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I worked as a dishwasher in a very busy restaurant when the minimum wage was still $5.15 an hour.
Nobody ever tipped us and in fact nobody ever even knew just how hard we worked along with the cooks while the waiters waltzed around the restaurant chatting up guests for tips and delivery guys stood outside smoking cigarettes when they were not driving about.
We used to watch them count their tip money at the end of every night and I have never felt more wronged in my entire life.
If you've worked in a restaurant you'll know that waiting tables is simply not as exhausting or even as dirty as doing the dishes or being the cooks.
The waiters actually do very little in comparison to all the work that needs to be done in a restaurant.
One must also remember that it's the dishwashers who clean up and sanitize the entire restaurant while the pretty waiters and waitresses leave with the patrons.
At least that's how it was where I worked.
On weekends it was thousands of pieces of cutlery that the waiters had simply dumped on us which we would end up cleaning sometimes until the wee hours of the morning. (The latest I have had to stay was 5.00 A.M amounting to a 17 hour shift)
The conditions at the back are deplorable especially in the hot, humid Jersey summers. Some managers wouldn't allow us to keep the back doors open for fresh air and the conditions were almost inhuman.
Needless to say, we were all either black or Latino working in the back of the restaurant.
I worked as a dishwasher in a very busy restaurant when the minimum wage was still $5.15 an hour.
Nobody ever tipped us and in fact nobody ever even knew just how hard we worked along with the cooks while the waiters waltzed around the restaurant chatting up guests for tips and delivery guys stood outside smoking cigarettes when they were not driving about.
We used to watch them count their tip money at the end of every night and I have never felt more wronged in my entire life.
If you've worked in a restaurant you'll know that waiting tables is simply not as exhausting or even as dirty as doing the dishes or being the cooks.
The waiters actually do very little in comparison to all the work that needs to be done in a restaurant.
One must also remember that it's the dishwashers who clean up and sanitize the entire restaurant while the pretty waiters and waitresses leave with the patrons.
At least that's how it was where I worked.
On weekends it was thousands of pieces of cutlery that the waiters had simply dumped on us which we would end up cleaning sometimes until the wee hours of the morning. (The latest I have had to stay was 5.00 A.M amounting to a 17 hour shift)
The conditions at the back are deplorable especially in the hot, humid Jersey summers. Some managers wouldn't allow us to keep the back doors open for fresh air and the conditions were almost inhuman.
Needless to say, we were all either black or Latino working in the back of the restaurant.
Wow, I worked for $2.75 an hour and I had to wait on tables, cook pizzas, make pizza dough, make pizza sauce, prep ingredients, clean toilets, scrub cheese off forks, scrub dishes, and I never even thought about complaining - heck, I was happy to have a job. My manager was so pleased with my performance he gave me a $.05 raise every six months. I was never offered a management position because I was a college student - they knew I wouldn't stay there forever.
Don't even get me started on the jobs I had that weren't as much fun and paid less (picking-up trash at a hotel parking lot, mowing grass at a hotel, planting crops at a small farm by hand for ten-hour days, tending rows of corn with a hoe in the mid-day sun, picking tomatoes in the mid-day sun, digging potatoes in the mid-day sun, selling vegetables door-to-door that no one wanted (because they grew their own), etc.)
It's tough out there - you can complain or you can use your skills to advance your career.
Last edited by Dirt Grinder; 02-24-2014 at 02:26 AM..
Wow, I worked for $2.75 an hour and I had to wait on tables, cook pizzas, make pizza dough, make pizza sauce, prep ingredients, clean toilets, scrub cheese off forks, scrub dishes, and I never even thought about complaining - heck, I was happy to have a job. My manager was so pleased with my performance he gave me a $.05 raise every six months. I was never offered a management position because I was a college student - they knew I wouldn't stay there forever.
Don't even get me started on the jobs I had that weren't as much fun and paid less (picking-up trash at a hotel parking lot, mowing grass at a hotel, planting crops at a small farm by hand for ten-hour days, tending rows of corn with a hoe in the mid-day sun, picking tomatoes in the mid-day sun, digging potatoes in the mid-day sun, selling vegetables door-to-door that no one wanted (because they grew their own), etc.)
It's tough out there - you can complain or you can use your skills to advance your career.
Your post brought back a memory. Clean toilets! I remember during off peak hours (around 3 or 4) at McDonald's (worked one summer when I was much younger...over 30 years ago) with fewer customers coming in, the manager asking me to do that. Also wiped tables, etc. There were no tips there and still aren't. Of course, they do not deliver.
I have heard there are some establishments that cut every employee in to some degree on tips left inside the restaurant, but would be surprised if tips from delivery are included in that.
Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand as to the OP's request, we provided some very good information and I will emphasize again I think their $3.50 tip for the $12 order was fine.
Usually if I order a single pizza it usually comes out to around $15.50 give or take a few cents. I give the guy a $20 and tell him to keep the change. However, since I used to be a delivery person, I side with the person, and assuming I have $30 on hand, I'll order a $4 or $5 side to push the overall total over $20, and I'll give the guy like a $6 or $7 tip.
The delivery person gets $1.25 per delivery from the store. If they had 4 deliveries in a shift, and of those 4, nobody tipped, then they'd only get $5 cash at the end of their shift (they get paid whatever hourly rate they get just like regular employees in form of a paycheck on payday). But they get that $1.25 per delivery order and whatever tips they received during that shift at the end of their shift. Some of the tips are included in a credit card payment, not always cash form, so they have to "cash out" at shift's end with the manager on duty. Some shifts can rake in a lot of extra money, but sometimes almost nothing. Depends. Some don't tip, but most people tip. I still like my non-tippers. It's not a big deal since most people tip. Old folks are more likely not to, but they are very sweet and it's cool. Some people have only enough for the bill and that's fine. I've even covered people who came up short because I wanted them to have their dinner. Makes them happy. Some overtip and that's fun.
I know cuz I deliver. It's a fun job. Not stuck in one place all day or night and it's fun to see different people and their homes. Everyone's happy to see the pizza "guy" coming up their front walk.
$2-$5 is average. $10 is a lot. Sometimes it's only $1. Anything makes me happy. I'm fine if they don't too. But if everyone didn't, it would take the helium out of my balloon and I prob wouldn't do the job.
... I've even covered people who came up short because I wanted them to have their dinner...
I wish I had something to say that could be a suitable response to that.
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