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US waitress was fired for posting a picture of a tip receipt on Reddit

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Re: US waitress was fired for posting a picture of a tip receipt on Reddit

#51

Post by berlinbrown »

stickfigure wrote: post #46
droithomme wrote: post #20

The waitress's own accounting of the incident is exceptionally self serving and false. The signature as originally posted was quite legible. Her original accounting of the incident was completely fabricated because she didn't actually serve the table, though she represented herself as if she did. For example, the customer's name, Alois, is a man's name, but the customer was actually a female with a male's first name.…

You're forgetting the smoking gun: The customer actually wrote "I give god 10%, why do you get 18" on the receipt. There's no way around the physical evidence. Internet judgement has convicted the customer of class-A asshattery and sentenced her/him to public ridicule. The waitress is going to come across as a hero in this story no matter what bureaucratic rule she broke. Any sane business owned and run by humans wou…

I don't think the waitress is a hero. She violated a person's privacy. The waitress already received the automatic 18% tip. What is her beef? She didn't like one comment on a receipt? How many tables did she wait on that night? 6-10?

Re: US waitress was fired for posting a picture of a tip receipt on Reddit

#52

Post by ebiester »

chii wrote: post #16
crymer11 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I wholeheartedly agree that the actions of the customer are absurd, I would like to point out that in the US, courts have held that a tip is not "mandatory."

Restraunts should just charge the amount that is needed to pay their waitstaff properly, instead of relying on a tip and make their prices look cheaper! A tip is supposed to be extra money given the the waitstaff for services above and beyond the call of duty.

That's fine in an ideal world, but in the United States that's not how eating out is handled. A tip is the payment to the waitress for her services while occupying a chair in her or his section in the restaurant. If you find this unacceptable, there are McDonalds Restaurants down most streets.

Re: US waitress was fired for posting a picture of a tip receipt on Reddit

#53

Post by RenierZA »

Pastor's apology: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/tipping-pastor-apolog...

  In a TSG interview, Alois Bell said that the online
  firestorm created by the receipt has left her stunned. 
  “My heart is really broken,” said the 37-year-old Bell.
  “I’ve brought embarrassment to my church and ministry.”

Re: US waitress was fired for posting a picture of a tip receipt on Reddit

#54

Post by krichman »

lancefisher wrote: post #28
btilly wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mormons are the best known example of it, but many Baptist, Pentecostal and Brethren churches do the same thing. In all of those cases, where it happens, I believe that 10% is the standard figure.

The word tithe means tenth, and it is the biblical standard of giving - a tenth of your income. However, it's not related at all to tipping a waitress a portion of your dinner bill.

Religious people that write things like that prefer rhetoric to reason. It's in the same class of statements as "no monkey in my family tree." Sounds like you've made a point but you have only made a sentence.

Re: US waitress was fired for posting a picture of a tip receipt on Reddit

#55

Post by berlinbrown »

Osiris wrote: post #14
[deleted] wrote: post #9

[deleted]

I've always thought that the idea of a gratuity as a requirement is just a scapegoat for employers not wanting to pay their employees for the effort they put in. I've never understood why I have to tip a waiter, a pizza delivery guy, or a grocery bagger, but not the guy that changes my oil. When I lived in Mexico, grocery stores had bag boys and they were all under 12 years old. Those kids weren't employed by the sto…

It is a perfectly fine system but apparently in America, you have to leave a 20% tip under all circumstances. If the service is bad, who cares, leave the 20% or you are an asshole and we will post your information online.

God help you if you are caught not leaving a tip.

Re: US waitress was fired for posting a picture of a tip receipt on Reddit

#56

Post by berlinbrown »

RenierZA wrote: post #53

Pastor's apology: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/tipping-pastor-apolog... In a TSG interview, Alois Bell said that the online firestorm created by the receipt has left her stunned. “My heart is really broken,” said the 37-year-old Bell. “I’ve brought embarrassment to my church and ministry.”

It sucks she backed down so easily. She should have lawyered up.

Re: US waitress was fired for posting a picture of a tip receipt on Reddit

#57

Post by clicks »

zura wrote: post #49
droithomme wrote: post #20

The waitress's own accounting of the incident is exceptionally self serving and false. The signature as originally posted was quite legible. Her original accounting of the incident was completely fabricated because she didn't actually serve the table, though she represented herself as if she did. For example, the customer's name, Alois, is a man's name, but the customer was actually a female with a male's first name.…

I personally don't get whole this tip tradition - just give me the check stating the exact amount I have to pay. And give the appropriate salary to the wait{er|ress}.

