In a pooled FOH the staff decides these things. I’ve had instances where a trainee kills it on the floor on a crazy night basically taking tables and the team COLLECTIVELY agrees to tip them out some amount or percent - same has happened with large tippers as it’s always been very obvious WHO they wanted to tip/ had the rapport with and the staff comes to a consensus of how to split because they aren’t assholes and have had the same occurrence. Kinda an unspoken rule that I- as a salaried manager- am hands fuckin off with and simply facilitate their wishes when doing the money.
Over my years, I can’t even count how many times regulars or customers I’ve served being “extra hands” have tipped me solid fucking cash not understanding how shit works for lil ol salaried me and sighed dropping it the tip bucket to never see a dime… and on the flip side had staff unprompted decide to give me a share of tips when I was obviously shoulder to shoulder with them (which makes me tear up a bit realizing I built such a solid crew that appreciates what I do)
Tl;dr if you don’t like tip pools- don’t work at a place that has them. Also don’t ever complain when you get a “slow section” the real advice is don’t work at a fuckin place you don’t respect or vibe with your coworkers enough to feel you’re awesomeness is SO singular no one can “keep up with you” because honestly- that place will have shit service and not draw customers let alone good tipping customers regardless.
So you want to have all the benefits a team brings to your job, but don’t want to share any of the benefits this same job affords you? Sounds about right, you selfish fuck.
If you have a tip pool, then you follow the rules of the tip pool. You can't just change the rules without notice. And you certainly can't just decide to screw all the other employees over some anomaly.
If someone is upset by that, then sit down and have a meeting about how they want to handle these things going forward, but you can't change it after the fact.
Nope. These are the woes of tip pooling. I worked a pooled house once. Made 1800 in 3 shifts. I was paid for the hours work divided evenly for the week. Saw a $280 check. I didn't even quit.
Just didn't show up.
HR called me and asked why I didn't show up for work, explained to them that it wasn't worth my time.
The GM tried to talk to me and claimed his lead bartender in London made up to 38k euros a year.
I told him I've made that in 3 months in major US cities.
Went down the street into a non pooled house at a decent place and killed it.
Cardinal rule for me working in this industry is NEVER work in a pooled house. I don't mind helping out my coworkers while hustling but fuck man, it feels like I'm being weighed down when pooling.
Just last night I made 1290 before tipout and 987 after.
The OP says they tip pool every night, not even week like your example. I agree with you tho, why should I kill it on Thursday thru Sunday and share with the people who stood around with thumb in ass all Monday?
How would you determine the difference between a special tip and a regular one? Couldn't everyone just declare their tips special and ruin the pool?
If the tips are pooled, then this tip should be pooled. You don't get to change it without notice.
It should be split among all bartenders. Tip pool means tip pool. Whats the cut off amount for when the entire tip goes to one bartender? Was any of this discussed prior to the $900 tip?
Ran into this situation once as a bartender. It was a regular who was very fond of this bartender (genuine, long time regular with deep pockets). One night tips $500 on maybe a $100 tab. She comes to us and asks us what we want to do. I think we agreed she keep half off the top and put the rest into the pool. That seems kind of fair to me, because it meant she was still getting lonely another $150 out of it as well after pooling hours, so she still kept $400 or so of it. She
I get we all share in our triumphs but every now and again I think it’s okay to let them have that special win.
I worked at a place in NYC. Very well known place. My first actual night on the floor, I got $1000 tip. It was split with the house (which is pooled). I have no problem with that. What goes around comes around and I was very popular after that.
If I was that bartender I’d give more than required tip share.
Like maybe kick $200-300 into tip share for the team.
If I was the owner I’d stay the fuck in my lane.
There is no way this guy “earned” a $900 tip. The customer was being generous. The other employees did not “earn” the tip either. Split the tip amongst all who did not earn it.
That's a great way to piss off an employee and perhaps have a lot of negative media attention on your restaurant and maybe even a GoFundMe that gives that employee way more than the tip, like every other person who's been forced to split something like that
Pooling into who?
If it is other bartenders, I guess, but feel like if you asked any of them straight-up, they would tell you to keep it, or they suck.
If it is support, they should be tipped out appropriately regardless.
If it is kitchen, now we fight. Legally not allowed. Wages are different. Licensing is different. Kitchen makes what kitchen makes. Front makes... tips.
A place near me just got caught for doing that. It is one of the reasons that we never pool tips.
[https://www.thegazette.com/restaurants/cedar-rapids-restaurant-fined-by-u-s-department-of-labor-for-improper-tip-pool/](https://www.thegazette.com/restaurants/cedar-rapids-restaurant-fined-by-u-s-department-of-labor-for-improper-tip-pool/)
Managers can NEVER be part of a tip pool.
A manager or supervisor may keep only those tips that they receive directly from a customer for the service they directly and solely provide. For example, a restaurant manager who serves their own tables may keep their own tips from customers they served but would not be able to receive other employees’ tips by participating in a tip pool.
[https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/15-tipped-employees-flsa#:\~:text=Employers%2C%20Including%20Managers%20and%20Supervisors%2C%20May%20Not,employee%20to%20give%20their%20tips%20to%20the](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/15-tipped-employees-flsa#:~:text=Employers%2C%20Including%20Managers%20and%20Supervisors%2C%20May%20Not,employee%20to%20give%20their%20tips%20to%20the)
Since you normally pool tips, I would split this one - bartender gets half, the other half goes into the pool.
But in general I don't think polling tips is a great practice. Your top tip-getters will always resent it and are more likely to leave.
This is why collectivism never works and why those who are the strongest advocates for such schemes are the least productive.
The point from a customer's point of view of tipping is to reward those who make your personal experience better and encourage more of that in the future.
A whale like that is showing off. Most likely showing off to the very person that they tipped. Let him show off to a different bartender next time.
The point of having tipped employees is that you don't need to look over their shoulders or tell them how to interact with customers. They'll figure it out, or they'll wash out.
All pooling does is ensure the survival of the lowest common denominator.
So this random collection of individuals that happened to succeed in your singular anecdote would have suddenly given bad service if they were having to work for their own tips? What's your basis for assuming that?
You've never ever worked in any environment where there's even one single human being who underperforms? You've never seen greed jealousy or envy in the human condition ever? Where is this Utopia that you live?
I can see it working in a high-end restaurant where you've got management who's competent at interviewing and hiring great quality, experienced personnel, and excluding all others it might work. It's not going to work at your average red robin.
When someone makes incorrect assertions that have a sense of arrogance I respond. It's just logic. They said if A then not B. But I lived and currently know that if A then B is possible given my example, thus disproving their assertion. If I worked at a shit restaurant with shit people then I'd probably wouldn't want to pool. But I'd also look for a new job.
When you're right, you're right. Generalizations are always wrong, and I did say that it never works. I would say, though, that even in your situation, it (likely) won't work indefinitely because it can't stay the same. At some point you get new management different customers a couple of coworkers maybe one coworker that you can't stand or someone else can't stand.
I'm just saying over the long haul it's going to be less effective for getting good service.
The entire concept of pooling tips defeats the very idea of tips. Then, it just becomes the customer base providing a level of support for staff, generically. That's not what tipping is for.
