We start with the verbose post of Wee Wee'd-up Willie the Pitiful who has yet to learn that brevity is the soul of wit ,here reproduced in its entirity for those who don't like rowing over to the island.
I won't even comment on this diatribe except to say Wee Wee'd Up Willie Pit teed one up and lots of folk (big blaze) took a swipe at it.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9245396
WilliamPitt (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-03-10 05:00 AM
Original message
A quick note to anyone who goes to bars, restaurants, etc.
Just got home from my night job, and wanted to share a thought...and a request.
Short back-story: I've been working for Truthout for almost ten years now, it's a non-profit organization, and we got creamed when the economy tanked. We rely 100% on donations to operate, and when the economic shit hit the trickle-down fan two Decembers ago, the donations pretty much evaporated completely. I volunteered to take a savage pay cut to help keep the place afloat, and in order to make ends meet, got a night job as a bouncer at a downtown bar. For the record, matters have improved, my salary has returned to almost what it was, but I've held on to the night job because the extra scratch is tremendously helpful, and because I actually enjoy the work (mostly).
Tonight was not enjoyable. We were packed-to-the-rooftop busy all night, thanks to a Red Sox double-header and a big convention across the street. Everyone I saw was either half in the bag or fully gone, I mean like staggering too-much-gravity-out-here blasted, and it falls to me to keep those people out. If someone has 15 beers at some other place, manages to get into my shop, has one beer, and then kills someone with their car, we are liable for that disaster because they got in...so I spent my night convincing shitfaced droolers that life was better elsewhere. It never got physical, but I got cussed out a few times, and one guy flicked a butt at my head when I bricked him at the door...and then ran away, of course.
None of this deals with my point, which is this: in the hierarchy of my bar, I am the lowest man on the totem pole. I am, in fact, the part of the pole that's underground; I have the simplest job in the joint - card people, roust drunks, bar drunks from entering, sweep butts off the sidewalk, haul trash and bottles out after closing, fill the bins with ice, etc. - but what I do is vital. If the bottom of the pole isn't stable, the pole falls over...so if I'm not on point and let drunk idiots in, there are fights and pools of vomit and a general mess.
But it's easy, compared to what the floor servers and bartenders have to do. We do drinks and food, so the servers and bartenders have to sling pints and plates all night. The kitchen is the size of two phone booths, so the cook is going at top speed in a closet all night, and thanks to the stoves, it tends to be 140 degrees in there. I take my door job very seriously for one reason: to make their lives easier, to keep them from having to deal with shitheads who shouldn't be there, but to let enough people in that they make their money. It's a tightrope act most of the time; tonight, for example, the double-header meant game 2 didn't start until 10pm and didn't let out until 1am, and thanks to the two games, the whole city had been drinking since noon.
We did OK, for the most part. The place was packed all night, there weren't any fights or idiocy, and the place made money. BUT...and this is a big BUT...but for whatever reason, this was one of those nights when people tipped a quarter every three beers, complained about everything when nothing was wrong, and gave the servers and bartenders no end of grief. The ones doing this weren't rag-ass students or starving artists, mind you; they were the suits with the gold cards in their wallets, and they were assholes because they could be.
There is a certain breed of cat who goes out to an establishment and enjoys giving the people working there a hard time, who short them on the tab and the tip, and who take apparently endless pleasure out of making someone miserable...again, because they can. Two of my servers ran their asses ragged tonight and barely had cab fare to show for it at the end of the night, and we were busy, so they should have done well, or at least better than they did. It sucks.
I have the easiest job in the place, and I consider it my duty to make the servers and bartenders lives easier...and it makes me want to maim and slaughter when they get screwed. People who work in the service industry - *especially* when there is booze involved - run a marathon every shift. They work so hard for $2.65 an hour plus tip, and it blows my mind how often they are disrespected, taken for granted, and ****ed over.
So, my point: when you go to a bar or a restaurant, treat your servers with respect. Tip them well. Don't take them for granted. If the rest of the industry is anything like my shop, the people working there are hanging on by their fingernails; the most stressful day at my place is the day before rent is due, because everyone needs to make their nut, and if they don't, if they get hosed on tips, it's an ugly scene.
Sorry for the long rant. It was a bust, but shitty, night. Treat your servers well. They work so goddam hard.
Dutiful primatives respond to the wail of Wee Wee'd Up Willie
thunder rising (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-03-10 05:11 AM
Response to Original message
3. Thank Bob Dole for that.
Bob Dole and his business friends had the task of eliminating the 3 martini lunch as a business expense; you know it's still there, just filed differently.
They say around and came to the conclusion that it wasn't the 3 martini lunch write-off it was those servers that weren't reporting their cash tips.
No shit. I've despised the Republicans since. I've had a step mother, girl friends and wives that served drinks and food. It's hard work. In those days ass-grabbing was just having fun.
Great tales or great Tail? Are pics available or what?
TorchTheWitch (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-03-10 06:16 AM
Response to Original message
15. us tip workers are getting CRUSHED in this shitty economy
And as a dancer, I don't even get that paltry $2.50 an hour but have to pay the club to work including mandatory payments to various club staff. These days it's a crap shoot whether or not you walk out at the end of a shift in the negative. These shitheaded cheap ass obnoxious customers have always been around, but since the economy hit the skids they're practically the only customers left at all. I can't count how many times I've had some jackass trying to slobber and grope me all over while at the same time bitching that he can't part with a measly dollar because "didn't I know the economy is really bad now?"
