The "This Might Be A Stupid Question, But...." Thread

[Softly Spoken]

I know there are probably some people in the service industry who feel very strongly about the subject of tipping.

As a customer, I have always understood that tipping is expected and appreciated, but not obligatory and certainly not mandatory. Some workers are not allowed to accept tips, others expects them regardless of their actual salary.

IMHO, I don't think you should expect a tip for doing your actual job. I understand the idea of a minimum tip to augment servers being underpaid, and I have no problem being generous - when I go to restaurants I consider my bill payment for the food and not having to cook said food for myself, and then the tip is my payment to the waitperson for waiting on me. I don't know why we tip waitstaff but not the cooks or busboys or any other employees in a restaurant?

If I feel my server has gone above and beyond, I will leave a bigger tip to show I appreciated it - I feel like they "earned" it. Lets face it - any job where you have to deal with people and schlep for them is challenging at best. Workers can be rude, but so can customers.

I will confess I have never left a small tip, or no tip. This is not necessarily because I am nice, I am often just lazy. I don't want to do the math. I've never gotten service that was so bad that I didn't want to tip (maybe I'm lucky, maybe I'm just really laid back ) - if I ever did, I would be speaking to the server and/or manager and giving them a chance to rectify the situation before I decided whether it affected my payment.

I don't really have an ehell worthy stories about a server who lost their tip because of their behavior. Not all dining problems are a server's fault. Maybe the kitchen is to blame. If a server managed to really tick me off, their tip would be the least of their problems - I would complain to their manager and factor it in when deciding to ever spend money at that restaurant in the future.

I think servers today should worry more about their behavior being reported on places like Yelp, than about how much of a tip they were left. Poor service can have farther-reaching consequences, as the "I'm never going there again" thread reminds us.

[Mental Magpie]

I know there are probably some people in the service industry who feel very strongly about the subject of tipping.

As a customer, I have always understood that tipping is expected and appreciated, but not obligatory and certainly not mandatory. Some workers are not allowed to accept tips, others expects them regardless of their actual salary.

IMHO, I don't think you should expect a tip for doing your actual job. I understand the idea of a minimum tip to augment servers being underpaid, and I have no problem being generous - when I go to restaurants I consider my bill payment for the food and not having to cook said food for myself, and then the tip is my payment to the waitperson for waiting on me. I don't know why we tip waitstaff but not the cooks or busboys or any other employees in a restaurant?

If I feel my server has gone above and beyond, I will leave a bigger tip to show I appreciated it - I feel like they "earned" it. Lets face it - any job where you have to deal with people and schlep for them is challenging at best. Workers can be rude, but so can customers.

I will confess I have never left a small tip, or no tip. This is not necessarily because I am nice, I am often just lazy. I don't want to do the math. I've never gotten service that was so bad that I didn't want to tip (maybe I'm lucky, maybe I'm just really laid back ) - if I ever did, I would be speaking to the server and/or manager and giving them a chance to rectify the situation before I decided whether it affected my payment.

I don't really have an ehell worthy stories about a server who lost their tip because of their behavior. Not all dining problems are a server's fault. Maybe the kitchen is to blame. If a server managed to really tick me off, their tip would be the least of their problems - I would complain to their manager and factor it in when deciding to ever spend money at that restaurant in the future.

I think servers today should worry more about their behavior being reported on places like Yelp, than about how much of a tip they were left. Poor service can have farther-reaching consequences, as the "I'm never going there again" thread reminds us.

We don't because they all make at least minimum wage; waitstaff make much less than that.

[Adelaide]

"As of 2011, the federal minimum wage for wait staff is $2.13 per hour plus tips, and the general federal minimum wage rate is $7.25. If the total of your tips plus your hourly base rate do not equal at least the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour your employer must make up the difference."

eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_7968577_minimum-wage-wait-staff.html#ixzz2FGEzX1Np

One of my friends who used to work in the service industry explained that to me. However, she also said that she had to "tip out" the busboy a certain percentage of her tips and (I think) the cook. So basically, she was earning federal minimum wage, plus tips, minus what she had to tip out.