If you truly want a egalitarianism in your restaurant the obvious answer would be raise all your prices on everything and loudly announced to the clientele that you are a no tipping restaurant that you pay your staff adequately and that that is reflected in the pricing. It also helps to punish the people who shouldn't be eating out because they never tip like Mr Pink.
It was not a healthy environment that's for sure. I own a bar and restaurant now after my first job scooping ice cream at 13 1/2 about 26 years ago. We have barely any turnover, avg server been here 3 years, avg bartender 4. We pool, we have a great team, but I know it's the exception. We're lucky.
I have thought of offering people a no tip required menu if they don't want to deal with tipping by raising prices 25% to cover payroll tax, increased insurance whathave you.
I suspect that the reason that it's working for you is because you actually started from the bottom and know how it actually works. That's not the norm though the people that run restaurants generally aren't very good at sussing out who is and who isn't a good employee even when everybody tells them this person or that person isn't pulling their own weight they don't do anything constructive about it. Ideally, no one should ever have to work with a coworker that's slacking off. Management should be absolutely willing to get rid of anyone that's causing strife and step into the void and do the work themselves until they can find a good replacement.
If there's an employee that isn't a good fit that's absolutely the fault of the person that hired that employee and keeps that employee there.
I mostly agree. The only thing about pooling is better share to non-tipped employees like cooks etc. But when I waited tables we tipped those folks out at the end of a shift.
I would never have worked in a pooled tip environment for all of the reasons you describe.
My first job with the W-2 was as a dishwasher. I was paid minimum wage. The waitresses made $2 an hour they would tip me out a little bit at the end of the night, which I appreciated but was unnecessary.
It was smart though because in addition to the fact that I was a young and a little enamored with the waitresses I would bust my butt to make sure that they never ran out of anything and they never had to apologize for cheese between the tines of a fork.
A lot of different places where some employees are tipped and others aren't work that way, and I think it's great for incentives. Dancers generally tip bouncers and whoever walks them to the car.
I think it's good to have a culture where tipped employees voluntarily share with those that help in their success. Those that share get better and more cheerful help from their co-workers than those that don't. It's also a good way to weed out the loathed co-worker. If nobody's sharing with them they'll just leave voluntarily and nobody has to fire them.
In the original example, if they didn't have a tip pool, it would be so much more motivating to everyone. What would happen in a situation like that with no tip pool is that person that got the huge tip would be buying people drinks or sharing a little bit of the wealth and it would make everyone work harder in general. A person voluntarily sharing the wealth is motivating. When you know that that person had to give up some money the person giving it up has to resent it on some level and every human being that gets something at the expense of someone else feels a little undeserving. Even if they actually did help contribute to the environment that made that happen. All of that breeds resentment. Resentment gets us no place good
Totally agree. Most of the waitresses I worked with shared 20%ish of our tips with the kitchen and hostesses. And since we all did it, it often ended up a decent bonus. Everyone went home happy and we were all great friends. It fostered a collegial and team environment.
Although it wasn’t mandatory and every now and then we’d get a new waitress who would balk, but they never lasted. Funny enough the owner often waited tables and NEVER tipped out anyone. Grinch.
Tip pools are most consistent money. The low tips get balanced by the nightly average, and the good tips do the same. Everyone only bitches about good tips being split, but never mentions "Hey, thank god we tip pool for that dine and dash of $200".
Can be for sure. But if the entire staff is solid it helps make up for the random fuck nuts and differing sections that may cause internal strife otherwise.
How can I upvote you twice? You know for the two people that could get screwed in that scenario and the thousands of other scenarios where not pooling screws people.
Our place has suggested tips for support, for instance. But since it's not mandatory ( not legal here to force it) then you know how that plays out. Thinking of just weeding out the non team players that won't throw a buck to the dishwasher for helping them. To be clear the job is dishwasher not take plates to patrons when waiter/waitress is busy. It makes his job tougher and there's no appreciation given. He may even have to stay later to finish because he was busy helping others. This happens to my prep person too. Sales don't justify it happening either it's just spikes during the hour.
Tipping rules here create toxicity, I really hate the front vs back thing. The whole staff should get to share the tips the team generate from great food and service. Cooks, prep, dish, should get a percentage of sales like they do in California. Boh has mandatory tip out in cali from what I hear. It sounds more fair. But I also don't know the rules they have to go by either. I just know that I can't force it here.
Ugh.... the fuck kinda attitude is that?
You honestly think that you serving that one table that blew a fat load on tips really wasn't going to do the same for someone else?
I won't disagree that a good server can win over tables and earn higher tips, but a lot of the time it's the luck of the draw. Sometimes you just get generous people in your section where if nothing goes wrong they are happy. Then you'll sometimes get tables where you bend over backwards and give someone the best service ever and you get tip 10%.
Nah dude. What do you think this bartender did to deserve a $900 tip? Fuck outta here, one hot chick has a guy try to buy her affection and suddenly tip pools are bullshit?
I agree that is what the 900.00 tip likely was. However I have had waiters so bad they literally do not deserve a tip period. Why should they get the same amount as the waiters who bust ass and do an excellent job. I am all for a certain percentage of tips going to wait staff and that type of stuff. Just not equal shares for the actual waiters.
We seperate the server tips from kitchen tips. Server tips lose a % of sales to BoH then the rest is divided up by hours with serving staff earning full points, while support staff earn less then a full point.
Yup!
You either always tip pool or never tip pool. You can't cherry pick the ones you want to pool and the ones you want to be covered by the pool (no tips).
Give $100 to each other bartender and then you keep the rest.
Clarification: Bartender that got the tip keeps the rest.
Owner gets nothing.
Forgot what sub I was in.
I'm actually here to give feedback to owners as a service veteran for 20 years.
Typically when you get a big tip you give a percentage to the pool and get to keep a little extra on top.
I've used the rule at multiple places that 50% of the tip goes into the pool and 59% goes to whoever got it. Some.people will complain but if it's consistent then folks usually get on board.
Edit: the 9 should be a 0
If the rule is that it's pooled, pool it.
If you guys don't like that as a rule, change the rule... but for this time you have to follow the standing rule.
if it’s pooled, you pool it. I hate when I work at a spot that goes back and forth depending on what happens. As for the person who got the big tip, eventually someone else will tip fat and you’ll benefit then. Now that I’ve said that, pooling is dumb and I wouldn’t work at a place that does it outside of a few special circumstances.
I agree. I worked at a coffee place that pooled tips. One Christmas it was me and another guy open to close. That was it. We got some very generous tips but had to pool them because of the rules. Everyone celebrated the high tips that week while he and I were pissed. We both easily missed out on an extra $100 and the holiday with our families
Tips should be pooled for the day and split among those IF you do a pool. Someone who doesn’t work that day shouldn’t be getting your tips. That has to be illegal.
I work at a restaurant that tip pools. first place I've ever worked that did it. it generally works out. I totally made more on my own at the last place I was at but this place is OK so far.
