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by Kris Mason  "There is no longer a clear start to the Holiday Shopping Season. Black Friday Sales throughout the month of November is just one example of how a single, simple day has been destroyed. Promotions like Cyber Monday starts Saturday and Door Busters Every Two Hours weren’t enough to push people over the edge. I personally don’t understand how I’m supposed to want to bust down a door that’s already open. It was called black Friday before it was ever marketed as “Black Friday.” The day after Thanksgiving marked the day that began the Christmas Shopping Season. See, the term is so old, it has been around since you could call “Holiday” shopping what it really is; and on that Friday, retailers begin operating in the “black” for the first time for the year rather than in the “red.” Once the internet took over there were suddenly websites that were huge databases for Black Friday sale prices. Shoppers became strategic and retailers grew increasingly more and more aggressive. Friday morning, 6am openings turned into 5am and then 4am; people kept showing up each time the opening was pushed back earlier and earlier. And then came… the tipping point... Midnight. Some people called, 'foul!'; how could that money monster, Walmart, force it's employees to do this? But midnight became 10pm, which became 8pm, which became 6pm. Lines were blurred now. Is it Black Friday or Black Thursday? People on social media exploded with outrage. 'How dare the retailers expect people to work on Thanksgiving! This is some serious, sacred family time you’re messing with, Big Business!' Where is this venom coming from and why is it so… misplaced? There is such a huge public discourse about taking retail workers away from their family in the name of the all mighty buck; so much so that some thirty plus retailers this year are making a public declaration that they will be closed on Thanksgiving. But it’s not just misplaced outrage, but hypocritical, selective outrage. In thirty years of waiting tables, I can count on one hand how many times I’ve been home, all day with my family, on Thanksgiving. Three of them were because I was lucky enough to be working for a family that closed their restaurant for the holiday. "I’m just suggesting that you can all drop the false outrage." We all work on Thanksgiving. We take care of the people who don’t cook or can’t cook, or would simply rather somebody else do all the cooking and cleaning so you don’t “miss time with your family.” Nobody gives a damn that we do this; you expect us to be there. Retailers are supposed to have a free pass on this day while countless other industries toil unnoticed. Your expectation of how many people should be there for you is absurd. You expect the NFL to send six teams to play each other in three cities and all the stadium workers and all the broadcast professionals in front of and behind the cameras to all not be with their families so that that you can enjoy your “day that nobody should have to work.” And it’s not just Thanksgiving, it’s all holidays. You can find us pouring your champagne as you ring in the New Year. We make your Valentines dinner romantic. We take care of you and your family on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. We bring you all together for three day weekends and Easter Brunch. We’re even open on the days when you are supposed to be in your own backyard doing your own grilling, like Memorial Day, Labor Day and the 4th of July. And unlike the days when it was only Chinese food restaurants, most major hospitality chains and fast food operators are even open on Christmas. This is not a rant. It isn't a complaint or even a cry for sympathy. I’m just suggesting that you can all drop the false outrage and simply admit that your plea for keeping families united over the holidays doesn’t include the families of our Military, Police and Fire Fighters, Doctors and Nurses, Hotel workers, Airline Pilots and Flight Attendants, Radio and Televison Crews and Anchors, Cooks and Dishwashers in Restaurants and Fast Food Chains, Movie Theater Employees and Sports Franchises, Convenient Store Clerks and Gas Station Attendants, Cab Drivers and Bus Drivers and the countless people who support the above mentioned industries behind the scenes; basically, anybody else who makes your personal family experience safer and more enjoyable. So in the name of giving thanks and good will and holiday cheer and all that, be mindful of those who can’t be with their families so that you can enjoy yours. Be humble, kind, thankful, joyous, compassionate, gracious, thoughtful, merry, caring, cheerful and above all else, generous. You can start by sharing this post with anyone you know who has to clock in this Thanksgiving day. I do Waiter Boot Camps at your restaurant. Contact me to schedule a meeting. 480-600-6973
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by Kris Mason  In any transaction that includes adding a gratuity, there are really only two parties involved, the person giving the tip and the person receiving a tip. It really shouldn’t concern any other individual; despite the fact that the internet is buzzing with a third party who feels that tipping should be scrubbed from the surface of existence. The person receiving the tip has a very clear idea what they want to see happen. They want to either find a large pile of cash, enough to make it rain; or turn over the charge slip and reveal a 7000% tip and a cute little hand written note about being the recipient of “paying it forward.” The person leaving a tip knows how it goes too, based on the world’s most seemingly ridiculous sliding scale. It predates the diner even knowing why or how to tip, based on a combination of influences, ranging from friends to family to unknown cultural cues. It’s