Do you hate it when restaurants pool their tips?

Question

When my husband and I go out to eat, we like to tip the waiter/waitress generousely if they give us great service. I'm annoyed that some places just pool all the tips together and hand the money out to all the servers evenly. I think this undermines good service because the waiter/waitress can be the greatest but will get the same tip as their crappy co-worker.

Answer 1

I couldn't agree more. The waiter/waitress are cheated out of their reward!  I have never been a waitress, but I feel like customer is cheated in a way when the customer rewards superior service and the person who gave that superior service only gets part of the tip which was intended for them!

Answer 2

I don't agree with tipping

Answer 3

To be honest, that annoys me too.  It would seem very unfair if you were a great waitress and should earn more tips and I am a crappy waiter and earn the same.  Now, you could always tip the waiter/waitress personally when you are leaving and I have done that before.  What I despise as well is when they already add a tip in the bill.  I think, "it is for me to decide your tip, not you."  I am usually lucky and get good servers though, so it usually doesn't bother me.  Hope that answered your question.

Answer 4

I usually pull them aside and give them their tip.But yes it is annoying.

Answer 5

one of the places we go to regularly pools the tips..  and every server there is keeping an eye on every table..  bringing drinks or bread..  following up on the food after it came out..  we always tip well there b/c everyone deserves it..  if service staff were always trained this well pooling tips would be great.. unfortunately most people do the bare minimum at their job, whatever it may be..

Answer 6

I don't work at a restaurant per-sea but I work at a bar with a grill. We pool our tips and I as a "waitress" think it is the only fair thing.   We have a cook, a cook's helper, a dish washer, waitresses, and a bar tender and I have put in my time at all of them, if we didn't pool our tips as a cook I would have got nothing, as help or washer... that's right Nada... But the people in the public eye (waitress and bar tender) would get them all... I actually get annoyed when the cook or help don't get a cut....

Answer 7

Yes, it does annoy me.  We tip based on the level of service our server gives, not how well someone else serves another table.  If our server is horrible and we tip below what we usually would, why should that effect the server three tables away who went out of his/her way to give the customers a great experience?