Sand Mountain Reporter

Here’s a tip — tip. I know the economy’s kind of rough, and I know those credit card bills for all those Christmas gifts are rolling in right now.

Still, everyone should tip their servers at least 15 percent and probably 20 percent or more when they go out to eat.

You’re probably thinking, “Duh?”

I was surprised at the number of folks who don’t tip enough, and even those who don’t tip at all.

I have previously worked two jobs up until now, and that second job was usually as a server at a sit-down restaurant.

For years, I worked at probably the two most-popular restaurant chains in the country.

I think some people are ignorant of how servers depend on their tips.

At the restaurants I worked, servers earned about $2.13 per hour. We had to serve the guests, pre-bus their tables and, in many cases, give back a percentage of their sales to the hostesses and bartenders.

In other words, it actually cost the servers money to wait on customers. They actually started out in the hole.

So tips are how servers pay the bills. They earn $2.13 plus tips, so guests can pay $10 instead of $20 for that juicy steak.

Most of the servers I worked with were college students and single mothers — people who liked the flexibility that restaurant schedules offered.

More often than not, people tip the minimum 15 percent, but many times they didn’t.

More than once, I saw teary-eyed servers in the back, upset by meager tips after busting their rear ends to provide service to their tables.

I was not a great server by any stretch, but I always tried to take the order and get the food out to the guest as quickly as possible.

I still remember this one lady who stiffed me. She obviously felt guilty because she needed to explain to the hostess on the way out that I didn’t talk enough. She received her food super fast and her drink never dipped below half full, but I guess she felt I should’ve entertained her.

Serving during the busy dinnertime can be high-stress and conversation can be limited. Yet people walk into a filled-up restaurant expecting five-star service.

If you’ve never worked as a server, you don’t have a clue what goes on behind the scenes. It really is a minor miracle when a restaurant can survive a super-busy two or three hours straight.

You don’t know if a couple of employees didn’t show up that day, causing an extra burden on the servers who did. I’ve seen some servers take up to nine tables at one time. I was too afraid to take more than three.

There are stereotypes about tipping that only servers discuss with each other in the restaurant business.

The three most popular stereotypes are senior citizens, some minorities and teenagers don’t tip.

In my experience, most seniors didn’t tip much, minorities tipped like everyone else, and teenagers were hit and miss.

The only stereotype that rang true from my perspective was the Sunday crowd. I don’t know if they gave too much at church or what, but those days were the worst percentage-wise. A lot of experienced servers didn’t want to work Sundays for that very reason. They knew.

Always a part-time server, I had to work on Sundays. The minimum tip should go up to 20 percent or more on Sundays. The same for third-shift servers, too. Also if you bring in children who make a mess. Who do you think cleans up after them? More than likely, it’s the server.

I know many people can relate a nightmarish experience they had with a server. Bad service, they say, equals bad tip.

I disagree.

It’s wrong to take it out 100 percent on the server.

They can’t all hit home runs every time they come to bat.

Some days it’s a pride-swallowing endeavor that makes them wonder why they even do it at all.

So tip them well, unless they’re just blatantly disrespectful and rude.

Almost everybody deserves a second chance.

Servers deserve a lot more.

[Lionel Green is a staff writer for The Sand Mountain Reporter. His e-mail address is county(at)sandmountainreporter.com.]

Share | Save | Mail | Print | Letter

Follow the Reporter on Twitter:

SMR News and
SMR Sports

Serving Albertville and the Sand Mountain region

Publisher: Ben Shurett

1603 Progress Drive
Albertville, Alabama 35950

Tel: 256-840-3000 | Email

A Southern Newspapers publication.