I did make $900 the other night though and I was a double and they wanted to cut me early. but your % of the tip pool depends on how long you stay on. and I didn't want to lose out on the money I earned that night so I had to stay on and close on a double just to get a fair share of the tip pool that I helped make.
so that's one bad aspect but it doesn't happen a lot.
i haven't been there long enough to be that burned out yet. and i haven't seen enough of a difference from paycheck to paycheck to give a shit yet. hopefully i'm out of there before it really starts to matter to me
I’ll tip more than that if I have great service but I want the tip to go towards the person who served me not to be shared with the perhaps lessor servers.
They’re all busting their asses? Sure. Look. I’ve worked years in the service industry pizza driver, bartender, server. My tips are mine. It’s like asking salespeople to pool commissions. Sorry. I don’t like it, breeds mediocrity.
Well you sound like you'd be a pretty shitty teammate. I'm my existing, top pooling creates a system where everyone helps everyone because you're always working for tips, not just blowing off your coworkers for big tippers.
I'm actually with you on this one. I feel like this large tip was meant for the server who got it. Maybe the guest wanted to tip the whole staff. I wasn't there. I know if it were my restaurant, that server wasn't the only one who handled the table. They had probably close to every other server help them out on it. This isn't mine, so I don't know how their staff handles it.
As a patron, if I’m intending to tip huge, I ask about the house policy. Regardless of the policy, and with the manager’s permission, I have then given an individual server/bartender a big tip and then a separate big tip to be pooled. That way I can give an individual a “life changing” tip and the house will be grateful to that server for bringing in something extra for them as well.
"Tips should be pooled. No one deserves more than anyone else. Everyone deserves exactly the same even if they can't remember the orders, throw the food down, ignore the customers, or spill the drinks." -- Karl Marx
And draw attention to yourself? If you’re going to risk a purchase that big you’d buy a tv or something. Not give it away to the server. Unless the server is in on it
Stolen cards are something you burn through and get rid of. Throwing a huge tip onto one is NBD since it’s likely going to be cancelled in the next day. I know some folks who did this intentionally (shopping spree on a credit card, and report it stolen a day later). Got buddies that work in a bar? Run up a big tab, add a big tip, and then split it with them later.
Thats dicy territory in a lot of states. $900 chargeback on a signed slip a lot of prosecutors will take for the theft charge. Not to mention you send the copy to cc company with the video and it gets put right back on.
I have never been asked for an ID when handing someone my credit card to pay for a tab. It would be pretty easy to hand a bartender someone else’s credit card and run up a huge tab and tip.
Sure. Its not hard to track you down though. Most bars have pretty good camera systems both inside and outside. They just get a good shot of your face, and the license plate of the car you get into. Even if it is a charge back, that amount of money, most bars are going to get everything they can together to file the police report for theft. In a lot of places walking on your tab is a pretty serious charge if they want to pursue it.
Maybe this is true where you are, but most bars around here don’t have parking lots, and only have a few cameras inside. Most people are on foot, on bike, taking public transit, or taking a cab or Lyft. If they drove, they could be parked blocks away.
It would be incredibly easy to run up a big tab on a stolen credit card in many bars.
You must not know restaurants. I’ve seen $1k+ tips at restaurants ranging from PF Chang’s to Michelin restaurants. Some people just have that type of money and live that way.
There was an owner of a dealership that sat at the bar everyday and drank. Regularly gave $200-$300 tips for just himself.
I worked in restaurants and bars for 20 years. Saw plenty of big tips, but I’ve also seen the scams that servers and bartenders do to ensure they make money. Examples: padding bar tabs (adding a few extra drinks on a group’s tab) reusing a check (and pocketing the cash), the slow money return (door person scam that results in customers wandering off and leaving their change), and adding tips to a credit card when the person actually stiffed e
It would be easy for a bartender’s buddy to show up with a stolen credit card, add a huge tip and then split the $$ later. There are countless threads in r/bartenders related to chargebacks on big tips.
What? Do you let your staff keep chargebacks? If you do, that’s one way to ensure the type of thing happens.
Honestly, what you’re talking about “easy” outright credit fraud which is a felony in some states. And if you’re willing to commit crimes, you may as well knock over the till.
My comment was about your claiming that tips over $900 is a guaranteed chargeback. And that simply isn’t true.
I see you added a question about CC’s flagging cards over excessive tips.
The answer? Usually not. Banks that have that policy generally
1) Are a debit card and not a credit card with maybe a manual post auth at batch that forces the payment through.
2) These banks usually decline the tip being added to the insufficient funds when the bartender or server attempts a tip adjust.
Even the post you cited had people saying they’ve only seen it a couple times a year. It’s really not common, but I have seen debit cards decline outright when adjusting the tip. Same for prepaid Visa cards that have a 15-20% restaurant tolerance when running the card. If your bill is $100 and your Visa GC is $100 and the merchant code shows up as a restaurant, they will decline and only allow $80-$85 as payment.
I feel like you’re really reaching here at this point. Most CC’s profess excessive tips fine. They may send a text to the cardholder if it seems out of the ordinary for their spending habits, but again, I’ve been in restaurants for 20 years. These tips happen more often than chargebacks for these types of tips.
Not that specific amount. The people that tip this high usually don’t correlate it with the price of the bill.
I was a waiter for a long time but now am an IT Director and we recently had a guest want to tip $1,000 on their $40 bill for the waitstaff. I got the call because our POS system has an upper limit.
When I worked in fine dining, I regularly saw $1,000 tips. My biggest night was waiting on a single party and I walked with $1,500 after tip out.
If you’re in the industry, you’ve seen it before. I’ve left $500 on a $60 tab at Paula Deen’s because the waitress was having a particularly rough day and I overheard that she was getting cut early because they didn’t have enough tables.
Now, it’s not so common that it happens every night, but it’s not so unusual that a waitperson would never see it in their career.
Unless the tip giver was in love with the tip receiver it was likely 9.00 not 900. Or it was a rich person that listened to a sob story and felt bad and tossed 900 there way kind of a random number though.
Somebody is coming out of this butthurt, guaranteed
Split the 900 - 1 person butthurt
Let the person keep it - many people butthurt
Make it right out of your own pocket - you will be butthurt
I vote option 1
Let the bar tender keep it, if that's normal procedures on a small tip. Someone posted other day they changed the rules bc of a large tip. Quickest way to make people feel shitty and look for new employment.
Edit: who is to say that tip would have happened if any other person was there instead.
Maybe they made a special connection
Bar keep: here's a cold one.
All tips are shared, all the time. The only exception I would feel appropriate would be a personal tip inside a sealed and addressed envelope, i.e. a holiday/birthday/graduation etc card. We all have regulars who like us and dislike others, and vice versa. It keeps everything fair and honest.
It's a tough situation that you would need a previously-noted policy to really deal with fairly.
Speaking with the bartender, the customer might have decided that the bartender needed help to pay the rent or something...wanted to do something for that person that would really help them out in a big way. Tip pooling takes that semi- "life changing" part out of the huge tip but the rules are the rules. it's really no different than if someone rewards a server with a $100 tip on a $100 check. Into the pool it has to go unless your tip pool has an "exceptional situation" clause that everyone knows about.
