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Back in December, we reported on the Trump administration's proposed changes to tip-pooling regulations that would allow employers to pocket servers' tips as long as the employees continue to make minimum wage. That's right: Employers could take servers' tips and just dole out the minimum wage. But wait, it gets worse!
Turns out, the Department Of Labor knew how crappy this would make life for restaurant employees. This Bloomberg Law article, citing sources within the agency, reveals that the Department Of Labor knowingly buried its own data that showed restaurant workers would lose billions of dollars in gratuities under the new proposal.
Source: https://thetakeout.com/proposed-tip-pooling-law-is-so-bad-for-workers-the-gove-1822664111
(Score: 3, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday February 06 2018, @08:44PM (2 children)
Not in my experience.
What I expect is a friendly person who smiles at me and makes me feel welcome to eat at that place. Unlike your experience, I do expect wait staff to check in with me anytime my glass is empty - I expect them to be observant and ask me if I want a refill or not. If I say no I expect them to remember that choice. I expect wait staff to check if I need anything about five minutes after food delivery (was there a condiment I needed), and anytime I try to catch their eye - which with good staff does not happen because they've already anticipated my need. I'll put down extra money if they check in after I've placed my order and before food delivery or after post-delivery check and pre-final visit before check.
I don't expect, nor want, conversation, flirtation, or anything other than a respectful attitude, pleasant demeanor, and awareness of my needs as a customer before I have to ask. I ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company at Navy Pier and at some point (don't remember when,) the waitress came over and played Forrest Gump trivia with us - it was interesting, but not really expected and did keep me from visiting with those I was dining with. But it was also clearly something the management expected staff to do, I believe.
Conversely, anyone who acted the way you've described without my saying so (doesn't check in unless I ask) would have a diminished tip. I can count the number of times I haven't tipped in the last ten years on one hand - I think it is three out of
This sig for rent.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by melikamp on Tuesday February 06 2018, @11:38PM (1 child)
You people, c0lo & #6553, you are both right! Every patron has slightly different expectations about table servce, and the job of a competent server is to fulfil those expectations without sacrificing the overall quality of service for everyone else. When I took an issue with TMB's little fart-rant, it was the specific suggestion that a competent waiter won't go tipless because of a pay cut. On the contrary, competent waiters are fighting tooth-and-nail, as we type here, over some of the most desired positions in tipless restaurants in New York and elsewhere, and I am sure that at least some of them do take this pay cut with a sigh of relief.
Because you see, people, servers also have expectations (a novel idea for USA, but here we go). A competent high-end server, in particular, is a professional with 10+ years of experience in mind-reading and meeting your every food-related need, all while working on 100 other mini-projects around the floor. Servers like that take pride in their work, and they expect to be paid for their time, period, because they do a fucking great job day in and day out. If you don't like their personal style, or find that the experience is overpriced, you are free to go to a different restaurant, mmmok? So when you do come to their restaurant, they expect you to be polite, and they expect you to be buying food, booze, and table service, the end. They do not expect to be harrased, sexually or otherwise; they do not expect their pay to be held hostage over some random fantasy, or be conditioned by your mood. They are trying to serve you well, regardless of how much or little you expect, or how great or shitty you may feel that day, and they expect to be paid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @11:18AM
This.