Today I want to take the opportunity to talk a little bit about my job. I’ve been working at a pub for a few months now, and I honestly love it… but maybe I only do enjoy it so much because it’s so very different from my previous job.
I used to be a waiter at a restaurant and had to put up quite a lot with a relatively toxic work environment. My old boss was a raging alcoholic who wouldn’t let me do my job because she randomly had to cut flowers near the sink when I needed to wash and polish glasses. She’d send me on errands to water flowers or help in the kitchen because she couldn’t stand it when people stood behind her. Again, I’m supposed to take care of drinks, bring the food, etc.
Her husband couldn’t deal with stress too well and would shout out me regularly. So, my boss would send me into the kitchen or elsewhere – and then her husband would shout at me for not being at the counter that I was sent away from.
On top of that, my coworkers hated my guts and were convinced that I’m too slow and doing a poor job. Whenever I asked guests if everything was to their liking (you know… doing service work), they’d scold me for “chatting too much”. At the same time, some of them would regularly insult me and my work ethic or even withhold tips from me.
I worked shifts for up to fourteen hours and I’d receive only 20€ in tips because a certain coworker of mine pocketed most of the money. Since he wouldn’t let me handle the cash directly, he was in a position to literally swindle me out of it. When I complained about that to him, he would just lie to me that that was my cut or whatever or gaslight me into believing that no other restaurant would hire me because I’m such a poor worker and that I can either put up with it or leave.
It was a bad time.
In contrast to that, my current job works very differently. I’m at a pub, so I mostly handle beer, whiskey, soft drinks, shots and long drinks, rather than wine. On top of that, we do serve food but it’s not as involved as with my old job. I don’t have to catch and murder trout, for one, so that’s an improvement there.
My coworkers are strict but kind. Their criticisms are reasonable and constructive. I don’t get shouted at all too often – and even when it happens (especially during busy and stressful nights), we talk about it afterwards and I get an apology from folks, too. Heck, I’ve told a coworker to shut up recently because I needed to focus on a bunch of orders from five tables at once, and I also apologized afterwards – and they didn’t really think much of it.
So, I essentially have to take orders, prepare drinks, bring them over, and take away empty glasses, and wash those glasses. That’s the gist of my job. We split up tables so that multiple workers don’t go up to the same people multiple times asking if everything is okay. Beyond that, a big part of the job is also banter and recommendations, I think. Knowing when to say a thing or two to lighten the mood and entertain people is pretty darn important. My boss told me that my biggest responsibility is to ensure that the people leave with a big fat smile on their face.
As a result, how good my service was is reflected in the tips. If I did poorly, people will not tip or tip very little. If I did a really good job, people will tip a big amount.
On that note, rather than splitting tips 50/50 or 33/33/33 or something along those lines, the tips are calculated based on the hours worked. The total amount of tips is divided by the total of the hours worked resulting in a tip per hour ratio… and then all workers that worked that night get that amount paid out per hour they worked.
At my old job, I once had to split my tips 50/50 with a coworker who was there for only an hour even though I was there all day. That’s bullshit.
So, my current job has a very fair way of handling tips and I’m a huge fan of it, especially because kitchen staff also get rewarded.
Tipping Culture in Germany
Tips aren’t required in Germany, of course… but generally speaking, good service is expected to be rewarded. If you don’t tip a service worker, you’re seen as stingy… but as someone who’s worked in the industry for quite a few years now, I do think that poor service doesn’t require a tip necessarily.
To get into this a bit deeper: I went to a restaurant with my ex-partner once and had a pretty good time, but the service staff didn’t add to that in any capacity whatsoever. They took orders once, brought them over but never showed up again past that point and I had to try and get their attention to order another drink.
In that situation, I’m not inclined to tip them a lot.
In Germany, people tend to then just round up whatever they had to pay. So, if your bill was 19.50€, you’d just give them 20€. With two-digit bills, folks tip 10%, typically. With three-digit bills, 5% of the bill is common. Or more if the service was really good.
I’ve heard of folks tipping 1 Cent as a protest of sorts… but that’s just petty. Don’t like the service, don’t tip or tip a low amount. Or voice your complaints, honestly.
