Posted on 03/03/2014 6:56:12 AM PST by don-o
Last February, Pastor Alois Bell set off an Internet debate of biblical proportions. Unhappy about being forced to pay an automatic gratuity of 18 percent because she was dining with a party of 10 at an Applebee’s restaurant in St. Louis, Mo., Bell declined to leave a tip and instead left her two cents behind in ink: “I give God ten percent, why do you get 18,” she scrawled on her receipt.
Preaching Christ Church’s lead Pastor Chad Roberts was on his way to a conference in Atlanta, Ga., with two other staff members from the downtown Kingsport church when news of the tipping scandal went viral and their idea for the church’s “Sundays are the Worst” campaign was born.
“We were sitting in a Buffalo Wild Wings saying, what could we do for the serving community to show them that the church cares about them and that we’re not judgmental? What if there was a website where servers could just sound off, they could just vent, and then the church say, it’s OK, we get it, we understand?
(Excerpt) Read more at timesnews.net ...
Hah! There wouldn’t be a restaurant open if they were forced to pay servers minimum wage or more.
If they don’t want to leave a decent tip then go to a buffet and wait on yourself! or GO HOME and EAT!
How would you like to work your butt off for a party of 10 for $2 and change per hr? have to pool your tips, and pay the bus boy too.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-25/waitresses-stuck-at-2-13-hourly-minimum-for-22-years.html
It is none of their concern what they make, that is between the employer and employee. The employees should find a better job, if enough do that the pay would have to go up if the boss wants a server working there.
Yes, pay for the service. And that is not a tip.
I hate the pretending. The menu says “$19.99” and they plan to charge you $22 pus tax?
That is just dishonest, IMO.
Just add it to the price and pay the servers. I bet they won’t do this because of their taxes and stuff.
Canadian?
And for most of them, they aren't waiting on tables to get material for their novel, or to tide them over until they get their next trust fund check. Most of them have minimum skills and kids to feed, that's why they have to work in such a thankless and poorly paid job.
I personally tip 20% rounded up if the service is good, so 18% for a group of ten people is certainly not excessive. The only issue here seems to be that the "tip" (which is actually a service charge) is added into the bill automatically.
Restaurants usually implement this kind of policy after a number of complaints from the wait staff about people with large groups either NOT tipping, or leaving $5 on a $250 tab. It's NOT that they are trying to alienate their customers, it's they are trying to keep their staff from walking out them.
What Jesus demands has nothing to do with tipping your waitress. If the reverend had an issue with the policy, she should have paid the bill and then taken up the issue with the management, not lay it on the waitress.
Just my humble opinion...
You pegged it. And she is probably black, they are the worst tippers especially on Sunday’s. Wait staff are just trying to earn a living, not work for free.
It is people like ‘her’ that has these low wage and I mean LOW like $2+ per hr to start demanding min wage at the very least. Tips make the difference in the pay scale. A good wait staff can make or break a restaurant. The order takers at McD’s makes more than wait staff in high class restaurants. Wages for wait staff have not changed much in 40+ yrs. and no health ins. They are opening jobs for college students mostly or a person needing to add to a fixed income or low income of the spouse.
It is the most miss understood job pay scale there is. Try it some time. 10 tables, fussy people, bad acting kids, run you ragged all for $2+ an hr. And leave you no tip! And these are PART TIME JOBS for most of them. Even the ‘greeter’ makes more per hr than wait staff.
I would not treat my dog the way some wait staff are treated by so called Christians. If I get bad service then they get less % of a tip, and I don’t go back to places with poorly trained wait staff. Ditto goes for the quality of the food. But I do leave at least 10%, you would have got 20% if your service were better and I tip in cash.
I usually do at least 20%...30% if it’s breakfast at a diner because they tend to be cheaper price wise and it’s just as much effort to bring refills of tea and soda at Waffle House as it is at a more expensive place.
My in-laws taught me about how Christians should tip. They NEVER left a table without tipping, and the ONLY reason a tip might be lower than normal would have been because of really, really bad service. Not only that, they’d always leave the table with a “God bless you” to the server.
Hey I’m defending the practice of tipping here.
