I imagine a forum member who is a server and using fields/NFTs/tags to increase income would consider that attracting more tips might be a nice abundance experiment. 
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I definitely donât want anyone who is a server or a barista in this forum to feel bad nor feel I am calling them out. It was just a vent and feeling frustrated from increased inflation and guilt tipping on pickup and takeouts.
Respect to you all servers and baristas but please lemme enjoy my overpriced coffee 
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Me Neither. I have a friend (actually my oldest friend) who is a bartender.
(well, I just like to comment something, here and there, especially if Iâm interested in the discussion/subject or if itâs relatable)
In my local overpriced natural hamburger joint there are various options to choose for tips when you pay digitally. LOL I just realized that if you pay with cash you donât have to bother with the tip pressure.
Sometimes I tip, sometimes I donât. Sometimes I like to just put a couple of dollars in the hand of a guy who is always nice to customers, always going above and beyond, just a really sweet person. The first time I told him that it was for him alone because I had noticed how nice he was to people he started giving me free stuff lol. That wasnât why I did it. I just wanted to recognize that just being nice, just being warm and welcoming should be celebrated. Forced or guilt tipping âjust becauseâ should not.
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I donât know how things are in Germany but trust me: It ainât that easy to negotiate for a new salary. You are not just negotiating with your boss but with everybody around you. If someone gets a raise then most likely everyone has to too. The boss ainât gonna do that. Would you? By how easy you disregard other peopleâs wellbeing I doubt you as a boss would give everybody a raise if asked for. Itâs easy to replace a worker that wants a raise for a teenager that just got their first job.
I have never been a waiter but a cook and I can tell you that their job is highly stressful and their responsibility is not just bringing food to a table but serving hundreds of people throughout the day and getting their food on time and getting it right.
How would a restaurant look if everybody just came thru to the kitchen to grab their food on a busy weekend night? HaâŚ
Have some compassion, man. It is not entirely their fault. Switching jobs is not gonna fix the fundamental problem(s).
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I think online tipping apps (in a real world environment) will undermine tipping. Tipping has an expressive element that the apps donât capture, and suggested tipping amounts are an affront to good tippers, suddenly you are not doing a nice thing, just an expected thing. First new economic crisis (feels like Octoberish to me, but Iâm hoping Iâm wrong) and online tipping to pick up a coffee might seem like the last straw. For $50 you can get a grinder, a French press, and some good beans. Thereâs even an idiot-proof French press on Amazon (forgot the name) that take all the work out of the process.
And the suggested rates for pickup and takeout are crazy; I hadnât known about 30%. Wow! Wait staff at a restaurant gets 15-25% for memorizing the specials, complimenting your choices, and doing a balancing act with a large tray and hot food. If I donât tip them I canât really complain about a look (in the US) Coffee people will have to settle for whatever cash I put in the tip jar.
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I agree it may not be that easy in certain work environments. I was probably projecting from my own point of view as a âwhite collarâ worker. On the other hand, I know from experience that within the same industry salaries can differ greatly just because of peopleâs ability to ask for more. A lot also comes down to oneâs level of self-esteem.
If I came off as insensitive with regards to waiters, then I apologize.
But it does not change the fact that it is not my duty as a customer to feel responsible to make sure that the waiter makes a living. I believe waiters should get proper payment from their restaurant boss directly and all costs should be naturally priced in into the prices as listed on the menu, and incl. sales tax (like it is in any other business).
You are right. This will probably not work with all restaurant models.
With some restaurant models someone needs to do the tasks of a waiter.
I am sorry if this came off as compassionless.
When I am guilt tripped into something I shut off all compassion.
My own self-esteem is more important to me than having compassion towards others.
Thatâs why I donât have any compassion towards anyone who tries to guilt or shame me.
The whole problem needs to change at the level of the restaurant owners.
They need to pay their staff properly and price all these costs into the listed menu prices. I think we should start guilt-trip restaurant owners for underpaying their staff.
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Lol
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American here,
The way I understand it is- if they are doing the work (delivering something to me, bartending, waiting tables)- they get tipped.
If they are getting paid pretty well hourly (Starbucks) or if Iâm doing the work (driving to come pick up the food) they may get tipped, but itâs like a dollar or so in the tip jar.
I waited tables, so I get how there are many things out of your control. If they look like theyâre trying and are nice, they get at least 20 percent from me.
If they donât look like theyâre trying or they have an attitude, they get 18 percent. Lol.
Iâm a softie I guess
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I personally never tip and probably never will. I wonât support such nonsense.
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For me it ended up being the reason to, in general, stop going out to eat/drink or ordering from apps needing me to state my tip in advance. The percentage of tipping is ridiculous, I mean discussing a 30% tip⌠(!) when it was supposed to be 10% top.
I believe there will be balance soon. People will react to it with a mix of 1. not using apps or going to places who offer this wrong system/culture of tipping and 2. not giving tips at all, out of reaction to what is going on.
As I know a lot of people working in places where tips is 80% of the wage, I understand when they get frustrated when they receive no tips. But they miss the point that their employer is supposed to pay them, not the customer pay extra to cover their wage.
