Activity 5.3 The issue of tipping Melanie Uczen worked as a server in a restaura

Question

Activity 5.3 The issue of tipping Melanie Uczen worked as a server in a restaurant-nightclub in Chicago called The Leg Room. A visiting British software engineer added a tip of USS10 000 (AUSS 17 000) to the bill that Melanie brought to his table. The restaurant owner checked with the customer to ensure that he really wanted to tip the server that amount of money. He confirmed that he did and signed a declaration to that effect. Melanie no doubt went home happy and the restaurant's owners reported the mammoth tip to the media. The euphoria was dimmed when the engineer's credit card payment was processed, and dis- honoured. However, the restaurant owners paid Melanie the tip themselves because the publicity had brought them so much new business. As a group, discuss tipping and share the attitudes of group members to the whole question of tipping. Then consider and answer the following questions: - Should someone who receives a tip from a customer in cash declare the tip to others? Should a waiter who receives a tip share that tip with others who are not in direct contact with the customers but who nevertheless make good service possible (such as kitchen staff)? . . If a tip is shared among all the staff, should the highest-paid members of the staff, such as the chef or the maître d', receive the same share as the others? Would you vary your attitude about sharing tips, or putting tips in a ommon pool, if you received a tip of $17 000? Does the practice of tipping encourage restaurant owners and managers to pay lower wages than other industries? .

Explanation / Answer

The general trend in the Hospitality industry is that all the money received through tips by the server or any other person for that sake, are handed over to the manager or the cashier or any other person designated for the same, in order to create a pool of the tip amount. Thereafter, at the end of the day, the entire tip amount is divided amongst the entire staff in equal proporions and then distributed. Thus, the receiver of the tip should ideally declare the amount of the tip to the last penny. The waiter who receives the tip should ideally share the tip with others who are not in direct contact with the customers but who nevertheless make good service possible. This is because the customer who gives the tip to the waiter not because only the service of the waiter or server was good but due to the fact that there was an overall good customer experience which made the customer happy. This includes the taste of the food he ordered, the pleasant serving experience, the presentation of the food or dishes, the ambience of the eatery, the ease of car parking as well as location of the eatery, the ease of billing, and so on. Therefore, the overall customer experience that made the customer give a tip to the server depends on many factors and is an effort of the entire staff of the eatery so in my opion the tip amount should be shared amongst every staff member. In my opinion, the share of tip amongst the staff members hould be based on the principle of equality and not on the principle of equity. It is the equal efforts of the staff members that contributed to the pleasant customer experience prompting the customer to give tip to the waiter/server with is free will so sharing of tip also should be equal, irrespective of the amount of salary received by the staff member. The sharing of tip and putting the tip amount in the common pool should not depend on the amount of the tip received. Whether it is $1 or the tip is as high as in the given problem i.e. $17,000/-, the tip should be considered as the grant given by the customer, which is not a compulsory and mandatory upon a customer. It is a monetary way of appreciation by the customer who had a good experience at the eatery. No. The practice of tipping should not encourage the restaurant owners and managers to pay lower wages than other industries as the tip given by the customer is not to equated with the commission earned by a sales person on every sales. Tip is not to given by the customer mandatorily and is an option. There may be times when there is very less tip received or not even received during a period of time due to whatever reasons. Whereas, a sales person has a right to receive commission upon every successful sale of product or service. Lower wages to the staff on the pretext of tip being received by them may be a demoralizing factor and may effect the service at the restaurant which in turn might effect the customer line up and business. Therefore, the wages of staff and tip should be kept as two separate heads and not to be mixed with each other, whether the tip amounts are high or low.

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