too simple to just say that “good tips” are equated to “good service,” because I’ve seen the opposite happen on numerous occasions. Every person who tips (whether it’s percentages as low as 5% or as high 40%) believes that their method, their formula is the way it is supposed to be. You double the tax. Never more than 10%. You double the first number. It’s $2 on ten. You start at whatever percent and go up for various things done above and beyond. You start at that percent and take away based on crimes of customer service or gross negligence. If things go incredibly well or horribly wrong a tip can be used as a statement; but that cannot be a rule set in stone. In some cases, not tipping is simply a nationality norm. Tipping doesn’t exist is some countries and can rear its ugly head during a visit to the States. There are people from this country who don’t tip because they don’t tip. My point is simply this. People tip… and they don’t. Everyone who waits tables does so with full knowledge of the possible outcome. Whatever your secret formula is for tipping, you’re absolutely correct; and it’s my job to cater to you so you feel comfortable enough to part with that wildly random dollar amount. We do the job because more often than not it works out quite well in our favor. Despite the fact that waiters and waitresses spend too much time bemoaning a low percentage on a large check, if we were losing money, we wouldn’t be there. We are survivalists; we go where the cash is. I am honestly surprised when I come across articles or blogs that talk about abolishing tipping. They’re very well researched, mostly referencing some book from the early 1900’s, trying to drum up outrage by playing a race card, or at least suggesting some form of class warfare. I’m more amazed that some restaurant owners have really taken to the idea. In the most notable move so far, New York City restaurant mogul Danny Meyer has announced he is doing away with tipping at all his Union Square Hospitality Group restaurants. After seeing this, I found multiple re-postings of the same article. Meyer has wanted to end tipping for a couple decades now and finally feels that this is the (his) time. Surprisingly, I liked what he was talking about. I liked that he was willing to tell his customers that his prices would be raised to compensate for no longer having to tip. For the customer, nothing actually changes. If you normally spent $100 on dinner and left a $20 tip, your night would cost you $120. Gone would be the “Tip” line on a credit card slip and customers would go home knowing that the server was fairly compensated. Sounds great, right? No harm, no foul? That’s what I thought; but it turns out I was wrong. I missed it because each version of the article that I’d previously seen was redacted. Edited. Why would you re-post half an article? It seemed that every person or website that had re-posted this story left out the best part of Danny Meyer’s plan. "Did Mr. Big-Shot New York City Restaurant Genius actually just steal the tip off my table?" You see, Meyer admits that since 2008 he has had a very difficult time retaining his kitchen staff because wages have been flat for almost a decade. His “Tip-Free Plan” includes raising his prices twenty to thirty percent and locking in a “Fair Wage” for everybody in the restaurant. Here’s what it looks like: Waiters and Bartenders - $9.00 per hour Back of the House and Cooks - $11.00 to $15.00 per hour Management - $25.00 per hour Wait… what?! Did Mr. Big-Shot New York City Restaurant Genius actually just steal the tip off my table and give it to the cooks and the managers?! Are you kidding me? According to Meyer, that’s the best way he knows how to fix the problem. Taking away the tipping system that some find awkward and few deem unnecessary and changing it into a redistribution of wealth is beyond fairness, it’s flat out Socialism. Waiting tables is the perfect exercise in Libertarianism. Every server is given the same set of tools, the same menu with the same prices and the same number of people to wait on serving the same food. Through this, and random chance (a luck of the draw), no two servers will produce the same results. We are created equal to pursue happiness with not a single guarantee about the outcome or result. People tip… and they don’t. Considering, in most general cases, there is a manager for every ten to twenty waiters, I’m guessing at the Union Station Hospitality Group there won’t be a manager position for every server who can’t afford a 60% cut in pay. So here is my simple prediction. Any waiter worth his salt will leave there and take a job anywhere else in the city where the owner hasn’t lost his mind. Mr. Meyer, we already know what $9 an hour hospitality looks like and it typically includes the question, “Do you want fries with that?” You should take a page from the Bernie Sanders playbook. If you really want to punish the one making all the money to compensate those at the the bottom, instead of taking the money from those filthy rich waiters and giving to the cooks and managers, why don’t you take the money out of of your own incredibly deep pockets and make sure all your kitchen staff is making as much as your poor waiters. Sounds fair to me! I do Waiter Boot Camps at your restaurant. Contact me to schedule a meeting. 480-600-6973