Ask any waiter or waitress and they will tell you: The worst tippers are church people. And, I’m a church person. I’m not a Christian basher. But, church people are terrible tippers. What a shame!
Did ANYONE read the article? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
I agree a "true Christian" would leave a generous tip to give a favorable image to a waiter, but that is so far down the radar for most churches, it's not even funny. Most people in the pews today are fornicating, committing adultery, stealing software, cheating people in business, and almost any other sin you can think of off the top of your head. Now we can't even figure out if homosexuality is really forbidden in Scripture and is a Baby a blessing or curse from God.
If you are trying to get someone to tip better, maybe they should hear 20 more messages on tithing, cause they don't do that either. If they would steal from God, why would a waiter expect anything else?
My burden has always been for the church even more than the lost. If the church is healthy, the lost will get saved. We can't even get so called Christians to read and study their Bibles. Most are relying of wives tales to build some facsimile of the Christian life and have NO IDEA what Scripture says about any subject. If someone claims Christ's name, at some point they may have to actually read the Bible.
IMO, not all that many people have been lost because a pew warmer didn't leave a generous tip. If you seek more info from them, it's usually a bad encounter from someone closer to them that soured them. The bad tipper may have added to their opinion, but I can't believe that would be the sole cause. If the food was fast and good, would you never return because of a rude waiter?
BTW, my wife and daughter were both waitresses at one point. They have the same war stories about "Christians". They did their jobs as it were to Christ, were humble and courteous, and were well compensated for their labor. A table of 15 Christians was often better than 15 athletes after a high school game. As many tables that stiffed her, their were even more that paid well. At the end of the week she was well paid for her work. It was just as common for the other wait staff to steal from her jar as a Christian table to tip poorly. God made sure she was compensated well in the end. You can't force someone to do something they don't want to do just because they go to church. A pastor could preach on tipping and representing the name of Christ every Sunday for a year, but if you aren't saved, you can't hear any more than the person that won't tithe.
"Lord, when saw we Thee....?"
From "UnknownUzer":
"I used to manage a full service gas station and was unlucky enough to be the one that had to work the Sunday morning shift.
Without fail there would be at least one church goer who would stop in to have me pump their gas, check their oil, clean their windows, and then explain to me how I was going to hades for working on Sunday.
I would always explain to them that I wish I didn't have to work on the Sabbath, but that my boss said that so long as there are sinners needing fuel to get to church, we would be there to help them make the journey.
The looks on their faces was priceless."
Waiters pay “tip-share” (a percentage of total sales) to the bartender, hostess and busboy. Large parties often “lose” the tip in the confusion over separate checks, who’s paying what, etc.. In such instances it’s conceivable the waiter will have to PAY to wait on the table.
Thus one reason for added gratuity.
Saint Francis (IIRC) stated, "Preach the Gospel at all times. And if necessary, use words." This is powerful in that it reminds us that our actions speak far louder than our words. And if the two don't align, then there's a problem with our walk.
That having been said, the only people I've heard complain about my tipping have been some of Mrs WBill's Liberal friends and relatives. It's happened maybe a half-dozen times over the past years.
They don't understand why I leave so much. One actually pocketed some of what I put on the table, saying loudly "Service wasn't that good." Of course I made it a point to square up with the waitress, who I've known for 15 years or more. She just shook her head sadly, which made me wonder how many other times this has happened to her.
I am embarrassed far too often by nominal “Christians” and the way they act toward others. That includes many here on FR. Misguided or not, some people would do God’s kingdom more good by not sharing their faith with others.
#1 Black people, called "Canadians" by waiters all over. They love to run you ragged and they love to complain and get their meals comped, and then they leave you either Nothing or Pocket change (like you give them $6.48 change, they pick up the $6 and leave the .48 on the table like they're doing you a favor). Black waiters will often Refuse to wait on black tables.
#2 Church people, and the more Fundamentalist-leaning, the worse. It's so bad that I won't go out to eat after church until I've changed clothes because I don't want to be mistaken for one of Those tables.
#3 Ladies who do lunch. 4-tops of secretarial types who drink either unsweet tea or water with lemon, eat something light-sounding but calorie-laden like soup and salad, and they all want separate checks. You're lucky to get $1 a piece. They'll always tip, but it will always be measly.
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