> I've heard stories like this too. I agree with
>the rest of y'all that the tip system is b0rk3d,
>both for customers and waitstaff. Having been a
>waiter myself for a couple of years, I'm pretty
>conscientious about leaving tips and I feel for
>the waitress in your story. If you wait tables
>to actually support yourself and not just for
>some extra spending money, there's a lot of
>anxiety over whether you have a good night or a
>bad night, tip-wise.

Which is exactly why I advocate abolishing the "mandatory tip system" and paying servers a decent wage. THEN I can "encourage great service" by tipping if I decide to do that. I honestly think that if tipping weren't mandatory, if instead getting a tip was a great added bonus, service would actually *improve*.

>
> At the restaurant where I worked (which was in
>a hotel), there were many, many evenings where
>the slow trickle of customers would have hardly
>provided enough tips to send one waitperson home
>happy, much less the three of us on duty. It's
>depressing to go home after six hours with $12
>in your pocket and another $18 or so coming in
>your paycheck. If you're good at your job and
>you work at a busy establishment, there's good
>money to be made in waiting tables, but I'd
>rather have a moderate wage that I could count
>on than the stress of lull, lull, JACKPOT!!!,
>lull, lull, lull...
>

Which is why I still tip, even though I hate it.

> Oh yeah, and I've also wondered about tipping
>haircutters. Don't they get paid adequately
>without tips?

I don't know. I go to CostCutters. I think it's against my entire philosophy of "get the cheapest haircut possible" to also then turn around and tip the haircutting personage.

-- Dave