“The Food Was Good And So Was The Service”: Customer Leaves A 1-Star Review For This Restaurant Because The Manager Took The Server’s Smartwatch Away
If you ever read reviews about various restaurants, bars or cafes, you might notice that the things people are looking for in such places are delicious food or drinks and good customer service. These are the things that people usually complain about or bring attention to how amazing it was.
But there are other things that customers also notice and Reddit user ScoobyDooItInTheButt based their whole review on the fact that management was strict with a server and it seemed so inhumane to them that they decided to leave a 1-star review.
More info: Reddit
A customer saw how a manager took their server’s smart watch and decided to expose them in a review
Image credits: F Delventhal (not the actual photo)
The OP starts by saying that the food and service were good, but what didn’t sit right with them was how the manager treated their employee. According to the customer, the manager saw the server using their smart watch during their working hours and just took it because “they were communicating with the outside world.”
Managers may think that being on the phone or a smart watch may be distracting or seem disrespectful in front of customers, but the OP was more worried about the server having to work with such a controlling manager.
They heard that the manager told the server they were taking the watch so that the employee wouldn’t “communicate with the outside world”
Image credits: ScoobyDooItInTheB**t
The OP continues to defend the employee, saying that they were doing their job well and that’s considering they were only being officially paid $2.75 per hour, as many restaurants in the US can legally do because it is assumed that the servers will collect a minimum wage from their tips.
If they don’t reach the minimum wage, the employer should have to compensate for the difference, but because tipping is so common in the US, the restaurants aren’t very worried about it and don’t feel bad about not paying the full $7.25. Such a strategy helps business owners save money as basically, the customers are paying wages instead of them.
As a former server themselves, the OP was quite frustrated with the way the manager was treating the employee, especially knowing how little they earn
It seems crazy that businesses are allowed to rely on customers to pay their employees’ wages and the OP goes as far as calling it a slave wage. The person who was a customer in this situation says that they used to be a server, so this is very familiar to them.
The Redditor explained in the review that being a server isn’t a person’s whole life and they actually need to keep in touch with the outside world to be able to get through their day. The OP suggests that servers would feel more motivated to focus only on their jobs if the employees would finally pay them for it.
But then those businesses wouldn’t be so profitable, as they can only bring in income if they aren’t spending too much money on paying their employees.
The review once again reminded people how underpaid servers are and that businesses often rely on customers to pay for the employees’ wages
Image credits: Images Alight (not the actual photo)
This was quite a different review that went kind of viral online as most often it’s a Karen complaining about ridiculous details and the owner clapping back, defending their business or their staff.
This time a customer once again brought to the surface the issue of servers not getting paid enough in the US and having to depend on customers’ willingness to leave a tip, which, while highly expected, is not mandatory, and really shows how little businesses or companies care about the people who work for them.
Statistics show that because of the tipping culture in the US, this mindset works as tips make up more than half of servers’ wages
According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP), “The median share of hourly earnings that come from tips account for 58.5 percent of wait staff’s earnings, and 54 percent of bartenders’ earnings.”
There are a few reasons why this is problematic. First of all, tipping amplifies racial inequality as white people receive more tips than people of color, which means it widens the wage gap which already exists.
Which leads to unequal pay, especially because customers tend to leave more money for white people and think they have a right to harass women servers
Tipping also allows customers to feel more comfortable being inappropriate with servers. 80 percent of women working in the food industry report that they experience some type of sexual harassment from customers while working.
Another negative thing tipping culture encourages is employee exploitation. As tip-pooling is legal, it allows the businesses to easily keep the revenue to themselves rather than giving it back to the workers.
The Redditor received a lot of positive reactions for bringing up the incident in the review and for acknowledging the unfair pay servers receive
Being a server is hard work as they have long shifts while standing on their feet or running around a restaurant, they may have to work very late or very early, and they deal with demanding customers with a smile on their faces so they can earn that tip and have their cost of living covered that month.
On top of that, their managers might not be the most understanding people either and, as it happened in this case, even took a personal belonging despite the server doing their job well, as experienced by the customer who wrote the review.
At the same time, they were sorry servers have to be humiliated in such a way while getting paid pennies
People in the comments were confused how a manager could allow themselves to take someone’s smart watch, especially knowing that the server probably had to save up for a long time to be able to purchase it. They also praised the OP for mentioning the situation in the review as they felt sorry that the employee had to go through this.
We would like to hear what you thought of the review and do you think the wage system for service workers should be reviewed? Do you think that it would help them earn more, or would that discourage people from tipping so it would leave a server with a lower wage at the end of the month? Let us know in the comments!
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“communicating with the outside world” - what is this - a hostage situation?? A hermit kingdom? A prison colony??
I'm not a fan of the obligatory tip custom in US. that being said refusing to tip only hurts the employees, not the industry. So whether or not you agree with tipping please do so if you're at a sit down restaurant in the US. Or do carry out orders. Restaurants don't like this because it cuts out bar profits in most states which can be a huge part of their profit, and suggestive selling isn't as effective, which also lowers profits
I have left a review like that before. There was a great breakfast place near my dad and I heard some older gentleman in the kitchen (I was seated with a direct view) and an older man was screaming at the waitress to shut the hell up and that she grateful that her 'trailer park a*s' had a job. After I left the review, the owner kept trying to get the waitstaff to get me to out the waitress who told me (I'm NOT getting someone fired) and to take down the review. This is why no one is working in the service industry! They are getting p**s poor pay, getting treated like s**t by customers, and employers.
So here are some more fun facts about tipping. Some restaurants even rely on servers to pay other employees as well. It's called "tipping out". As a server you are required by management to tip the bus people, the bar tenders (who make their own tips), and also the expo (food runner) at the end of the night as well. This usually equals at least 10% to 15% of the servers tips, every night. This is commonplace, not the exception.
