Waitress Fired for posting note on receipt

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Originally Posted by MissyJ

What annoys me is tipping a server that provided excellent service extra only to have them forced to put it in a pot to be shared at the end of the night with everyone... including the server that was rude, lazy, gave poor service, etc.

I understand the premise is to supposedly make it fair to those servers that didn't have the big tippers seated in their station but since that is rarely predictable (unless they have regulars), it should even out over time (unless they fit that poor server category!

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As a former server, I do NOT accept that argument that it will all work out in the end. I always earned higher tip percentages than almost anyone else, every place I worked. That's because I'd run my butt off all night while others did the bare minimum, and I engaged my customers instead of treating them like eating machines to be serviced. I was the kind of server who brought crackers & extra napkins to a table with kids before you had to ask, and refilled drinks as soon as they were empty, and cleared dirty plates if I had a free hand & was walking by. There is no reason for me to give my rightfully-earned money to someone else. In any other place that would be called stealing. Why stealing other people's tip income has become acceptable in the restaurant industry is beyond me.

If I know ahead of time that an establishment pools tips, I will simply refuse to eat there. If I happen to find out after the fact that tips are pooled, I call the manager over and tell him that I'm opposed to that practice and I will be tipping MY server only. If I get pushback, then I leave 10% on my card and slip the server some cash to put in a separate pocket. This is a horrible practice, and it would be stopped if customers would just do the right thing for their servers and refuse to go along iwth it.

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Originally Posted by Spacers

As a former server, I do NOT accept that argument that it will all work out in the end. I always earned higher tip percentages than almost anyone else, every place I worked. That's because I'd run my butt off all night while others did the bare minimum, and I engaged my customers instead of treating them like eating machines to be serviced. I was the kind of server who brought crackers & extra napkins to a table with kids before you had to ask, and refilled drinks as soon as they were empty, and cleared dirty plates if I had a free hand & was walking by. There is no reason for me to give my rightfully-earned money to someone else. In any other place that would be called stealing. Why stealing other people's tip income has become acceptable in the restaurant industry is beyond me.

If I know ahead of time that an establishment pools tips, I will simply refuse to eat there. If I happen to find out after the fact that tips are pooled, I call the manager over and tell him that I'm opposed to that practice and I will be tipping MY server only. If I get pushback, then I leave 10% on my card and slip the server some cash to put in a separate pocket. This is a horrible practice, and it would be stopped if customers would just do the right thing for their servers and refuse to go along iwth it.

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This is the EXACT argument you will hear from people about paying more in taxes. When some people are working their butt off to make more money and others are sitting on their butt, why would the hard worker willingly give up their money?

My sister who worked as a server in college (now she works as an RN) and she uses the server pool analogy every time someone tries to discuss redistribution of wealth

Someone making minimum wage as a server who wants to keep what her customers gave HER vs. someone making over a million dollars who doesn't want to pay the same effective tax rate as that server. Cry me a river. :rolleyes:

Tipping is an atrocious, outdated form of bribery, which encourages tax cheats and discrimination based on looks. I hate it.

But when I go to a country which still practices this, I still tip. I can't wait until it is outlawed and service industry managers are made to do their jobs. But that's not yet.

The pastor was rude. The person who posted this was out of line as well.

I know so many "church people" who are horrible tippers and it pisses me off every time. To the point that I have friends in the restaurant industry that hated working the Sunday lunch shift because they knew that people that go to lunch after church tip poorly. What a sad example of generosity from the church. One of the many reasons I married my husband was because he was an excellent tipper and treated every service person with as much respect as you would treat the president with. I love him for that, and he and I both ALWAYS tip well unless you give us a really really good reason not to. Servers make jack squat as a base...the least you can do is give them a decent tip if you are going to eat out....and the 10% tithe has absolutely no relevance.

This pastor is a total jerk and I don't blame the girl for posting it, but yeah, she should have cut the signature off. I can see how Applebee's didn't have much of a choice but to fire her given that she publicly posted a patron's signature. I am curious if they would have still fired her had the signature been cut off in the original posting.