5 ms·

It might not be his fault, but if he has to do it anyway, why not get paid for it ?

eridius 11y ago
Two things to come to mind. First, if you're actually holding a waiter's tip hostage over the ability to split checks, you're a shitty person. And the kind of person that threatens to leave a bad tip if the waiter doesn't do something is the kind of person that probably tips badly to begin with. Second, time is a zero sum game. If the waiter has to spend several minutes wrestling with the POS to split a check, that's several minutes they can't be serving other tables, which if the restaurant is busy can mean a degraded experience for other diners (and of course if this leads to someone being unhappy with the service that will likely mean a reduced tip). Of course if the restaurant isn't busy and the waiter can afford to spend several minutes on this, then nobody else has to suffer, but if that's the case I wouldn't expect the waiter to balk at splitting the check (assuming they're capable of doing so at all, which as I said before may not be true depending on the POS or on restaurant policy).
- Lawtonfogle 11y ago
  >First, if you're actually holding a waiter's tip hostage over the ability to split checks, you're a shitty person. A tip is fully extra incentive. The waiter is not my employee, and the social expectation of a tip is a horrible practice (imagine if we replaced the expectation with someone that wasn't financial in nature). >And the kind of person that threatens to leave a bad tip if the waiter doesn't do something is the kind of person that probably tips badly to begin with. This sounds kinda close to a personal attack. Not to mention there is a vast difference between threatening to not leave a tip ("if you don't split this check then I won't tip you") and what the parent post did (bringing up how refusing customer service right before a tip is given is likely to hurt the tip, never mentioning if this was a conscious or subconscious behavior change made by the tipper).
  - eridius 11y ago
    > A tip is fully extra incentive No, it's not. I agree completely that it would be great if we could get rid of tipping and actually pay waiters (and all other tipped professions) an appropriate salary. But they don't get paid an appropriate salary. Tipping is not extra incentive, tipping is their salary. If you don't tip, you're literally expecting someone to serve you for somewhere around $2-$3 an hour. > This sounds kinda close to a personal attack. Why, are you the kind of person who threatens to withhold tips from waiters? Well actually, given your previous paragraph, it sounds like you are that kind of person.
    - kuschku 11y ago
      > If you don't tip, you're literally expecting someone to serve you for somewhere around $2-$3 an hour. That is not the issue of the customer, and in no way is the customer even responsible for that. Complain to the business owner raking in profits, not to the customer.
      - s73v3r 11y ago
        Still makes the customer a shitty person.
        kuschku 11y ago
        I’d argue it makes the employer a shitty person, first and foremost. The customer is still an impolite person, but in second place. There are countries where employees don’t have to rely on donations to be able to pay their bills, showing that it doesn’t have to be this way.
        Lawtonfogle 11y ago
        How so?
    - finzentive 11y ago
      > If you don't tip, you're literally expecting someone to serve you for somewhere around $2-$3 an hour. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't restaurants supposed to pay waiters the difference if they make less than minimum wage in tips?
- cornholio 11y ago
  Yet, the time needed to split the check is already lost from his point of view, along with the extra tip he might have received form the next table. At that point, annoying the customer is simply irrational behavior: she loses even more money only to make a point, knowing that the customer will retort to what you call shitty behavior to make the point back. While typically irrational for the individual, anger can be rational for the selfish gene, thus be preserved in the species: angry bees are avoided by other animals even if individual bees are suicidal, thus making the suicide of an individual work for the group. So whenever you feel the need to go on a rampage destroying yourself along with your archenemy, you should really ask yourself if you are still in control, or you are executing out a program developed 1 million years ago and designed to protect the occupants of your cave from attacks of rival hominids, even at the price of your life.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
bardworx 11y ago
1. Some POS don't allow to split a check more then X ways 2. If a waiter spends 10 min at the POS splitting a check, other tables are being ignored and management might not like that. Interestingly enough, a server works for three parties: guest, restaurant, and themselves. Sucks but true. Gotta choose lesser of three evil sometimes.

