclusively about tipping.

(I know, I'm a buzzkill)...

Anyway I tip always 15% regardless of level of service except in extreme cases. I will tip 20% if all goes well. I never tip less than a dollar unless the drink / meal cost less than like $6.50, in which case always increments of 0.25.

Tipping. Super simple stuff.

[Pascal]

to get this thread back on topic...

check the sticky to get in IRC it takes like 90 seconds i'm bored as fucking shit what's up

or just talk to me in this thread jesus christ i'm about to go nuts

Does anyone use IRC atm? Why didn't you go pinting or play a game?

hey so why did ftr get rid of the reputation system? were there some busto ass pussy ass broke ass busta ass bitch ass people whining about getting neg rep?

edit: hell yeah i'm an ftr qualified member because i'm qualified to fuck yo bitch

Cos some people could give massssive amounts of rep cos the more you had the more you gave, so you could get rep from like 20 people and an old reg could be pissy and neg you and you'd be minus rep suddenly. Grats on being a Qualified Member, you gonna play any games with us?!

okay why the fuck are you posting in a gay ass soccer thread when you could be talking to THIS

Soccer is the nut sport, what sports do you play?

i didn't really leav ei just stopped posting much b/c i stopped playing poker and was focused on doing other shit, also yes i did notice the lack of question marks

i'm dating a chick who is learning to play scrabble really well, and along with that i've thrown together a few training thingies in PHP

lol anagrams - this one builds anagrams around 8-letter words from the north american scrabble dictionary since doing anagrams is one of the most common ways recommended to improve

Two Letter Word Scrabble Trainer - quick thing to help chick learn the two-letter words

Why don't you play poker anymore? I like your training stuff - any other ways, is it worth doing crosswords and puzzles and stuf?

lived in raleigh for about a year, #42 largest city in usa by population, have stayed in charlotte a lot, #17 largest city in usa by population, have been to philly for a week/week and a half at times for chess stuff which is top 5 largest cities etc and that's probably the farthest i've been from where i grew up, i don't really care too much for travel etc, i was in philly for chess events (the world open), i'm working for myself and doing alright with it, at a crossroads where i need to decide whether to expand with that or go back to school, leaning towards the first option

Why don't you like travelling?

because i can't put 100% of effort into both, also to this and the quoted part above, i'm most of the way through a BS in applied mathematics but i'm super disillusioned with the whole go to college -> get a job making someone else rich -> die scenario

I'm completely with you on this - if you had to open a business right now, what would you open and why?

i fucking hate when a waitress is giving you commentary about what you're doing or what you're eating, etc.

bikes gave a great example of the bitch saying you get the same every time and i'm like damn woman why don't you mind your fucking business and stfu

and don't even get me started on tipping

Yeah I caught a few of those. I made the fake list on a whim meaning to go back and revise it once I was done, but I never got around to it.

You said you're not a big fan of words with friends, is it because you can try and make a word and it'll instantly tell you it isn't a word so people go from stupid stuff but with lots of connecting letters to get massive points when they'd never be able to do that in Scrabble?

I've never played live with a dealer.

Why not?

Check your PMs.

No.