My next door neighbor works as a waitress in the diner up the street for nearly two years since she can't find another accounting job. Same thing with her... shitheaded rude customers she runs her ass off for despite their nastiness and then stiffs her with this same comment about the bad economy like it's some kind of an excuse!
Us tip workers have always had to deal with the scum of the earth in rudeness and cheapness, but with this economy in the past year or two suddenly nearly ALL the customers have gotten like this.
Jesus Mary Joseph and Fred! If you can't ****ing tip then stay the **** home!
I am so poor I can't pay attention.
Leftist Agitator (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-03-10 11:27 AM
Response to Reply #17
107. Is there a purpose or reason for you to mock the homeless?
Aside from just generally being an asshole, of course...
<insert bobo gobo here> Alert Bobo !!
And you just know this comment isn't going to end well.
cleveramerican (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-03-10 06:58 AM
Response to Original message
19. the amount of the tip should be and is DIRECTLY related to the service and the food
I am always respectful and curteous to waiters and clerks and cashiers.
but if the order gets screwed up or the food sucks or the service is slow,
It IS going to be reflected in the tip, Thats just the way it is.
Some portion of the public are complete pricks, and always will be.
If you want to know why I tipped 3%, ask me, I will tell you.
There is always a reason.
but if you get pissed I just may end up telling you;
YOU TOOK THE JOB, YOU KNEW THE PAY, SO LIVE WITH IT!
The other night some friends and I went out to a spot on main street
ordered, was served and enjoyed our meal.
I asked for the tab, she said okay...
AND DISAPPEARED FOR 30 MINUTES
I was so pissed I almost walked out without paying at all, It would have been soooo easy.
I couldn't believe they got the hard part right and COMPLETELY SCREWED UP THE EASIEST PART!
at this point NO TIP is inevitable.
Leaving me sitting there with no food or drinks left for 30 minutes is beyond the pale and there must be retribution
bingo right on cue
alphafemale (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-03-10 07:38 AM
Response to Reply #19
26. look keedohs!!!! An asshole!!!!
I bet he finds an excuse to stiff on the tip EVERYTIME he goes out! Don't you?
RETRIBUTION to the person that brought you your food!
RETRIBUTION there must be RETRIBUTION!!!!
It is all Boosh fault.
Codeine (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-03-10 11:19 AM
Response to Reply #96
100. Waitstaff take those jobs because - in case you haven't noticed -
the economic realities of the working class have been eating a dick for about three decades. It's not as though there are a dozen different job opportunities lined up waiting for most people.
WTF are you even doing at DU when you have such contempt for working men and women?
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Um Bawney
Can I be Frank With You may have been eating dick but lets not go there.
back at ya
cleveramerican (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-03-10 11:38 AM
Response to Reply #100
120. you tip out of pity?
thats seems truly disrespectful of those hard working folks you claim to care so much about.
Someone, suit up a mole an tell Ca when you are in a hole stop digging!!
And just for chuckles we have this comment.
dem mba (700 posts) Sun Oct-03-10 10:33 AM
Response to Original message
62. all the comments are making me think of this
http://www.theonion.com/articles/10percent-tip-teaches-... /
10-Percent Tip Teaches Waitress Valuable Lesson
CONCORD, NH—After receiving "subpar" service and experiencing an unusually long wait for his $4.75 lunch at a local Beefside Family Restaurant Monday, customer Gus O'Connor opted to give waitress Carla Hyams a reduced 10 percent tip in an attempt to communicate his dissatisfaction and raise awareness of the areas in which he felt her performance was lacking.
/snip
Where does the Haughty John John Kerry live again? Beantown?
femrap (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-03-10 10:41 AM
Response to Original message
64. Will, if it's
The Suits w/ the Gold Card, can't you 'brick' them at the door? (Did I use the term correctly?)
Were The Suits the dudes from the convention across the street? The world has become a very mean and cruel place. I remember when The Suits liked to flash their cash and give big tips to 'the little people.' Now it has become this mean and cruel? Out of curiosity, are the servers mostly male or female?
Seriously, I would have a talk w/ management and see if there would be a way to get these people removed from the establishment....'Sorry dudes, but this table has been reserved for so-and-so at 9:00. Yes it is unfortunate for you, but time is money as you well know.'
I worked on commission for years...I know what it's like. I still have nightmares that it is the end of the month and I haven't sold a thing. And it was 100% commission.
My attitude is....if you can't afford to tip at least 15%, you stay home.
Your story reminds me of Cleveland, 1971 (yeah, I'm old). I lived there for one year during my senior year of high school. Whenever I went out, it seemed as if people enjoyed giving others crap. It was like entertainment to them. It was 'fun' to them. I just didn't get it. I'd like to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but it's in Cleveland...I just can't do it. Then when I went to college the next year, I met all kinds of cool kids from Cleveland...weird, huh?
Sorry for the ramble.
There is lots and lot more at the link. A regular liberal laugh riot of BS and inbeded bouncies abound. Enjoy the liberal hypocrisy at its finest. Like they tip. I have worked the service trade in a liberal town.
Libs tip for shit in general.