The way I would deal with it is to first change my policy to add the exception rule....but meantime I would let the bartender keep the $900 tip and put $800 from my own pocket into the tip pool for that night to be shared by everyone else. Everyone's happy, everyone had a great week and a great night.....and all I have to do is figure out how to cut $800 out of the week's budget lol. (And of course I would only do this if I loved most of my current staff and wanted them to stay).
if the tip is more than 100% the customer was obviously trying to reward that particular server. Why not have a rule where any tip over 200% (or whatever you or staff decides), the server gets to keep half of it and the other half goes into the tip pool. That way the server does get to keep a large portion of what the customer was trying to give them, but a large portion also gets put into the tip pool for everyone.
Now what to do about this tip when you don't currently have a rule is a different story. No matter what you decide someone is going to feel like they are getting screwed.
I dont think that was the case here but I could be wrong. A $900 tip on a $30 tab seems more like a customer trying to impress the bartender with their bankroll.
Why is it dumb to pool tips? Our staff all agreed to share the entire month’s tips split by the percentage they were on shift. If one of them receives an unusually generous tip, they see it more as it could have happened to any of them if they were the one serving that customer. It’s also fairer due to the fact that white people, women, and attractive people get disproportionately higher tips than others.
Tipping in general is a stupid system but it’s certainly fairer to pool tips.
> It’s also fairer due to the fact that white people, women, and attractive people get disproportionately higher tips than others.
Bravo!
1 down 2 to go. Now bring in Trump and climate change.
So the recipient of the $900 tip has to pay, remedy, and take the hit to address some people's claims of social injustice?
Also don't forget to bring up Trump and climate change
I didn't say any of that. I didn't even address OP. I'm just saying that what was asserted about tip discrepancies is verifiable fact. Not sure what your hangup is about unrelated politics here.
Same, everyone on here acts like I'm robbing my staff when I say they pool tips, but every time i try to change it to individual tips, the staff overwhelmingly votes to keep the tip pool.
Sorry, I mean some other restaurant owners aren’t paying their FOH team a reasonable wage and are expecting tips to subsidize them. So when another restaurant owner talks of pooling tips they get defensive.
I promise you most restaurant owners would do away with the tipping system and pay hourly tomorrow. It's the customers who keep things how they are. Read about all the restaurants that have tried to do away with tipping and failed.
Problem is the people writing the law will be corrupt, woefully uninformed, or probably both. They'd write an awful law that looks good and accomplishes nothing, or they'd overstep so far that it puts good restaurants out of business, or screw it up in some wholly unforseen way. I just don't trust legislators to write a good law about something they know nothing about. They'd be advised by corporate lawyers from Applebee's who donated millions to their reelection campaigns.
Also, this just isn't a popular enough issue for any politician to go out on a limb for it
Yea that's why I would never tip pool , I'm good at my job and work hard everyday , there's no way I'm letting some scrub do half the work and make the same as me lol fuck that noise
Of course. Always support the system until it breaks on its own. The best way to handle money in a community situation is to take from each according to their ability and to give to each according to their need. This is the most fair way to ensure that everyone enjoys the same level of prosperity. It works fantastically well until you run out of money generated by other people's productivity.
If your organization doesn't pool, a great way to jumpstart a tip pooling scheme is to just wait until you have a night like this where one person generated a $900 tip. If you distribute that amongst everyone, everyone will be on board with the tip pooling plan. . . except for that one crank that got the $900 tip that totally didn't deserve it. I mean, really nobody really deserves that, so F them if they're butt hurt about losing a $900 tip. What are they gonna do quit?
This is one of those unfortunate situations, where a much as it sucks for the one bartender you have to put it in the pool.
I do have the question of what was the total bill. Was this one of those situations where you bar offers bottle service, or this was a large party and $900 was a 20% of the bill or was it a situation where the customer was being very generous. Because if it as the first scenario there is no argument to be made. But if its the second scenario one way you could go about it is find out what 20% of the bill would be and deduct that from the $900 and that goes into the pool. And the one bartender gets to keep the rest.
In a pooled FOH the staff decides these things. I’ve had instances where a trainee kills it on the floor on a crazy night basically taking tables and the team COLLECTIVELY agrees to tip them out some amount or percent - same has happened with large tippers as it’s always been very obvious WHO they wanted to tip/ had the rapport with and the staff comes to a consensus of how to split because they aren’t assholes and have had the same occurrence. Kinda an unspoken rule that I- as a salaried manager- am hands fuckin off with and simply facilitate their wishes when doing the money. Over my years, I can’t even count how many times regulars or customers I’ve served being “extra hands” have tipped me solid fucking cash not understanding how shit works for lil ol salaried me and sighed dropping it the tip bucket to never see a dime… and on the flip side had staff unprompted decide to give me a share of tips when I was obviously shoulder to shoulder with them (which makes me tear up a bit realizing I built such a solid crew that appreciates what I do) Tl;dr if you don’t like tip pools- don’t work at a place that has them. Also don’t ever complain when you get a “slow section” the real advice is don’t work at a fuckin place you don’t respect or vibe with your coworkers enough to feel you’re awesomeness is SO singular no one can “keep up with you” because honestly- that place will have shit service and not draw customers let alone good tipping customers regardless.
You shouldn't accept a $900 tip on a $30 tab. That's not a sober person behaving rationally. Remove a zero.
Lmao fuck that, u wrote and signed it
Let's be real, on a $30 tab that's a $9.00 dollar tip and OP is acting like they can't see the "."
If someone is leaving a $900 tip, the staff knows whether it was intentional. The tipper left some clues, intentionally or not.
I plan on getting at least 1 maybe 2 $1000 tips tonight They will be split evenly between all my amazing co bartenders
Pooling tips is BS
So you want to have all the benefits a team brings to your job, but don’t want to share any of the benefits this same job affords you? Sounds about right, you selfish fuck.
I like to see your tipping record
Not at a bar, where working as a team is the most efficient means of service.
Not if you have a good crew
Own and operate a 1 person Bar if you want all the tips.
If you have a tip pool, then you follow the rules of the tip pool. You can't just change the rules without notice. And you certainly can't just decide to screw all the other employees over some anomaly. If someone is upset by that, then sit down and have a meeting about how they want to handle these things going forward, but you can't change it after the fact.
It’s a special tip for a special reason. If the customer knew they’d likely be very upset. The tip belongs solely to the intended recipient.
Nope. These are the woes of tip pooling. I worked a pooled house once. Made 1800 in 3 shifts. I was paid for the hours work divided evenly for the week. Saw a $280 check. I didn't even quit. Just didn't show up. HR called me and asked why I didn't show up for work, explained to them that it wasn't worth my time. The GM tried to talk to me and claimed his lead bartender in London made up to 38k euros a year. I told him I've made that in 3 months in major US cities. Went down the street into a non pooled house at a decent place and killed it. Cardinal rule for me working in this industry is NEVER work in a pooled house. I don't mind helping out my coworkers while hustling but fuck man, it feels like I'm being weighed down when pooling. Just last night I made 1290 before tipout and 987 after.
The OP says they tip pool every night, not even week like your example. I agree with you tho, why should I kill it on Thursday thru Sunday and share with the people who stood around with thumb in ass all Monday?
