r/facepalm 'MURICA Aug 28 '24

🇲​🇮​🇸​🇨​ i'm speechless

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292

u/HillInTheDistance Aug 28 '24

Yeah. Forcing the employee to negotiate their wage every time they serve a customer is kinda fucked.

82

u/Gloomy_Industry8841 Aug 28 '24

It’s perverse.

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u/marvsup Aug 28 '24

Frank?

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u/Gloomy_Industry8841 Aug 28 '24

Doris?

2

u/marvsup Aug 28 '24

Thought you were referencing this haha

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u/Gloomy_Industry8841 Aug 28 '24

Hahaha!!! One of my favourite scenes!!

1

u/YesNoIDKtbh Aug 28 '24

Something's missing alright.

14

u/beebsaleebs Aug 28 '24

It’s not a negotiation. It’s an arbitrary exercise of power by the customer and the owner.

2

u/EtTuBiggus Aug 28 '24

And by the server.

Fast food restaurants here will start the paid onboarding the same day. That’s literally the opposite of the unpaid place settings servers do before open.

Apparently there is a greater incentive to wait tables than to flip burgers and work a register.

1

u/beebsaleebs Aug 28 '24

There’s not that many registers.

1

u/EtTuBiggus Aug 28 '24

There was a line of customers while zero people staffed the register this morning due to a lack of employees. I had to wait for someone to show up, help the person at the register, then help me.

2

u/RM_Dune Aug 28 '24

In the US it seems more like an exercise of power by the restaurant owner and the server, at the cost of the customer. Servers would not be so gleefully sharing how much they love tipping if they didn't like it. The only people fucked over are the poor saps caving to social pressures and tipping 20% for every bit of service, down to starbucks or a bagel place.

0

u/Nelliell Aug 28 '24

This, exactly. Someone I know told me they treat dining in as a job interview for the waitstaff. If they do well, they get a tip. If they do not, they get 25 cents. They said they leave a quarter so that the waitstaff know they didn't forget to tip.

0

u/whoisdatmaskedman Aug 28 '24

I think most people who tip base it on the service they receive from the server. How exactly is that arbitrary?

4

u/beebsaleebs Aug 28 '24

Because it’s up to the customer to arbitrarily decide the quality of the service with no recourse for the server.

I had many christians not tip me because, and I quote, “you shouldn’t be working on a Sunday, you should be at church.”

0

u/Tomagatchi Aug 28 '24

Exactly, people tip how they want to tip regardless of the service quality.

10

u/FrugalWisdom Aug 28 '24

It is fucked but every server or bartender I've asked this question to prefer the tips plus a low hourly base. Cash tips also seem to go under reported.

https://epionline.org/oped/is-it-time-to-end-tipping-no-servers-will-lose-money-and-service-will-suffer/

The only people it benefits is customers, as an expat it was nice knowing the entire price when dining out vs adding a 20% surcharge on everything but the portion size makes up for it!

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u/Rugkrabber Aug 28 '24

I am extremely skeptical of it because the ‘tests’ done are just some random cases they collected over a large timespan and they took only the business in account and their loss of staff, not the actual waiter and if those who stayed benefited. So how do we know if the business made the right choices? Maybe they did it all wrong. And the biggest problem also, they did this in an environment where everyone else still uses the old system, which forces them to compete and the customers have a completely different view or mindset. That doesn’t work.

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u/Fzrit Aug 28 '24 edited Aug 28 '24

Forcing the employee

American employees love tipping culture and all their wages coming from tips. They want this.

10

u/Neuchacho Aug 28 '24 edited Aug 28 '24

People overlook this bit constantly. Being hourly means they have to put all the hours in to get payed. Most people I know waiting or bartending are making what they'd make in 40 hours at a typical hourly wage of 15-20/hr, 30+ in some cases, in half that time.

0

u/Wonderful-Citron-678 Aug 28 '24

Then they should be valued at 30/hr. The money is all the same, just mandatory and equally spread to customers.

2

u/Edelgul Aug 28 '24

So is person, who pays your wage your customer or your employer?

2

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '24

If this didn’t end up benefiting the server why would anyone be a server or bartender? I say this as a career bartender.

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u/OrbitalOutlander Aug 28 '24

It's funny, because most servers prefer tips. I would prefer to just pay the price for food + living wage, but there are just as many servers who are proponents of tipping culture as there are people who complain about it.

2

u/ChickensInSpace Aug 28 '24

This is it right here. A lot of waiters don't want to get rid of the tipping system but at the same time will complain saying that the pay is not enough which is true but then if there was a vote to increase the wage and get rid of the tipping system a lot of waiters would vote against it.

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u/OrbitalOutlander Aug 28 '24

I used to spend a lot of time in bars when I was younger (worked in a city, hung out after work), and many of the bartenders and servers made just as much as I did in a white collar job, even at less-fancy places. They all worked later hours, and some had to do a lot more work, but one guy made just as much in a weekend as I did all week.

I'm not a huge fan of people not paying their way if their income is at a level that can support contributing to taxes, and so that's why I no longer cash tip. I do cash tip a dollar or two at the ice cream place though, those kids need beer money.

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u/Lost-Age-8790 Aug 28 '24

That is the best summary of the idiotic tipping culture

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u/AweHellYo Aug 28 '24

yes but somehow a lot of people think “i just won’t tip then” is some kind of own on the system when all it’s doing is fucking the server so now both the boss and the customer are doing it.

0

u/killerklixx Aug 28 '24

Forcing the employee to be a happy, smiley, performing monkey otherwise they won't get paid is disgusting and dehumanising, tbh. You expect a certain level of professionalism, but I don't need someone fawning all over me to prove they're doing a good job.