Here we will cover whether or not guests should tip employees at a restaurant by looking at a survey that we took from many guests that have dined at various restaurants. We have gathered all of their opinions, since it is usually the guests choice to tip the restaurant’s waiters/waitresses or not.
This will be an even better survey and observation than the usual, as the survey was taken from guests that are not only the guests of the establishments they were eating at, but also actual employees working at their own restaurants themselves.
These guests have given their own opinion from their own experience from dining in at various restaurants. They are also on the other side of things, as they also work in the restaurant industry, with some of them receiving their own tips as a waiter.
All of them were asked the same question on whether they should tip the employee that serves them at a restaurant or not. Some of them have different answers, but majority of them gave the same general answers that related around paying the restaurant employee that served them based off of the amount of effort that they put into their job.
This general response did however surprise one of the employees at a restaurant that believed that all employees at every restaurant should be tipped regardless of their service efforts. He was the general manager of a restaurant, and was soon to be a possible partner, receiving a promotion from the company, which he later achieved.
He stated in response to the guests of restaurants that decided to only tip waiters and waitresses based off of their efforts, that they should always be tipped atleast 10% or higher of the total costs of the order. This is because he felt that the efforts that were placed into making the food itself is inevitable, regardless of any additional services that they offered individually for their guests.
In other words, he felt that all tips should mandatorily be given to all employees of atleast 10%. However, he was the only one that felt this way after asking all of the other employees that worked for the day with him on the shift the same thing. These other employees included the assistant manager that was right underneath the general manager himself, other shift managers, cashiers/waiters, and all the other employees that worked in the restaurant.
Majority of the employees surveyed that dined in at restaurants felt that tips should be given in an amount that they choose to give, that is based off of the work performance of the waiter or cashier that served them. They also felt that it should be based off of whether or not the employee serving them had a bad attitude or not.
In fact, even customers that have tipped us when serving them when working at restaurants usually did so because of our work performance that we performed for them at their table. This included getting tips working at positions where tips weren’t expected or mentioned. From their response, it was because of doing extra things that we didn’t have to for them in a way that made them feel as if we cared.
Of course, sometimes restaurant employees are tipped for just having a mother-given friendly face or a nice smile too, which is irrelevant to the discussion. This has happened, as some employees have been tipped by customers just for this reason, without doing anything out of the general ordinary for their guests. Guests even give restaurants great reviews aimed at recognizing specific employees sometimes, just because the employee that served them had a nice face.
However, in a serious discussion of the matter, majority of employees at restaurants that eat at other restaurants, and guests that have never worked for a restaurant and eat at restaurants, both generally tip the employees an amount based off of whether the employee had a bad attitude, and their work performance towards their specific table.
Sometimes guests will even tip an employee that isn’t giving them much attention and service, based off of their overall work performance that they see the employee doing. This means for instance that they could realize that the employee is doing more work than what they are being paid to do on their shift, despite being able to individually serve them as much as they like. Some restaurant workers or regular guests did tip restaurant employees that served them for this reason.
We did encounter this a few times, as guests that weren’t being served at all by specific employees would sometimes go out of their way to tip that employee for their overall efforts.
One thing that the employees of restaurants that ate at other restaurants had to say that decided on whether or not that a waiter/waitress should be tipped is their attitude. Many of them felt that it was okay to leave no tip at all or a small tip to employees that served them that had bad attitudes towards them. In response to this, the general manager that we mentioned earlier felt that they should be tipped substantially regardless. His response was that “you never know what day they could have been having”.
Many however felt differently, as they felt that a bad attitude towards a random guest was unacceptable. They felt that a bad attitude is something that can be kept under check, and shouldn’t be something that the guests of a restaurant should ever have to deal with. We are of course talking about restaurant employees that are intentionally having bad attitudes towards their guests, not employees that are generally having a bad day. There is a difference. Employees are human beings that sometimes just feel under the weather.
Majority of them felt that a restaurant should always be tipped based off of the work performance that they do for their orders, and that it should never be mandatory or a fixed amount. A few of them felt as the general manager mentioned did, with the employees being tipped with a fixed amount atleast after being told the general manager’s response, and possibly more for additional efforts.
These employees also felt that they were deserving of the substantial amounts or more that they were tipped when their work performance was outstanding towards the guest.
