3 ms·

FYI - waiters also get _really_ mad if you only tip 10%. That's basically 2% less than minimum wage the way the IRS taxes waiters.

hunter2_ 9y ago
My interpretation, perhaps widespread in the US, is that giving anything under 15% is specifically done to ensure that the waiter understands that the service was sub-par, so the bitter feelings are ideally balanced out. Getting "really mad" or instead realizing "ah, this is because I didn't check back after bringing their food for a good 20 minutes, so that request for ketchup only came after their fries were almost gone" is their own prerogative. If in fact they did everything by the book, especially that crucial "check in after 3 minutes / 3 bites following food delivery," and still got less than 15%, then "really mad" is probably warranted given the current situation of a sub-minimum-wage base. I typically map it out as follows: Less than 15% = You were nowhere to be found while my food was getting cold and I needed something for the food. 15% = Nothing terrible happened, but maybe we sat there for a loooooong time with menus closed or empty plates. 18% = Normal / everything as expected. Greater than 18% = You rock. I asked for suggestions and you had great ones, you comped something not related to a bad screwup, etc. Notice that all of the variation is in a pretty tight range. We could easily normalize it down about 10 points (and reinstate minimum wage) and remap the 4 levels above to <5%, 5%, 8%, >8%.
- freehunter 9y ago
  Wow that's intense. I've never worked in food service, but if I want to leave a message saying "I want to let you know that I didn't forget to tip you, you just gave bad service" I usually leave like a dollar or something, not 10%. But really if I had bad enough service to warrant sending a message, I wouldn't give them 10% on top of the price of the food. They would just get zero (or damn close to zero) tip. Do people really say "you suck so I'm going to give you 15% more than the list price"?
  - hunter2_ 9y ago
    I guess it all boils down to just how bad it was. Although I concluded above with a proposal to significantly reduce the range of the "bad" category, in today's reality the wide 15% range allows you to dial it in granularly. Once in a blue moon that is damn close to zero, sure.

hunter2_ 9y ago

My interpretation, perhaps widespread in the US, is that giving anything under 15% is specifically done to ensure that the waiter understands that the service was sub-par, so the bitter feelings are ideally balanced out. Getting "really mad" or instead realizing "ah, this is because I didn't check back after bringing their food for a good 20 minutes, so that request for ketchup only came after their fries were almost gone" is their own prerogative. If in fact they did everything by the book, especially that crucial "check in after 3 minutes / 3 bites following food delivery," and still got less than 15%, then "really mad" is probably warranted given the current situation of a sub-minimum-wage base. I typically map it out as follows: Less than 15% = You were nowhere to be found while my food was getting cold and I needed something for the food. 15% = Nothing terrible happened, but maybe we sat there for a loooooong time with menus closed or empty plates. 18% = Normal / everything as expected. Greater than 18% = You rock. I asked for suggestions and you had great ones, you comped something not related to a bad screwup, etc. Notice that all of the variation is in a pretty tight range. We could easily normalize it down about 10 points (and reinstate minimum wage) and remap the 4 levels above to <5%, 5%, 8%, >8%.

freehunter 9y ago
Wow that's intense. I've never worked in food service, but if I want to leave a message saying "I want to let you know that I didn't forget to tip you, you just gave bad service" I usually leave like a dollar or something, not 10%. But really if I had bad enough service to warrant sending a message, I wouldn't give them 10% on top of the price of the food. They would just get zero (or damn close to zero) tip. Do people really say "you suck so I'm going to give you 15% more than the list price"?
- hunter2_ 9y ago
  I guess it all boils down to just how bad it was. Although I concluded above with a proposal to significantly reduce the range of the "bad" category, in today's reality the wide 15% range allows you to dial it in granularly. Once in a blue moon that is damn close to zero, sure.