Sunday, February 28, 2010

"Hey, Waiter! Just How Much Extra Do You Really Expect?" - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

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1 comment:

  1. DonnaMarch 4, 2010 at 10:52 PM

    Have you ever shopped at a department store or a hardware store and asked the clerk for a certain product. First you may have to walk aisle after aisle until you find someone to help and then they send you on a wild goose chase only to find they don't know what you are asking for to begin with. These are you employees that are paid minimum wage and more. They don't need to make sure the customer is happy as they get a set rate. Whether you are happy with their service has no impact on their paycheck so what do they care.
    I agree with you. Why do people in the service industry have to rely on the customers to make a decent wage. But that is the nature of the beast. How many of the patrons realize that in many restaurants the waitress is tipping a bus, a hostess and a bartender with the tips they receive. A good wait person needs to rely on the customer to help pay their salary. It is the wait person that has to argue with the kitchen staff at times to insure their customer is receiving just what they want. It is the wait person that is going to insure that the customers dining experience is going to be a good one.
    I work for a restaurant that 80% of the wait staff have been working in the same place 10 years and over. Many of the customers look forward to conversing with these servers. The servers bend over backwards to see their customers are happy.
    Yes there are wait staff, usually a younger group, that are just doing this job until they go onto something else. They do their job with little pride. For the others who wait for a livelyhood, they hope going the extra mile will pay off. There will be the "cheap" tippers who feel that we are servants and are at their beck and call for a 5-10% tip and a good wait will treat them they same as their 20-25% tipper. Hopefully, the night will even itself out and the wait will walk out with enough to help them pay their bills.

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