[foleyisgood]

Originally Posted by mattie405

When I first started waitressing back in 1971 my first job was in a tip pool place. One girl who had been there a few years was notorius for always getting the slowest station and would never lift a finger to help anyone else on the floor, yet she took home the same amount as the rest of us everyday. It completely soured me on ever working a tip pool place again, every day my contribution to the pool would be between $10 and $20 more than most others and yet I came home with less and worked harder, couldn't see the point in it. I managed not to work in a pool share place again until 1990 when I went into a different kind of place than I had ever worked before. The owners were either very unique or completely out of their minds (depending on your point of view) but the way it went was this, I walked in cold off the street the day before they opened and applied for a job, I was "a friend of a friend" of one of the owners, didn't know these 2 owners from a hole in the ground but sat and chatted with them a few minutes and they told me the staff had been hired months before (opening had been delayed by a hang up with the C of O) I left with an invite to come opening day just to hang out and enjoy a dinner on the house. I showed up the next day and most of the staff they had hired didn't show up so I got pressed into service (still no job) but after the night ended they did offer me work. The place was a complete madhouse with a line out the door from day one. After the third day they announced it would be run as a pool tip place and I figured I would just hang around until I found another place to work just based on my experience years ago with tip pools. Three weeks later as the staff and I walked into work the owners sat us down and announced I would be running the place and handed me the keys ( I did say they were nuts, right?) It was run as a tip pool but everybody, and I mean everybody pulled their weight. The way it was set up was that while I oversaw everything, the staff had definite input into those who didn't pull their own weight, and those that didn't, or who ever used the line "thats not my table or station" didn't last long. It was everybodys job to see that every customer was taken care of at all times, we had bus guys but they also took care of tables if a customer asked them for anything, the wait staff also bussed tables to help out the bus staff and I did anything that was needed to be done. The tip pool was split 70 to the wait staff and 30 to the bus staff. If it was thought that you were slouching around or not pulling your weight and contributing your fair share to the pool you got a warning and after that if you didn't perform well, you were gone. The only ones who didn't share in the pool were the people in the kitchen and because the place was so busy I really thought they should have, the kitchen was one of the most cramped and inefficient ones I have ever seen, they also had to cook for the attached deli which did about 100 deliveries every night, our cooks were some of the hardest workers I had ever seen in all the years I was in the business. I would try to make it a little more pleasant for them and either cook for them myself or order pizza or chinese for them at the end of some nights and pay for it from my pocket just to let them know that even if no one else appreciated the job they did most of the time, I did. While restaurants are known for frequent staff turnovers this one kept the original staff for more than 6 years, I think more than anything tho it was due to the fact that they had real input into the daily workings and the people they worked with. On RP's original question, if a customer left a tip and then wanted to give something extra to a particular wait person or busser I felt it was right that that part of a gratuity went to that particular person only, that situation did come up in the first year and while most of the staff didn't agree with me I saw it as the proper thing to do and it remained that way until I left years later.

wall of text, ouch

but still a good story, just need to hit 'enter' more