Tripping, Tipping on Tips...

Some goddesses are puzzled by this...like me...Too many places online tell you that no matter how shitty the service is that you MUST tip! I don't agree!

If a waiter or waitress wants to keep their customers, keep their job and keep their employer in business they need to do their damn job!

I've gotten really tired of the, "but I'm OWED a Jooooob!" whine by whoever is making the current whine. I've served at counters. I've done my time at fast food. And garnered tips! which is harder than hell! I've served bar at pizza places! I've sold jewelry on commission. I've had some pretty crummy jobs to make ends meet and to help pay my way through college and I get that waiters and waitresses don't get minimum wage. Thus it behooves them to serve their customers.

Because you want to know a secret? Lean closer....MOST CUSTOMERS FEEL DAMN GUILTY IF THEY DON'T TIP! So if we aren't tipping, there is a good reason! And it's not that our panties are in a twist, or that we're in a bad mood! Normally it's that we've gotten such crappy service that we just can't justify laying down any more money we really can't afford to reward such crappy behavior. I don't reward toddlers' crappy behavior; why would I do it with adults? They don't learn from it either.

So here are the rules I learned from my Dad about tipping (this was a while ago, but my income hasn't gone up since 1996, so my tips probably won't either. Your income probably does, so you can adjust for income!)

Excellent service:
20%+
Fair service
10%-15%
Borderline
5%
Maitre de: (bribe for seating)$50+ depending on snoot factor of place and maitre de
Note: doesn't normally work for females, females either have to dress the part, or end up by the kitchen door, or equivalent. just sayin'
Chefs or Bus boys 5%
Bellhops $1-$10
Maids $5-$20 depending on length of stay
Bar waitresses the change from next closest denomination or 10-20% of round
Hairdressers, box people, door men, valets $1-$10 depending on location

VERY BAD SERVICE, so bad you want to tell them you would have tipped, but their service sucked!!  $0.01

But nowadays I always feel like everyone has their hand out for a handout. I'm on a fixed income and I compute a tip into the cost of my meal when I go out. But it also means I go out much less frequently. Those dollars are hard to come by in my life.

So when that time is ruined by shitty service. I don't take it quietly, or lying down. I only have about 4 or 5 restaurants I can even still eat at with my medical conditions anymore since most of them use food with additives or preservatives I can't physically eat. So the few I CAN eat at, I work into my schedule selectively.

I know I'm probably a dinosaur. But this dinosaur has a very limited food supply and a limited budget like the rest of the world is coming to, and gee, maybe if more people valued their pennies and realised that the single penny they saw on the table was actually the message of one MIGHTILY PISSED OFF customer, they might mend their service and keep their restaurant, their job, and the economy going.

I've been told by friends of mine that women are the WORST tippers so they get the worst service. Especially women in SUITS. It always makes me giggle. Because I would probably be one of the better tippers, if I'm treated decently. But when I'm ignored or treated rudely, watch the f* out! I will be in your face. I will take my cane and my drink up to the drink station and fill it. I will tell your manager I had a crappy meal AND I will report it on the website. Because I am just THAT fed UP with SHITTY service. So the next time you think you have this little old lady with the cane in the corner with her book pegged. Think twice! of course, they might be spitting in my food? who knows?

just my 1 or 2 cents of a tip...ped off goddess....

Hazards of the Walk

Some goddesses are puzzled by this...like me...you'd think when they put in access for handicapped people they'd have disabled people help design them.

The bumpy yellow strip used on these types of ramps for traction are slick under your feet in rain, ice and snow and painful to cross for me with arthritis in my back, knees and arms on a scooter or walker. I expect to be in pain going across a railroad track, and avoid as many as I can, these they've set up so I can't avoid!

This type of  ramp however, that is actually made as part of the sidewalk causes no pain when I go over it and yet still gives me traction. The cobblestones are nasty, but that's another story! LOL

 

And worst of all...in the Lloyd District where they are trying to be hip, trendy, cool, and who knows what else....

In this light, the depression is visible. But TWICE I have managed to walk straight off the curb because it wasn't a clearly marked ramp and they were in an unexpected place. Both times were in broad daylight. It doesn't help that I have macro degeneration and can't see well. But if I can do it and end up tearing my meniscus in my knee on my walker because I fell straight on it IN BROAD DAYLIGHT at 9 AM!!! then other people can as well. I then did it a few streets over a couple weeks later. sigh.... I now know to be extra careful to look out for the d@mn fricken ramps because their beautification is more important than safety. But it's definitely the pits to remember.  Don't get me started on sloped sidewalks because of driveways, or just because whoever put them in was an @ssh@t and cracked concrete and asphalt I'm expected to navigate over and sections of sidewalk that are raised that I'm somehow magically supposed to levitate to get up on, or better yet, streets that have none at all?
 Or the streetlights near my MAX stop that are always out and since they are the new directional lighting they darken the entire block and make me feel totally unsafe to come home in the winter after 6pm.

Yeah, that makes you feel really safe when you give up driving because of your disability and how unsafe you really are on the road and how bad your macular degeneration is? NOT. I'm really happy that transit is here and available and accessible, and I know that people who pay full price get kind of pissed of at the disabled because they have to wait for ramps and give up seats and get squished by walkers and move out of the way and wait on doors so the ramps will come down, but I CAN'T drive a car right now. I have NO CHOICE. Transit or walk. If I move I need my walker and it takes some room. Yes I paid my taxes and I'm sorry it slows you down but I can't bike it. I would if I could. I had a mobility chair and quite frankly, this is healthier for me and uses less room on transit. :D So the next time you get impatient, remember that you are probably very much ABLE to drive, the person in those seats may not, probably isn't able to.

 

From a frustrated goddess on a walker...