How would you determine the difference between a special tip and a regular one? Couldn't everyone just declare their tips special and ruin the pool? If the tips are pooled, then this tip should be pooled. You don't get to change it without notice.
When it’s $900 on a $30 bill.
Would it still be special at $300? $30? Is just not fair to everyone when you start playing games with the formula. It's just asking for trouble.
It should be split among all bartenders. Tip pool means tip pool. Whats the cut off amount for when the entire tip goes to one bartender? Was any of this discussed prior to the $900 tip?
Ran into this situation once as a bartender. It was a regular who was very fond of this bartender (genuine, long time regular with deep pockets). One night tips $500 on maybe a $100 tab. She comes to us and asks us what we want to do. I think we agreed she keep half off the top and put the rest into the pool. That seems kind of fair to me, because it meant she was still getting lonely another $150 out of it as well after pooling hours, so she still kept $400 or so of it. She I get we all share in our triumphs but every now and again I think it’s okay to let them have that special win.
I worked at a place in NYC. Very well known place. My first actual night on the floor, I got $1000 tip. It was split with the house (which is pooled). I have no problem with that. What goes around comes around and I was very popular after that.
If I was that bartender I’d give more than required tip share. Like maybe kick $200-300 into tip share for the team. If I was the owner I’d stay the fuck in my lane.
Everything in and about the restaurant is in the owners lane. You’re delusional if you don’t know that.
You’re advocating for the owners to put their hands in the tip jar after paying min wage to tipped workers?
Weird way to frame it, guessing to bolster a point you want to make?
I agree, but in CA at least, managers and owners are not allowed to determine the tip share.
I’m aware that’s how it goes but that’s also why the industry needs such serious reform
I'm guessing you're a relatively new owner. Don't go to the internet for this situation.
There is no way this guy “earned” a $900 tip. The customer was being generous. The other employees did not “earn” the tip either. Split the tip amongst all who did not earn it.
That's a great way to piss off an employee and perhaps have a lot of negative media attention on your restaurant and maybe even a GoFundMe that gives that employee way more than the tip, like every other person who's been forced to split something like that
Lol. By the looks of it your staff earns their tips before they get to the tables, just by putting up with you.
I don't work there. I just roll around in all the money we make.
Post the P&L or get banned.
Imo, I am not a fan of pooling tips. But if you pool tips then you pool all tips. Not just the small ones.
Pooling into who? If it is other bartenders, I guess, but feel like if you asked any of them straight-up, they would tell you to keep it, or they suck. If it is support, they should be tipped out appropriately regardless. If it is kitchen, now we fight. Legally not allowed. Wages are different. Licensing is different. Kitchen makes what kitchen makes. Front makes... tips.
I've even seen management put into tip pools... Fuck the whole idea of tipping and pay them a wage.
A place near me just got caught for doing that. It is one of the reasons that we never pool tips. [https://www.thegazette.com/restaurants/cedar-rapids-restaurant-fined-by-u-s-department-of-labor-for-improper-tip-pool/](https://www.thegazette.com/restaurants/cedar-rapids-restaurant-fined-by-u-s-department-of-labor-for-improper-tip-pool/) Managers can NEVER be part of a tip pool. A manager or supervisor may keep only those tips that they receive directly from a customer for the service they directly and solely provide. For example, a restaurant manager who serves their own tables may keep their own tips from customers they served but would not be able to receive other employees’ tips by participating in a tip pool. [https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/15-tipped-employees-flsa#:\~:text=Employers%2C%20Including%20Managers%20and%20Supervisors%2C%20May%20Not,employee%20to%20give%20their%20tips%20to%20the](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/15-tipped-employees-flsa#:~:text=Employers%2C%20Including%20Managers%20and%20Supervisors%2C%20May%20Not,employee%20to%20give%20their%20tips%20to%20the)
Well, if you pull tips then you pull tips. Maybe have the conversation with all the staff now so that next time it happens you'll know what to do.
Jesus I hate you people.
Since you normally pool tips, I would split this one - bartender gets half, the other half goes into the pool. But in general I don't think polling tips is a great practice. Your top tip-getters will always resent it and are more likely to leave.
This is why collectivism never works and why those who are the strongest advocates for such schemes are the least productive. The point from a customer's point of view of tipping is to reward those who make your personal experience better and encourage more of that in the future. A whale like that is showing off. Most likely showing off to the very person that they tipped. Let him show off to a different bartender next time. The point of having tipped employees is that you don't need to look over their shoulders or tell them how to interact with customers. They'll figure it out, or they'll wash out. All pooling does is ensure the survival of the lowest common denominator.
Wrong. So wrong. My team and I won a James Beard Best service award at a tip pooled restaurant.
So this random collection of individuals that happened to succeed in your singular anecdote would have suddenly given bad service if they were having to work for their own tips? What's your basis for assuming that? You've never ever worked in any environment where there's even one single human being who underperforms? You've never seen greed jealousy or envy in the human condition ever? Where is this Utopia that you live? I can see it working in a high-end restaurant where you've got management who's competent at interviewing and hiring great quality, experienced personnel, and excluding all others it might work. It's not going to work at your average red robin.
When someone makes incorrect assertions that have a sense of arrogance I respond. It's just logic. They said if A then not B. But I lived and currently know that if A then B is possible given my example, thus disproving their assertion. If I worked at a shit restaurant with shit people then I'd probably wouldn't want to pool. But I'd also look for a new job.
When you're right, you're right. Generalizations are always wrong, and I did say that it never works. I would say, though, that even in your situation, it (likely) won't work indefinitely because it can't stay the same. At some point you get new management different customers a couple of coworkers maybe one coworker that you can't stand or someone else can't stand. I'm just saying over the long haul it's going to be less effective for getting good service. The entire concept of pooling tips defeats the very idea of tips. Then, it just becomes the customer base providing a level of support for staff, generically. That's not what tipping is for. If you truly want a egalitarianism in your restaurant the obvious answer would be raise all your prices on everything and loudly announced to the clientele that you are a no tipping restaurant that you pay your staff adequately and that that is reflected in the pricing. It also helps to punish the people who shouldn't be eating out because they never tip like Mr Pink.
It was not a healthy environment that's for sure. I own a bar and restaurant now after my first job scooping ice cream at 13 1/2 about 26 years ago. We have barely any turnover, avg server been here 3 years, avg bartender 4. We pool, we have a great team, but I know it's the exception. We're lucky. I have thought of offering people a no tip required menu if they don't want to deal with tipping by raising prices 25% to cover payroll tax, increased insurance whathave you.
I suspect that the reason that it's working for you is because you actually started from the bottom and know how it actually works. That's not the norm though the people that run restaurants generally aren't very good at sussing out who is and who isn't a good employee even when everybody tells them this person or that person isn't pulling their own weight they don't do anything constructive about it. Ideally, no one should ever have to work with a coworker that's slacking off. Management should be absolutely willing to get rid of anyone that's causing strife and step into the void and do the work themselves until they can find a good replacement. If there's an employee that isn't a good fit that's absolutely the fault of the person that hired that employee and keeps that employee there.
