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A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

washingtonpost.com

181–190 of 496 posts

Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#181
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So like the accountant filing your taxes, the person who fixes your bug in the bug report, the electrician adding power to a new room, the plumber fixing a leak?

No. Most of those people are self-employed, so you are usually already paying 100% of the compensation directly to them in the first place. Tipping is for when someone is doing work directly for you, but as an employee of another party.

Most of those people are self-employed? Citation heavily needed.

Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#182
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, tipping is a way of directly compensating people who are directly doing work for you, even in the context of an organization managing the transaction. You tip people who are personally responding to your requests -- that's why the dishwasher and other people you're not directly interacting with don't usually get tipped.

> No, tipping is a way of directly compensating people who are directly doing work for you From a European point of view, this is ludicrous. Why don't workers in the USA receive a salary from their employer instead of resorting to charity from their employer's customers ? How is not paying employees even legal ?

It’s also ludicrous and wildly inaccurate from an American point of view. I wouldn’t overindex on this take.

Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In North America the growth of Square has pushed things the other way; tips are front and center for the most limited of "tippable service" - starting at 18% and up from there. Tipping on fast food or something like a latte were the extra labour is already priced in is ridiculous.

The drive through coffee shack that I get coffee from asks for a tip on its payment terminals. I typically do tip because I'm never buying just drip coffee and I'd like to reward the person who took the time to make my drink. In exchange there's typically some latte art which takes some skill to build up.

I'm glad you feel supported in your payment of the extra socially expected tax that should be included in item prices.

Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#184

My summer as a dishwasher made it clear tipping, already deeply stupid, is wildly unfair even to service workers. A lot of people helped you get your meal, but your dishwasher is definitely not tipped.

> A lot of people helped you get your meal, but your dishwasher is definitely not tipped. AIUI, front-end servers are supposed to kick some money into a pool for back-end staff. > Tip out is the restaurant practice where servers or bartenders share a portion of their collected tips with other staff members who contribute to the dining experience. This can include bussers, food runners, and sometimes even kitchen staf…

[deleted]

Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#186

My summer as a dishwasher made it clear tipping, already deeply stupid, is wildly unfair even to service workers. A lot of people helped you get your meal, but your dishwasher is definitely not tipped.

In my very brief foray into food service, it was my understanding that the front of the house shares 40% of tips with the back of the house...

Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#187

My summer as a dishwasher made it clear tipping, already deeply stupid, is wildly unfair even to service workers. A lot of people helped you get your meal, but your dishwasher is definitely not tipped.

It wasn't recently but I was tipped out by the waitstaff when I was a dishwasher. So on top of my $7/hr I'd take home a hundred bucks or so.

What they paid me was totally up to them.

Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#188
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the full time wage can't result in a decent living (housing, food, medical expenses, clothes, feed and clothe a kid or two, and put away a little on the side) then it clearly is too little. Edit: Check out https://livingwage.mit.edu/ for examples based on real-world data.

If the job is unskilled (i.e. you can train the next person to do it in less than one hour) and you have several people standing in line to take it if the person doing it, quits; then the current wage is clearly enough. It is just like the price of the meal. If it costs more than people are willing to pay, then it is too expensive; regardless of what you personally think it should cost.

That’s like saying because slaves do as they’re told, they don’t mind doing it. After all, if they didn’t want to do it, they would refuse.

Those people are lining up to take a job that doesn’t pay enough because it’s better than no job or whatever worse job they currently have.

We could restructure society so that $5/hour is “enough” for some people and then the rest of could enjoy even cheaper meals. /s

Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought that tipping is mainly to enable the restaurant owner to avoid paying their workers properly.

It's a combination of things, but it's similar to why online stores advertise a price, and then add charges at checkout (like shipping, or credit card charge, processing fee, etc). You entice the customer with the lower price, and once they have committed, you can hit them with another charge or fee without as much ramification. Restaurant customers can be price sensitive, so tipping is a way to advertise a lower pri…

for some (stingy) people it IS a lower price.

Re: A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant (2017)

#190
This article came out in 2017, five years before the release of "The Bear", a currently hot TV show about fine dining. In this show one of the main characters polishes forks for an entire day and is rebuked for doing a bad job and not respecting the work. Previously this character offers to wash dishes and is told the restaurant has the best dishwashers in the business and can't afford to have someone like him screwing it up.

Youtube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK8XSIVhsE4

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