[Mental Magpie]

How exactly do the NFL playoffs work? What I'm really trying to figure out is the Houston Texans' schedule. They won today so they'll play the wildcard on Jan. 5th, right? Do they have to win that to play on the 20th or do they automatically play on the 20th regardless?

[Dindrane]

"As of 2011, the federal minimum wage for wait staff is $2.13 per hour plus tips, and the general federal minimum wage rate is $7.25. If the total of your tips plus your hourly base rate do not equal at least the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour your employer must make up the difference."

eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_7968577_minimum-wage-wait-staff.html#ixzz2FGEzX1Np

One of my friends who used to work in the service industry explained that to me. However, she also said that she had to "tip out" the busboy a certain percentage of her tips and (I think) the cook. So basically, she was earning federal minimum wage, plus tips, minus what she had to tip out.

Keep in mind, however, that the language above is the federal minimum standard for this. The state I live in has both a higher minimum wage, and does not have a separate minimum wage for wait staff. So the servers that I encounter all earn more than the federal minimum wage before tips. Every state handles the minimum wage and the separate minimum wage for wait staff a little bit differently.

[snowdragon]

I have only refused to tip once.  My brother and I went to a Chinese place that we frequent so regularly the owners greet us by first name. They had a newish person on and he was nothing less than horrific.  My brother was seated against the wall, I was on the other side, accessible to the aisles and traffic ( this is important). He spilled hot tea on me, failed to apologize or see if I was ok, used our table for dirty dishes ans garbage from other tables...and then walked away leaving it there, hit me with a tray, ran into my chair several times and then when we put the money for the bill on the little tray designed for that purpose, he refused to give them the change. We called over the owners, got my change back and he stood there demanding "That is my tip, tip. tip."  I told the owners some of what he did and they promised to talk to him - and my brother told hin "No tip"
  Had he brought back the change we would have given him the standard tip, but if you steal from me, you don't get a tip. Since this place was a stop for most of the people we hang with, we heard later that he pulled similar crap with others, and by the time my brother and I went back, the waiter was no where to be seen. My brother was told a couple weeks later, that the waiter would "not be a problem. again"

[Adelaide]

"As of 2011, the federal minimum wage for wait staff is $2.13 per hour plus tips, and the general federal minimum wage rate is $7.25. If the total of your tips plus your hourly base rate do not equal at least the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour your employer must make up the difference."

eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_7968577_minimum-wage-wait-staff.html#ixzz2FGEzX1Np

One of my friends who used to work in the service industry explained that to me. However, she also said that she had to "tip out" the busboy a certain percentage of her tips and (I think) the cook. So basically, she was earning federal minimum wage, plus tips, minus what she had to tip out.

Keep in mind, however, that the language above is the federal minimum standard for this. The state I live in has both a higher minimum wage, and does not have a separate minimum wage for wait staff. So the servers that I encounter all earn more than the federal minimum wage before tips. Every state handles the minimum wage and the separate minimum wage for wait staff a little bit differently.

Right, I just put that there because I think that there's a common misconception that waiters somehow earn less than a minimum wage, be it state or federal, if they don't get tipped. I think my parents, who are both highly educated people, believe this, and think that even if service is horrible they should tip so that the waiter (who nonetheless gave them terrible service) doesn't make $2 an hour.