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I would just like to say those servers and barista who do get into this line of work (not counting for all) understand they rely on tips and rather work for tips because if done right, they make more money in tips than a typical hourly wage. While people do say âemployers should pay for their wagesâ, the employees who work for tips may not want that at all and specifically want to work based on the tipping model.
This does not apply to all, but the sentiment is there among barista and servers. If you tell them would you rather get paid a sufficient hourly wage or tips, majority would choose tips.
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Itâs hard because itâs soooo deep in the culture here at this point- I understand if youâre European itâs just not familiar to you I get that!
Weâve come to actually like it from a few angles. If youâre a server, and your restaurant lets you
Keep your own tips like doesnât make you pool them- itâs like a âeat what you killâ type
Situation that becomes fun AND you
Become more motivated to do a good job because when you do, people tip you more. Especially around the holidays. It becomes more of a game, and it weeds out bad servers because they will
Consistently not get tipped if they suck. You
Know by most people haha.
If youâre a restaurant owner, you donât have to be wasting tons of money on bad talent. Managers have to deal with high turnover as it is as waitstaff are a lot of the time young and transitional. If you find a lifer server thatâs a gem.
If youâre the customer, it can be nice because you can make someoneâs day if they really gave you a memorable experience. Like when you call customer service and you get someone who is so cool and helpful. It feels good when you give them a nice survey.
Idk, I get the principle, but I think we like it over here a lot of the time
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Interesting this little game attitude, if you take it as an extra layer of show. Itâs interesting to read because it puts us in those situation mentally and we can compare against our own reactions.
It sorta assume that there are good and bad employees and motivation may vary. Instead of a rigid code of expectation, lot of French people expect a rigid performance. The table must be set in the exact right way, there is only one way to do it right, everything must be in itâs place. The conversation should follow a strict order.
Theyâre not gonna pay extra because you do your job right. That feels silly said like that.
The more direct people will complain to the staff directly, others will complain loud enough, or complain about the staff to other customers âexcuse me, Hi, am I crazy or the waiter is doing it wrong ?â or the other guest. Then the reviews online will be spicy and most people will avoid it.
I noticed that in French speaking places outside France that French people have a reputation for that and itâs noticeable (I mean noticeable that the locals donât complain enough).
I associate the willingness of the customers to complain with service quality. In French speaking place outside of France where people donât want to say anything negative to the waiter. It tends to be filthier, take longer, not be as good. I go back to France and people start complaining between each other loud enough so that the staff can hear and it gives them the drive to complain to the staff when itâs their turn and it rarely gets as dirty and bad as those other places.
When people donât dare calling bad quality to the staffs face, quality drops right away.
The reward is, weâll come back and say good things. The punishment is the opposite.
Not that I was asked.
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This here. Same here in Germany:
You are paid and you are expected to do your job right.
You are not entitled to any extra pay for doing your job right.
Doing the job right IS the job.
You are paid for doing your job right in the first place.
If you do not do your job right, you are not being paid at all.
It is very black and white and there is seldom any in between.
On the other hand, as an employee, you are not working anything beyond your 100% of agreed work and time. You only do for what you are paid.
These are the rules here.
100% pay for 100% of the work.
Not 120% pay for 100% of the work.
Not 80% pay for 80% of the work.
Not 80% work for 100% pay.
Not 110% work for 100% pay.
100% = 100%.
If you want to earn more than 100% or work more than 100% and then earn more than 100% you have, in most cases, run your own business or be self-employed.
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Yep, same here.
As a customer I reward a restaurant by becoming a long-term guest by coming again and again.
For a business owner it is much more profitable to have recurring customers than always be in hunt and acquisition mode for new customers.
This is a fact every sales and lead generation textbook will tell you.
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Thanks to the internet, this has added a new dimension to the topic.
Customers who are afraid to speak out on-site with the waiter or restaurant manager will simply leave a negative online review.
A negative online review can severely impact the amount of new customers generated.
My personal view on this remains the same:
If someone tries to guilt-trip or shame-trip me = negative review guaranteed + never visiting that place again.
Gastronomy is a hard business to survive and be succesful.
Restaurant open and close all the time here.
Very few survive for more than 3 years.
What ultimately matters is a positive experience for the customer.
For me, this experience consists of approx. this formula:
Food Quality (most important) + Total Price (medium important) + Atmosphere (least important) + the Emotional Experience (important in that if it is a guilt-trip, this factor becomes negative and can potentially ruin all the other factors)
In most cases, I come for receiving tasty food for a fair price, without any negative emotional experiences. Thatâs what makes a recurring customer.
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I think another layer to that is that in Europe, college is cheap. Tuition is a couple hundred bucks for nationals (it does get expensive like in the US for foreigners). But for most locals, university is even free for low income folks, they can get a scholarship easily.
So, itâs a competence things, itâs easier to say âwell, Iâm a doctor, I donât get paid extra if my patients donât dieâ or âIâm an IT guy, I donât get paid extra if computers donât crashâ.
Because if you want those job, you can easily go to college and get a degree, the only limit is your score. 80% will fail the first year.
In the US there is probably this extra layer of âthe little guyâ, the little waiter deserves a break. Maybe he canât just get a degree if it cost those ridiculous prices.
We do pay service fees anyway too. So we are only left to complain.
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