I've taken to giving 20%, regardless of service, except in the rare case of being at a cheap breakfast place where 20% amounts to a pittance. I think in this way you can pay the "real" price of the meal without playing the charade that tipping is an acknowledgement that the service was good. Clearly if tipping ever served this purpose, its not how it is presently.
| rare case of being at a cheap breakfast place where 20% amounts to a pittance.| You shouldn't feel especially bad here. Breakfast joints are high volume quick turnaround places where the diners don't sit very long at all. I've known more than server that absolutely refused to get a job at a nicer place than the diner they were working at because the tips were more reliable and added up in the aggregate. they could always count on a solid breakfast rush that didn't vary from day to day. I usually default to 20% plus all change leading up to the next dollar in diner settings. There isn't really even an opportunity for a cheap breakfast place to give you "great" service, -they just have to not fuck it up by forgetting drinks or screwing up orders, etc.
...and I give 25% but I still resent the kabuki, especially when I know the establishment is skimming off the tips, the busboy isn't bringing me my water because he thinks my waitress is cheating him and the manager keeps coming by to see if I really did order two glasses of wine or is the waitress skimming?
When I used to barback I treated the bartenders at our club as my customers. When you look at it this way it's hard to fuck it up and not deliver awesome service that will make sure you get paid...even by the ones that have zero problem not tipping the house prescribed amount. Some employees don't get that they have more than one type of customer, and if you're getting tipped out, the person handing you your money is most definitely your customer, -more so than the guy in the booth.the busboy isn't bringing me my water because he thinks my waitress is cheating him
This is crass, but what the hell.... I totally misread this at first to read I went from being a bus-boy to being a manager at a fine dining restaurant. Most people bus tables or bar-back as a stepping stone to waiting tables or bar tending. It's a sort of farm system for talent in the restaurant. The cream will rise to the top. -ew. But kleinbl00 is right that when you are a bus-boy or "servers assistant" as we called them, you will take better care of the servers that take good care of you. It's in the servers best interest to take good care of the bussers.When I used to bareback I treated the bartenders at our club as my customers
It makes for a very different sentence when you add the "e".
I loved being a bar back at the club I worked at, -the physicality of it. The place was a zoo and was packed all the time. It was quite a workout. The best part of that job was we were only open Friday and Saturday and I made easily over 300 a night. Like every club, it's hot then it's not, but for the first year it was open it was insane. Regarding your point about taking care of each other, I busted my ass and somehow I ended up banking more than some of the bartenders each night after they had all tipped my out collectively. But the service industry isn't defined by the good times or the bad timed, but by the average over time as you know :) we had a couple backs that just showed up and got tipped out accordingly.