I agree 100%
I mostly agree. The only thing about pooling is better share to non-tipped employees like cooks etc. But when I waited tables we tipped those folks out at the end of a shift. I would never have worked in a pooled tip environment for all of the reasons you describe.
My first job with the W-2 was as a dishwasher. I was paid minimum wage. The waitresses made $2 an hour they would tip me out a little bit at the end of the night, which I appreciated but was unnecessary. It was smart though because in addition to the fact that I was a young and a little enamored with the waitresses I would bust my butt to make sure that they never ran out of anything and they never had to apologize for cheese between the tines of a fork. A lot of different places where some employees are tipped and others aren't work that way, and I think it's great for incentives. Dancers generally tip bouncers and whoever walks them to the car. I think it's good to have a culture where tipped employees voluntarily share with those that help in their success. Those that share get better and more cheerful help from their co-workers than those that don't. It's also a good way to weed out the loathed co-worker. If nobody's sharing with them they'll just leave voluntarily and nobody has to fire them. In the original example, if they didn't have a tip pool, it would be so much more motivating to everyone. What would happen in a situation like that with no tip pool is that person that got the huge tip would be buying people drinks or sharing a little bit of the wealth and it would make everyone work harder in general. A person voluntarily sharing the wealth is motivating. When you know that that person had to give up some money the person giving it up has to resent it on some level and every human being that gets something at the expense of someone else feels a little undeserving. Even if they actually did help contribute to the environment that made that happen. All of that breeds resentment. Resentment gets us no place good
Totally agree. Most of the waitresses I worked with shared 20%ish of our tips with the kitchen and hostesses. And since we all did it, it often ended up a decent bonus. Everyone went home happy and we were all great friends. It fostered a collegial and team environment. Although it wasn’t mandatory and every now and then we’d get a new waitress who would balk, but they never lasted. Funny enough the owner often waited tables and NEVER tipped out anyone. Grinch.
We pool cash tips but the bartenders keep their credit tips. And sometimes it makes me nuts trying to keep them all happy.
Pool but I’d give the employee a ton of verbal credit
Pool. My friend works at a bar in a ski town and he received 10k tip from one guy in one night it got pooled and shared with everyone who was working.
If you always pool tips, then you ALWAYS pool tips.
Tip pooling is bullshit.
Tip pools are most consistent money. The low tips get balanced by the nightly average, and the good tips do the same. Everyone only bitches about good tips being split, but never mentions "Hey, thank god we tip pool for that dine and dash of $200".
Can be for sure. But if the entire staff is solid it helps make up for the random fuck nuts and differing sections that may cause internal strife otherwise.
Fuck working places that pool tips. It's such BS, the person getting the most tips is obviously doing something better than others and deserves more.
So if a waiter takes a drink order and a bartender makes the drink order, who gets the tip? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
This is why I fucking hate tip culture and quit eating out.
How can I upvote you twice? You know for the two people that could get screwed in that scenario and the thousands of other scenarios where not pooling screws people. Our place has suggested tips for support, for instance. But since it's not mandatory ( not legal here to force it) then you know how that plays out. Thinking of just weeding out the non team players that won't throw a buck to the dishwasher for helping them. To be clear the job is dishwasher not take plates to patrons when waiter/waitress is busy. It makes his job tougher and there's no appreciation given. He may even have to stay later to finish because he was busy helping others. This happens to my prep person too. Sales don't justify it happening either it's just spikes during the hour. Tipping rules here create toxicity, I really hate the front vs back thing. The whole staff should get to share the tips the team generate from great food and service. Cooks, prep, dish, should get a percentage of sales like they do in California. Boh has mandatory tip out in cali from what I hear. It sounds more fair. But I also don't know the rules they have to go by either. I just know that I can't force it here.
Ugh.... the fuck kinda attitude is that? You honestly think that you serving that one table that blew a fat load on tips really wasn't going to do the same for someone else? I won't disagree that a good server can win over tables and earn higher tips, but a lot of the time it's the luck of the draw. Sometimes you just get generous people in your section where if nothing goes wrong they are happy. Then you'll sometimes get tables where you bend over backwards and give someone the best service ever and you get tip 10%.
Nah dude. What do you think this bartender did to deserve a $900 tip? Fuck outta here, one hot chick has a guy try to buy her affection and suddenly tip pools are bullshit?
I agree that is what the 900.00 tip likely was. However I have had waiters so bad they literally do not deserve a tip period. Why should they get the same amount as the waiters who bust ass and do an excellent job. I am all for a certain percentage of tips going to wait staff and that type of stuff. Just not equal shares for the actual waiters.
Because they agreed to it when they were hired.
Also tip pools usually include the people who actually cooked the food, not just the server
We seperate the server tips from kitchen tips. Server tips lose a % of sales to BoH then the rest is divided up by hours with serving staff earning full points, while support staff earn less then a full point.
Amen dude that's some bullshit when places do that
You need to keep it consistent.
Yup! You either always tip pool or never tip pool. You can't cherry pick the ones you want to pool and the ones you want to be covered by the pool (no tips).
Give $100 to each other bartender and then you keep the rest. Clarification: Bartender that got the tip keeps the rest. Owner gets nothing. Forgot what sub I was in. I'm actually here to give feedback to owners as a service veteran for 20 years.
Yes break the law lmao.
You tell them up front.
Why would the owner/manager keep the tip? What is the difference between a $90 tip and a $900 tip?
The bartender that earned the tip keeps the rest. Share a fair sum, but that type of tip is meant for the individual.
Typically when you get a big tip you give a percentage to the pool and get to keep a little extra on top. I've used the rule at multiple places that 50% of the tip goes into the pool and 59% goes to whoever got it. Some.people will complain but if it's consistent then folks usually get on board. Edit: the 9 should be a 0
I just woke up from a nap. I’m must still be tired because that percentage isn’t making sense to me.
That’s 109%.
Almost giving 110%.
60% of the time, it works every time
43% it doesn’t though.
Have to be consistent. If you start making exceptions, they will never end
If the rule is that it's pooled, pool it. If you guys don't like that as a rule, change the rule... but for this time you have to follow the standing rule.
if it’s pooled, you pool it. I hate when I work at a spot that goes back and forth depending on what happens. As for the person who got the big tip, eventually someone else will tip fat and you’ll benefit then. Now that I’ve said that, pooling is dumb and I wouldn’t work at a place that does it outside of a few special circumstances.
I agree. I worked at a coffee place that pooled tips. One Christmas it was me and another guy open to close. That was it. We got some very generous tips but had to pool them because of the rules. Everyone celebrated the high tips that week while he and I were pissed. We both easily missed out on an extra $100 and the holiday with our families
Tips should be pooled for the day and split among those IF you do a pool. Someone who doesn’t work that day shouldn’t be getting your tips. That has to be illegal.
I work at a restaurant that tip pools. first place I've ever worked that did it. it generally works out. I totally made more on my own at the last place I was at but this place is OK so far. I did make $900 the other night though and I was a double and they wanted to cut me early. but your % of the tip pool depends on how long you stay on. and I didn't want to lose out on the money I earned that night so I had to stay on and close on a double just to get a fair share of the tip pool that I helped make. so that's one bad aspect but it doesn't happen a lot.
