I think it is at the heart of the capitalist mindset, the way I laid it out, and the mindset that expects a tip no matter what is a liberal/union type of mindset.
If I work in a restaurant as waitstaff and want to make money and have a rewarding job, I work my ass off. If my co-workers don’t like it because I put them to shame, I am not slowing down. I can control how hard I work, and if I want to put on roller skates or not take my 15 minute break so I can keep up and keep my diners happy, then by God, that is what I am going to do. People can’t and generally won’t tell you to slack off.
But I know for a fact that happens in unions. There are times when they don’t want an eager beaver around. They may tell him in polite, collegial, oblique, and friendly ways that he needs to dial it back a bit. But if the line isn’t toed, the remarks will get more abrasive, adversarial,direct and even threatening.
You take that mindset, put it into a waitstaff environment, and your restaurant is doomed. Doomed, There is a reason you see carcasses of restaurants everywhere you look, and the main reason is that they forget they have to provide people with a reason to patronize them. Sure, there is a lot of bad management. Inexperience. Poor personnel selection and even poor training. but I think that when restaurants fail, they fail because the first thing that customers see in a dying restaurant is poor customer service, the interface with the customer.
In the town I call home, there was a pizza place. Been there for years, more than thirty. Everyone went there. When you had a party, that is where you got your pizzas. The guy who ran it was an Italian guy, Angie. Knew all his customers, great guy. Always gave you a wave and a shout when you came in, even if you only came in once every few months.
As Angie got older, something changed...probably something personal, outside of work, don’t know what it was. But his job became...a job to him, and he worked at HIS business like an hourly employee who didn’t have a stake in his own enterprise.
One day my brother went in, one of his most loyal customers. Not the kind who tells ten people about a bad experience at your restaurant, the kind who tells ten people about a GOOD experience at your restaurant.
My brother ordered a Tuna sub, and when he sat down and took a bite, it didn’t taste right to him. You know how tuna subs are...if one of the components go bad, it takes the entire meal down with it. In this case, something wasn’t right. My brother walks up the counter and says “Angie...this sub doesn’t taste right to me.”
Angie looks at him, looks at the sub, smells it and rips off a piece and eats it. He puts it back on the counter, looks at my brother and says: “Tastes fine to me” and just looks at my brother. My brother started to say something, stopped in mid-sentence, looked at Angie, then calmly turned around and walked away.
What Angie should have done when my brother walked up the counter should have been this:
MIKE: “Angie...this sub doesn’t taste right to me.”
ANGIE: (Makes direct eye contact, puts down the pizza and walks directly up to his customer with a look of grave attentiveness) “Sorry, Mike. Can I get you something else? Do you want your money back?”
MIKE: “Could I have a Steak and Cheese sub instead?”
ANGIE: “Absolutely.” (in one swift motion, grabs the sub and with as little fanfare as possible, slides it into the trash under the counter, making as little fuss as possible) “Have a seat, and I will have that out to you in five minutes. You want a Coke or something? Just grab one out of the cooler over there, on the house.”
Instead, Angie lost a loyal customer by deciding to die on that beach over a stupid $4.50 sub, which cost him a heck of a lot less. Bad business, bad customer service.
He went out of business in a few years. I was in my late twenties when that happened, and the guy was gone shortly thereafter. With a few more years to reflect on it, I feel bad for Angie. He must have lost his way. Maybe his wife left him. Maybe he had an illness, maybe his kids were problematic. I often think something must have changed, because he stopped with the over the shoulder look, wave of the arm, and “Heya! Mike and Bob! How are you boys doing today? What you want today?” I often wonder.
Part of me hopes it was something like his wife leaving him, rather than him just getting tired of serving pizza and subs and making satisfied customers.
And the other part of me (in equal portions) hopes it was the other way around.
Isn't that in a nutshell? This is the problem with America, they control how hard they "not" work. Thanks gov.
“Angie” might have lost his lease. A friend of mine has owned many restaurants. After he built up a good reputation for the location, the building owner would crank up the rent. My friend would move the restaurant to a new location, and at the old location, he would change the name, trash the service and food, and leave the owner with an unrentable site.
Depression perhaps. A darker theory involves local mob activity and extortion. A man who can’t quite call his business as his own business has no real motivation to run it as his own!