Last Night
Last night was a pretty great shift. I was able to banter very easily, had some good laughs with guests, got to recommend a bunch of good beers to people – and they liked them, too. Beyond that, I worked swiftly, kept calm, didn’t make any mistakes, and was able to handle very large orders rather efficiently. My coworker also told me the same. Her only feedback for me was that my handwriting is too small. I also got to take care of half the restaurant hence meaning that my senior at work didn’t have to do as much… and it felt good to be relied upon by her.
Speaking of being reliable, I get to handle all the creeps.
It’s not their fault or anything, but sometimes some guests give off “bad vibes” that make my female coworkers uncomfortable… and then I get to take care of their orders and stuff. It’s not a big deal for me… but it makes a big difference for them, and being needed’s pretty neat.
There is one guest that shows up often and he kind of dumps a lot of trauma on whoever services him… but he feels better when I listen to him while I’m washing glasses and stuff, so that’s pretty good, I guess. But he makes most of my coworkers feel uncomfortable, so they just tell me to handle him.
Similarly, there have been guests who’d say icky things and… I’m the one to handle those, too.
But if nobody wants to service someone, we can also just kick them out based on that. Similarly, there’s no Guinness for Nazis. The other day, someone said “Heil Hitler” and did a nazi salute, so we made him pay up immediately and kicked him out. I wasn’t sure how to handle that situation but luckily my coworker ended up kicking him out.
She’s scary sometimes. I look up to her.
Typically, however, the folks frequenting our pub are really kind people. There are a lot of regulars who are super friendly. Most tourists are great, too. A few weeks ago, however, we also had a group of women come in who grabbed my ass and said some very inappropriate things to me – which sucks. And they didn’t tip. Money doesn’t solve stuff like that but as a dude, I’d feel much better about it if they at least did leave a good tip. Makes me feel less disgusted and uncomfortable, for sure.
Beyond that, though, there are also guests who spend a lot but don’t tip at all. When I first started working there, this group had two hundred euro bill with no tip… Turns out they’re regulars and seem to have a big night out once a month where they spend a really big amount of money on pubs like ours.
Last night, they were there for seven hours. I had to start a second list for their drinks bill. They drank a lot. By the end of the night, their bill amounted to 571€. They tipped nothing. Nada. Niente. Zero. Null. Nil. If you have the money to regularly spend so much on food and drinks, you’d probably be able to spare at least five bucks.
And this is something that is incredibly common. It appears that the poorest people are the most generous. University students over here tip better than rich folks.
These people also terrorised me all evening with a complete disregard for other guests, frequently clamouring and shouting, making it nigh impossible to hear what other guests had to say. While guests were ordering at another table, they’d shout some other orders towards me. When five folks are talking to me, I can’t possibly listen to anyone.
Worst of all, two guests that joined in eventually ordered a cocktail called “Skinny Bitch”. “Vodka, Sparkling Water and Lemon”, according to them. I told them that we don’t do cocktails. We serve long drinks at most, meaning 2cl of a spirit on ice and then 18cl of a mixer (i.e. Cola, Sprite, Bitter Lemon, Tonic Water, etc.). It’s a 0.2l long drink for five bucks and a few… and that’s considered cheap compared to other pubs and bars.
If I were to add more alcohol, it would cost more based on the price of a shot of said spirit. A while ago, a person wanted to have a Long Island Ice Tea, so I explained that it would be too expensive to be worth it for them, since I’d have to prepare them a Vodka-Coke, essentially, and then add to that Rum, Gin, Tequila and Triple Sec (which we don’t have). So, I’d take the base price of a long drink, so around a fiver, and then add onto that the 2cl price of the rum, gin and tequila. You’d end up with a 14€ cocktail that is not only not exactly a Long Island Ice Tea but also only 200 ml big. It would taste way too strong, too.
Anyway, I googled just now and “Skinny Bitch” is prepared with 6cl Vodka and around 15cl SODA (not just sparkly water). On top of that, rather than adding some Lemon to it, you add Lime Juice. I probably could have done that, had I known from them that it’s supposed to be that.
They complained about the taste, so I tweaked it. When it tasted better, they let me know that it’s not about the taste but that it’s supposed to just get them drunk. Then why’d you complain about the taste??
So, yeah, really, annoying guests that ended up not tipping at all despite clearly having the money. At least they pay the bills, so I still gotta be nice to ’em.
This post was originally written by Dan Dicere from Indiecator.
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