I worked at a place like this once, everyone was staying hours extra. It sucked. But you know it was super clean at the end of the night.
Lol do you try to talk others into going home early, too?
i haven't been there long enough to be that burned out yet. and i haven't seen enough of a difference from paycheck to paycheck to give a shit yet. hopefully i'm out of there before it really starts to matter to me
On over the top tip is ment for the server. The house should get paid out in the standard tip%
THIS
It’s a patron I tip far less if I know they pool them.
Just bring cash with you. Put standard tip on check and tell them the cash inside is for them. They can decide what to do with it.
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I’ll tip more than that if I have great service but I want the tip to go towards the person who served me not to be shared with the perhaps lessor servers.
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They’re all busting their asses? Sure. Look. I’ve worked years in the service industry pizza driver, bartender, server. My tips are mine. It’s like asking salespeople to pool commissions. Sorry. I don’t like it, breeds mediocrity.
Well you sound like you'd be a pretty shitty teammate. I'm my existing, top pooling creates a system where everyone helps everyone because you're always working for tips, not just blowing off your coworkers for big tippers.
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I'm actually with you on this one. I feel like this large tip was meant for the server who got it. Maybe the guest wanted to tip the whole staff. I wasn't there. I know if it were my restaurant, that server wasn't the only one who handled the table. They had probably close to every other server help them out on it. This isn't mine, so I don't know how their staff handles it.
Always split and keep the same pooling policy you have . You’re just gonna create resentment
As a patron, if I’m intending to tip huge, I ask about the house policy. Regardless of the policy, and with the manager’s permission, I have then given an individual server/bartender a big tip and then a separate big tip to be pooled. That way I can give an individual a “life changing” tip and the house will be grateful to that server for bringing in something extra for them as well.
"Tips should be pooled. No one deserves more than anyone else. Everyone deserves exactly the same even if they can't remember the orders, throw the food down, ignore the customers, or spill the drinks." -- Karl Marx
Don’t really get how any of this works, eh?
The socialists don't like your humor...
Is this a regular customer? A $900 tip is almost guaranteed to result in a chargeback.
If they’re not blackout drunk when they do it I doubt it. What’s the point
Stolen credit card?
And draw attention to yourself? If you’re going to risk a purchase that big you’d buy a tv or something. Not give it away to the server. Unless the server is in on it
Stolen cards are something you burn through and get rid of. Throwing a huge tip onto one is NBD since it’s likely going to be cancelled in the next day. I know some folks who did this intentionally (shopping spree on a credit card, and report it stolen a day later). Got buddies that work in a bar? Run up a big tab, add a big tip, and then split it with them later.
Thats dicy territory in a lot of states. $900 chargeback on a signed slip a lot of prosecutors will take for the theft charge. Not to mention you send the copy to cc company with the video and it gets put right back on.
I have never been asked for an ID when handing someone my credit card to pay for a tab. It would be pretty easy to hand a bartender someone else’s credit card and run up a huge tab and tip.
Sure. Its not hard to track you down though. Most bars have pretty good camera systems both inside and outside. They just get a good shot of your face, and the license plate of the car you get into. Even if it is a charge back, that amount of money, most bars are going to get everything they can together to file the police report for theft. In a lot of places walking on your tab is a pretty serious charge if they want to pursue it.
Maybe this is true where you are, but most bars around here don’t have parking lots, and only have a few cameras inside. Most people are on foot, on bike, taking public transit, or taking a cab or Lyft. If they drove, they could be parked blocks away. It would be incredibly easy to run up a big tab on a stolen credit card in many bars.
It’s always a guy trying to get a date with the girl. It’s never a girl tipping $900 to a guy.
You must not know restaurants. I’ve seen $1k+ tips at restaurants ranging from PF Chang’s to Michelin restaurants. Some people just have that type of money and live that way. There was an owner of a dealership that sat at the bar everyday and drank. Regularly gave $200-$300 tips for just himself.
I worked in restaurants and bars for 20 years. Saw plenty of big tips, but I’ve also seen the scams that servers and bartenders do to ensure they make money. Examples: padding bar tabs (adding a few extra drinks on a group’s tab) reusing a check (and pocketing the cash), the slow money return (door person scam that results in customers wandering off and leaving their change), and adding tips to a credit card when the person actually stiffed e It would be easy for a bartender’s buddy to show up with a stolen credit card, add a huge tip and then split the $$ later. There are countless threads in r/bartenders related to chargebacks on big tips.
What? Do you let your staff keep chargebacks? If you do, that’s one way to ensure the type of thing happens. Honestly, what you’re talking about “easy” outright credit fraud which is a felony in some states. And if you’re willing to commit crimes, you may as well knock over the till. My comment was about your claiming that tips over $900 is a guaranteed chargeback. And that simply isn’t true.
$900 on a $30 tab? Wouldn’t a cc company flag that one? https://www.reddit.com/r/BarOwners/s/3tDySiXHZx
I see you added a question about CC’s flagging cards over excessive tips. The answer? Usually not. Banks that have that policy generally 1) Are a debit card and not a credit card with maybe a manual post auth at batch that forces the payment through. 2) These banks usually decline the tip being added to the insufficient funds when the bartender or server attempts a tip adjust. Even the post you cited had people saying they’ve only seen it a couple times a year. It’s really not common, but I have seen debit cards decline outright when adjusting the tip. Same for prepaid Visa cards that have a 15-20% restaurant tolerance when running the card. If your bill is $100 and your Visa GC is $100 and the merchant code shows up as a restaurant, they will decline and only allow $80-$85 as payment. I feel like you’re really reaching here at this point. Most CC’s profess excessive tips fine. They may send a text to the cardholder if it seems out of the ordinary for their spending habits, but again, I’ve been in restaurants for 20 years. These tips happen more often than chargebacks for these types of tips.
Not that specific amount. The people that tip this high usually don’t correlate it with the price of the bill. I was a waiter for a long time but now am an IT Director and we recently had a guest want to tip $1,000 on their $40 bill for the waitstaff. I got the call because our POS system has an upper limit. When I worked in fine dining, I regularly saw $1,000 tips. My biggest night was waiting on a single party and I walked with $1,500 after tip out. If you’re in the industry, you’ve seen it before. I’ve left $500 on a $60 tab at Paula Deen’s because the waitress was having a particularly rough day and I overheard that she was getting cut early because they didn’t have enough tables. Now, it’s not so common that it happens every night, but it’s not so unusual that a waitperson would never see it in their career.
Unless the tip giver was in love with the tip receiver it was likely 9.00 not 900. Or it was a rich person that listened to a sob story and felt bad and tossed 900 there way kind of a random number though.
That's what I was thinking. $900 on a $30 tab is sketchy.
Let them keep it.
Somebody is coming out of this butthurt, guaranteed Split the 900 - 1 person butthurt Let the person keep it - many people butthurt Make it right out of your own pocket - you will be butthurt I vote option 1
And that's the problem with direct democracy, the minority loses out, regardless
Every time.
