Rant: Tip Culture

[lukethedrifter]

http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/d ... e2a87.html

A lawsuit filed last week in St. Louis Circuit Court alleges that the two restaurants owned by chef Cassy Vires, Home Wine Kitchen in Maplewood and Table in Benton Park, have required employees to participate in unlawful tip pooling.



Renick and Hernandez's suit alleges that Vires and Renbarger violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and the Missouri Minimum Wage Law by requiring the two servers to contribute their tips into a tip pool that was then distributed to managers and kitchen staff as well as other servers and bussers.

[Diddy]

We've got two local diners that both only take cash. Ate at one last night bill came to just under 18 after tax. Only had a 20 so I left what I had. Flipping waitress loudly proclaims "two dollars really that's all your leaving me". Ill admit it wasn't a great tip but I didn't feel it was bad enough for that remark especially when she knows that I usually leave her a good tip. She got the order wrong anyway or our ticket wouldn't have been higher and I'd have had more to tip. I can understand [expletive] about tips but don't do it in front of the customer and other customers.

[lukethedrifter]

isn't kvetching by the staff part of diner culture?

[33anda3rd]

It's part of all tip culture.

My experience is the staff will moan about the bad tippers. "Look! Look what he left me! And I did great with them!" When they get that good tip, the $40-on-a-$150-ticket tip, they don't say a word. When they have a bad tip night "Ugh I was in the weeds all night and I didn't make [expletive]." When they have a great tip night, they don't say a word.

[Maclowery]

Sounds exactly like why our entire industry bemoans Yelp, etc.

We are all human, we feed off negativity! Mmmm, complaining.

Our pub just had our yearly staff party (I hesitate to call it a Christmas party at this point), and we instituted a rule that anyone caught complaining about anything work related had to have a 5 minute recess with no drink, and lots of public shaming. It was pretty hilarious how many of us were jeered at and had a drink pulled away. Myself included. If I had a thread titled "Mac bidches about his customers and coworkers", I would have bumped that bastard to eighty pages by now.

[cardsfansince82]

Complaining is part of tip culture, but under no circumstances should you ever complain directly to the customer like in diddy's case. That should be instant termination even in a diner.

[33anda3rd]

Complaining is part of tip culture, but under no circumstances should you ever complain directly to the customer like in diddy's case. That should be instant termination even in a diner.

100% agree. That's uncalled for.

[haltz]

Anywhere I've worked, that's a fireable offense. My buddy says he's going to open a place where anything goes. Not schticky like Ed Debevic's, but you can say whatever you want. If I thought it would be open for more than two months I'd join him.

[lukethedrifter]

Back in the day I was a defacto waitstaff manager. I had one of the staff members, a very polite and gracious person, complain to me about an incredibly poor tip that she received. so I did stop the gentleman at the door and asked me if there had been an issue with the service.

I did not fire myself.

[Smith Corks One]

There's a [expletive] concert club place in St. Louis called FUBAR where the tip jar on the bar has some pretty blatant tip demands. I don't remember exactly what it says because I've only been to that [expletive] hole once and my head was far from straight, but if I remember correctly it says something like, "Tip you stingy mother [expletive] or stay the [expletive] home, [expletive]." That actually may be nothing like what it says, but the tone is similar. Not necessarily unexpected from a place like that though. I enjoyed the candor and tipped the hell out of it.