I have twice not left a tip in 22 years of living. If I had been paying at the restaurant that my whole family was at, I would have not left a tip for a third time. When we went in there were very few people in the restaurant, but we were seated and ignored for about 15 minutes. Then one waiter came by and mumbled "Drink?" at all 10 or so of us, one by one, and got our drink orders. When someone would say "I'll have Coke" the waiter would say "We don't have that." Then the person would say, "Oh, okay, I'll have Sprite." and the waiter would say "We don't have that." and stare blankly at you. Rise, repeat. When the drinks came out most of them were flat and when he was flagged down (because of course he wandered off right after setting down our drinks) he said "That's the way they are. We don't have any others". He gave a heavy sigh when most of us changed our drink orders to water or tea. (At the end of the meal he still tried to charge people for soft drinks, and some arguing over the receipt occurred.) After about 20 minutes of sitting down we finally ordered and after almost an hour of being there our food arrived. Half of it was cold. (I lucked out, mine was actually great.) The waiters (two, at this point) threw down our food and disappeared for the remainder of the meal. No one got a refill. One of them finally slouched out and handed the check to the oldest-looking man in our group and mumbled something like "Herepaywhenready" at him and walked away. I think one of the men had to physically go and find him so they could dispute drink charges, get the bill split up, and pay.

Anyway, my mother still maintains that my father was right to tip the standard percentage, so I was starting to wonder if  my line of thinking was odd or different from the norm.

[Mental Magpie]

It's the way the system works.  If the waitstaff make enough tips, they can easily make more than minimum wage.  If they don't make enough tips, the business has to pay them to make up for it.  The business then loses money and can't afford to give the waitstaff as many hours.  The waitstaff thus don't get paid as much and can't afford to keep the job.  Then the business doesn't have any waitstaff and fails.  Without the tipping system (in conjunction with the lower minimum wage), the system would collapse.  I should have extrapolated on what I meant in reinforcing why we tip waitstaff and not everyone else (to keep the system going).

[Elfmama]

ARRRRRRRGH!
Okay, I did a search and couldn't find the answer/too many results: what is the trick for inserting a hyperlink into a post?
I know about the 'insert link' button but I just don't have the HTML in the right place or I didn't type something I was supposed to ...
I thought there was a tutorial for this kind of thing up in the top section of the board but I guess not...

Memory refresh please?

I don't know about the 'insert link' button . . .

What I do is copy the URL address (in the address bar) from the website page that I want to link to and paste it into my reply.

Now, posting photos is a different story . . . I have no clue how to do that.

Yeah I'm looking for that space-saving trick of having blue underlined text you can mouse over.

Highlight the words that you want to be a link, then hit the link button (underneath the Italic button) and paste your URL.  The board software does it automatically.

You post photos by copying a link to the photo, then hit the 'Insert Image' button (underneath the Boldface button, looks like the Mona Lisa) and paste your link there.

[kherbert05]

I have only refused to tip once.  My brother and I went to a Chinese place that we frequent so regularly the owners greet us by first name. They had a newish person on and he was nothing less than horrific.  My brother was seated against the wall, I was on the other side, accessible to the aisles and traffic ( this is important). He spilled hot tea on me, failed to apologize or see if I was ok, used our table for dirty dishes ans garbage from other tables...and then walked away leaving it there, hit me with a tray, ran into my chair several times and then when we put the money for the bill on the little tray designed for that purpose, he refused to give them the change. We called over the owners, got my change back and he stood there demanding "That is my tip, tip. tip."  I told the owners some of what he did and they promised to talk to him - and my brother told hin "No tip"
  Had he brought back the change we would have given him the standard tip, but if you steal from me, you don't get a tip. Since this place was a stop for most of the people we hang with, we heard later that he pulled similar crap with others, and by the time my brother and I went back, the waiter was no where to be seen. My brother was told a couple weeks later, that the waiter would "not be a problem. again"

Something similar happened with my Mom. The service wasn't as bad. Neglectful but no pouring things on us. Mom paid with cash. She would have left a tip more to the 15% than 20%. The change was closer to a 40% tip - not something my parents would leave. When Mom asked for her change, the server said in a snotty tone that was my tip.  Mom asked for the owner by name. (Dad was in the beer business. Mom and Dad knew all the independent restaurant owners in his territory by name.) The owner was NOT happy. Mom got her change back and the server was retrained by the owner.

[guihong]

How exactly do the NFL playoffs work? What I'm really trying to figure out is the Houston Texans' schedule. They won today so they'll play the wildcard on Jan. 5th, right? Do they have to win that to play on the 20th or do they automatically play on the 20th regardless?

