My coworker in Seattle said she always leaves a bigger tip if the restaurant is really busy

We were grabbing lunch yesterday and she mentioned she adds an extra $5 to her usual tip when the place is slammed, because she knows the staff is stressed. It made me think about whether that's fair to servers on slower days who still work hard. Do you guys adjust your tipping based on how busy a place is?

3 comments

3 Comments

jesse2903mo agoTop Commenter

Ever worry that just encourages owners to keep the place understaffed?

carr.brian1mo ago

I had a buddy who worked at this diner where they kept running skeleton crews on purpose, and then management would act surprised when tips were all over the place lol. One Friday night they had two servers for the whole place and it was a total disaster. My buddy was running his ass off, drinks were taking forever, food came out cold, and some people left zero tip because they were mad at the wait. Meanwhile the owner was in the back counting money and bragging about how much they saved on labor. That place went through servers like crazy and eventually shut down because nobody wanted to work there anymore. That's exactly the kind of owner jesse's talking about, and tipping based on effort just gives them an excuse to keep doing it.

clark.kelly3mo ago

Honestly that's a solid move by your coworker. I do something similar but I base it on how much extra work the server actually has to do. If they're running around like crazy but still keeping my drink full and checking in, that's worth more to me. Slower days they still get my normal 20%, but crazy busy with good service might bump to 25-30%. It's about paying for the effort you see.