by Kris Mason  You get paid for the problems that you solve. I was told that by an old boss in relation to my dislike for cleaning the public restrooms at my first job. He said, “It’s a minimum wage task; and you are a minimum wage employee.” After that, I applied it to everything at work and it held up to be fairly true. Ultimately, it was a far better answer than, “Shut up and clean the bathrooms,” because it still applies to how I look at business today. When I hear somebody say that CEOs of major companies shouldn’t make as much money as they do, I believe that they realistically get paid for the problems that they solve. If all your decisions end up where the proverbial buck stops, that’s probably worth a few million dollars to steer a ship that large. Like any professional coach, if you have a losing season and you can guarantee that you will be looking for a position with another team next year; as for the CEO, have a losing year or even a bad third quarter and you’re out. Winning coaches make loads of cash too by the way. So, what does that have to do with being a waiter? You get paid for the problems that you solve. A greeter says hi and seats the table. A manager may or may not swing by your table to check on them. The same person that said hello says goodbye. Everything else in between hello and goodbye is on you. I’m not saying that from my stand point, “It’s all about you.” I’m saying that from the guest’s perspective, “It is all about you.” Who handles everything? You do. Who is blamed if it’s too cold or the music is too loud? You are. Who is blamed if the food is taking too long or isn’t cooked properly? You are. In addition to all the things that you do control, like taking the order, bringing the drinks, refilling, delivering the food, presenting the check and cashing out, you are saddled with dozens of things over which you have no direct control. A CEO can’t control whether a hundred year blizzard keeps people from going out shopping during the crucial holiday season; but if sales are down and stockholders lose money, it’s on him. You are the CEO. You are the Head Coach. You are the Ambassador of the restaurant. You are directly getting paid for the problems you solve. The waiter that complains about only ever getting tipped 10% or worse isn’t solving enough problems. Great business people never blame the weather for a bad quarter. Great coaches don’t complain about bad calls from the ref. Great waiters handle things. Great waiters always earn more money no matter where they work, regardless of what station they end up in. Great waiters solve more problems. "They hated us because we out earned them, in half the time. It even seemed as though we enjoyed ourselves doing it." In most cases, the servers in the restaurant will earn more than most (if not all) of the management team. This is where job title and perception don’t line up with income and wages. That is a huge disparity that I can only explain with the adage, “You get paid for the problems you solve.” Granted, from the overall business standpoint, managers earn salaries in a range from 25K to 35K, and the wait staff is paid “minimum wage.” But once you add in a server’s tips, it’s not even a close race (when comparing two full time incomes). I stopped waiting tables once to take on what was perceived by my friends and family as the responsible thing do and I took on a management roll at the restaurant where I worked. Although it gave me a fresh look at the day to day business side of the restaurant, it was the most miserable year and a half of my life. There I was, the responsible adult with a job title, watching high school and college students earn more than me while only working half the hours that I was expected to work. I no longer interacted with the guests because of the massive (and by my observation, useless) paperwork, busywork and emails that were required at the management level. It had little or nothing to do with how the people spending money at the restaurant were making their decisions or how they were being encouraged or discouraged to return. It was a valuable lesson. I finally understood why all my managers seemed like they hated their wait staff at such a core level. They didn’t hate us because we were needy and interrupted them while they were trying to get their checklists properly filled out; they hated us because we out earned them, in half the time. It even seemed as though we enjoyed ourselves doing it, something I never did when I was in charge. It’s not that I think of myself as more important than management, it’s that my manager’s bosses and their bosses have never had to pay me $25 to $30 dollars per hour to do my job. They feel that my $2 per hour is what reduces my importance to the “People in Charge.” When you’re 50 years old, would you be more comfortable telling people that you managed a $1.5 million a year restaurant or that you waited tables for a living? My decision to go back to waiting tables was the best thing I ever did for me and my family. The perception of my importance was far outweighed by how much money I could put in the bank each week. Whether you wait tables as a part time thing to get you through school, as a second job to cover some bills or as a full time career choice, waiting tables is lucrative. There have been studies that show incentive based pay (tips, commissions, etc.) doesn’t improve quality of service. This has never been my experience. It has always been an effort based return in my eyes. I have always known that I was getting paid for the problems I solved. Nobody ever says, "I had such a great dinning experience last week… all because a nice high school girl that sat us at our table and a lovely manager who asked, 'Is everything okay here,' as he whizzed by the table, seemingly disinterested." It's all about you. So take on the positive mentality of the CEO or the mindset of the winning coach. Solve more problems; make more money. I do Waiter Boot Camps at your restaurant. Contact me to schedule a meeting. 480-600-6973
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AuthorWith more than 30 years of restaurant experience, Kris Mason offers an insight into the industry seen from the front door to the dumpster out back and all points in between. Archives
July 2017
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