Two things to come to mind. First, if you're actually holding a waiter's tip hostage over the ability to split checks, you're a shitty person. And the kind of person that threatens to leave a bad tip if the waiter doesn't do something is the kind of person that probably tips badly to begin with. Second, time is a zero sum game. If the waiter has to spend several minutes wrestling with the POS to split a check, that's several minutes they can't be serving other tables, which if the restaurant is busy can mean a degraded experience for other diners (and of course if this leads to someone being unhappy with the service that will likely mean a reduced tip). Of course if the restaurant isn't busy and the waiter can afford to spend several minutes on this, then nobody else has to suffer, but if that's the case I wouldn't expect the waiter to balk at splitting the check (assuming they're capable of doing so at all, which as I said before may not be true depending on the POS or on restaurant policy).

Lawtonfogle 11y ago
>First, if you're actually holding a waiter's tip hostage over the ability to split checks, you're a shitty person. A tip is fully extra incentive. The waiter is not my employee, and the social expectation of a tip is a horrible practice (imagine if we replaced the expectation with someone that wasn't financial in nature). >And the kind of person that threatens to leave a bad tip if the waiter doesn't do something is the kind of person that probably tips badly to begin with. This sounds kinda close to a personal attack. Not to mention there is a vast difference between threatening to not leave a tip ("if you don't split this check then I won't tip you") and what the parent post did (bringing up how refusing customer service right before a tip is given is likely to hurt the tip, never mentioning if this was a conscious or subconscious behavior change made by the tipper).
- eridius 11y ago
  > A tip is fully extra incentive No, it's not. I agree completely that it would be great if we could get rid of tipping and actually pay waiters (and all other tipped professions) an appropriate salary. But they don't get paid an appropriate salary. Tipping is not extra incentive, tipping is their salary. If you don't tip, you're literally expecting someone to serve you for somewhere around $2-$3 an hour. > This sounds kinda close to a personal attack. Why, are you the kind of person who threatens to withhold tips from waiters? Well actually, given your previous paragraph, it sounds like you are that kind of person.
  - kuschku 11y ago
    > If you don't tip, you're literally expecting someone to serve you for somewhere around $2-$3 an hour. That is not the issue of the customer, and in no way is the customer even responsible for that. Complain to the business owner raking in profits, not to the customer.
    - s73v3r 11y ago
      Still makes the customer a shitty person.
      - kuschku 11y ago
        I’d argue it makes the employer a shitty person, first and foremost. The customer is still an impolite person, but in second place. There are countries where employees don’t have to rely on donations to be able to pay their bills, showing that it doesn’t have to be this way.
      - Lawtonfogle 11y ago
        How so?
  - finzentive 11y ago
    > If you don't tip, you're literally expecting someone to serve you for somewhere around $2-$3 an hour. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't restaurants supposed to pay waiters the difference if they make less than minimum wage in tips?
cornholio 11y ago
Yet, the time needed to split the check is already lost from his point of view, along with the extra tip he might have received form the next table. At that point, annoying the customer is simply irrational behavior: she loses even more money only to make a point, knowing that the customer will retort to what you call shitty behavior to make the point back. While typically irrational for the individual, anger can be rational for the selfish gene, thus be preserved in the species: angry bees are avoided by other animals even if individual bees are suicidal, thus making the suicide of an individual work for the group. So whenever you feel the need to go on a rampage destroying yourself along with your archenemy, you should really ask yourself if you are still in control, or you are executing out a program developed 1 million years ago and designed to protect the occupants of your cave from attacks of rival hominids, even at the price of your life.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

bardworx 11y ago

1. Some POS don't allow to split a check more then X ways 2. If a waiter spends 10 min at the POS splitting a check, other tables are being ignored and management might not like that. Interestingly enough, a server works for three parties: guest, restaurant, and themselves. Sucks but true. Gotta choose lesser of three evil sometimes.