Quote:
Originally Posted by HOOT
I'll ask again, what do the servers think of this idea? The ones I have spoken to hate the idea because they feel they can get more if they put in that extra effort, and if they knew it was a standard rate they may actually care less.
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Our servers like the idea - this is going to sound strange, but I'll try to explain myself - because they don't like feeling they have to earn their tips.
Our servers really like their jobs. We are a great place to work, we have awesome customers (for the most part) and our servers are very good at and enjoy what they do. They feel that with automatic tipping, they would be free to simply enjoy giving great service, as opposed to feeling like they need to prostrate themselves before our customers for cash.
It's the difference between working on salary and working on commission. It works for some people, it's motivating for some people, but for a great many people it's simply stressful and the effort frequently not worth the reward.
It can be disheartening when you give exactly the same effort to one table that you do to another, treat them the same way, and one table leaves you 20% and the other 5. Perhaps one table had had a bad day, maybe they just didn't have another 5 in their wallet, who knows? It's still hard on a server when that happens, and it can impact the service they give to other tables.
We think an automatic gratuity policy "levels the playing field" for both our customers and staff.
Though, judging by the reaction from this board, we may re-think our plans.