Question about tips and management....

[CoffeeMonkey]

Our managers are explicitly told that they can be terminated for accepting a share of the tips. IIRC, this policy started a yearish ago, after the green apron workers in CA won a lawsuit for their tips. As a reaction, our company put the kibosh on the store managers taking tips.

The stupid thing is that there is a big difference in how our tips are done than those in the case. In that instance, all the tips were being pooled throughout the week, and then divided amongst the workers based on how many hours they worked. The managers were including hours they had spent on admin time, thus getting bigger shares than they should have.

Our tips are divided every time someone leaves or comes onto the counter, and the managers were only getting shares for counter hours. They never took tips for admin time, and counter hours constitute almost half their total hours for the week.

So now, if I work with my manager on the counter for a shift, she does half the work, makes drinks, runs the register, keeps things cleaned and stocked...but she's not allowed to have any of the tips. It isn't fair.

[Bella_Vixen]

I LOVE Kitchen Nightmares.


I miss my DVR. I really should make a call to the cable company...

[musicismylife5]

It sort of happens at our place. first of all the "manager" is always on the floor. She bartends and waitresses. She does keep her own tips, even if she kind of tends to screw the bussers and bar on tipout. Thats not really a big deal.

The thing that bothers me though is our party policy. We autograt 20%. On the bill it says "gratuity 20% and then a number like maybe $56.00" The servers only get 18% - the owners take the rest. I know 18% is standard for working a party, but it makes me mad because especially on larger parties, the amount people see as gratuity is not what the servers actually get. Rarely do people tip more on top of 20%, but when you autograt a table at 18% yourself - its a lot more common.

Not really that important, but annoying as hell.

[Peppergirl]

Ill just chime in and say when I waited tables, managers never took part of tips. That KN dude is a douche-waffle.

We also had one super cool manager who would pitch in and help with tables when we were slammed, and would divide his tips with everyone at the end of the night!!

Although I would never expect a manager to give up tips like that for working tables, he was truly an inspiration. Douche-managers could learn alot about employee retention and loyalty from this type of manager.

[lvsssycat]

Managers are NOT supposed to take any grat. They are salaried employees.
I think it's horrendous that this type of crap happens and would never work anywhere that advocated that in ANY way.
Sorry Mgt. you can't have your cake and eat it too.