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

[I'mnotinsane]

I was just talking to my mother about tips at restaurants. I know we've talked about the percentage on here, but that's not my question is about. My question is why do you tip? Is there a standard, agreed-upon reason? My impression is that you tip nothing if your service is terrible, a standard amount (again, not trying to discuss exact amounts) if your service is good/decent, and then more if your service is great.

I treat tips like a commentary on the quality of service. However, my mother was just talking about a notorious, awful dinner we had a year ago. The servers were bored and listless the whole time and some were actually rude. I told my mom "Well, I guess they didn't get tipped!" and she said no, they got tipped the standard amount. When I asked why (the service was truly, extraordinarily bad) she replied "Well, that's how these people make their living." She and my father are of the same mindset, that you tip "just because", so I was wondering if I had the wrong (or an odd) idea about why you tip.

Your reasoning is correct.  Tips refer to: To Insure Proper Service.  At least in the US. I'm not sure where you are.

[squeakers]

I was just talking to my mother about tips at restaurants. I know we've talked about the percentage on here, but that's not my question is about. My question is why do you tip? Is there a standard, agreed-upon reason? My impression is that you tip nothing if your service is terrible, a standard amount (again, not trying to discuss exact amounts) if your service is good/decent, and then more if your service is great.

I treat tips like a commentary on the quality of service. However, my mother was just talking about a notorious, awful dinner we had a year ago. The servers were bored and listless the whole time and some were actually rude. I told my mom "Well, I guess they didn't get tipped!" and she said no, they got tipped the standard amount. When I asked why (the service was truly, extraordinarily bad) she replied "Well, that's how these people make their living." She and my father are of the same mindset, that you tip "just because", so I was wondering if I had the wrong (or an odd) idea about why you tip.

Your reasoning is correct.  Tips refer to: To Insure Proper Service.  At least in the US. I'm not sure where you are.

Tips does not mean to insure proper service.   http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/tip.asp

[jpcher]

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.

I'm not sure what you're looking for here, but for the cut and paste, if you're in post/reply mode the URL will not show up blue and underlined. It will be regular type (just as if you bold something, it doesn't show up bold in the posting window. It shows up with the bold code and brackets)

Once you "go live" (hit post) the URL will show up on the thread as blue and underlined.

If you want to double-check the URL that you are posting before actually posting, click on "Preview" then you will see the blue underline and can test your link from there.


What squeakers posted works as well. It's just an additional button to push but you still won't see the blue underline while in "reply" mode. You'll see the code brackets for a URL . . . which is actually unnecessary.

[Diane AKA Traska]

I was just talking to my mother about tips at restaurants. I know we've talked about the percentage on here, but that's not my question is about. My question is why do you tip? Is there a standard, agreed-upon reason? My impression is that you tip nothing if your service is terrible, a standard amount (again, not trying to discuss exact amounts) if your service is good/decent, and then more if your service is great.

I treat tips like a commentary on the quality of service. However, my mother was just talking about a notorious, awful dinner we had a year ago. The servers were bored and listless the whole time and some were actually rude. I told my mom "Well, I guess they didn't get tipped!" and she said no, they got tipped the standard amount. When I asked why (the service was truly, extraordinarily bad) she replied "Well, that's how these people make their living." She and my father are of the same mindset, that you tip "just because", so I was wondering if I had the wrong (or an odd) idea about why you tip.

Your reasoning is correct.  Tips refer to: To Insure Proper Service.  At least in the US. I'm not sure where you are.

Tips does not mean to insure proper service.   http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/tip.asp

Got there before I could. 

As for tips themselves, it would have to be horrible service before I'd not leave a tip... I typically tip 20% at sit-down restaurants.  Servers make less than a third of minimum wage, and while that's not the customer's fault, I doubt there's anyone who's not aware of it at this point.  We can't always afford a tip, but thankfully I really like Whoppers. 

[Softly Spoken]

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.

I'm not sure what you're looking for here, but for the cut and paste, if you're in post/reply mode the URL will not show up blue and underlined. It will be regular type (just as if you bold something, it doesn't show up bold in the posting window. It shows up with the bold code and brackets)

Once you "go live" (hit post) the URL will show up on the thread as blue and underlined.

If you want to double-check the URL that you are posting before actually posting, click on "Preview" then you will see the blue underline and can test your link from there.


What squeakers posted works as well. It's just an additional button to push but you still won't see the blue underline while in "reply" mode. You'll see the code brackets for a URL . . . which is actually unnecessary.

Thank you both for helping me troubleshoot - turns out I was missed the "=" you have to put in along with the actual link. I'll remember from now on.

[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.