The National Football League is divided into two conferences-the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). 

Each conference has four divisions of four teams each.

Towards the end of the regular season, one team will win its division (as Houston won the AFC South today), plus each conference sends two wildcard teams, for a total of six teams from each conference, or twelve altogether.

The six teams in each conference are ranked 1-4 (the division winners) and 5-6 (wildcards), according to their win-loss-tie records.  Since each of the four teams per division play one another twice (home and in the opposing stadium), this is why divisional records (called "tiebreakers) are so important.

In the first week of playoffs, the #3 division winner hosts #6 wildcard team, and #4 division winner hosts #5 seed.  #1 and #2 get a "bye" week (which is why Houston wants to win out so badly and get a high seed, plus "home field".  I think we have to wait two more weeks to find out when and who they play).  So, after that week you have two teams surviving.

In the second week, #1 seed hosts the lowest surviving seed (4, 5, or 6).  #2 seed hosts the other team (3, 4 or 5).  Thus, the survivors of this week meet in the respective championship games, with a trip to the Super Bowl at stake.

[Mental Magpie]

How exactly do the NFL playoffs work? What I'm really trying to figure out is the Houston Texans' schedule. They won today so they'll play the wildcard on Jan. 5th, right? Do they have to win that to play on the 20th or do they automatically play on the 20th regardless?

The National Football League is divided into two conferences-the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). 

Each conference has four divisions of four teams each.

Towards the end of the regular season, one team will win its division (as Houston won the AFC South today), plus each conference sends two wildcard teams, for a total of six teams from each conference, or twelve altogether.

The six teams in each conference are ranked 1-4 (the division winners) and 5-6 (wildcards), according to their win-loss-tie records.  Since each of the four teams per division play one another twice (home and in the opposing stadium), this is why divisional records (called "tiebreakers) are so important.

In the first week of playoffs, the #3 division winner hosts #6 wildcard team, and #4 division winner hosts #5 seed.  #1 and #2 get a "bye" week (which is why Houston wants to win out so badly and get a high seed, plus "home field".  I think we have to wait two more weeks to find out when and who they play).  So, after that week you have two teams surviving.

In the second week, #1 seed hosts the lowest surviving seed (4, 5, or 6).  #2 seed hosts the other team (3, 4 or 5).  Thus, the survivors of this week meet in the respective championship games, with a trip to the Super Bowl at stake.

That makes a lot of sense!  I don't know why I couldn't follow it when someone at work was trying to explain it...maybe it was just the way he was saying it.

[Slartibartfast]

Y'all, please - tipping is a really hot-button issue on here and has gotten more threads closed than I can count.  I love to hear the horror stories as much as anyone, but they really belong in the "Never shopping there again!" thread.  Arguments about whether tipping is fair, valid, unreasonable, too high/too low, etc. don't belong on here because no matter how civil they start out, they inevitably degenerate into people getting feelings hurt.

(This isn't directed at any particular poster, just a general plea to get back to non-stupid questions!)

[Softly Spoken]

Y'all, please - tipping is a really hot-button issue on here and has gotten more threads closed than I can count.  I love to hear the horror stories as much as anyone, but they really belong in the "Never shopping there again!" thread.  Arguments about whether tipping is fair, valid, unreasonable, too high/too low, etc. don't belong on here because no matter how civil they start out, they inevitably degenerate into people getting feelings hurt.

(This isn't directed at any particular poster, just a general plea to get back to non-stupid questions!)

Even though I responded to the question I have to agree. 
In hindsight, I think this thread is better suited for questions that have factual answers, not questions that will only bring mostly opinions, and very conflicted ones at that. I only responded because I was hoping someone would have a reference to a written rule/tradition we weren't aware of that would clarify - but there seems to be no consensus.

Back to the silly little things that puzzle us...

[violinp]

Why am I insanely tired when I wake up, but am wide awake after two hours, even though I have not eaten or drunk anything? Is it just adrenaline?