The Blues of a Collar

The Blues of a Collar

To anyone working in the service industry whether it be a valet parker, waiter, bellman, and bartender tips are everything. It is how they pay their bills, take their children to see the doctor, buy Christmas gifts, and pay rent. None of these people can get buy on $7.50 alone, it is absolutely impossible. If it wasn’t for the tips, doing one of these remedial jobs would be pointless. So one must solely rely on the kindness of others to pay their way though life which often leaves an individual’s destiny uncertain, especially if he/she has to rely on the guest’s generosity. But often people aren’t so generous or don’t understand the concept of dinning out, for example, lets say if a family eats $100.00 worth of food, if they only leave a $2.00 tip, it costs the server money, because at the end of the night the bartender, expo, and busser get one to two percent of the total sales in tips, leaving the waiter with -$2.00 for that table. Now I understand if the service is bad you don’t need to leave a tip, I’m well aware of that, however, it just makes life much more difficult when it costs that individual money to work. It almost cheapens their life. Now one might believe that I have a bias, because I work in the service industry, and of course I do, I can’t help it. I guess I feel sorry for them. However, there are times where the desperation of greed leaves me speechless. For instance, when a server has come up with a new way to scam the restaurant out of money, or when 15% of a check is not enough, it is a fair tip. However, it is nice to receive a little more, lets say 20%. One thing I observed as a server, a few more dollars really makes a difference, it really makes an individual feel happy. It’s really amazing; I guess it makes that particular server feel appreciated. I often say I don’t really care about the money which is a partial truth, I do and I don’t. The amount of money I walk away with at the end of the night doesn’t affect my lifestyle too much, because I don’t have a high over head. However, being tipped well really makes me feel appreciated, like what I did had some kind of meaning.