Playing devil's advocate...I was a manager for a long time and while it's nice to believe that everyone who is on their phone is truly just checking to make sure their kids are okay or something else that is valid, ...I'm sorry but that is just not the case. They're scrolling social media, texting, etc. And if the waiter had been doing that while a customer saw it, they'd end up giving the restaurant bad reviews for bad service, which now costs the restaurant. Worse though, I used to see people on security video on their phones for half the night then complain they didn't have time to do the cleaning/stocking they were supposed to do. So i was dealing with complaints from other staff who were tired of having to finish other people's work because they 'didn't have time'. Bottom line is we aren't holding people hostage. You applied for the job and agreed to the rules. An occasional look at your phone isn't a big deal but someone always ruins it by taking advantage.
You don't punish the masses for a few bad employees. Get rid of the c**p employees, and leave the rest alone. I could care less about somebody looking at their phone as long as I get good service. You want cleaning and stocking? Hire someone to do it. If I don't have tables, I'm out. Not wasting my time at half minimum wage for that bull s**t. Better yet, how about you do it Ms. Manager. Worked in restaurants long enough to know y'all have plenty of time.
Load More Replies...
It's ridiculous. They're like this at my job too. The employees can't wear smart watches but guess who can....the managers. And the managers stand right by the pit in the dining room and tap on their phones allllll day. And yet we are only supposed to use our phones in the back. They act like we're in the freakin military. It is not that serious. Especially when it's dead and there's nothing else to do. Besides the fact, plenty of customers can barely stand to put their phone down for 1 minute for me to take their order so idk why it's an issue if we use ours when we're idle. Tbh I don't understand why we have to be treated like we're so low. Guess we're the servant class haha
Taking a employees personal property is not allowed. Report the manager.
Get in touch with HACKWEST at WRITEME dot COM or Whatsapp: +1 424 307 2638 if you want to recover your scammed funds or get some legal counsel on how to go about it. They’re the best and most legit team out there. West helped to recover my lost Bitcoin of about $289k worth. I saw their reviews and reached out, got back all my funds with my return on investment. Superb I must say!
I like your services, and I wondered how you treated people in the restaurant.
“communicating with the outside world” - what is this - a hostage situation?? A hermit kingdom? A prison colony??
I'm not a fan of the obligatory tip custom in US. that being said refusing to tip only hurts the employees, not the industry. So whether or not you agree with tipping please do so if you're at a sit down restaurant in the US. Or do carry out orders. Restaurants don't like this because it cuts out bar profits in most states which can be a huge part of their profit, and suggestive selling isn't as effective, which also lowers profits
I have left a review like that before. There was a great breakfast place near my dad and I heard some older gentleman in the kitchen (I was seated with a direct view) and an older man was screaming at the waitress to shut the hell up and that she grateful that her 'trailer park a*s' had a job. After I left the review, the owner kept trying to get the waitstaff to get me to out the waitress who told me (I'm NOT getting someone fired) and to take down the review. This is why no one is working in the service industry! They are getting p**s poor pay, getting treated like s**t by customers, and employers.
So here are some more fun facts about tipping. Some restaurants even rely on servers to pay other employees as well. It's called "tipping out". As a server you are required by management to tip the bus people, the bar tenders (who make their own tips), and also the expo (food runner) at the end of the night as well. This usually equals at least 10% to 15% of the servers tips, every night. This is commonplace, not the exception.
Playing devil's advocate...I was a manager for a long time and while it's nice to believe that everyone who is on their phone is truly just checking to make sure their kids are okay or something else that is valid, ...I'm sorry but that is just not the case. They're scrolling social media, texting, etc. And if the waiter had been doing that while a customer saw it, they'd end up giving the restaurant bad reviews for bad service, which now costs the restaurant. Worse though, I used to see people on security video on their phones for half the night then complain they didn't have time to do the cleaning/stocking they were supposed to do. So i was dealing with complaints from other staff who were tired of having to finish other people's work because they 'didn't have time'. Bottom line is we aren't holding people hostage. You applied for the job and agreed to the rules. An occasional look at your phone isn't a big deal but someone always ruins it by taking advantage.
You don't punish the masses for a few bad employees. Get rid of the c**p employees, and leave the rest alone. I could care less about somebody looking at their phone as long as I get good service. You want cleaning and stocking? Hire someone to do it. If I don't have tables, I'm out. Not wasting my time at half minimum wage for that bull s**t. Better yet, how about you do it Ms. Manager. Worked in restaurants long enough to know y'all have plenty of time.
Load More Replies... It's ridiculous. They're like this at my job too. The employees can't wear smart watches but guess who can....the managers. And the managers stand right by the pit in the dining room and tap on their phones allllll day. And yet we are only supposed to use our phones in the back. They act like we're in the freakin military. It is not that serious. Especially when it's dead and there's nothing else to do. Besides the fact, plenty of customers can barely stand to put their phone down for 1 minute for me to take their order so idk why it's an issue if we use ours when we're idle. Tbh I don't understand why we have to be treated like we're so low. Guess we're the servant class haha
Taking a employees personal property is not allowed. Report the manager.
Get in touch with HACKWEST at WRITEME dot COM or Whatsapp: +1 424 307 2638 if you want to recover your scammed funds or get some legal counsel on how to go about it. They’re the best and most legit team out there. West helped to recover my lost Bitcoin of about $289k worth. I saw their reviews and reached out, got back all my funds with my return on investment. Superb I must say!
I like your services, and I wondered how you treated people in the restaurant.
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