The times they are a changin'

Valentine's Day 2008= 6 hours @$2.13/hr=$12.78 + $240 in tips = $252.78, $42.13/hr!!!!!

Valentine's Day 2009= 6 hours @$2.13/hr=$12.78 +$100 in tips = $112.78, $18.80/hr =(

Don't get me wrong, nearly $20/hr. is still quite a bit of money, but less that half what I made the year before? Come on people. And here's the worst of it! Someone stiffed me! On Valentine's Day! I popped their champagne for them, drew chocolate swirls on their cheesecake, wrote "Happy V-Day!" on the ticket itself, and still got stiffed. How can you do that? I'll tell you how...you go out to eat once a year. You decide to take your wife out for a nice meal, and realize that you haven't been out to eat since waitresses wore pink skirts! You don't realize how much things cost, and you definitely don't realize that tipping is a requirement! You tell me how great my service was, then draw a straight line through the tip amount on the credit card slip. Wow! As if working on Valentine's Day isn't somewhat depressing in itself, someone stiffing you is an arrow to the heart. Mind you, the tickets on Valentine's Day are nearly double what they typically are. My average ticket was $50, and the ticket I got stiffed on was almost $50. $47.33 to be exact.

This may offer some insight as to why people feel the need to tip or not tip. "To Insure Promptness" was the original slogan for the reasoning behind leaving a tip, but now it is a necessity to leave money to your servers, especially on a holiday.