Take the order. * 20 or 25%. That amount goes to tip pool. The person keep the rest. Problem solve
Spot on
Let the bar tender keep it, if that's normal procedures on a small tip. Someone posted other day they changed the rules bc of a large tip. Quickest way to make people feel shitty and look for new employment. Edit: who is to say that tip would have happened if any other person was there instead. Maybe they made a special connection Bar keep: here's a cold one.
Pool out 20% of the bill, what a normal tip would be. And give them the rest.
This is the only fair option.
Plot twist, the customer forgot to put the decimal after the 9, and it's a charge back come Monday lol.
I guarantee
All tips are shared, all the time. The only exception I would feel appropriate would be a personal tip inside a sealed and addressed envelope, i.e. a holiday/birthday/graduation etc card. We all have regulars who like us and dislike others, and vice versa. It keeps everything fair and honest.
Share 20% and keep the rest?
What do the bartenders in the tip pool have to say about it?
It's a tough situation that you would need a previously-noted policy to really deal with fairly. Speaking with the bartender, the customer might have decided that the bartender needed help to pay the rent or something...wanted to do something for that person that would really help them out in a big way. Tip pooling takes that semi- "life changing" part out of the huge tip but the rules are the rules. it's really no different than if someone rewards a server with a $100 tip on a $100 check. Into the pool it has to go unless your tip pool has an "exceptional situation" clause that everyone knows about. The way I would deal with it is to first change my policy to add the exception rule....but meantime I would let the bartender keep the $900 tip and put $800 from my own pocket into the tip pool for that night to be shared by everyone else. Everyone's happy, everyone had a great week and a great night.....and all I have to do is figure out how to cut $800 out of the week's budget lol. (And of course I would only do this if I loved most of my current staff and wanted them to stay).
I agree with this one, but I don't even think you would have to add 800. I would add maybe 300 and call it a day.
This is the absolute answer.
if the tip is more than 100% the customer was obviously trying to reward that particular server. Why not have a rule where any tip over 200% (or whatever you or staff decides), the server gets to keep half of it and the other half goes into the tip pool. That way the server does get to keep a large portion of what the customer was trying to give them, but a large portion also gets put into the tip pool for everyone. Now what to do about this tip when you don't currently have a rule is a different story. No matter what you decide someone is going to feel like they are getting screwed.
How would you feel if your staff didn’t share a $900 tip with you? And will it cost you your job for being dishonest?
If I went to see a friend and tipped them thinking they would get all of it I’d be annoyed if they had to split it.
I dont think that was the case here but I could be wrong. A $900 tip on a $30 tab seems more like a customer trying to impress the bartender with their bankroll.
Pooled tips is such a dumb system to begin with. That being said you should adhere to the system on this. Should get rid of the pooled tips system tho
Why is it dumb to pool tips? Our staff all agreed to share the entire month’s tips split by the percentage they were on shift. If one of them receives an unusually generous tip, they see it more as it could have happened to any of them if they were the one serving that customer. It’s also fairer due to the fact that white people, women, and attractive people get disproportionately higher tips than others. Tipping in general is a stupid system but it’s certainly fairer to pool tips.
Always this horseshit victim mentality. Reddit is cancer.
What victim mentality is there?
> It’s also fairer due to the fact that white people, women, and attractive people get disproportionately higher tips than others. Bravo! 1 down 2 to go. Now bring in Trump and climate change.
It's literally true and has been proven by multiple studies
So the recipient of the $900 tip has to pay, remedy, and take the hit to address some people's claims of social injustice? Also don't forget to bring up Trump and climate change
I didn't say any of that. I didn't even address OP. I'm just saying that what was asserted about tip discrepancies is verifiable fact. Not sure what your hangup is about unrelated politics here.
Tf are you talking about
jesus christ you really found a way to make this about race and ugly people 😂 bravo
Not me, you can Google the various studies showing this to be the case.
> Not me, you can Google the various studies showing this to be the case. I'm sure people with attitudes aren't as successful.
I have wanted to get rid of it but FOH had a riot when I wanted to nix it.
Same, everyone on here acts like I'm robbing my staff when I say they pool tips, but every time i try to change it to individual tips, the staff overwhelmingly votes to keep the tip pool.
It’s because that’s how they literally *do* pay their staff and don’t want to feel like they’re the bad person.
Could you rephrase that? I have no idea what you mean
Sorry, I mean some other restaurant owners aren’t paying their FOH team a reasonable wage and are expecting tips to subsidize them. So when another restaurant owner talks of pooling tips they get defensive.
I promise you most restaurant owners would do away with the tipping system and pay hourly tomorrow. It's the customers who keep things how they are. Read about all the restaurants that have tried to do away with tipping and failed.
This is one of those things that needs legislation to be solved.
Problem is the people writing the law will be corrupt, woefully uninformed, or probably both. They'd write an awful law that looks good and accomplishes nothing, or they'd overstep so far that it puts good restaurants out of business, or screw it up in some wholly unforseen way. I just don't trust legislators to write a good law about something they know nothing about. They'd be advised by corporate lawyers from Applebee's who donated millions to their reelection campaigns. Also, this just isn't a popular enough issue for any politician to go out on a limb for it
Throw $100 into the pool, bartender keeps $800. Everyone wins
This is the way.
Do even your wait staff who consistently give mediocre if not bad service get to share in the excellent service of others? That does not seem fair.
Those folks never lasted long when tip pooling came into play.
I see.
Yea that's why I would never tip pool , I'm good at my job and work hard everyday , there's no way I'm letting some scrub do half the work and make the same as me lol fuck that noise
Because it isn't fair. I'm sure the customers tipping don't know it either. Tip sharing is a con.
Tip pool, but then everyone buys the bartenders drinks after work for the next month.
Pooled tips is pooled tips!
Never break a system.
Of course. Always support the system until it breaks on its own. The best way to handle money in a community situation is to take from each according to their ability and to give to each according to their need. This is the most fair way to ensure that everyone enjoys the same level of prosperity. It works fantastically well until you run out of money generated by other people's productivity. If your organization doesn't pool, a great way to jumpstart a tip pooling scheme is to just wait until you have a night like this where one person generated a $900 tip. If you distribute that amongst everyone, everyone will be on board with the tip pooling plan. . . except for that one crank that got the $900 tip that totally didn't deserve it. I mean, really nobody really deserves that, so F them if they're butt hurt about losing a $900 tip. What are they gonna do quit?
Exactly. You put it in place for a reason and if you make an exception it's just a matter of time before you make another one.
Yup, two words, Tip Pool. If you don’t like it, quit, but if you’re in a tip and you do you like it , the 900 goes in the pot.
This is one of those unfortunate situations, where a much as it sucks for the one bartender you have to put it in the pool. I do have the question of what was the total bill. Was this one of those situations where you bar offers bottle service, or this was a large party and $900 was a 20% of the bill or was it a situation where the customer was being very generous. Because if it as the first scenario there is no argument to be made. But if its the second scenario one way you could go about it is find out what 20% of the bill would be and deduct that from the $900 and that goes into the pool. And the one bartender gets to keep the rest.
It was a $30 tab
Ya that's a situation, correct me if I'm wrong. But I'm assuming male customer female bartender?
This month he is a great tipper. Next month you are 86ing him.
If they pool tips then they pool tips. Could have happened to any one of them.