Thank you.

I find the power imbalance in these situations to be very uncomfortable -- half the time in the back of my mind I'm thinking to myself this waitress has a big smile on her face because ultimately all she wants is a nice tip; the smiley front is unauthentic. Just please give the servers and waiters a proper salary and let me go on with my day.

The very idea of tipping to me is absurd and silly. What constitutes that a service be tipped anyway? Doesn't the guy who spends 30 minutes explaining to me how I should install my bathroom tiles at Home Depot deserve a tip? Or the cooks in the backhouse -- who, arguably, have much difficult work to do than servers/waiters? The immigrant dishwashers who never even get a chance to have their common dignity affirmed at any step of the way -- because they're not palatable enough in their looks and appearances to be seen by a customer? Or the Sears cashier clerk who does me the favour of looking in the back warehouse to see if the shoes I'm looking for are really not in stock -- and then calls other stores to see if they have them, when he didn't have to do any of that?

Just give them a nice salary. Don't try to guilt-trip me by bringing up how they're paid "below minimum wage".

And, to put a startup spin on my post: there should be a site that rates the ethical practices of stores/restaurants. Does the restaurant pay its dishwashers a respectable salary? If yes, I will be okay and willing to pay a little extra. If they don't: I'll happily never do business there again.

Re: US waitress was fired for posting a picture of a tip receipt on Reddit

#58

Post by berlinbrown »

chii wrote: post #16
crymer11 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I wholeheartedly agree that the actions of the customer are absurd, I would like to point out that in the US, courts have held that a tip is not "mandatory."

Restraunts should just charge the amount that is needed to pay their waitstaff properly, instead of relying on a tip and make their prices look cheaper! A tip is supposed to be extra money given the the waitstaff for services above and beyond the call of duty.

At least for me. Waiting was the easiest job with the most reward for the least amount of work. Tax free in some cases because it was cash.

Our job was to essentially walk from one side of the restaurant to the other side of the restaurant and meet drunk hot chicks. And they give you typically 10-30 dollars cash for doing so.

Hard work is standing behind a hot grill for $5-8 a hour, 10 hours a day without the tips.

Re: US waitress was fired for posting a picture of a tip receipt on Reddit

#59

Post by flexie »

zura wrote: post #49
droithomme wrote: post #20

The waitress's own accounting of the incident is exceptionally self serving and false. The signature as originally posted was quite legible. Her original accounting of the incident was completely fabricated because she didn't actually serve the table, though she represented herself as if she did. For example, the customer's name, Alois, is a man's name, but the customer was actually a female with a male's first name.…

I personally don't get whole this tip tradition - just give me the check stating the exact amount I have to pay. And give the appropriate salary to the wait{er|ress}.

Yep. The whole tipping system makes prices seem smaller than they actually are. Sort of like the cheap airline tickets with additional fees.

Re: US waitress was fired for posting a picture of a tip receipt on Reddit

#60

Post by lutusp »

berlinbrown wrote: post #55
Osiris wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always thought that the idea of a gratuity as a requirement is just a scapegoat for employers not wanting to pay their employees for the effort they put in. I've never understood why I have to tip a waiter, a pizza delivery guy, or a grocery bagger, but not the guy that changes my oil. When I lived in Mexico, grocery stores had bag boys and they were all under 12 years old. Those kids weren't employed by the sto…

It is a perfectly fine system but apparently in America, you have to leave a 20% tip under all circumstances. If the service is bad, who cares, leave the 20% or you are an asshole and we will post your information online. God help you if you are caught not leaving a tip.

> God help you if you are caught not leaving a tip.

True. In the old days, when a tip was a gratuity (the original meaning of the word), it was by definition optional. So it could be used to reward good service or punish bad. Some people objected that tipping was undemocratic -- it allowed wealthy people to get better service in an establishment with fixed menu prices.

Now that tipping is mandatory, the original meaning "gratuity" is lost, because it's not gratuitous (optional or unearned). Now the objection is that it's neither optional nor a signaling mechanism, but a way to raise prices across the board without actually saying to.

Both views are right -- when it was optional, it was undemocratic, and now that it's mandatory, it's an underhanded way to raise prices for everyone.

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