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>BUT, I had to force myself to be bubbly and make small talk or I'd make closer to $5-10/hr. The core service quality never changed--only how much I pleased/ent

• davemp 5y ago
  What you're talking about is scaling pay with customer satisfaction correct? The issue with depending on customer satisfaction is that human beings only have agency over themselves. No matter how polite and courteous an employee is they cannot force a customer to be satisfied or that said satisfaction should result in a nice tip. There are too many variables outside of your control such as the individual customers, shift schedule, volume of customers, the literal weather, political mood, etc. Some days I would go home with like $30 for the day's work despite behaving the same as my high earning days. You are not actually getting paid for your performance directly. On average you may make more, but if you're in a low income position you are not equipped to ride out the variance. You are being exposed to so much uncertainty and raw humanity that it affects your mentality. It's much harder to shake off making $60 for an entire weekend of work because customers were grumpy when you only have $250 in your bank account and your car payment is due. As an equation it may look equitable, but that equation is not reality. Businesses that support the tipping system are leaving their employees out in the proverbial wind. Instead business owners should assume the risk and actually manage their employees in an equitable fashion.